2016 continues apace

We've lost yet another talent in 2016. It's now taken one of the finest comedy actors in history. And, perhaps more importantly for people of a certain age, he represented one of the my childhood memories; He was Willy Wonka.

I had read most of the Roald Dahl books as a child. This one was a particular favourite. What child would not want to be part of a tour of the worlds biggest chocolate factory (comparable to going around the Guinness brewery in Dublin, as an adult!). This tour was led by Willy Wonka. Gene Wilder, who has died at 83 IS Willy Wonka.

When we play our Charlie and the chocolate factory audio CD in the car. I can only see Gene Wilder. I cannot separate the character from the actor. He played the part in such a sublime way, he made it his own. In the audio CD the character is all jolly. In the books and in the film he is a far more complex character. He is hugely mysterious. As Wilder said, 'He was part of this world, but also part of another'.

Whatever the origins of Willy Wonka, Roald Dahl created a, unique, wonderful character that still resonates with children's imaginations as it did when the book was released in 1964! I loved the books and the story, and the film. My children now love the story. They haven't yet read the book and are perhaps a little too young to fully appreciate the film. I'm sure they will. It will, hopefully, teach them that children must not be afraid of creativity and a desire to express themselves. The well-behaved child gets the chocolate factory, in the end. And that sometimes, in the example of Charlie bucket, the last do become the first. 

It is a story of virtue. Children, I think, aren't specifically taught virtue at school. As I mount my small soapbox, children are not even taught Philosophy in primary and secondary school. It should be mandatory. They can replace expressive arts with it, or chemistry, maybe. I've always found it odd that we only teach children to listen and hope they think. We never teach them, how to think or more importantly, why we think. And what we think of. Sol it is left to books to help fill the gap. In a certain manner, Roald Dahl has probably driven the values and virtues, and imagination of almost every adult between the age of 40 to 60. We grew up with his books and his characters; from Willy Wonka to the Twits; from the BFG to George, and his marvellous medicine to Mathilda.

As other children grow up, so they are too exposed to his work, in different mediums. A lot of children, for example in 10yrs time will probably say. 'I have not read the book but I've seen the BFG film'. But that would be a sadness. As we all know, films do not trump books! The secret power of Dahl is that his books act as conduits to the childish imagination...films, for all their gloss and shine, cannot, will not ever be able to make that connection to an imagination as a book can. Though, in the case of Gene Wilder, he got closer than most.