‘What’s under my saucepans? Rage!’ Claire Foy and cast on the set of The Magic Faraway Tree
claire foy is playing the children’s mother Polly in The Magic Faraway Tree, filmed on a Reading soundstage as the production reached the end of its three-month shooting schedule in August 2024 (ET). The cast includes Andrew Garfield, Nicola Coughlan, Jennifer Saunders, Simon Russell Beale and Nonso Anozie alongside 13-year-old Billie Gadsdon, and the adaptation is written by Simon Farnaby and directed by Ben Gregor. Producer Pippa Harris of Neal Street Productions first bid for the rights nearly two decades ago, framing why this screen version has been long in the making.
Design, scenes and the on-set atmosphere
The set is vivid and deliberately interactive: director Ben Gregor wanted the cast to inhabit fantastical surroundings, and 13-year-old Billie Gadsdon describes filming under marshmallow trees and inside a giant cake. “I did eat a few, ” says Billie Gadsdon, the young actor cast as one of the children. Key scenes place the family in rotating lands from Enid Blyton’s novels — from the Land of Goodies to the Land of Birthdays — with practical effects and dancers on skates bringing Blyton’s trippier imagery to life on the Reading soundstage.
The source material dates from 1939 to 1946, and the production keeps the odd characters central: Saucepan Man and Moonface remain part of the world. Production design choices and the decision to film large, tactile set pieces were driven by the creative team’s wish to replicate the books’ physical oddness on screen, an approach Ben Gregor, director, emphasised while staging scenes.
Claire Foy on nostalgia and her first children’s film
claire foy, who plays Polly, is quoted about the emotional attachment readers hold for the books: “People get so emotional about it!” says Claire Foy, actor (plays Polly). This is the first children’s film Foy has made and the first she says she can take her 10-year-old daughter to watch; she bought the audiobook for her daughter and listened together, describing the experience as discovering Harry Potter at 40. In Simon Farnaby’s modern-day adaptation, Polly is reimagined as the family breadwinner who has lost her corporate job and must relocate to the countryside, a change Farnaby wrote into the script to update the family dynamic.
claire foy has spoken about responsibility to fans of the books, and that weight is mirrored across the cast. Andrew Garfield, who plays the children’s father Tim and had wrapped his part by the end of the shoot, calls his costume a “tomato-growing” outfit. Producer Pippa Harris, at Neal Street Productions, and scriptwriter Simon Farnaby are both named as central figures steering the film’s tone and approach to beloved material.
Immediate reactions and named voices on set
Ben Gregor, director, described the production’s visual ambition and the choice to keep actors physically present in fantasy environments. Simon Farnaby, writer, updated family roles in the adaptation and inserted a running joke about the lack of wifi; Farnaby also cast himself in a small role as a bafflingly impenetrable farmer. Pippa Harris, producer at Neal Street Productions, first acquired the rights nearly twenty years ago and has shepherded the project into production.
Billie Gadsdon, actor (plays one of the children), recalled the sensory set pieces and the fun of filming amid confectionary-style props. Andrew Garfield, actor (plays Tim), summed up his look on set with a wry aside about his rustic costume. Claire Foy’s public remarks underscore the emotional stakes the team accepts in adapting such a nostalgic series.
What’s next
As of August 2024 (ET) the on-set shooting schedule has concluded for the three-month filming block, and the production team led by Neal Street Productions and the named creative team will set out the next steps. Public announcements about post-production timelines and release plans have not been detailed in this briefing; observers will watch for formal updates from the producers and principal creatives. For now, claire foy and the ensemble leave the Reading soundstage having completed principal photography and having shared that the film aims to honour the strange, beloved world of the books while bringing its own modern touch.
