Animation based on Raymond Briggs’ Ethel & Ernest remembers the author’s parents through the war years
Briggs is best known for Christmas treat The Snowman but his work has always had a sad and unsentimental side, and Ethel & Ernest tells the story of his parents’ life in London during the second world war and through the austere post-war years
British children’s author and illustrator Raymond Briggs has seen a number of his works turned into animations – most famously that perennial Christmas television treat The Snowman (1982). Yet there has always been a sombre side to his work: notably When the Wind Blows (1986), a horrifying look at Britain under nuclear attack seen through the eyes of an ageing couple, Jim and Hilda Bloggs.
While the Bloggs were inspired by his parents, he focused on their real lives in his 1999 book, Ethel & Ernest – now arriving as an animated feature.
A biographical look at his mother and father, it begins as Ernest, a cheery milkman with socialist ideals, meets lady’s maid Ethel. After courting, they get married and move into a small house in a south London suburb, where their only child, Raymond, is born.