Danny, the Champion of the World

William is the main protagonist of the story. He owns a small garage and filling station and makes a meager living as a mechanic. He is tall and walks with a “long, loping stride” (49), developed from years of countryside walks, a necessity since he doesn’t own a car. William is a dedicated and loving father to Danny, with whom he shares his talent as a funny and creative storyteller. According to Danny, William is never boring and has sparkling blue eyes that “smile,” and he “[p]lots and plans and new ideas came flying off him like sparks from a grindstone” (17). William grew up in a loving working-class family and has fond memories of family dinners and poaching adventures with his father. His wife died suddenly after Danny was born, leaving a deep sadness that he buries beneath a joyful, optimistic exterior and thirst for adventure. William is fiercely working-class and despises the wealthy landowners and their upper-class community. He grew up seeing families starve while “wealthy idiots” (32) live “like kings” on huge estates, never sharing the wealth. William loves the thrill of poaching from these wealthy people. He was introduced to poaching at the age of 10 and, despite trying, has never been able to give it up.

Doc Spencer is the well-loved village doctor and is one of William’s accomplices. He is over 70 but enjoys his job too much to retire. He is a small man who wears steel-rimmed glasses; has a brown, wrinkled face; and wispy white hair. Doc Spencer is William’s friend, and he shares William’s disdain for Mr. Hazell, which makes Doc a loyal ally for William and Danny during their great poaching caper. Although Doc Spencer’s character is kind and caring (he brings dinner for Danny and takes care of William), he also holds grudges. Doc Spencer never forgave Mr. Hazell for kicking his dog and gleefully recounts how he exacted revenge by using a blunt needle to give Mr. Hazell an injection. In his youth, middle-class Doc Spencer used to poach pheasant and trout, showing that he has more in common with the “decent” working-class folk in his community than with the “diabolical” upper class.

Victor Hazell is the antagonist of the narrative. He owns a large brewery and is the wealthy landowner of the huge estate that wraps around William’s filling station. Mr. Hazell embodies greed, both physically and ideologically. He has a “great, glistening beery face […] pink as a ham” (43), with small “piggy” eyes, and he spits when he talks. He is a “roaring snob,” who drives a shiny Rolls-Royce to show off his wealth. Despite his wealth, Mr. Hazell is insecure and desperate to be accepted into upper-class society. To impress the “fancy folk,” Mr. Hazell hosts extravagant opening-day shooting parties at the start of each pheasant season. He spends a fortune on the parties, and every year the upper-class folk enjoy the day but still see him as a “nasty piece of work” (90). Rather than allow his local community to continue the longstanding tradition of occasional poaching on his estate, Mr. Hazell digs deep holes called tiger traps to catch trespassers. His greed and divisiveness turn the local community against him. In turn, Mr. Hazell hates William, Danny, and the other working-class locals and sees them as inferior. Mr. Hazell disrespects and condescends to the local police officer, Sergeant Samways, alienating himself further from the community.

Enoch Samways is one of William’s oldest friends. He is the village policeman, a “huge, rather plump man with a bristly black moustache” (157). He is a supporting character who helps William bamboozle Mr. Hazell by encouraging pheasants onto Mr. Hazell’s Rolls-Royce while pretending to help. Danny is in awe of (and slightly afraid of) Enoch Samways, who always wears his uniform and strides up and down the village high street. Samways used to poach and ignores poachers, who in turn supply him with pheasants as thanks. Dahl writes Samways with a Cockney accent, adding the letter “h” to some words, and dropping it from others—“What, may I hask, is ‘appenin’ around ‘ere?” (182). His character is important because it adds legitimacy to the poaching ruse and the revenge exacted against Mr. Hazell.