It's possible that you were unaware that Pudsey: The Movie was happening. If so, you'll be stoked by that news and even more excited to learn that audiences will, for the first time, be privy to Collie-cross Pudsey's innermost thoughts, and that those thoughts will be articulated by comedy legend David Walliams. "I am thrilled to be providing the voice of Pudsey," Walliams says.
If you're new to all this, Pudsey, along with his mistress Ashleigh Butler, won the sixth season of ITV show Britain's Got Talent, with an act involving the Mission: Impossible theme. 14.5 million people watched, with millions more catching them on YouTube.
They went on to Royal Variety Performances and pantomime. Pudsey wrote his autobiography last year, although we suspect he may have had help. He is not to be confused with Children In Need's Pudsey Bear, with whom he has collaborated in the past{
Walliams has Pudsey form: he was one of the Britain's Got Talent judging panel, and Pudsey later repaid the favour by agreeing to appear in Walliams' Christmas BBC kids special Mr Stink. "I have been coming up with different voices for Pudsey ever since [his and Ashleigh's] first audition," Walliams claims.
Pudsey: The Movie will eschew the biopic route, and instead involve an independent city dog who learns the value of friendship when he moves to "the sleepy village of Chuffington On Sea". Dastardly landlord Mr Thorne and his equally dastardly cat Faustus are hatching a dastardly plan which threatens the community. Pudsey, it's safe to say, ain't goin' out like that.
John Sessions is Mr Thorne, with other human roles filled by Jessica Hynes, Izzy Meikle-Smith, Luke Tittensor, Spike White and Malachy Knights. Paul Rose wrote the screenplay and Nick Moore (Wild Child, Horrid Henry) is the director.
"We're really excited to be working on what is clearly going to be a hilarious and classic British family film," says Jamie Carmichael of production company Content Film International (in cahoots with Vertigo and Syco). Shooting starts somewhere in the South of England on September 1.