Robert Webb Signs Up To Read Winnie The Pooh On New TV Show

From Peep Show To Winnie The Pooh

Peep Show star Robert Webb said today he was delighted that reading stories to his children is now also his job after signing up to front a new Disney TV show.

The 39-year-old father-of-two has been unveiled as the storyteller for new Disney series Tales Of Friendship With Winnie the Pooh, featuring animated characters which appear on screen as Webb reads a selection of new short stories about Christopher Robin and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.

Webb said: "I've got two daughters and one is just a baby and the other will be three by the time the show goes out in the autumn, so that was partly a motivating thing.

"I get to read Esme a story and I get to wander off and make a cup of tea while I'm reading her a story on the TV.

"I had her in mind while I was being the storyteller, it just seemed like a nice way of going to work."

The comedian - famous for playing immoral party animal Jez in the award-winning Peep Show - revealed he loves reading to his young daughter.

He said: "We certainly do plenty of looking at storybooks. There's some terrific stories out there and we all love stories and we all love being read to.

"So, every night, and quite often during the day, we read a story together. It's an important part of growing up, I think."

Webb, who himself grew up reading Winnie The Pooh, said the new Disney stories were "very much in the tradition of the AA Milne stories".

He added: "There's lots in it that fans of the original books will see is there, and the same spirit and the same humour is there, and the characters are all present and correct and just as we remember them."

The Fresh Meat star, who revealed pessimistic donkey Eeyore is his favourite character, admitted acting out the animation on green screen could be tricky.

He said: "It's pretty lonely.

"In a way it's just another level of pretending. You're pretending that you're talking to someone that doesn't exist and it was quite tricky to remember where everyone is.

"But that was just a little technical challenge and the main thing is the warmth of the stories."

Tales of Friendship with Winnie the Pooh, filmed at an animation studio in Cardiff, will premiere on the Disney Junior UK channel this autumn.

Close

What's Hot