Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons brings much-loved characters such as Skimbleshanks and Macavity to life in his reading of TS Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats.

On Christmas Day 1937, nearly two years before book publication, five of T.S Eliot's Practical Cats poems were broadcast as readings by Geoffrey Tandy on BBC Radio. The Radio Times wrote 'For some time past Mr Eliot has been amusing and instructing the offspring of some of his friends in verse on the subject of cats. These poems are not the kind that have been usually associated with his name'.

Over 75 years later, one of our greatest actors, Oscar-winning Jeremy Irons re-visits the original five poems along with the further ten which make up the Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats .

In this treat for Christmas day you will find familiar much-loved characters including Growltiger, Mungojerrie, Rumpleteaser, Old Deuteronomy, Mr Mistoffelees, Macavity Gus and Skimbleshanks. These are cats who are notorious, lurk in shadows, baffle Scotland Yard, dance by the light of the moon and who must not be woken. They are found on trains, in the theatre, in the high street. They juggle, sleep, conjure, are curious and bore but they all show another side of one of our most important British poets .

The Naming of Cats

Skimbleshanks: The Railway Cat

Growltiger's Last Stand

The Rum Tum Tugger

The Song of the Jellicles

Mungojerrie and Rumpelteazer

Old Deuteronomy

Of the Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles

Mr Mistoffelees

Macavity: The Mystery Cat

Gus: The Theatre Cat

The Old Gumbie Cat

Bustopher Jones: The Cat about Town

Cat Morgan introduces Himself

The Ad-dressing of Cats

Directed in Salford by Susan Roberts