Danny, the Champion of the World

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Danny, the Champion of the World is a 1975 children's book by Roald Dahl. Like many of his books its main character is a child protagonist who is imaginative and intelligent. This story is based on Dahl's adult short story "Champion of the World" which appears in "Claud's Dog."

1 Danny's early years
2 Pheasants, poaching and Mr Victor Hazell
3 Mr Hazell's humiliation
4 TV Movie
- 4.1 Overview
- 4.2 Differences
5 Editions

[edit] Danny's early years

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Danny's mother died suddenly when he was only four months old and from then on he lived with his father in an old caravan at the back of a filling station, where his father also fixed cars. By the time Danny was five years old, he was able to maintain motor vehicles with his father and had been playing with car parts when he was less than a year old. He did not start school until the age of seven, because his father wanted him to be able to dismantle a car engine and put it together again all by himself.

[edit] Pheasants, poaching and Mr Victor Hazell

Danny's father owned the filling station, and it was the only piece of land for miles around that was not owned by a wealthy but unpleasant local man called Mr Victor Hazell who was determined to buy it. He also used every one of his contacts to run Danny's father off of his land (some included sending a health inspector round to inspect the caravan, and also someone to inspect the petrol they were selling), but failed each time. This caused Danny's father to bear a grudge against Mr Hazell. When Danny was nine years old his father went to poach pheasants from Hazell's Wood. One night Danny woke up to find his father missing, but he later returned home and explained what he had done and why– the reason being that he sought to undermine Mr. Hazell's ostentation. Danny's father then let him into a secret of poaching: pheasants love raisins, and placing a raisin inside a 'sticky hat' (a piece of paper rolled into a cone shape with glue on the inside) is the perfect trap in which to catch a pheasant.

[edit] Mr Hazell's humiliation

One evening, Danny's father went poaching and promised to be back no later than 10.30pm. Danny woke up at 2.10am and discovered that his father hadn't come home -- he was nearly four hours overdue, and had been gone for more than eight hours. Danny felt certain that something had happened to his father, and was determined to get him home. He then decided to go out in an Austin Seven which his father had been repairing, and on the way to Hazell's Wood passed a police car in the opposite direction. The police car turned around and pursued Danny along a windy country lane, but he managed to escape through a gap in a hedge. Danny then found his father, trapped down a hole with a broken ankle. He helps his father out of the hole with a tow-rope from the Austin. Later, two keepers who had seen Danny's father down the hole come back with Mr Hazell, to find the hole empty.

While Danny's father is recovering from his injury, they hear that Mr Hazell's pheasant-shooting party is approaching. They decide to humiliate him by luring all the pheasants away from the forest, so there will be no pheasants to shoot. Danny suggests that they should put sleeping tablets inside raisins which the pheasants will then eat, and when this is done they hide the sleeping pheasants in the loft above the workshop. Mr Hazell is then humiliated as his party guests arrive and find that there are no pheasants to shoot.

Mr Hazell is finally humiliated in front of Danny, Danny's father, and many other local people (most involved in the scheme of poaching from Mr Hazell's land) as it is revealed that he was planning to build a new town in the area surrounding his home. Danny has prevented this from happening. The townsfolk also consider his poaching of one-hundred and twenty pheasants as a record. He is hailed as 'champion of the world' by the people living in his village, including many of the people who had poached pheasants from Mr Hazell's wood and fish from his stream because, of what he has done.

[edit] TV Movie

[edit] Overview

In 1989, a TV movie of the book was made by Thames Television, with major actors including Jeremy Irons, Cyril Cusack and Robbie Coltrane starring and directed by Gavin Millar. The movie was a family affair of sorts, given the fact that Jeremy Irons plays the Father, Samuel Irons, his son, plays Danny and his father-in-law, Cyril Cusack plays the affable country doctor in the movie.

[edit] Differences

As with many books adapted for television and cinema, the film version of Danny, the Champion of the World has a number of significant differences to the book.

Danny's lateness for school: Danny was late for school twice. The first time he was let off with a verbal warning from Captain Lancaster (his teacher, a former army captain who insisted upon using his wartime title). On the second occasion, he was punished with 1,000 lines. In the book, it was never mentioned that he had been late for school.

The date of the story: The film was set in 1955, which suggests than Danny was born during the mid to late 1940s. A reference in the book to a 1933 Austin Seven motor car states that the vehicle was 40 years old, so Roald Dahl had obviously set this stage of the story at 1973 - Danny was nine years old at the time, which means that he was born in 1964.

The escape from Hazell's Wood: In the book, Danny and his father escape from Hazell's Wood at around 3.00am, to avoid being pulled out by Mr Hazell at 6.00am - this is what the keepers had said. In the film, Danny rescued his father from the pit just before the keepers and Mr Hazell arrived. They also got away in the car just in time to avoid being caught; the noise of the engine had attracted the attention of Mr Hazell and his keepers.

Confrontation with Mr Hazell: In the film, Mr Hazell guessed that the man who escaped from the pit was Danny's father, and reported him to the local policeman. When the local policeman (Sgt. Samways) came to visit Danny and his father, he made up a version of events by stating that the cause of Danny's father's broken ankle was falling down his caravan steps. Mr Hazell later turned up with his keepers and warned Danny's father that he would be shot if he trespassed on his land again. In the book, none of this happened because Mr Hazell did not know that Danny's father was the man in the pit.

Danny's detention: In the film, Danny fell asleep during class and was kept behind after school by Captain Lancaster. He was finally allowed home after all the children had gone, but was ordered to run 20 laps of the playground first. While Captain Lancaster had his back turned, Danny climbed over a wall and ran home. Captain Lancaster soon figured out what had happened, and climbed over the wall in hope of catching up with Danny, only for his trousers to rip. Mr Snoddy (headmaster) then appeared and Captain Lancaster announced his immediate resignation. In the book, none of this happened.