Joanna Lumley lines up celebs for charity audiobook of classic fairytale

  • Video report by Lewis Warner

An all star cast from stage and screen have joined forces to create a charity audiobook of one the best loved children's stories of all time.

Part of the money raised by the reading of the magical adventures of Peter Pan will go towards The Moat Brae trust in Dumfries - where the inspiration for the story was born.

The new audiobook of J.M. Barrie’s classic Peter Pan: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up will feature well-known voices such as David Walliams, Kit Harrington and Joanna Lumley - who is patron of the house.

This unique edition will be released next week and sold in aid of The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust and Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity, to help support Great Ormond Street Hospital, which was gifted the rights to Peter Pan by the author in 1929.

Kit Harrington, Jennifer Saunders and David Walliams are among the audiobook lineup. Credit: PA

Speaking exclusively to ITV Border, Joanna Lumley said: "I had this idea of adapting the quite long story of Peter Pan from 47,000 words to 17,000 words. And I assembled the most astonishingly starry selection of storytellers who all gave their time free.

"At this time when charities are feeling the pinch, Christmas is coming and we haven't got very much money in our pockets anymore - this seems to me the perfect time for everything.

"It'll raise money for charity, for our Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust and the National Centre for Children's Literature and Story Telling - something so important in our lives.

"Imagination and dreaming, being entertained and listening to people read aloud and flying away in your head to Neverland."

Moat Brae - the inspiration for Peter Pan. Credit: ITV News

Barrie lived in Dumfries as a child in the 1870s and it's not hard to see why his home for that time sparked his imagination. 

You never know what you'll find amongst the towering trees in the garden of Moat Brae that became the inspiration for Neverland. He said he spent the ‘happiest days’ of his life playing imaginary pirate games in the ‘enchanted land’ at the house.

After a ten-year restoration project, the house and garden opened in June 2019 as a new visitor attraction and a National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling to inspire reading, play and imagination.

The new take on the timeless tale will be released on November 19.