As with series one and two I thought I should do a recap.

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A brief episode recap

I’ll have to wrack my brains here as I watched the earlier episodes a really long time ago! There will be spoilers included here.

1. New Arrivals

We start again on the first day of term. Most of the girls have returned with the exception of Alicia who is in Canada having joined a skating team and Sally who (as per the books) has the mumps. The new arrivals the title refer to are Bill, Thunder and Miss Johnson.

Gwen’s misdemeanours of the previous series are forgotten and she instantly starts throwing her weight around as her father is joining the board of directors.

Bill is extremely horse-mad and starts things off quite badly by breaking the rules about visiting the stables on the first day of lessons.

Miss Johnson comes across as what I can only describe as suspicious at this point. She seems kind-but-strict but her facial expressions hint that she’s got a lot more going on beneath the surface.

2. The Trials

There are lacrosse trials to be held but Miss Johnson throws spanners in the works by being ridiculously rigid about rules and seeming to do her best to prevent the girls from practicing.

Mary-Lou has trials of her own (I have only just this moment realised that the title has a double-meaning) as she starts her periods and doesn’t know where to turn.

3. The Surprise Picnic

The girls decide to have a midnight feast in the stables, but have to change it to their dorm at the last minute as Miss Johnson is creeping around the stables that night.

Bill continues to get into trouble for constantly being at the stables, and Irene offers to play the piano for Mavis’ singing audition.

4. The Accident

Thunder appears at the classroom window in a manner reminiscent of Lassie, trying to get Bill’s attention as something is wrong. And something is very wrong – Miss Grayling has taken Thunder for a ride, fallen off and badly hurt herself.

With Miss Grayling taken to hospital and unable to manage the school a temporary replacement must be found, and it ends up being Miss Johnson!

5. The New Headmistress

Miss Johnson immediately starts to enforce new rules at the school. No more talking in the corridors, no talking to the ground staff, personal belongings are not to leave the common room or dorms, and so on.

Darrell fights back and lands herself in trouble, but manages to make the lacrosse trials and is chosen for the county team.

6. The Voice

Sally returns to find the school almost unrecognisable and tries to talk to Miss Johnson about it. She assumes she can continue as head of form but Miss Johnson gives that honour to Gwen instead.

Irene and Mavis have no choice but to sneak out to Mavis’ audition as Miss Johnson has refused them permission to go. They have to walk back as Mavis begins to feels unwell.

7. The Dance

Gwen turns a dance lesson with some boys from another school into a Dance complete with decorations, food and the girls in their best dresses.

Mary-Lou finds a mysterious statue in the woods, but it disappears as soon as they have told Miss Johnson about it, and Gwen completely betrays Mary-Lou to Miss Johnson in order to protect herself.

This is mostly a filler episode as little of importance occurs other than Gwen firmly putting herself with Miss Johnson and against the girls, and the statue being found.

8. The Sisters

Felicity visits Malory Towers to sit the entry exam, and has to switch clothes with Mary-Lou to be able to explore the school and grounds because Miss Johnson has forbid it.

The girls letters home are being censored, so when Darrell’s attempt to smuggle out an uncensored letter via her sister fails, Ellen comes up with a coded way to let Alicia know what’s happening.

This is again fairly filler-y, though it serves a purpose in highlighting how Miss Johnson is isolating the girls.

9. The Hamper

Alicia’s response to Ellen’s letter is to send a hamper of food and tricks. The girls pull off the fake mouse trick at first, but are then caught by Miss Johnson and Darrell takes the blame.

Darrell makes the county lacrosse team while it is revealed that Mavis has laryngitis.

More filler!

10. The Peaches

Alicia’s hamper also contained two tins of peaches which the girls are desperate to share between themselves, and also with Mavis as peach juice is supposed to be good for the throat. Only Miss Johnson has taken them for herself. Four of the girls manage to avoid going on a school trip so they can reclaim the peaches for themselves.

Miss Johnson is so nearly caught out as they discover some of the letters she has hidden in her desk, but she talks her way out of it.

A lot of filler with the exception of the finding of the letters and the near-exposing of Miss Johnson.

11. The Ride

When Thunder shows signs of being unwell Bill can’t think about anything else and gets herself into trouble. Matron takes the time to look in on the horse but Miss Johnson is adamant that nothing is wrong. Bill rides of dramatically to fetch the vet, and Miss Johnson gets something nastier than egg on her face when she is proven wrong about Thunder.

The episode which remains the truest to the book despite none of it being exactly the same.

12. The Arrest

Ron has found a stash of paintings and other objects hidden in the stable, but ends up being arrested as the art thief. Darrell is adamant that he is not guilty, but most of the girls in her dorm side against her and Ron, as they don’t see how Miss Johnson could have been at the stables and in the school at the same time.

Miss Grayling returns, and although Miss Johnson tries her best to keep the girls from talking to her, she does hear some concerning information about how the school has been run in her absence.

13. The Thief

Darrell sees two Miss Johnsons at the stables but nobody is inclined to believe her at first, even when Irene finds a picture of Miss Johnson sitting beside a woman who looks identical to her.

Ellen proves that two paintings in the school have been painted over some of the stolen artwork, and Miss Johnson tries to flee when she realises she has been found out.

Gwen holds her up by talking and then taking her van keys, keeping her there long enough for the other girls to come help before the police arrive to arrest her.

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The cast

As with series 2, while most of the girls returned some didn’t, and we got some new characters too.

Returning girls – 

Darrell Rivers ( Ella Bright) – Darrell continues to struggle with her temper, especially when faced with Miss Johnson’s infuriatingly strict rules. She is determined to solve the mystery of the statue in the woods and then to prove Ron innocent of the thefts.

Irene (Natasha Raphael) – Irene is mostly used for comic effect, though at times her clumsiness and forgetfulness do advance the plot. Her main storyline was in helping Mavis audition at the Conservatoire and getting in herself.

Sally Hope (Sienna Arif Knights) – Sally is absent for the first few episodes as she has had the mumps. When she returns she highlights the absurdity of the new school regime as it is all a complete surprise to her.

Jean (Beth Bradfield) – Jean is mostly in the background this series, although she was head of form to begin with, and had some intelligent comments to make about the new rules. Her best moment was her going to Miss Johnson to drop Sally in it – an orchestrated plan to prevent Sally from having to go on a school trip.

Mary-Lou (Imogen Lamb) – Mary-Lou was also often in the background, though she had her own little story-line with starting her periods. Her artistic abilities were used in a couple of episode, and it was her who found the stolen statue.

Gwendoline Mary Lacey (Danya Griver) – Gwen had quite the arc this series. She got to be head girl but unfortunately used that to snitch to Miss Johnson and enforce all the new rules. At the end, however, it seems that she really understood how awful she had been, and how Miss Johnson had manipulated her, and she wrought her revenge magnificently.

Ellen Wilson (Carys John) – Ellen uses her science skills a few times in the series, but is generally in the background.

The new girls –

Wilhelmina Robinson (Amelie Green) – Bill, as the new girl, takes over most of the series. She constantly goes up against Miss Johnson over visiting the stables to see Thunder.

Mavis (Bre Francis) – As she’s older we don’t see a lot of Mavis. She’s more modest than her book counterpart, and only sneaks off as Miss Johnson has unfairly gone back on the plans for her to attend an already arranged audition.

Absent (temporarily) –

Alicia Johns (Zoey Siewart) – Alicia is in Canada having joined an ice skating team, though she is mentioned from time to time and of course provides the hamper of tricks and food which becomes important in a couple of plots. As far as I know she does return to the school later.

The returning staff – 

Mam’zelle Rougier (Genevieve Beaudet) – We don’t see a huge amount of Mam’zelle though she teaches a few classes and is seen to be unimpressed when Miss Johnson is chosen for head over herself.

Matron (Ashley MacGuire) – Matron – despite having appeared to have thawed to the girls in the previous series Matron becomes Miss Johnson’s right-hand woman, and seems to take delight in enforcing rules and punishing the girls. There are still moments of humour from her, but perhaps less than in series one and two.

Miss Grayling (Birgitte Solem) – Miss Grayling is absent for more than half of the series as she is in hospital. She allows Miss Johnson pretty much free reign before her accident, and returns just in time to find out that the girls have solved the art thefts mystery and to see Miss Johnson arrested for it.

The new staff – 

Miss Johnson (Emily Piggford) – At first just a new form mistress, Miss Johnson is soon promoted to headmistress. Having already come down hard on the third form she immediately enforces new rules on the whole school. Although she declares these rules are to assist the girls to focus on their studies and promote good values, she has really just been trying to keep the girls away from what’s going on in the school grounds, and from telling anyone what’s going on at the school. (Besides, I suspect, just enjoying exerting control over everyone.) By the end of the series it is revealed that she has a secret twin sister and the pair of them have been stealing artwork and hiding it in the stables.

Everyone else – 

Ron (Jude Harper Wrobel) – Ron pops up regularly and becomes integral towards the end of the series in investigating the strange goings on at the stables.

Mr Lacey (Christien Anholt) – Becoming a member of the board Mr Lacey has some say in what goes on at the school and it is he, apparently, who inflicts Miss Johnson on them as headmistress. He appears at the beginning of the series where he is less cold to Gwen, but still unkind, then again at the lacrosse trials where Gwen is desperate to impress him.

Felicity (Minti Gorne) – Felicity is in just the one episode, where she sits her entry exam. I like Minti Gorne as Felicity, but I know she is replaced by another actress in series four.

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My thoughts on the series

Like with series two I found this a lot less compelling than the first series, probably because it strayed so so far from the events of the book.

But first, the good points –

While I am generally a fan of sticking as close to the books as possible I actually thought that the evil headmistress story was a good idea. I’m not sure if there was any reasoning behind it, such as Birgitte Solem being unavailable for filming. If so, it was a very good way of getting around it.

Miss Johnson was extremely well-acted by Emily Piggford and was a character that I loved to hate. I think that her draconian control over the school would have been a good enough plot for the series without the addition of the art thefts. Perhaps she could have been embezzling school funds instead.

The acting from the rest of the cast was of a very high standard which is what I have come to expect from the show. As ever Danya Griver shone (though perhaps had slightly less screen time this series), while Matron’s comic timing was brilliant as always, and pretty much everyone had at least one moment of brilliance. Bill eating the carrot in class, Sally going up against Miss Johnson, Jean’s remarks about the new rules and so on.

And now for the bad –

There seemed to be lots of things which I thought were hints at what was going on, but which went nowhere. Instead we had the reveal of an identical twin which – beyond Miss Johnson having a picture of “herself” on her desk – was not hinted at in any way. I would have loved to realise at the end that a strange moment or two (Miss Johnson not remembering something, or having suddenly having changed clothes) be explained by it having been her twin. Similarly her betraying her twin was so last-minute it couldn’t be explored.

The most recognisable elements from the book – Thunder becoming ill and Mavis sneaking off to her audition – were sadly less dramatic on-screen. TV Mavis taking a bus to an audition then walking back on a mild day without a blazer and developing a sore throat can hardly compare to book Mavis getting refused entry to a talent show, missing the bus, getting soaked and collapsing by the side of the road only to be rescued by Miss Johnson who is racing to fetch the vet for Thunder.

So a mixed bag, really!