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Last week, I observed VE Day in the fictional Ambridge with The Archers. Tina slogged her way through Brideshead Revisited. Jeanie visited the National Portrait Gallery in London and walked in Hampstead.

Monday was my birthday. We watched Wonka on Max. What a magical celebration!

Wonka is a prequel to the 1971 film, Willie Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring Gene Wilder. That film was an adaptation of the book Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by British author Roald Dahl.

In Wonka, we learn Willie Wonka’s roots as an orphaned child, a seafarer, and a man with a dream of selling the best chocolate. He arrives in the city (a fanciful London, I think) with almost nothing but that dream. And, he immediately runs into trouble.

The other chocolatiers in town don’t want competition and will go to any length to prevent it.

Meanwhile, Wonka signed a predatory contract in return for a room for his first night in town, only to find himself a captive and forced to work off his debt in a laundry. Fortunately, his fellow prisoners each have talents and Willie Wonka has the imagination to make use of them.

This film features three of my favorite things: chocolate, giraffes, and libraries. Obviously, Wonka was expressly made for my birthday. It’s also a visual delight with lots of color, beautiful buildings, and quirky costumes.

The two main characters are played by American actors. Timothée Chalamet is a charmer as Wonka. Calah Lane was only 14 when the film was released. She is sassy and vulnerable and just the sort of partner that Wonka needs to get his adventure off the ground.

I enjoyed spotting some of my favorite British actors: Hugh Grant (Notting Hill, Love Actually, Sense and Sensibility, Paddington 2, and more), Olivia Colman (Broadchurch, The Crown, The Favourite, and so much more), Sally Hawkins (the Paddington movies, The Shape of Water, The Lost King), Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean and a long list), and Jim Carter (Mr. Carson in Downton Abbey).

Have you seen Wonka? What did you think?