Ballet Shoes (film)

Ballet Shoes
Promotional poster
Written by	Heidi Thomas Noel Streatfeild (Novel)
Directed by	Sandra Goldbacher
Starring	Emma Watson Richard Griffiths Lucy Boynton Yasmin Paige Emilia Fox Victoria Wood
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
Production
Producer(s)	Piers Wenger Michele Buck Damien Timmer Patrick Spence Heidi Thomas
Running time	85 minutes
Release
Original network	BBC One
Original release	26 December 2007

Ballet Shoes is a 2007 British television film, adapted by Heidi Thomas from Noel Streatfeild's 1936 novel Ballet Shoes. It was produced by Granada Productions (formerly Granada Television) and premiered on BBC One on 26 December 2007. It is directed by Sandra Goldbacher.

A previous adaptation of Ballet Shoes was produced in serial format by the BBC in 1975 and directed by Timothy Combe. "Ballet Shoes" co-stars former Harry Potter (film series) stars Emma Watson as Pauline Fossil, Gemma Jones as Dr. Jakes, and the late Richard Griffiths as Gum.

A practical young orphan, Sylvia Brown, and her stern nurse Nana come to live at her uncle Gum's house in London, England after her parents die. Gum is a paleontologist and is reluctant to take his niece in, but relents when he learns that he is her only living relative. Gum is away a lot on travels collecting fossils, but he sends Sylvia letters and presents and she learns to love him.

Years later Sylvia is now grown up and still living with Gum and Nana. Gum brings her back an orphaned baby girl, who has been rescued from RMS Titanic after her parents drown when the ship hit an iceberg. He names her Pauline Fossil. Gum legally adopts Pauline. When Pauline is two years old, Gum adopts another orphan that he found, a Russian baby girl called Petrova. Petrova's biological parents are tragically killed. In 1923, Gum adopts a third baby, Posy, with ballet shoes that her mother owned and necklaces for the three girls. In a letter Gum explains that Posy's father died and her mother doesn't have time to care for her daughter. He also left some money in the bank for Sylvia, enough to last five years. That is the last the family hears of him.

During The Great Depression Pauline and Petrova go to school at Cromwell House, but Sylvia can't afford to send Posy. As Gum's money runs out, Sylvia has to take out Pauline and Petrova out of school. When the money runs out completely, she takes in four boarders to live in the house: Theo Dane, an impractical dance teacher, John Simpson, who works with cars, and Dr. Smith and Dr. Jakes, who are retired academics.