David Walliams

The Boy in the Dress review

For the third year in a row it appears as if David Walliams has done it again and provided a Christmas family treat.

David Walliams' children's story is one of the bolder festive family offerings this year - and not just because it isn't set in a soft-focused past. If you've read the novel, you'll know it's about a 12-year-old cross-dresser who comes into his own after a chance encounter with a fashion mag. Walliams stars alongside Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Meera Syal and Kate Moss.

A young lad spots Kate Moss in a Vogue fashion spread and falls in love - with frocks. Twelve-year-old Dennis is fed up with everything after his parents split; could dressing up as "Denise" cheer him up? Yes, it turns out, in this sweet-natured adaptation of David Walliams's children's book (following previous Crimbo versions of his Gangsta Granny and Mr Stink).

OK, so Moss's cameo doesn't display any hidden thespian talents and everything is resolved extremely conveniently, but it aims to celebrate difference and individuality, which can't be too bad, given how our commercially-driven youth culture too often tells kids that there's a "right" way to look. And with Jennifer Saunders, James Buckley, Tim McInnerny and Walliams himself popping up among the grown-ups, there's enough here to keep kids and hungover adults amused.

Adaptations of David Walliams's teen-lit offerings have rapidly become a Christmas staple. The latest book to get a small-screen rendering is his debut - the story of 12-year-old Dennis, a small-town boy whose feelings of difference are crystallised by Kate Moss on the cover of a fashion mag. The title hints at Dennis's habit: it's probably the kind of thing to raise the blood pressure of your local Ukip candidate but it is also a story boasting warm-hearted inclusivity and lessons in tolerance and Christmas cheer.

Jennifer Saunders on her new role

Jennifer Saunders plays a French teacher with a student who dares to be different in David Walliams' latest comedy drama.

David Walliams is filming Agatha Christie drama

Filming had to be halted while the emergency services were summoned after smoke machines set off fire alarms in nearby buildings.

David Walliams still leads book charts

David Walliams notched up his fourth consecutive week atop the Official UK Top 50. Awful Auntie shifted 37,903 print units.

Bad Education series 2 DVD review

School-based comedy series have a somewhat hit and miss reputation as anyone who has seen Teachers or the more recent David Walliams/Catherine Tate sitcom Big School will agree. But while not exactly disproving this rule, BBC Three's relentlessly hip sitcom Bad Education is well worth skipping homework for.

David Walliams settles phone hacking claim

Little Britain star David Walliams has accepted substantial undisclosed damages from News Group Newspapers (NGN) over phone-hacking claims.