Last week I posted a transcript of the conversation Stef and I had as we watched this for the first time. It was pretty lengthy so I kept back Stef’s more in-depth thoughts and will post them here along with mine.

An interview with Stef

I asked Stef what she thought and had planned to just let her talk, but couldn’t help from interrupting!

Stef: are you sure that you want my honest opinion?

It had potential in the first – generously – ten minutes.

Then… it just… spiralled into this crazy utter mess that just… doesn’t match with any of the Famous Five energy. And… although it says based on, quite honestly I think Blyton would have been appalled. There were too many what-the-heck moments to really highlight what the daftest thing they did was. I’m kinda thankful we didn’t have to see them escaping through the crypt underground tunnel as that was a stretch and a half. It was all a stretch and a half.

Though, the end, on the beach, coming back to Kirrin Cottage, and agreeing to keep the secret and whatever, that ties into the rest of the Famous Five energy.

[Fiona: so basically the problem was just everything in the middle?]

Yes. [Clearly looking for something positive to say] Julian was the best cast.

[Fiona: but underutilised?]

Yes. Presumably to make way for George, as an ethnically diverse female lead to try to make it more relevant for today’s younger audience.

Dick and Anne did not live up to expectations at all. They were not in the slightest what they should have been. They tried to make Anne into Dick and Dick into a geek and a bit of Anne. I can understand why, you’ve got your fearless leader and you can also have chaps that are knowledgeable but scared and they balance each other out. But no. Just no.

They were both underutilised in the end. Had we had more of them…

[Fiona: and less of the crazy ramblings of the bad people?]

Yes. More screen time to come into their characters. Reminds me of the 7os Five who took a long time to tap into their character. In my humble opinion.

I then started talking again.

Fiona: I read criticism about Fanny being a writer, the money maker, making Quentin a useless potterer but I didn’t see that at all.

Stef: I think they got the power balance right.

Fiona: Well, they were barely in it.

Stef: She probably took up writing to get by while he tried to invent.

Fiona: Obviously she’s not making a fortune as they’re still poor.

Stef: Interesting the thing they through in about Jack being in the secret service.

Fiona: But it didn’t go anywhere

Stef: It had potential to tie in.

Potential?

I think potential is a key word here. There was a lot of potential in the ideas used but unfortunately there were perhaps too many ideas. The Five were never ones to need to travel into the big city to visit a crypt to find a clue to bring back to Kirrin – it was far too Dan Brown or Indiana Jones.

There were several plot lines that went nowhere – but perhaps these are going to be fleshed out in the next episode(s). With the baddie’s mother, for example, there seemed to be more story than what we were shown. Annie’s death – but no body being found. The body found on the beach but never mentioned again.

I agree with Stef that neither the characters or the storyline lived up to expectations. Julian was the best (isn’t he always?) while George was decent but we just didn’t see enough of what makes her George. The initial introduction to her cousins, and them making friends is very fast. Book George takes time to warm up to them, to fully trust them and to learn that sharing can be fun.

The same goes with Timmy – she finds him one minute and the next he is a fully formed member of the Five. The thing about book Timmy is that he is supremely loyal and George has trained him to follow her every command. The dog playing Timmy was obviously able to follow commands but most of the time I forgot he was there as he wasn’t spoken to, wasn’t involved in the action. In the underground scenes he stays outside of the circular room, begging the question how he joined them again later.

Actually, now I think about it, I now question how they got George’s boat back. They slide down the tunnel and are fired into the sea, then swim back. (Kirrin Island is supposed to be too far out/in too choppy water/too rocky to swim to, of course.)

I’m getting off the topic of potential now…

The cast

I think the only actor I didn’t like was Jack Gleeson, probably the biggest name in it. He was just far too pantomime and over-the-top to be taken seriously.

While I didn’t like the way Anne and Dick behaved in the episode Flora Jacoby Richardson and Kit Rakusen played their reimagined versions of the characters well.

George (Diaana Babnicova) had some nice stroppiness, and Elliott Rose was convincing as the oldest and in charge member of the Five, though he was underutilised.

Fanny (Ann Akinjirin) and Quentin (James Lance) were largely relegated to the background but we did get a sense of Quentin being impatient (if not hugely irritable) and Fanny trying to keep the peace.

Final thoughts

I will say something I often say about Blyton continuation books: If this had been an adventure film/episode about a newly invented group of children (in any era) it could have been quite enjoyable. As an entry into the Famous Five canon, it is not good.

It failed to capture much of what the Five were about as it spent too long focussing on things like Mr Wentworth and his evil machinations, the trip to London, and Anne being whiny. I mean it’s the Famous Five and the only thing they ate the entire time was some of the cake Mrs Wentworth gave them!

Besides that I wasn’t keen on the soft-focus that was used heavily throughout (not least because it made taking screen-caps so hard) or the 80s synth music which played most of the way through. However, the clothing (converse aside) and the locations were good. I particularly liked Julian’s shirt-and-braces look, while at least Dick got to rock a Paul Child worthy pullover.

Not sure why, but this one’s our favourite. Or at least it’s mine!