I am really quite behind on the show as series four began airing in May 2023. I did watch the two-part Christmas special already, though, so I can move straight from series three to four.
I have had other people say that the series takes a dip at this point as it focuses more heavily on the first formers who are not as strong at acting. I’m willing to keep an open mind going in as the main cast probably took time to find their feet too, and I do like the younger form parts of the books.
The Rivers Sisters
From not including any episodes synopses I am now having two – CBBC has a sentence under each episode but when you load an episode there’s a slightly longer description too.
That all sounds familiar from the fourth book – but I’m sure they will work in lots of new things too.
The characters
It’s a new year so we have some new (and old) faces.
Darrell, Sally, Irene, Jean, Bill, Mary-Lou and Gwen are all present but Ellen is not – it’s said that she passed her school cert the previous year so has presumably moved up to the fifth form and will never be seen again despite being at the same school. I don’t recall her actually doing that last series but I may just have missed it amongst everything else that was going on.
Alicia is back with no fanfare whatsoever, she just appears in the school along with her classmates.
Mr Parker is also back to be the first year form teacher, while Mam’zelle Rougier takes the fourth form. Mr Parker’s arrival is a throw-back to his arrival for series two. There, at Porthmalory Station Darrell crashes into him. Here, at the station used for boarding the train to Malory Towers Felicity crashes into him. This gives him a chance to shout Felicity Rivers so we all know who this unfamiliar girl is.
Miss Greyling is back – as is the original actress Jennifer Wigmore – and Matron, too.
Our new girls are Felicity – now played by April Woods instead of Minti Gorne, Susan, June Johns and Clarissa Carter. Clarissa is a first former, not a fourth former, so that will be interesting. I suppose they wanted more characters with actual storylines in the first form to justify featuring them as a class.
We also briefly see Mrs Rivers who is still played by Flora Dawson, and who we last saw in series one.
The fourth form
As above we have the majority of the usual girls together, but we see them after we see Felicity at the station. Felicity laments that Darrell has ‘gone on ahead’ which makes no sense – all the girls get the same train with the exception of those who are getting dropped off. So we miss out on the reunion between Alicia and the other girls.
The dorm is not in fact their dorm any more, it is now the first year dorm. The fourth formers get to have three-bed dorms instead. That’s not too illogical, having three large dorms which girls use from form 1-3 then smaller dorms for the older girls, but it’s not how it goes in the books! I think in the books, in fact, they move dorm each year as each dorm is allocated to a particular year group. I can see this giving them a chance to explore different friendship dynamics in those groups of three.
I’m not sure why the fourth formers decide to go to their old dorm when they know it’s no longer theirs, but Alicia takes advantage and gets them to apple-pie all the beds.
Miss Rougier then finds them and has them draw names out of a hat to see who will be sharing a dorm room. Gwen is hilariously tactless as she demands to redraw as she has picked Darrell. Darrell then draws Alicia and is much more pleased – Sally, in the background is not so thrilled. We’ve had a bit of the Sally/Darrell/Alicia jealousy before but it seems that we will be getting more of it this year as well.
We don’t get to see how the other girls are divided up but the rest of them would all get along I bet. The Gwen/Darrell/Alicia dorm sounds downright explosive.
We see Gwen, Darrell and Alicia in their new dorm – A NEW SET! I wrote, obviously excited. The girls bumping their heads on the sloping roof added a nice touch of humour. (I laughed the first time and again when I skimmed through for the screen caps.)
I also loved Gwen trying to charm Matron by admiring her ‘new’ dress.
Same dress I’ve had for 20 years.
While in the books Darrell is made head of the upper fourth, here she is made Head of Lower School. There was no mention of a separate head of the fourth, so I assume she is technically both. With that title comes the ability to hand out order marks and issue punishments.
The first form
On the train Felicity meets Susan, June and Clarissa. June has already nicknamed them Suzy and Clare, while Mr Parker has bestowed the names Mini Rivers and Pocket Johns on Felicity and June. Talking nicknames June reveals they call Alicia the Joker, while Darrell is called The Volcano by Mr Rivers due to her temper.
June is not what I was expecting. She sounds so sweet and soft-spoken, but I suppose sounds can be just as deceiving as looks. She’s also terrifically posh – and not Canadian like her cousin.
Felicity, June and Clarissa fall asleep, and when they wake Susan has left their carriage to use the toilet. They assume that they have reached Porthmalory despite it being a tiny halt (so tiny there’s no staff), and get off the train.
The train only stops for about five seconds, just long enough for them to get off and realise there are no other girls on the platform before it steams off again. Mr Parker shouts at them to stay put.
So what do they do? They decide to walk to the school, of course! It’s not entirely June’s doing but she does persuade the others – I’m having a hard time seeing her as June still as everything she says is delivered so gently. I thought she’d have a similar confidence and sparkle to Alicia.
Clarissa struggle a bit which could be a hint to her weak heart.
They do make it to school eventually – after the police have been called and Darrell’s been having conniptions – with some help from Ron’s brother Fred who is the new gardener’s boy.
At bedtime the girls discover the bed trip. June rips right through her folded sheet – how cheap are the MT sheets? (Or how sharp are her toenails?)
Oh, she’ll pay for this!
June says of Alicia, but the delivery is rather flat. She and Felicity sneak out in the night to wreak revenge, though we don’t see what they do.
Darrell vs June
June in the books was described as impossible to squash. She cheeked everyone and always did exactly as she liked. Obviously this is only the first episode but it’s very much Darrell against June, what with Darrell being head of the the lower school.
So Darrell goes to tackle June over the grass snake which ended up in Gwen’s bed – I don;t think you need have watched the episode to know how Gwen would react to that. She doesn’t do at all well, and actually makes a bit of a fool of herself. I feel bad for her because June (despite the lack of attitude) is infuriating.
It feels like a parallel of the scene in series one episode one where Darrell tussles with Gwen and Gwen falls into the pool fully dressed. Here she tussles with June and they both go in, Darrell with her robe still on over her costume.
June goes back to the school in the huff, which leaves Darrell to have a nice moment with Felicity as they have their first swim together in the sea pool.
The acting
I was prepared for bad acting, and I got a mixed bag. Fred is pretty wooden. Susan wasn’t featured enough for me to get a good feel for her, while Clarissa seemed fine though she didn’t have anything much of interest to say or do. June was hard to describe. Her facial expressions were pretty good, but her delivery was just off. She lacked the spark that other characters have when they are being the antagonist. Felicity was OK – not as good as Minti Gorne, who had a certain cheekiness balanced with a youthful innocence. Like June she lacked oomph and conviction at times.
I actually went back and rewatched a few scenes from series 1 episode 1 to compare. I had forgotten how young the cast were then! The acting is not as strong as it is now, but it was definitely better than we are seeing from the new first formers.
The music
As a side note (as if I haven’t gone on for long enough already) the music has changed. The title credits theme seems to be a sped-up version of the previous music, while the end credits get a choppy jazzed up version.
The Doubloon
Darrell feels the pressure of leadership, as she tries to keep the First Formers in check.
–
Felicity and June learn about possible treasure at Malory Towers, while Darrell’s leadership skills are put to the test organising a welcome party for the wayward First Formers.
Sounds like more Darrell vs June, plus a groan-worthy fresh treasure to pad out the storylines.
The treasure
I genuinely did groan when I realised there was going to be another treasure hunt. It begins with Darrell finding a doubloon inside a fish that they are dissecting in class, and Mr Parker telling the first formers about the pirate ship which sank in Malory Bay and the treasure onboard which has never been found. Funny how this was never mentioned before, when they talked about Lady Jane Malory’s treasure.
It’s enough to get the first formers all hyped up though and June and Felicity go off to ask Ron all about it, nearly missing the also freshly-made up first form tea party in the process.
Class rebellion
As head of the lower school Darrell has the dubious honour of supervising the first form class while Mr Parker is talking to Matron. There seems to be a lot of pressure put on Darrell so far – all about her authority over the younger girls and how she must command their respect and keep them in line. Seems like setting her up for failure as she is still a school girl and not a teacher!
Freshly arrived are Ruth and Constance who don’t have the same contrast as in the book. In the book Connie is much bigger and bolder. On TV they have a more similar appearance and although Connie is clearly in charge she is hardly bold.#
Conne asks to use the bathroom and although it is against the rules Darrell allows, knowing they’ve just arrived after a long journey. Connie insists Ruth comes too, and so Darrell can hardly say no. The June demands to go, as if Connie and Ruth can go then she must be allowed too.
Half the class (not counting the one or two nameless girls we barely see) is now at the toilet and Felicity soon goes after to bring them back. It reminded me of the legend of the Nine Maidens where a farmer sends his daughter to the well to fetch water. When she doesn’t return he sends the next daughter, and so on until all nine daughters are gone and he has to get off his behind and look for them himself. He finds them slain by a dragon, which is not quite what happens here, though Matron can certainly resemble a dragon.
After hiding behind a curtain the three missing girls are returned to class leaving Darrell embarrassed.
Despite the three girls causing chaos – quite knowingly – again, the delivery wasn’t right. It was fairly half-hearted and quiet. June’s cheeky wave, though, was just right.
June has another moment of rebellion when Darrell catches the first formers having a pillow fight in their dorm and assures them that it’s OK, as pillow fights are fun. June immediately wallops her with a pillow, and when told that’s not OK, does it again, leaving them wrestling over the pillow.
The mentors
Darrell has the idea to assign each first former to a fourth former (possibly just to ease the load on her!) and gives Felicity the list to pass on without so much as mentioning it to Miss Grayling.
The pairings are
Darrell & Felicity
Alicia & June
Gwen & Clarissa (so we have an opportunity for a similar storyline to the books perhaps)
Mary-Lou & Susan
Jean & Connie
Sally & Ruth
Bill and Irene don’t get a first former.
After the tea party Darrell switches mentee with Alicia, and Felicity is hurt thinking that she is being punished for being late to the tea party.
She is in for quite the challenge then. June is revealed to have been asked to leave her last school but claims she is really trying. Trying to what? Be asked to leave again? There is a parallel there as Darrell left St Hilda’s because she had pushed a bullying teacher down the stairs. Perhaps they will find common ground there.
The laughs
Alicia gets a good line when she says to Gwen Let me fetch you a chair. Maybe a crown? when she is disgusted and claims she feels faint at the fish dissection.
I knew it was going to happen when Gwen said she hadn’t dropped the cake – she of course trips and falls face first into it on the table. I didn’t find it that funny though as normally when these sorts of things happen to Gwen it’s comeuppance for something, here it serves no purpose. Gwen’s reaction was also rather muted which is unusual as normally Danya Griver steals the show.
So overall, not the greatest start to the series. There is more of the first form than we get in the books – I consulted my Malory Towers expert (Stef) who agreed that there is a 70/30 split in the books between the fourth and first formers. Here we have more like 50/50 – perhaps more like 40/60 if you don’t count Darrell alone as representing the fourth form. This is a pity as the first form are nowhere near as compelling as the fourth form now, or as first formers themselves. June I’m sure will continue to be interesting – if only she could show a bit of oomph, and the same goes for the rest of them.
There is some good news though – we have extras again! Look at all these background actors making the school look like it actually has six forms!
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 
Series 4, the early part especially, does feel like a reboot of Series 1. It was the last series with the interior scenes filmed in Canada, and the older cast might have been doing GCSEs at the time, so I suspect it just wasn’t feasible to send them out to Toronto for a long period, which means their presence in this series is scaled right back. I worried at the time that the older cast would have barely any more role in the show, but for Series 5 onwards the interior filming was moved to Bristol, and they get much more screen time again.
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