Tamara Broom (Franchise)

Tamara Broom or The Magical Adventures of Miss Tamara Broom are a series of children's novels and subsequent film and television adaptations written by acclaimed British fiction writer Beatrice Christmas.

History
Beatrice Christmas wrote in her memoirs Batty Beattie: Warts and All that the idea for Tamara Broom first came to her while camping in Wales with her family in the late 1940s as a teenager. She revealed that early drafts had Tamara becoming a witch's apprentice in a cave in the Welsh valleys, an idea she later scrapped. After achieving fame as a television writer and producer for the BBC in the 1960s and 70s and earning multiple BAFTA awards, Beatrice retired in 1987 after 35 years of service to the corporation. It was at this time her husband urged her to revive her passion project of Tamara Broom. She revealed in a 2003 interview with Michael Parkinson that 15 draft manuscripts still exist of the first Tamara Broom book and sit in perfect condition in the attic of her home of over 50 years.

After multiple redrafts, Christmas settled on a draft she completed on December 26th 1989 and she submitted it to Bloomsbury publishing house the following week. She received a notice back only a fortnight later informing her that the publishers were delighted with the novel and were interested in publishing it, potentially as a series. She signed a 3 book deal with Bloomsbury that was publicly announced on BBC chat show Wogan on March 19th 1990.

The first novel, The Magical Adventures of Miss Tamara Broom (later published as simply Tamara Broom) was highly anticipated due to Christmas' known work on BBC Children's television in the early 1980s. Christmas embarked on a nationwide promotional tour for the book in September 1991 in the run up to its early October publication date. She appeared on various primetime talk shows across British television, was interviewed on Blue Peter and Newsround and appeared as herself in an episode of BBC sitcom Birds of a Feather. A day before the publication date, Christmas appeared on the reading programme Jackanory and read an extract from the opening chapter of the debut book. It remains the highest rated episode of the show in its history.

Beatrice Christmas' debut Children's novel became an instant critical and commercial hit across the country and Scholastic publishing in the USA acquired the worldwide publishing rights. The book became a world renowned literary sensation after being published by scholastic in January 1992. Both the publishers and Christmas were eager to release a follow up and Tamara Broom Goes Beyond was released in October 1993, to superior success to its predecessor. Her 3 book deal with Bloomsbury was extended to a 5 book deal, with the hopes of releasing a book every year. A third book, Tamara Broom's New Quest was released in 1994 and received international claim. A fourth book was planned for release in 1995 but Christmas suffered a case of extreme writer's block. She made a deal with Bloomsbury to postpone publishing of book 4 by twelve months, but to writer both book 4 and 5 back to back. Beatrice Christmas spent the summer of 1995 on a remote island in the Carribean with her husband, daughter, son-in-law and 3 grandchildren. Upon her return, she handed in 900 pages of content. Bloomsbury worked with Christmas to trim down the content with the idea of 2 400-page books to serve as a finale to the adventures of Tamara Broom and her friends. They trimmed the 900 pages down to just over 700 and in the Autumn of 1996, the highly anticipated return of Tamara Broom, Tamara Broom's Toughest Adventure Yet was published. It was the first book in the series to which Beatrice Christmas did next to no press for, appearing only on an interview with longterm friend Michael Parkinson in October 1996. Christmas secluded herself from fame for an unknown reason over the next 12 months before publicly revealing to The Guardian in August 1997 that she had breast cancer and she believed the upcoming fifth novel in the Tamara Broom series would almost certainly be the last. Tamara Broom Tries to Save The Day was published in October 1997 and was promoted as Tamara Broom's last appearance. Christmas made her final public appearance of the decade in December 1997, appearing on a retrospective documentary about BBC television.

In September 1998, over a year since confirming her diagnosis, media outlets reported that Beatrice Christmas had fully recovered from her illness and was plotting a television comeback rather than writing more books. Rather than appearing in public, Christmas chose to write an article for The Guardian once again, confirming her return to good health, but denying her future in Television. She confirmed that she and her husband had now left their life in North London and had moved to the countryside for some "well deserved peace". Rumours surfaced in the tabloids for months after that Christmas was working on various projects, including a sixth Tamara Broom novel and a script for a Tamara Broom film, both claims were dismissed by Bloomsbury publishing in February 1999.

After over 3 years away from the limelight, the nation was pleasantly surprised when daytime ladies talk show Loose Women announced that Beatrice Christmas would be paying them a visit on March 9th 2001. Christmas appeared on the panel and confirmed that Tamara Broom would finally be returning for not only a sixth book but also an animated movie version of the first book as produced by DreamWorks animation. Beatrice confirmed the wait for book 6 wouldn't be long, confirming a publication date of April 20th 2001. The film was given a release date of July 19th 2003. The sixth book Tamara Broom Flies Again was an instant bestseller worldwide and was critically acclaimed. Christmas made her first American television appearance later that year after she was named one of Barbara Walters' most fascinating people of 2003.

Beatrice Christmas returned to the spotlight permanently after the publication of book 6 and was a regular fixture on both British and American talk shows. She revealed on Parkinson in 2002 that a 7th book would be published next Autumn and that she had a 10 book plan for Tamara from day 1. The seventh book, Tamara Broom Finds Love was published in October 2003, the book had a mixed response due to the addition of a more highly romanticised Tamara. Christmas justified the move, saying that with each year that passed since book 1, Tamara had too aged, meaning that 12 years after her first adventure, Tamara was now 24, however this is often disputed as Tamara's age is never directly referenced in any book.

The animated adaptation of the first novel was released in cinemas across the world at the later than previously announced date of November 20th 2003 to huge commercial success. DreamWorks then proceeded to acquire the rights the all the Tamara Broom books and confirmed their dedication to faithfully adapting the books for the big screen via their animation program. A sequel, an adaptation of the second book, was confirmed for the following year.

An eighth book was confirmed for Autumn 2004 and readers had become skeptical of its contents when the title was revealed by Bloomsbury at an event in July 2004. Tamara Broom's Baby was published in October 2004 to universal praise, with critics saying the comedy and magic that had lacked in the previous book returned, while the new witty adult humour that Christmas had introduced in book 7 remained. Many critics now praised Christmas' decision to have Tamara grow up alongside the reader.

Tamara Broom returned to the big screen in 2004 also, debuting the second film in November 2004 once again. The film was once more a success and adaptations of the third and fourth novels were confirmed for 2005 and 2006 respectively.

Bloomsbury confirmed a 9th book in May 2005, Tamara Broom's Big Surprise was published that Autumn and was also well received, unexpectedly returning to the action/adventure genre of the earlier books. This book marked the end of Beatrice Christmas' current contract with Bloomsbury and after her husband Ian was diagnosed with Dementia in January 2006, she opted to not renew her contract and end her writing career to care for him.

Tamara Broom 3: The New Quest was released in December 2005, just weeks before Christmas announced the end of her literary contract with Bloomsbury. The film did not reach as high as a success as its predecessors, but the positive reviews from critics led to the franchise being given a green light to continue.

July 2006 saw the cinematic debut of Tamara Broom 4: Toughest Challenge Yet to an unexpected huge critical and financial success. Ironically, it was the first film in the franchise that Beatrice Christmas did not serve as a consultant on, instead her daughter took her position. Critics claimed the instalment revitalised the franchise. DreamWorks guaranteed adaptations of the remaining books would follow.

November 2007 saw the arrival of Tamara Broom Saves The Day: The Fifth Adventure arrive in cinemas. The film, in a rare occurrence for a fourth sequel, achieved equal financial and critical acclaim to its predecessors. In a surprise television interview in December 2007, Beatrice Christmas gave the films her seal of approval.

In August 2008, 11 years after her diagnosis with cancer, Beatrice Christmas surprised the world by publishing her memoirs ''Batty Beattie: Warts and All. ''She revealed that she wrote the book in order to preserve her husband's memories before they completely faded. She revealed all royalties from the book would go the Alzheimer's Society UK. Ian Christmas passed away only weeks after the books publication, on September 19th 2007.

Back on the Broom: Tamara Broom's All Grown Up was released in October 2008, once again to commercial success, although it received mixed reviews from critics due to its drastic change from previous films, including a complete makeover of the now adult Tamara.

Beatrice Christmas dismissed 2009 claims of a tenth Tamara Broom novel being in the pipeline, claiming that she was working on other projects and she was too busy to revisit Tamara.

Summer 2009's cinematic scene was dominated by the release of DreamWorks' adaptation of the most controversial Tamara Broom novel. Tamara Broom's Boyfriend was released in July 2009 and was harked as the best book-to-film adaptation in recent times, even by Christmas herself. Critics praised the tweaks to the original that improved the story immensely, and fans of the series felt that the book had finally been given justice. DreamWorks were eager to continue the franchise for the foreseeable future and decided to commission 3 more Tamara Broom films, an adaptation of book 8 and a two-part adaptation of book 9.

2010's Tamara Broom's Expecting was the highest grossing animated film of the year and the highest grossing film of the franchise to date. Critics praised the adaptation for not making the adaptation too animated, but utilising the animation to portray magic in a beautiful way.

Shortly after the film's release, DreamWorks announced BroomFest, a convention that would celebrate all things Tamara Broom. The event was held in February 2011 and Beatrice Christmas made a surprise appearance at a panel discussing the books' cultural impact. At the panel, Christmas discussed each of the nine books and unexpectedly confirmed she had written a tenth and eleventh instalment, to be released soon. Bloomsbury then confirmed Tamara Broom's Magical Mystery for publication in Autumn 2011.

Part 1 of Tamara Broom's Biggest Threat was released in 2011, but was a financial flop and received mixed reviews from critics. DreamWorks revealed shortly after that the second part would be the final film and they would not seek the rights of book 10.

Tamara Broom's Magical Mystery, however, proved the franchise had not died and became, like the others before it, an instant bestseller. Both critics and fans adored the contents of the tenth instalment and Beatrice revealed her delight and Tamara's return and success 20 years since her first appearance.

Tamara Broom's Biggest Threat: Part 2 was released by DreamWorks in April 2012, but was shockingly overshadowed by the BBC's news that Beatrice Christmas would be returning to the corporation to adapt the Tamara Broom series for television. While a financial success in America, it failed to attract audiences worldwide. Critics gave the film fairly positive reviews, calling it a "fairly satisfactory conclusion to a dying saga."

The BBC confirmed Tamara Broom in March 2012, revealing it would be a amalgamation of all the books set in various time periods and points in Tamara's life. An executive at the BBC commented, "We wanted a way to adapt all the books at once, rather than doing one after another, and Beatrice came up with a genius idea of telling Tamara's story through a collection of flashbacks, flashforwards and non-linear storytelling. This is nothing like the BBC has done before." The BBC confirmed Tamara Broom would premiere in Spring 2013.

An eleventh book was not released in 2012 due to Christmas focusing on the television adaptation.

Beatrice Christmas celebrated her 80th birthday in March 2013 and to mark the occasion, she announced that the eleventh book in the franchise had been complete and she confirmed its title as ''Tamara Broom's Witching Hour. ''Christmas also revealed she considered the book the darkest yet, featuring some of the most terrifying villains Tamara had ever faced. The book also introduced Tamara's 9 year old daughter Valerina as a supporting character rather than a minor character.

Tamara Broom debuted on BBC One on April 9th 2013 and aired in the 8pm slot for its entire 10-episode run. The first series adapted books 1 and 2, and books 5 and 6. A second series was confirmed to air in 2014, adapting books 3 and 4 and books 7 and 8. An original story was also commissioned for Christmas 2013.

A second series of Tamara Broom aired on BBC One in March 2014 for another 10 episode run, as previously announced it adapted books 3 and 4 and books 7 and 8. BBC One then announced a change in format for the third series, revealing the series would be reduced to 6 episodes and be 3 2-part adaptations of books 9, 10 and 11 respectively. Due to Beatrice Christmas having no intentions of a twelfth book, the BBC confirmed series 3 would be the series' last and it would air in early 2015.

The third series of Tamara Broom premiered on New Year's Day 2015 and ran for six weeks, concluding in February 2015. Beatrice Christmas praised the final series and was "glad to see Tamara finally be where she belonged."

In March 2015, Beatrice Christmas released a book of short stories, one of which was a story about Tamara Broom's parents in their youth. The BBC subsequently commissioned a one-off Christmas special, entitled The Brooms that would be loosely adapted from the short story.

In July 2016, Beatrice Christmas confirmed that book 12 had been completed and would be released in October 2016, entitled ''Tamara Broom's America. ''It was well received by fans and spent 4 weeks on the number 1 spot on the Sunday Times bestseller list. Christmas confirmed a thirteenth book was in the pipeline, but a release date was unconfirmed. A fourth series of Tamara Broom was rumoured by British tabloids after the twelfth book's release, but the BBC refused to comment on the prospects of an adaptation.