Helena Bonham Carter is clownin’ around…

The 54-year-old part-Spanish actress and The Crown star will narrate an animated Channel 4 adaptation of Clown, a children’s story written and illustrated by Sir Quentin Blake.

Channel 4 has commissioned Eagle Eye Drama, the production company recently launched by the team behind global drama streamer Walter Presents, to make the 30-minute special using hand-drawn animation techniques.

Quentin Blake’s Clown will bring to life the adventures of a little toy clown, thrown away with a load of old discarded toys, as he goes on a journey to find a new loving home for himself and his friends.

Accompanying the program will be a short making-of feature, which will include contributions from Blake, Bonham Carter and the key animators and executives.

Channel 4 head of drama Caroline Hollick commissioned the special and it is supported by a grant from the BFI’s Young Audiences Content Fund.

Quentin Blake’s Clown is directed by Luigi Berio and executive produced by Massimo Fenati, with Eagle Eye’s Jo McGrath and Walter Iuzzolino overseeing the project. New Regency is distributing.

Fenati said: “An exciting jigsaw-puzzle of incredibly gifted animators from all over Europe have embraced this creative challenge enthusiastically and everyone on the team feel privileged to be working from such wonderful source material.”

It continues Channel 4’s tradition of animated Christmas specials, following adaptations of The Snowman, The Tiger who Came to Tea, and We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.