Tom Gates is a British series of fiction and graphic books written by Liz Pichon taking the form of an illustrated diary written by the eponymous schoolboy. There are a total of 21 published Tom Gates books, as of 2021. [1] The first book in the series, The Brilliant World of Tom Gates, was published in 2011 and won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, a Red House Children's Book Award and a Waterstones Children's Book Prize. [2] As of 2023 the books have sold more than 14 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 47 languages. [3]
Aged around 10 years old, Tom is the younger of the two children of Frank and Rita Gates, and the younger brother of Delia. [4] He attends Oakfield Primary School where he is in Mr Fullerman's Class 5F, under headmaster Mr Keen. Children in his class include Marcus Meldrew (who sits next to and consistently annoys Tom in class), and Amy Porter (who also sits next to Tom, but whom Tom hopes to impress). Also in his year at Oakfield is his best friend Derek Fingle, who also lives next door to him. Tom has a second neighbour, June Jones, that annoys Tom and dislikes his band.
His grandparents are Frank's parents Granny Mavis And Granddad Bob that Tom refers to as "The Fossils", while Rita's parents are known as "The Wrinklies".
Tom and Derek are in a band called Dog Zombies, consisting of Tom on guitar, Derek on keyboard, and classmate Norman Watson on drums.
In 2019, the Birmingham Stage Company presented a stage play called Tom Gates Live on Stage! that featured the characters in live action. [5] It toured the UK and starred Matthew Chase as Tom Gates and Amy Hargreaves as Delia. [6]
In 2020, Sky Kids announced that it was making The Brilliant World of Tom Gates to be available on Sky's on demand service Sky Kids in the UK and Ireland. [7] The first series, consisting of 20 animated episodes, was released in early 2021, featuring Catherine Tate as both Rita Gates and Granny Mavis, Mark Bonnar as Mr Fullerman, and Logan Matthews as Tom Gates. [8] [9] Creator Liz Pichon also appears in the episodes in a live-action segment in which she gives ideas for creating artwork inspired by the series. [10] The second series was released in 2022, followed by the third in 2023. The series also has the Halloween and Christmas specials. [11]
Year | Book | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
2011 | The Brilliant World of Tom Gates | Roald Dahl Funny Prize 2011 | Won |
2012 | Red House Children's Book Award | Won | |
Waterstones Children's Book Prize | Won | ||
Genius Ideas (Mostly) | Specsavers National Book Awards Children's Book of the Year | Runner-up | |
2013 | Blue Peter Award for Best Story | Won |
The Guardian Children's Fiction Prize or Guardian Award was a literary award that annual recognised one fiction book written for children or young adults and published in the United Kingdom. It was conferred upon the author of the book by The Guardian newspaper, which established it in 1965 and inaugurated it in 1967. It was a lifetime award in that previous winners were not eligible. At least from 2000 the prize was £1,500. The prize was apparently discontinued after 2016, though no formal announcement appears to have been made.
The Nestlé Children's Book Prize, and Nestlé Smarties Book Prize for a time, was a set of annual awards for British children's books that ran from 1985 to 2007. It was administered by BookTrust, an independent charity that promotes books and reading in the United Kingdom, and sponsored by Nestlé, the manufacturer of Smarties candy. It was one of the most respected and prestigious prizes for children's literature.
David Edward Williams, known professionally as David Walliams, is an English comedian, actor, writer, and television personality. He is best known for his work with Matt Lucas on the BBC sketch comedy series Little Britain (2003–2006) and Come Fly With Me (2010–2011). From 2012 to 2022, Walliams was a judge on the television talent show competition Britain's Got Talent on ITV. He is also a writer of children's books, having sold more than 37 million copies worldwide.
Dame Sheila Cameron Hancock is an English actress, singer, and author. She has performed in theatre - plays and musicals in London, and her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane (1966) earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in Play.
Margarita Wilson Hanks is an American actress, singer, and producer. Her film appearances include Volunteers (1985), Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Now and Then (1995), That Thing You Do! (1996), Jingle All the Way (1996), The Story of Us (1999), Runaway Bride (1999), It's Complicated (2009), and Larry Crowne (2011), and she appeared in the television series The Good Wife and Girls. Wilson has performed on Broadway and produced several films, including My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002). As a singer-songwriter, Wilson has released the albums AM/FM, Rita Wilson, Bigger Picture, and Halfway to Home. In March 2019, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Catherine Tate is an English actress, comedian and writer. She has won numerous awards for her work on the BBC sketch comedy series The Catherine Tate Show (2004–2007), as well as being nominated for an International Emmy Award and seven BAFTAs. Tate played Donna Noble in the 2006 Christmas special of the BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, and reprised her role for the fourth series in 2008, and the 60th anniversary episodes in 2023.
Barbara Goodson is an American voice actress who has done voice-over work in cartoons and shows. Her best-known role was providing the English dub voice of the main villain Empress Rita Repulsa in the Power Rangers franchise, starting with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and including Power Rangers Zeo, Turbo: A Power Rangers Movie, and Power Rangers in Space.
Mavis Wilton is a fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Thelma Barlow. A long-running series regular, Mavis appeared in the show for 26 years from 1971 to 1997. Introduced for a one-off cameo appearance, she proved popular with producers and viewers and subsequently became a regular.
Thelma Barlow is an English television actress and writer, known for her roles as Mavis Wilton in the long-running ITV soap opera Coronation Street and as Dolly Bellfield in the BBC One sitcom dinnerladies.
Chris Lang is a British screenwriter, producer and actor. Lang has written for many British television series but is best known as the writer, creator and executive producer of Unforgotten.
Emory Andrew Tate Jr. was an American chess international master. He was the father of the Internet personality Andrew Tate.
The Green Peter Book Awards were a set of literary awards for children's books conferred by the BBC television programme Blue Peter. They were inaugurated in 2000 for books published in 1999 and 2000. The awards were managed by reading charity, BookTrust, from 2006 until the final award in 2022. From 2013 until the final award, there were two award categories: Best Story and Best Book with Facts.
Black Camel Pictures is a production company based in Glasgow and founded by Arabella Page Croft and Kieran Parker.
Liz Pichon is a British author and illustrator of children's books. She is best known for her Tom Gates series of "satirical realist comedy fiction", which has sold 16.5 million copies and has been translated into 44 languages across 47 international markets.
Where the Crawdads Sing is a 2018 coming-of-age murder mystery novel by American zoologist Delia Owens. The story follows two timelines that slowly intertwine. The first timeline describes the life and adventures of a young girl named Kya as she grows up isolated in the marshes of North Carolina. The second timeline follows an investigation into the apparent murder of Chase Andrews, a local celebrity of Barkley Cove, a fictional coastal town of North Carolina.
Hotel Transylvania: Transformania is a 2022 American animated adventure comedy film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation and released by Amazon Studios. It is the fourth and final feature film in the Hotel Transylvania franchise and the sequel to Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (2018), the film was directed by Derek Drymon and Jennifer Kluska from a screenplay by Amos Vernon, Nunzio Randazzo and Genndy Tartakovsky. It stars the voices of Andy Samberg, Selena Gomez, Kathryn Hahn, Jim Gaffigan, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade, Keegan-Michael Key, Brian Hull, Fran Drescher, Brad Abrell, Asher Blinkoff, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins and Zoe Berri. In the film, Dracula and Johnny team up to find a crystal in South America to turn themselves back into normal, before their transformations become permanent.
The Rig is a British supernatural thriller television series created by David Macpherson for Amazon Prime Video. The series is directed by John Strickland, and is the first Amazon Original to be filmed entirely in Scotland. The series was released on 6 January 2023 and consists of six episodes. In February 2023, The Rig was renewed for a second series.
Rob Biddulph is a British children's author and illustrator.