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Toby Jones stars as Hans Christian Andersen in five interlinked fairy-tale adaptations by Lucy Catherine that shine a light into the dark regions of the author’s mind. Best-selling author and fairy-tale aficionado, Joanne Harris, introduces us to the author's imagination.

A drama of haunting strangeness that delves into the author’s most unnerving tales where a king barters his daughter’s happiness, a young girl is punished for the colour of her shoes, a woman makes a terrible choice to escape poverty, romance is marred by an icy kiss of death and a power-mad prince embarks on world domination.

The King ….. Clive Hayward
Karen ….. Shannon Tarbet
Anne Lisbeth ….. Amanda Hale
Rudy ….. Joseph Ayre
The Prince ….. Craig Parkinson.

Other parts played by Scarlett Courtney, Greg Jones, Ian Conningham, Adam Courting, Neil McCaul, Jessica Turner, Sinead MacInnes, Lucy Reynolds, Heather Craney, Will Kirk, Laura Christie and Ikky Elyas.

Directed by Gemma Jenkins

Hans Christian Andersen jettisons the conventions of fairy tale logic, giving his characters realistic motivations for why they do what they do. He directly links the fantastical with the psychological. He subverts fairy tale logic whereby the good are beautiful and the bad, ugly. Without him, every fairy tale would end happily ever after and the true power of the genre might never have been realised.

Andersen acts as a tour guide, embarking on a journey through his imagination as he attempts to identify the source of his creativity.

Featured in the drama are The Most Incredible Thing, The Red Shoes, Anne Lisbeth, The Ice Maiden and The Wicked Prince.