Howard Blake looked out of his window on Christmas Day and saw snow. It was not long before his family was making a snowman - not surprising for the man behind both the animated and stage versions of Raymond Briggs' timeless show. But if you are wondering how Blake, who created the music and lyrics for The Snowman, managed to find enough snow for his creation, he was spending Christmas in Sweden where they had a good few inches more of the white stuff than those of us in the UK. "There was about three inches," he says. "My son ran out to build the snowman and came in to ask me what he should use for the nose - and I thought, I know this story." Blake first composed The Snowman for the much-loved Christmas animation in 1982 and nine years later was hard at work in a tiny flat at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre putting together a stage version. The show is probably best known for the classic tune Walking in the Air, made famous by Aled Jones who took it to number three in the charts. And Blake admits that it was actually the song that came first. "When I wrote Walking in the Air I knew it was a special song but I didn't quite know what to do with it so I put it in the cupboard. Then by chance I walked in on the producer of what was to become The Snowman when the story was just a pencil sketch and I said I had just the tune for it." The rest is history - The Snowman has become the Christmas classic which families have enjoyed each year since its first broadcast in 1982. And when former Birmingham Repertory Artistic Director Bill Alexander became a fan he approached Blake and asked him to turn it into a stage show. "It was all very hectic really," says Howard. "We had talked about it for a time but I only had about two weeks to write it. I was hidden away in this little flat at the Rep. It was right next to the rehearsal studio and I was literally just handing over new scenes and they were going straight into rehearsal. "There was one night when I was working late on a Saturday and I suddenly realised I had actually been locked inside. A theatre is not the nicest place to be on your own in the dark. I had to try and remember anyone who had keys and whose home number I had." Luckily Howard was released and The Snowman went on to become a Christmas hit for the theatre. "At the time the theatre was not sure how successful it would be so it was back-to-back with Blithe Spirit but it proved to be such a success that they had to shorten Blithe Spirit so they could put on more performances of The Snowman." And so popular has it been that The Snowman is on stage in all kinds of venues and guises this Christmas. "I can't keep track of them all," says Howard. "There are stage versions, concerts and concerts to the film taking place all over the world. The show in London at the Peacock has been playing for six weeks. I have seen it and will go to the closing night before it opens in Birmingham on January 14 - and I will definitely be there for that." * Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company's production of The Snowman is on stage at the Rep from Jan 14-30, contact 0121 236 4455 and www.birmingham-rep.co.uk for details. ..SUPL: | 
