WITH his striped top hat and bright red bow tie, The Cat In The Hat is instantly recognisable to generations of children. Now, Dr Suess's famous character is bouncing back into all our living rooms, appearing in a Christmas television special.
For most people, taking on such a well-loved story would be daunting but Hull-born cartoonist Tony Collingwood, who has five Baftas and 120 episodes of The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That behind him, is taking it in his stride.
He said: "When you approach something that is so well-known, across the generations, you have to remain true to that which made it successful in the first place and try not to move too far away from it, even though you are adapting it for a new medium.
"So, if you look at our series or the Christmas special, you can see it looks the same as Suess drew it. We didn't try to adapt it or make it modern because this style has stood the test of time and why would we want to mess with something that works?"
That is not to say it is easy, however. From the start of the writing process to the show being ready to air, it has taken Mr Collingwood a year- and-a-half of work, always under the watchful eye of the Suess family.
"We actually came up with three or four different ideas for the show," he said.
"Because, quite rightly, the Suess estate have final approval and want to make sure the story we tell is one they are happy with.
"This is a thing where if you get it wrong, it can harm a property and they want to keep it alive for the next generation.
"Throughout all 120 episodes of the TV series we made, they looked at every script and every design to make sure we were staying true to the Suess legacy."
After having made so many of the normal ten-minute The Cat In The Hat episodes, Mr Collingwood jumped at the chance to tell a story big enough to fill a one-hour special.
He said: "Breaking free of a ten-minute show and into an hour really allowed us to have a lot of fun. There are some lovely songs within the Christmas special.
"In ten minutes, you can tell a small story with a small theme, with an hour, we can let the songs breathe and have a few verses and choruses building, we can have characters that develop more and send them off on a far bigger story."
Tony, 53, grew up in Etherington Road, north Hull, in the house where his mother still lives.
Even as a child, he knew where his aspirations lay.
He said: "When I was 13, I knew I wanted to be a cartoonist. From before I can remember, I was always drawing cartoons and writing silly stories, so they came together for me in animation.
"I used to listen to the Goon Show on the radio and the surreal humour of Spike Milligan was always something I loved.
"I think the first story I wrote, when I was eight, was called The Hairy Legged Murderer, who left leg hairs at the scene of every crime, so I was writing sub-Goon show scripts, I think."
He has come a long way since then, however. In the 25 years since he set up his animation company, Collingwood and Co, he was won five Baftas for four different shows, twice beating Bob The Builder to the award.
The secret of his success? He said: "We don't do wham, bam, violent shows, they are all based on humour and simple little moral or educational messages, we keep it light and fun."
The Cat In The Hat Christmas Special is being aired on CITV at 9.25am on Saturday, December 21.
