Little Britain's David Walliams talks The Boy in the Dress

With subtle echoes of David’s infamous character Emily ‘I’m a lady’ Howard, The Boy in the Dress tells the story of Dennis, a football-mad young boy who, as the title suggests, is a little different.

As well as exploring issues about acceptance and childhood, Walliams’ debut also includes his trademark wit, pared-down flurries of his risque humour and zany characters along with iconic illustrations from Roald Dahl collaborator Quentin Blake.

Ahead of his book signings in Shopperland, Kerry Ann Eustice spoke to the comic to find out how his sister dressing him up as a child inspired the story, the possibility of the story being made into a TV drama and why adults love The Boy in the Dress too.

Where did the idea for The Boy in the Dress come from, David? Was it autobiographical at all?

Erm. Well the idea, like most ideas, just comes out of your head. So it’s quite hard it say where it came from as in ‘it was under a bin’. You imagine them. But yeah, it’s true that when I was little, about three, my sister used to dress me up, she was two years older than me.

As I did to my little brother.

I think it’s quite a common thing, isn’t it. She probably would have preferred a little sister, so just dressed me up as on anyway. There’s actually a picture of me and my sister in the back cover dressed up, which is quite sweet.

Why have you written a children’s book? Is it a long-standing ambition or something which just cropped up?

I actually just had the idea for the story and thought ‘it’s a story about a boy’ so it made sense to me the story maybe should be aimed at children. And also, even though Little Britain’s humour is quite risqué, I know when we did the live shows and book signings and things, loads of kids would come and I thought it would be great to do something especially to them, something where they wouldn’t be sent to bed half way through the show before it gets too rude. It’s nice to follow that relationship, I think.

Did you have to do any research before getting started with the writing?

I re-read a lot of children’s books I loved as a kid before I wrote it. Roald Dahl books, Peter Pan, things like that just to try and get a sense of the complexity you can go into with children’s books. But I didn’t find any of the books that I’d re-read, Stig of the Dump, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, talked down to me in any way. I didn’t feel reading it excluded me as an adult and I thought that was worth remembering. The worst thing is for a child is to be reading a book and feel patronised.

Children now, a lot of children now, must be incredibly sophisticated readers, reading things such as Harry Potter books which are 500 pages long. When I was a kid, I can’t think of any book of that complexity which kids would read. So I was just aware of trying to get the tone and the balance right.

Also I was keen to bring in a lot of adult themes but do it in a sensitive way. This is a book about a boy who goes to school dressed as a girl but I don’t, for example, use the word transvestite. Because you don’t really need to, this is a book about one boy and something he wants to do for fun, I don’t want to define it in adult terms.

Was there a message you were trying to get across of explore with the story?

Yeah, I wanted to say ‘celebrate difference’. Quentin Blake, who illustrated the book, said he saw the dressing up as a metaphor for being artistic. Certainly, that’s different. And Dennis, who’s the hero of the book, has a friend that’s called Darvesh who’s Sikh and wears a cap on his head and he’s different too and they discuss that. I just thought it’s about being different.

I do think when you go to school, when you’re a child among children, there is a pressure to conform and anyone different, ginger hair, fat or whatever, is often made to feel a bit of an outsider because of it and I think it’s a real shame.

Children are quite conservative actually. I wanted to celebrate difference and say it’s ok to be different. He dresses up and it actually fixes a lot of bad things in his life.

How have children being responding to the book?

I’ve had some really nice letters. I gave a lot to friends’ kids and had really nice comments there, so I’m really pleased. And, fingers crossed, I’ve had really nice reviews as well, so I’m chuffed. Because when it was announced I was writing a book, I got a sense of ‘I was writing a book, like Jordan’. Well, it’s a bit different. I mean, I’m not a glamour model - I was writing already. But I’m really chuffed.

As soon as I started writing and got into it I really felt like it was a real opportunity to do something special. I really worked and worked and worked on it to make it as good as I possibly could.

How about adult readers? It seems to have a lot of crossover potential too.

A lot of my friends have read it and were very complimentary. I tried to retain the sense of humour and edge that Little Britain comedy has. I also tried to be truthful to what it is to be a kid. I think as an adult but I was trying to think back to my childhood. ‘What was it like being 12?’ When you’re 12 adults have a lot of say over your life and you can feel quite trapped and helpless sometimes and I wanted to be truthful to that period.

A lot of children’s books they empower the kids really early on. Obviously kids love that and it’s brilliant but I wanted to be truthful about the experience. I think that’s why it relates to adults more ‘Oh yeah, that’s what it was like being a kid’.

What was the writing process like for you? You’re used to comedy and radio but what about a book of this sort?

I just wrote it over quite a long period because we were doing other things at the time, we were going back and forth to America making our series [Little Britain USA] and I’d write and have a thinking period. I wrote it over about six months. I did a lot of rewriting as well, about 10 drafts at it. It’s really hard when you’re writing two-minute sketches and you go and try and write a book.

It’s quite hard because with the book, you change something on page 120 and that affects something on page 17 that you haven’t figured, so it’s very hard to keep the whole thing in your mind at one point.

Sometimes you’re just sitting there alone in your room, not doing anything, but you’re thinking. You can be there thinking for hours. I do things for myself where I say ‘right, you can have a biscuit if you finish this chapter’.

I hear The Boy in the Dress may be made into a TV drama. Is this any closer to being realised?

I’ve just been having some meetings with the BBC about it and so it’s very early days but there certainly is a lot of interest and I think there are some really good parts. It is funny. And also there’s a lot of dialogue in the book, which fills quite a lot of scenes. The book was created of scenes and dialogue which could work dramatically too on the screen. So yeah, that would be fantastic. But it’s a long way off.

It would be great if it happened. I’d be really, really proud if it got made into a TV programme. I think that would be the right place for it, TV.

Would you act in it too?

I don’t know if there’s really a part for me in it, so it might be more interesting for me to sit back and write it. So no, I don’t think I would.

You have a two book deal with the publisher HarperCollins, have you started on or have an idea for the next book yet?

Yeah. But I want to keep it secret for the moment because I might change what I do. You know what it’s like with the internet, you say anything and it just sort of flies and people in Thailand are talking about it. It is very early days on the other idea and I want to make it work but I just don’t want to be discussing it. I’m not ready.

Is writing books and stories something you would like to continue doing?

Yeah. I really enjoyed it. It’s just juggling it with everything else. It was a solitary experience but enjoyable.

Would you consider writing for adults?

It’s very likely but then it’s got to be longer. I would like to. But I think the idea has got to come first. I wouldn’t think ‘I want to write a book for adults’ Maybe if I wake up one day and I have an idea and really want to communicate that I can do it.

Like I didn’t think ‘I want to write a children’s book’ I just had this idea and thought ‘oh ok, maybe I should go for it.’ I just thought it’s an opportunity to do something special.

Ah, that’s my door bell. It’s the postman; he’s very nice and wears shorts all year round. He’s a very friendly postman.

Are you and Matt Lucas working on anything new?

I’m doing a play at the moment and Matt is doing a film in America with Tim Burton and is back in a bit to do Shooting Stars so at the moment we’re working apart but we’ll be back together in the New Year.

David Walliams will be signing copies of The Boy in the Dress at WHSmith Bluewater. Nov 22. 11am.

Waterstones, The Glades, Bromley. Nov 29. 11am.