12h 10min, oct 30, 2020 y - MEDIA COVERAGE 30 October 2020 Mr Benn returning for live-action movie and creator wants Johnny Depp to star

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Mr Benn returning for live-action movie and creator wants Johnny Depp to star

Mr Benn writer and illustrator David McKee wants Johnny Depp to portray the iconic character as the bowler-hatted hero returns for a live-action movie

By Mark Jefferies

Mr Benn is coming back as a live action movie - and its creator suggests Johnny Depp could star in it.

Just 13 episodes of the 1970s TV animation were ever made but BBC repeats made it a firm favourite for children across the country.

Now writer and illustrator David McKee has said that plans to bring it to the big screen are in the pipeline.

And he has named Depp as an actor he thinks would be perfect for the role of the bowler-hatted hero whose visits to a fancy dress shop magically transport him to new worlds and adventure.

The 85-year-old writer and illustrator - who also created Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and the Not Now, Bernard suggests late Hollywood legend Jack Lemmon would have been good in the part.

Jack Lemmon in that film The Apartment was the perfect Mr Benn," he told Best of British magazine. "He's even got the bowler hat and that innocent sort of look."

But of actors still alive. McKee said he was impressed with 57-year-old Depp.

"Johnny Depp in (1995 Western) Dead Man would have been good too, but I've no one definite in my mind."

Mr Benn was voted the sixth most popular children's television programme of all time in a 2001 Channel 4 poll.

McKee admits that are similarities between himself and Mr Benn including his home address - 52 Festive Road - being almost the same as his own and featuring representations of himself and his family in the first episode.

He says he still has Mr Benn adventures he would like to write.

"I did write a lot of very short Mr Benn stories and annuals but there are one or two stories I might still like to do.

"I thought there should be a Robin Hood character where Mr Benn tells Robin Hood that robbing, whether from the rich or poor is wrong, and he shows him another way."

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