{"id":27525,"date":"2022-12-21T09:00:57","date_gmt":"2022-12-21T08:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1758146"},"modified":"2022-12-21T11:21:50","modified_gmt":"2022-12-21T10:21:50","slug":"adjoa-andoh-on-why-she-loves-the-heart-of-the-smeds-and-the-smoos","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/adjoa-andoh-on-why-she-loves-the-heart-of-the-smeds-and-the-smoos\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjoa Andoh on why she loves the heart of The Smeds and the Smoos"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Helen Daly\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 21 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It\u2019s a surprisingly mild autumnal morning when I catch up with Adjoa Andoh. We chat on the phone while she travels \u2013 and there\u2019s a lot to talk about.<\/p>\n

Perhaps one of the busiest women in the country right now, Andoh delights in talking about every one of her projects with enthusiasm and glee; and trust me, there are a lot of things going on for her right now.<\/p>\n

We start with her starring role in The Smeds and the Smoos<\/a>, the latest adaptation from Julia Donaldson to land on the BBC on Christmas Day. It tells the tale of two alien families who have grown up hating each other, for no real reason but ingrained prejudice.<\/p>\n

When Janet (a Smed) falls in love with Bill (a Smoo) and elope, the families unite to find their loved ones and discover there\u2019s not that much difference between them in the end.<\/p>\n

The Magic Light Pictures adaptation of Donaldson\u2019s tales are a festive highlight every year, with children and parents sitting down each Christmas Day for the past 10 years to enjoy the whimsy and wit of the bestselling author.<\/p>\n

This year, they\u2019ve pulled out all the stops, with Andoh playing Grandmother Smoo, Bill Bailey as Grandfather Smed, and with the likes of Meera Syal, Rob Brydon and Sally Hawkins also in the voice cast.<\/p>\n

With a great story, star-studded cast and an enviable Christmas Day slot, it must have been one of the easiest yeses of Andoh\u2019s career then?<\/p>\n

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The Smeds and the Smoos.<\/span><\/figcaption> BBC<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

\u201cAbsolutely,\u201d Andoh tells me. \u201cThe stories are lovely and they\u2019re pretty straightforward. The adults might be laughing at one thing and the children at something different \u2013 it\u2019s available for everybody to enjoy in different ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulia Donaldson is such a fantastic storyteller and Axel Scheffler is a fantastic illustrator. My kids grew up on The Gruffalo and all of those. Now my kids have grown up, they don\u2019t want me to read them stories anymore, so it\u2019s nice to get to lean back into that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smeds and the Smoos is not just a nice, reimagined Romeo and Juliet story to tell children, it\u2019s perhaps one of the most important stories Donaldson has penned, teaching about acceptance and love.<\/p>\n

In the original 2019 publication of the story, Scheffler dedicated it \u201cto all the children of Europe\u201d, a thinly-veiled nod towards the continental division caused by Brexit.<\/p>\n

Speaking more about these arguably political themes \u2013 and, really, the heart of the story \u2013 Andoh reasons: \u201cWhat [the families] find is that they both love their children. And in the end, it\u2019s their love of their children and their children being under threat that makes them come together.<\/p>\n