BEEP REWIND: Roald Dahl’s Top Five Characters

As September marks the birth month of one of children’s literature’s most influential authors, thousands of parents and their sons and daughters will be celebrating Roald Dahl Day. Each year, Dahl’s birthday is celebrated with a ‘wonderful array of events’ according to the official website, including a party at the Roald Dahl Museum in Great Missenden.

While children and literacy nerds celebrate the day, here at b**p we are celebrating five of Dahl’s best characters all the way from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to a certain Big Friendly Giant.

5. Violet Beauregarde

Violet Beauregarde from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory comes in fifth place on our list. The bubbly (quite literally) girl who has a reputation for chewing multitudes of chewing gum was played by Anna Sophia Robb and Denise Nickerson in the respective film adaptations but is perhaps most memorable after she transforms herself into a huge blue bubble while at Willy Wonka’s weird and wonderful chocolate factory. Beauregard is a favourite of many Dahl fans, so it’d be a sin to miss her off of our list!

4. Agatha Trunchbull

The ever-frightening head teacher in Matilda has pushed many characters out of the way in order to make it onto our list… we were too scared to refuse her a place. Trunchbull is the evil head of Matilda’s school and, after purchasing a dodgy car from her dodgy ‘crook’ of a father, Trunchbull has it in for intelligent Matilda from the start. Throwing her in the ‘chokie’ and attempting to destroy any happiness she may have, Agatha may make us shudder, but she is certainly one of Dahl’s most memorable characters.

3. BFG

One of Roald Dahl’s best-loved characters is the BFG – or, to give him his full name, the Big Friendly Giant – and is someone everyone remembers from their childhood reading in primary school. The friendly giant is, well, the best giant you’ll ever come across – so much so that he was given his own story in which he was the star, published in 1982. If you’re ever feeling bitter, just remember to take a leaf out of the BFG’s book: “I is a nice and jumbly giant! I is the only nice and jumbly Giant in Giant Country! I is THE BIG FRIENDLY GIANT! I is the BFG.”

2. Charlie Bucket

Dahl’s beloved Charlie Bucket is second on our list and is a universal character. Everyone knows this boy’s name. He was the only one to make it out of Wonka’s chocolate factory physically unchanged; mentally, he was changed for ever. Bucket and his Uncle Joe count as a team in Dahl’s Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory book as well as the two film adaptations in which their bond makes one’s heart melt. Who doesn’t love Charlie? It’s impossible not to.

1. Matilda Wormwood

It’s a close call between Matilda and Charlie, but, ultimately a heroine always wins. Matilda Wormwood, the witty, intelligent and powerful young girl who defies all the odds comes top of our Roald Dahl character list. Her unique way of interpreting things (‘When a person is bad, that person has to be taught a lesson!’) and her love for books and learning make her one of Dahl’s most adorable characters. Matilda’s appreciation for education and reading also make her a fantastic example for young children too – what is better than a female icon who reads? The answer: nothing.