Roald Dahl Retrospective Episode 18: James and the Giant Peach (1976)

After almost two years, the Roald Dahl Retrospective is back! In
honor of Matilda the Musical being in the theaters, Arun and
Patricia catch up with the remaining Roald Dahl adaptations
before jumping into this new film. In this episode, they cover
the 1976 BBC special James and the Giant Peach based on the 1961
book of the same name starring Simon Bell, Anna Quayle, Ann
Beach, Arthur Hewlett, Andrew Sachs, Thorley Walters, Pat Coombs,
Kate Lock, and Bernard Cribbins. James Trotter lives with his
mean aunts Spiker and Sponge after losing his parents from a
rhino attack. An old man gifts James crocodile tongues to make
his dreams come true, but drops them accidentally. It ends up
growing a peach to a large size. James and a group of insects
escape inside the peach and use it to venture off away from Aunts
Spiker and Sponge.


The 1976 version of James and the Giant Peach is one of the
obscure Roald Dahl adaptions ever made and has since been
overshadowed by the 1996 Disney adaptation. Is this version
better or worse? Listen and find out.