BBC lines up a Tom Hardy treat for Mother's Day

Hardy, 39, will be back on CBeebies, where the star’s previous efforts have been a surprise hit, although not necessarily with the channel’s target, pre-school, audience.

Instead, adults have admitted switching over to the children’s TV channel to watch the heartthrob read stories.

Now CBeebies has said the Taboo star will be back for Mother’s Day, reading a tale about an “angry little mouse”.

It has released a new snap of the Oscar-nominated actor, sitting next to a cuddly polar bear toy, against a library backdrop, and with a little toy white mouse poking out of his shirt pocket.

When Hardy appeared on-screen on New Year’s Eve and on Valentine’s Day, some mothers confessed to watching the story after their children were asleep.

One viewer posted on Twitter: “Is it weird that my kids were already in bed so I watched Tom Hardy tell a bedtime story without them?”

Another wrote: “Yes I put the baby to bed and then watched the CBeebies bedtime story with Tom Hardy by myself with wine, what of it?”

Hardy follows in the footsteps of actors David Hasselhoff, Damian Lewis, Sir Derek Jacobi, James McAvoy and former Doctor Who star David Tennant, as well as astronaut Tim Peake, in signing up for the CBeebies slot.

On New Year’s Eve, the Mad Max: Fury Road star snuggled on the sofa with his rescue dog, Woodstock, to read You Must Bring A Hat, by Simon Philip and Kate Hindley.

He will read There’s A Bear On My Chair, by Ross Collins, the “hilarious story about an angry little mouse who is desperately trying to move a bear from his chair,” on Mother’s Day.

* Tom Hardy reads There’s A Bear On My Chair on Sunday, March 26th from 6.50pm to 7pm.