Famous Five 70s Style: Five Go to Demon’s Rocks, part 1

Posted on February 1, 2017 by pippastef

Not being as familiar with the 70s Famous Five as I am with the 90s one, I clearly didn’t realise that Demon’s Rocks was a two-parter! I thought it was just one episode and actually it’s two, so next week will be the last part of this thrilling novel.

Demon’s Rocks

You know what, this works really well as a two-parter. I enjoyed that there was more detail, and more visualisation of the book. It’s a strange sort of book, as in there is a lot of build up to the climax of the book, but there is a lot of detail to look at.

In this episode we start off with the Five and Tinker Hayling (played by Wayne Brooks) being cooped up in Kirrin Cottage, driving (ha!) the two professors up the wall with their noise. In the end Uncle Quentin tells Julian, Dick and Anne that they are to be sent home the next day, making George furious with her father for breaking up the Famous Five before the end of the holidays. Uncle Quentin is unrepentant and the Five don’t know what to do next until Tinker mentions his lighthouse.

After some discussion about whether or not such a small, loud and noisy boy can actually own a lighthouse they are packed off much to the delight of the professors and the Five can’t actually believe they are off to a lighthouse to stay.

We get introduced to Jeremiah Boogle pretty much straight away, which means we get introduced to the story of the wreckers, Jacob and Ebenezer fairly quickly. The story of the lost gold obviously catches the children’s attention and they’re off looking for it, as quick as you like.

Demon’s Nots

The attention to detail is great, Richard Sparks did a good job with this episode, however, there are the niggles –  although not all to do with the script.

One bit I found particularly annoying was that after the theft of the key from the lighthouse, Julian didn’t seem to feel the need to report it straight away! If that was me and I thought I had had my keys stolen the first thing I would have done would have been to go and tell the police, not swan about trying to find treasure in caves! That is annoying  because the Julian in the book is much more proactive at that stage and goes straight to the police. It just makes no sense because in the time they take to tell the police, in theory the police could have caught the thief… anyway a niggle as I said.

To be completely honest there are only two niggles I can think of, and mostly they’re to do with the way the episode was written. The second one I want to tell you about is a bit of an anti-climax to the end of the first episode. Instead of something dramatic happening to round off the episode, such as Mischief the monkey finding the gold coin and Ebenezer spotting it from over the children’s shoulders and then running away, we end with Jacob rowing off to the lighthouse to potentially lock them in.  How is that an incentive to get people to watch next week? That was a disappointing ending because it could have been so much better.

However as a staunch Blytonite I will be watching next week – even if it is just on the DVD. Those are my two biggest niggles of the episode, which isn’t bad really. It seems by the end of filming that the writers and directors had more of an idea what to do with the stories and had to make less up to fill visual gaps!

Oh Dick! 

Dick has some really classic lines right at the beginning of the episode that really caught my attention. Gary Russell was really coming into his own at this point in the filming process and its wonderful to see him deliver such cheeky lines with confidence.

The first one that caught my attention is rather quietly spoken, but all the same I would love to think of it as a line to remember. As the Five are playing, what looks like some sort of sardines/hide and seek cross over, Tinker Hayling zooms through Kirrin Cottage pretending to be a car. Dick utters this most fantastic line:

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Due to there being so much noise being made by Tinker and the others it is hard to hear, but really sums up Tinker Hayling and his car obsession in one short, simple sentence. Perfect for Gary Russell to deliver in his unique style.

The second pearl of wisdom you get from Dick, actually starts off as a line from Julian about George’s hay-fever (you may know that Michele Galagher’s hay-fever was so bad that they eventually had to write it into the script because she couldn’t stop sneezing). Julian suggests to George that if the hay-fever is that bad then she should get her father to invent something. George primly tells him that her father did invent something but it made it worse. Dick, as always ready with an answer then says to George:

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Just the pure cheekiness behind that line makes it such a smashing one, and Gary Russell delivers it perfectly. He really was coming into his own at this point and its wonderful to see.

Final Thoughts

Quite a brilliant episode, with all the detail from Richard Sparks’ script to the acting on screen. It’s clear to see that the Five are older here, and it really does make a difference to their acting. Clearly more control in of their characters and yet not having outgrown them, as it was suggested that the 90s cast did towards the end. The ending of this episode does let it down however as it just doesn’t lend itself to bringing in an exciting part two!

So, what do you think? Where does Demon’s Rocks come on your rankings?

 

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Monday #202

Posted on January 30, 2017 by Fiona

Gosh, how are we flying through this year already? This is the LAST Monday in January! So whoosh! We’re one month closer to meeting the new addition to the World of Blyton Family – I’ve already been told that Fiona’s other half has vetoed any Blyton related names… still we’re going to work on slipping a slightly obscure one in there somehow! Ha! Can’t wait to meet our new WOB member – this baby is going to be so cute!

Anyway; this is what we have lined up for you this week –  hope you enjoy them!

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Famous Five for Grown Ups: Five Go on a Strategy Away Day

Posted on January 27, 2017 by Fiona

Stef has already reviewed Five on Brexit Island and Five Go Gluten Free. She did not heap praise on those titles, and I’m afraid my review is likely to be equally negative. To save you reading further if you don’t have a lot of time: I didn’t think it was very funny, I didn’t think it was particularly good.

five on a strategy away day

THE BASIC PLOT

As is clear from the title, the Five (including Timmy) are going on a strategy away day. Julian is a manager in a company called Lupiter Funkstein, and has managed to wrangle Dick, George and Anne into taking more junior positions there. What’s more, they’ve all landed in his team.

They take a train to a country hotel where the strategy day is being held, and join the rest of the acquisitions staff in their designated room. The Five (well, four, as Timmy’s left outside) do a few team-building exercises and fail miserably at them all, before the final challenge is revealed.

The last thing they have to do is follow a map to a designate point, collect a flag and return first. Despite all their experience the Five bollock this up too, but manage to randomly overhear a critical piece of information while sheltering in a barn. Someone’s out to sabotage Lupiter Funkstein and the Five are able to scupper them now and somewhat redeem themselves.

THE DETAILS 

I had problems with quite a few things along the way.

First, to make it clear, I have no problem with having a grown-up Five doing grown-up things. I myself have written lots of stories about some of Blyton’s characters in their older years. And there is drinking, bad language and other adult content.

My issue here is that the adult things seem to be thrown in simply for ‘shock’ or ‘humour.’ “Remember that bossy lad, Julian? Well har-de-har he’s now an unpopular, hung-over middle-management fellow.” It’s cheap and pretty tasteless. If you’re going to make them grown-up and dealing with grown-up issues you have to have context, and there has to be some feeling behind it. Not just transposing a familiar character into a new situation.

For example, it starts with Anne saying she loves a good train journey. Immediately we think of the steam trains and beautiful countryside of the original books. Then we have Dick extricating himself from a sweaty armpit and it is revealed they are crammed into a tube carriage at rush hour. Not a bad idea – a bit of bait and switch. I don’t know if it’s the particular language that’s used (the word frottage comes to mind) or just the relentlessness of unpleasant moments but it just ends up seeming… tawdry? Seedy? It’s just not nice.

Anyway, that aside, there are other issues.

The Five have somehow lost all their smarts, skills, and what made them the Five in the first place. They can’t navigate a simple map, they seem to have lost their fondness for each other somewhere, and don’t seem to have any sense of fun any more. Particularly when they are asked to suggest ‘roles’ for each other, and what those roles can represent. i.e. Julian, the boss, someone who doesn’t listen to anyone else, is impatient and domineering and so on. It’s rather unpleasant seeing them being rather nasty to each other like that. Especially with no context as to why their relationships might have soured.

There’s a random cousin who crops up, who we’ve never heard of before.

A FEW BRIGHT POINTS

There were some moments I thought which did have potential. They stumble across the Secret Seven at the hotel (though it’s not clear if they work for the same company or are just attending the same event) and there’s a strong rivalry there. That was slightly amusing, but again was rather spoiled by the nasty and jaded attitudes of all involved. The ending where the Secret Seven manage to foil an even bigger plot than the Five (caused by the Five sabotaging their hike) was a nice idea – but nobody likes to see their favourite characters trashed quite as thoroughly as our Five were, so it also felt like a bit much.

I also thought that in a different universe, the minefield challenge could have been funny. This task involved Julian blindfolded and having to lead the others across the room, avoiding the paper mines. The followers have to direct him, but they are not allowed to say left, right or forward. It starts off OK, but as they then get banned from consistently using east and west it descends into a bit of a farce.

I think with a bit of physical on-screen comedy that could have worked well on a sit-com. In a book it still fell a little flat.

The humour around the pointlessness of these team-building days wasn’t bad over-all, but it has already been done to death really. We’ve all seen jokes about how out-dated thinking outside the box and blue-sky thinking are, and it’s not really enough to sustain a whole book.

OVERALL

It wasn’t offensive (at least not to me) and it wasn’t dreadful. It just wasn’t very good. It raised a small smile from time to time and I’m sure there’s somebody out there who will find it very funny, but it didn’t do much for me. It lacked any affection for the Five which was its biggest downfall.

And I really do disagree with the idea that Enid Blyton would have loved them. I can’t imagine she would have particularly liked what I write about her characters (but then again, if the naked tennis is true… she might!) but I don’t proclaim that she would.

Looking for something else to read? More Famous Five for Grown-Ups reviews can be found here.

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Famous Five 70s Style: Five on Finniston Farm

Posted on January 25, 2017 by pippastef

b5fe05b20c9aa4ca4f966386dac83393Five on Finniston Farm, in my humble opinion, has always been one of my favourite later Famous Five novels. In my opinion I think that it one of the three books in the latter part of the series that brings the magic back to the Five. Shall we see how the 70s TV episode works with this smashing book.

What we like

The feel of this episode is a nice and relaxed one, quite like the book really. The episode done by Gloria Tors, who as we have seen in the past creates good adaptations of the Famous Five books and Finniston Farm is no exception. Tors provides us with all the little details, such as keeping the names the same as the ones in the book, whereas in the 90s we have some pointless name changes and character reshuffles. 

We have the inclusion of the antiquarian Mr Finniston, who is descended from the family who owned the castle and Anne actually seems interested in the horse brasses that are mentioned in the book. So to begin with, we clearly have a stronger base than the re-jigged 90s episode has; we have more or less the correct characters (Mr Philpot doesn’t seem to make an appearance –  but then he isn’t majorly important in the scheme of things as far as the plot is concerned). We have the twins – who still don’t look anything alike, Granddad, and Mrs Philpot on the farm. Mr Henning, played by the actor Shane Rimmer (best know for his voice work – in my opinion –  as Scott Tracey in Thunderbird by Gerry Anderson) and Junior who come to buy things from the farm .

Overall it would be hard to pick out all the pieces of the episode that were good because so many were. Toddy was a perfect Timmy, snarling and snapping at the bad guys and dealing with Junior when he was taken his breakfast in bed, though obviously in the book Timmy is a little more aggressive, but that is minor in the scheme of things

The Not So Good

The scene where George brings Junior his breakfast is one of my favourite scenes in the book, in fact the idea of George taking anyone breakfast in bed is hilarious because it is so unlike her. Its a shame that they didn’t include the prelude to that where Dick bets her his new pocket knife that she wouldn’t take Juniors breakfast. All I can think is that the producers didn’t want the children watching to think that betting was a good thing. As I said earlier about this scene as well, Toddy rather lacks in aggression but that is probably to do with the producers once again, not wanting to run the risk of him hurting anyone, even by accident. However I do feel that George doesn’t go the whole hog with the breakfast, at least there is no hot tea splashing on the arm or milky cornflakes onto the pjyamas. Minor I know, but a nice touch to show her fiery side, as its not something we get out of Michele in this roll.

The actual exploration of the castle tunnel and the discovery of the treasure is over far too quickly, it does feel like its been left for the last ten minutes and they they have realised that they can’t fit everything in, which isn’t good. More planning could have been used here because it’s terribly short and this is the most exciting part! I know not much can be done about it now, but hindsight and looking from the outside can be a wonderful thing.

The Twins

Why oh why does it always come back to the twins in Finniston farm? How hard can it be to find a pair of actual fraternal or identical twins and let them play the roles of the Harries. Once again we have a clear mismatch between the two different Harries, and they are clearly one boy, and one girl. We don’t even get the explanation of why they talk at the same time or why they wear similar clothes, the mystery of them is never quite solved. We don’t get the whole animosity feeling from them than we do in the book, or the acceptance of the Kirrin’s is a bit unclear as well.

Just for once I want to see a decently matched Harry and Harriet – is that too much to ask?

So what do you think of  this episode? Let me know in the comments!

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Monday #201

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Fiona

So here at World of Blyton we have some exciting news. There is going to be a new Blyton fan in my household as I will be having a baby in the summer. I’m already thinking of all the great books I can read him or her, and which (if any) Blytonish names I can sneak onto the suggestions list.

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We are both hoping that we can continue the blog as it is at the moment, especially as I hope to start writing extra content now to schedule later on when I’ve got my hands full with a baby. Anyway, that’s a while off yet so here’s what we’re writing this week:

wedfri77

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The Adventure Series on TV: The Circus of Adventure

Posted on January 20, 2017 by Fiona

So two things before I start this week.

Firstly, I had forgotten that the TV series has mucked about the order of the episodes. For some reason they have River as the seventh and Circus as the eighth. I promised Circus anyway, so I’m going to stick to the book order. I don’t imagine it will matter too much.

And secondly, Circus is my absolute favourite of the series so I really hope this one isn’t a disappointment!

THE MYSTERIOUS PRECREDIT SCENE

Outside Wytcherly Prepatory School for Boys there is a smoking man. Inside, at dormitory A an alarm sounds in the distance. It’s a toy police car. The man guarding the corridor is knocked out. The smoking man waits outside while his two cronies bring out the wrong boy…

1smokingman

THE SET-UP FOR THE STORY

Bill got a cast of the car’s tires and found some Turkish cigarettes. This must be why they decide to put Gussy with Bill et al over the holidays. Sir George foists the boy on Bill even though he hasn’t had a break since his marriage (presumably River didn’t count as he was working then too).

Allie tells the children that the boy’s name is Gus and they all burst into laughter, and Kiki starts up her fussy Gussy routine right away. At least in the book they don’t make fun of him until he turns up and acts rather strangely.

Back at the school suspicious music is playing. Something must be up. No, it’s ok, it’s just Bill. Though I suspect there’s some sort of filming or tracking going on, so maybe it isn’t ok.

FUSSY GUSSY

“I shall not lie down under the blanket. I shall make the protest!” So Gussy is going to be quite a pain still. He also has very silly long hair, which looks even more ridiculous in the 90s. It’s shoulder-length for goodness sake. And clearly a bad wig to boot!

2billandgussy

Gus then blurts out his true identity within ten seconds of getting inside. Having ruined Jack’s ‘best rugby shirt’ with a paintball pellet, Jack demands to know “who do you think you are, royalty?” Which is rather a non-sequitur as he hasn’t acted at all royal. And Gus immediately replies with, “yes, I am Aloysius Garmondie Racemolie Torquinel”. Bill then confirms it all with the front door wide open, and enemies watching from the road above the house. It seems like we may skip a lot of the bad behaviour from Gussy before the reveal, and probably fill the rest of the episode with dramatic running around. (Side note, that’s probably the first time I’ve ever heard Aloysius out loud and it sounds nothing like it does in my head… who knew it wasn’t Al-oy-see-us??)

On the plus side it’s good that they’ve kept the details of Gussy’s name and that he’s from Tauri-Hessia.

Bill’s first idea is then that on the first day of their holiday the children go for a picnic on the beach (with Gussy protesting at having to carry his own rucksack as he is not a donkey) without adult supervision. They’re not too far from the house but it still seems rather silly to let a child who is supposed to be under 24/7 protection to go off like that.

KICKING OFF

Madam Tatiosa and Count Paritolen are snooping about and see the kids alone on the beach, yet still stick to a plan of taking him that night.

That evening there is a knock at the door. I now suspect that that Bill and Allie will be lured away and a kidnap will take place. We are less than fifteen minutes into the episode. And yes, a slightly foreign sounding chap with a bloody hanky to his head is wanting help, claiming there has been a bad car accident down the road. Bill and Allie go off without a second thought or mentioning it to the children. The man then pulls a gun on them and makes Bill throw his gun away.

3kidnap

As per the book Bill and Jack are out badger watching (though we see nothing but a rabbit and an owl), and Philip heads back early because he is tired. He arrived to hear Lucy-Ann screaming and shoots one of the henchmen with his paint-gun. With Madam and Count in charge they decide to take all the children, and Jack climbs into the car-boot as in the book.

Jack’s airport scene is rather less convincing as he climbs out of the car boot while the occupants are still inside. Kiki flies off and is recognised by the children who say she is a policeman, sending some of the henchmen on a wild goose (or indeed parrot) chase.

Jack manages to sneak right past Madame T and the Count and gets into the helicopter (rather than a plane).

Meanwhile Bill and Allie have made it back to their car but the keys are gone. They return to find the house empty. Allie finds a smashed, framed photo of the children on the floor. Who goes on holiday and packs framed photos?

Sir George has the cheek to tell Bill off for putting their government in a very awkward position. Again, Allie gives him what for, considering her children have been abducted too. Luckily an unidentified helicopter has been seen crossing the English Channel and can “only be heading for one place. Tauri-Hessia”. (Tauri being pronounced as Tow-ree and not Toh-ray as I always imagined.)

6allie

NEXT STOP, BORKEN CASTLE

Philip tries to run off as soon as they land and makes it about ten feet before he is caught, so it is lucky they have Jack following them. He does get spotted by the henchmen though, who follow him in a car when he gets a lift in some sort of van. They are slowed down by a horse-drawn carriage and Jack leaps out and climbs on the back of it. The poor van-driver must be very confused by now.

7jackcaravan

The henchmen double back and find Jack sitting at the back of the caravan, and chase him into some woods. As usual Kiki does her usual wild-parrot chase and we pad out the story with another five minutes of running around. So now Madame T and the Count know about Jack being in the country, and it seems that we will have to endure more added material of them trying to hunt him down.

VELCOME TO THE GUEST SUITE

At Borken Castle the children are sent to the dungeons – so the final escape will play out quite differently. Madame Tatiosa makes some threats, demanding that Gussy takes over the throne from his uncle (which doesn’t make very much sense. In the book I’m sure they want Gussy’s father to abdicate so they can put his weak uncle on the throne).

They are treated to a stew of beef and three-day cooked cabbage which only Gus enjoys as it is traditional Tauti-Hessian fare.

The children try to escape the dungeon with a modified version of Fatty’s trick, involving a blanket under the door and a fork with two tines broken off. They get caught in the process, however.

THE CIRCUS

Jack finds himself at a busy circus where he meets Pedro who is half-Spanish, half-English, with a New Zealand accent and who runs the circus (it’s even called Pedro’s Circus). He’s a twenty-something guy instead of a boy Jack’s age.

8pedroandthecircus

It’s a very bustling place, and unusually most of the performers are in full costume already. Jack asks about the bad CGI castle in the distance which he is told belongs to Count P and is empty, more of a prison than a castle now.

9badcastle

Even though it looks to be a good few miles away, Jack appears at the castle door in the dark of night. He is able to walk right in the front gate where just inside is a conveniently open window above a strong ivy plant.

Cue much sneaking around reasonably well lit corridors with a torch, until he miraculously finds his way to the correct dungeon. At least there are some nice touches like a hidden passage and the spy-holes in the painting.

FRANK AND… THE LIONS

Frank has eaten wild mushrooms, and has a very bad stomach-ache. He doesn’t believe in doctors, though, so we have a convenient situation whereby they’re worried that there will be no show without the lions. Also, they are “very strong and may escape”.

Jack says that he knows someone who could handle the lions… which is really pushing the boundaries of believable in this adaptation where we’ve barely seen Philip with an animal. Pedro is easily convinced into going to rescue Philip and the others, though.

THE RESCUE IS MOUNTED

Meanwhile the King is out wandering in the night, alone, and is easily kidnapped by the henchmen.

Jack starts to saw through the padlock on the dungeon door, but Madame T comes down to talk to Gussy before they can escape. Pedro lures away the guards while Jack gets back to work on the padlock (cue a few more minutes of pointless running around before Pedro knocks one of the guards out with a juggling ball…)

Soon they’ve all fled via the secret passage which comes out under a statue in the woods. The juggling ball clue, however, has Madame T sending her men straight to the circus to find the children.

Frank has recovered by this point, however, so it seems we shall not get to see Philip rescuing the circus folk from escaped lions. The children escape detection with Gussy and the girls dressing as local girls, while Jack and Philip are dressed as clowns and run around crazily, distracting the men, before Frank seems to threaten to set a pig on them. This is not as good as the children pretending to be Jaberwockians, Philip getting in the bear cage and Gussy being Ma’s little grandaughter.

10gussyasagirl

Then Bill turns up quite casually to say hello, his only disguise being a floppy hat and waistcoat.

ADDITIONAL RESCUE AND DRAMA

The king is still being held, and the threat now is that he will be killed if he will not abdicate willingly. Bill wants Jack to show him and his colleague into the castle to rescue the king… leaving Gussy unprotected again. They arrive just in time to stop Count P shooting the King. But Bill’s colleague then turns out to a double-agent (it wasn’t until I went back to take screen caps that I recognised him as the smoking man from the school). He demands Bill steps aside so he can shoot, well he seems to be pointing the gun at Madame T or Count P, but I assume he meant to be aiming at the king? Luckily Bill had suspected that all along and had removed the bullets from his gun. All because Ronald, his colleague, smoked Turkish cigarettes…

AND THE HAPPY ENDING

Then we end with the children all dressed up in Tauri-Hessian finery, and Gus who has had his hair cut. Kiki even gets a medal, and it does rather feel like a series finale.

Over-all it wasn’t too bad. It remained mostly faithful to the book, but as usual fell into the trap of adding unnecessary running-around for ‘drama’. I’m assuming that because the adaptation was originally shown in several short parts they felt the need to have some sort of exciting scene in each section to keep children interested. I also don’t know why they had to have that extra part at the end, surely the children being rescued should have been enough as a finale?

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Famous Five 70s Style: Five Get Into a Fix

Posted on January 18, 2017 by pippastef

Five Get Into a Fix is one of my favourite books of the Five series; I love the imagery of the snow-capped Welsh hills, the tobogganing, the skiing and all of that. It’s one of the only Christmas stories and it’s got a properly thrilling mystery. Shall we take a look the 70s adaptation then? I know the 90s version isn’t up to much, so let’s see how well their predecessors did!

fix

The Story

The Five have been stopped from going on a pre-planned holiday to Switzerland because they have all had the flu, with the exception of Timmy. So instead of Switzerland they have been packed off to a farm in Wales to recover from the flu. It’s looking promising so far.

Uncle Quentin takes the wrong turn up to the strange house called Old Towers, so no driver, but Uncle Quentin is his usual hapless self, getting then lost and thinking that there was something wrong with their car, even though it had been in for a service recently. Immediately we know there is something wrong with the Old Towers’ hill and Mrs Jones’ reaction says it all when they inform her that is where they ended up after taking the wrong turn.

The son, Morgan Jones, is a much younger, more talkative man than in the books. In fact he actually has conversations with the Five, not necessarily ones to their advantage but he’s a lot more engaging than the book. He is even on the environmental committee who shut down Llewellyn Thomas’ idea of creating a mine under his mother’s house of Old Towers. There is something obviously going on with Old Towers that no one wants to think about, so the children take it upon themselves to go searching which is how they get themselves into that big adventure.

We don’t really get introduced to his dogs and I think we only see three or possibly four, not the seven that he has in the book. I don’t know whether that was something to do with the legalities of having more than a certain number of dogs on the set but anyway, the story works perfectly well without them. We have what I consider to be the two main doggy scenes  of the book do take place. The first one is where Timmy gets attacked by the dogs, making the Five relocate up to the shepherds hut on the hill and then again when Morgan calls them from the mine inside Old Towers, hoping they will here him and come to his rescue.

aqf-alleyAily, the young girl who prances around the hills with no coat and no shoes, is possibly the only anomaly in this episode. She’s not as young as she is in the book, so her relationship with Julian isn’t a strong part of the episode and she actually appears quite late on, almost over half way through the episode. She still can’t read or, presumably, write which allows her the ignorance of not knowing that the letter from Mrs Thomas was a cry for help. Once the Five see the note they know something more sinister is going on, and spring into action.

Overall Impressions

Not having watched this episode much but knowing the book so well, I was quite pleasantly surprised at the attention to detail. The little things such as the shining rocks and the tremors are well placed in the episode, written by Gloria Tors, and the adventure is portrayed very well, the right amount of build up is used, and like the book it keeps you guessing.

aq4-happybirthdaysingend

Unlike the 90s episode, where Marco Williamson’s Julian rather overwhelmed the screen and the episode, Marcus Harris plays a slightly less bumptious Julian who dominates the screen less and shares it better with the others. Gary Russell’s Dick Kirrin doesn’t get the throw-a-way sarcastic lines as he does in the other episodes, which makes him much more of a quieter character, yet he still has an on screen presence and pulls his own weight. Jennifer Thanisch as Anne understated yet importantly played with the gentility of Anne that you expect from the character, nursing orphaned lambs, helping encourage George to stay after Timmy’s run in with the farm dogs, and gentle guidance throughout is an important part of the episode. Michele Galagher’s George once again lacks the emotion that Jemima Rooper brought to the character, but makes her presence known and well established throughout.

The star of the episode however is Martin Potter, who plays Morgan Jones. His on screen presence, the mood changes and the first class acting in general is a show stealer. Its not often that an adult guest star steals the show, but this is a rare case. I don’t know a lot about Martin Potter apart from what it says on his IMDB page. He seems to have been a successful actor in the day and is one of those actors I think I will be checking out the rest of his work. As far as I am concerned, a brilliant piece of casting by all concerned.

Conclusion

Hard to fault this episode, especially as there are very few niggly things to pin point. The late introduction of Aily is probably one of them, but in the grand scheme of things in the book, she doesn’t provide much help until later on in the story. The fact that this mystery is less to do about people and more to do about a problem in the enivonrment there is less that needs to be covered and looked at. However, even with the lack of snow, I think this episode jolly well comes out on top!

What do you think?

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Monday #200

Posted on January 16, 2017 by Fiona

monday200

Hope you all had a nice weekend, and are looking forward to our blogs this week: we are going a bit TV mad, but I hope you don’t mind.

 

 

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If you like Blyton: The Secret of Dead Man’s Cove reviewed by Chris

Posted on January 15, 2017 by worldofblyton

This review is inspired by Fiona’s of Dead Man’s Cove by Lauren St John which reminded me of one of my very favourite children’s books, The Secret of Dead Man’s Cove by R.J. McGregor published by Penguin in 1937. I have the 1952 reprint of the 1948 Puffin edition, the delightful cover of which is depicted here.

dead-mans-cove

The book is the sequel to The Young Detectives (1934) – which is slightly less good in my opinion, though still well worth a read – but can be read as a standalone. It features the same Mackenzie (Mackie) family. The Mackie children comprise Alan, Jean, David, Micky and Elizabeth. Their ages aren’t specified but seem to range from fifteen to seven years old. In this story Alan is mainly absent as he is on a school exchange and his counterpart, a German boy called Reinhard, takes his place. As well as the children other characters are Mummy, Daddy, Auntie, Chris the terrier dog, Nora and Edna the maids, and Cook.

As the composition of the household suggests, this is very much a well-to-do middle-class family, and the story takes place in their palatial holiday home, Oxmouth Manor on the Devon coast. The house and its grounds feature secret passages and a priest hole, as well as the cove of the title. So we are well into Blyton – and especially Famous Five – territory.

The adventurous aspect of the story concerns some secret plans which Mr Mackie is concealing as part of his unspecified work for the government (shades of Uncle Quentin here, although Mr Mackie seems to be a senior intelligence official rather than a scientist), and the attempts of a gang of smugglers/spies, including a sinister ‘man with a glass eye’ called Van Gorman, to obtain them. Highlights include David being kidnapped by the gang, a car chase featuring Scotland Yard detectives, and a thrilling boat chase.

However, for the modern-day adult reader at least, the greatest pleasure of the book lies in its incidental period detail, with village cricket matches, beach picnics, amateur dramatics and agricultural shows. Add to that the family’s boat, called the Kittiwake, the yacht of a rich American friend – the excellently named Hiram B. Soss – as well as a shipwreck and rescue, and there is plenty of excitement even without the adventure.

I mentioned the comparison with the Famous Five, but this book is considerably more sophisticated in its plotting and writing style than the Five, and was probably aimed at slightly older readers. Some of the adventure is really quite gripping, especially the kidnap scenes which have a genuine sense of menace. And when in one of my favourite scenes, during the kidnap, a cold and hungry David is given a door slab of a fried bacon sandwich you can almost taste it yourself.

The book is set in the 1930s, but there is no mention of the storm clouds gathering over Europe although the present-day reader can’t fail to be aware that Alan and Reinhard, now enjoying a holiday exchange, may in a few years’ time be facing each other on the battlefield. Perhaps Mr Mackie’s secret plans being sought by an agent called Van Gorman is a small hint of what is to come. But one of the pleasures of reading it today, when daily the news seems so depressing, is to be transported back to an at least apparently simpler age. At all events, I am sure that anyone who has enjoyed the Famous Five or Blyton’s Adventure series will find much pleasure in The Secret of Dead Man’s Cove.

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The Mystery of the Burnt Cottage: How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 8

Posted on January 13, 2017 by Fiona

This should be the second-last part, so we are nearly there! It won’t be long until we have a final total.

Previous parts can be seen  here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

As always my own copy is a Methuen from 1957 – a 12th reprint/impression of the original. The new version is the most modern of any paperbacks I have looked at so far,  which is an Egmont copy from 2014.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN: SURPRISES AND SHOCKS 

As with most previous chapters (but not all, if I remember correctly) the firing of the cottage is changed to burning – and fired to burnt.

Also again, capital letters are removed from the select phrases Blyton had put them in. She had capitalised Suspects and so on, but in this chapter there was also a Big Think, the Law and Very Serious Trouble.

And as always, italics have all been done away with.

  • but somebody must have done the deed
  • Could the tramp have done it?
  • Could Horace have set fire to the cottage?
  • Could Mr Smellie have done it?
  • But someone hid in the ditch!
  • Oooh yes!
  • He meant to look after Bets, not have Bets look after him!
  • Oh this is exciting!
  • what are you doing here?
  • Oh we must go on… we are the Find-Outers!
  • it couldn’t matter him knowing
  • What will your mothers say?
  • Mr Hick told me he wouldn’t tell any one!
  • Of course, Bets would go and give everything away!

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – important emphasis and nuance is lost when the italics are removed.

And now for some new changes:

Bets remarks that It’s a pity you can’t wear goloshes or something, Buster. This is changed to boots.

A few lines are lost at Mr Hick’s house:

He kicked Buster away and the dog yelped.   “Oh don’t!” said Bets, dismayed. “You shouldn’t kick a dog, Mr Hick. That’s cruel.”

And the children lose their titles when Goon speaks to them:

As for you, Master Laurence and Miss Daisy, and you Master Frederick.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: VERY STRANGE DISCOVERIES

In this chapter we have some straight forward, yet still pointless modernisation.

The tempests have become jets now. While tempest wasn’t a word I had seen before reading this book they are also referred to as planes so it’s perfectly clear what they are. Replacing it with a generic term like jet (there are many types of jet) makes it seem a bit silly that the whole mystery hinges over whether or not Mr Hicks saw some planes.

The train also gets modernised. Soon they saw a cloud of smoke in the distance. The train was coming, has become soon they saw a train in the distance, which makes the second sentence unnecessary and thus it has been removed.

Bets conjectured that perhaps it gets water or something. That’s now perhaps there’s a signal or something. And while previously the train had puffed by the five children it now had rushed by.

So what we have is a world without mobile phones, TVs in every house, a local policeman on a bicycle and what can only be imagined as modern electric trains. That makes totals sense!

The two queers have been replaced with peculiar and odd respectively.

And lastly the italics-cull.

  • you children simply cannot be allowed
  • I don’t care who fired [set fire] to his workroom
  • I’m glad it was burnt down
  • Mr Hick told me he wouldn’t tell any one!
  • How could he have seen and counted the Tempests [jets] that flew over here?
  • It is queer [peculiar]
  • Those planes have only been here once
  • he must have been here
  • a man who could break a faithful promise could do anything, simply anything
  • Whatever has he got?
  • Look!
  • that’s why he brought them to me
  • We’ll simply have to decide something

One reference to the workroom being fired has been left in, presumably by accident again.

That’s only eleven new changes in those chapters, making our total 184 with two chapters to go. I wonder if we will break 200 this time around?

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The Mystery of the Spiteful Letters

Posted on January 11, 2017 by pippastef

the-mystery-of-the-spiteful-lettersFiona told me that my reviews might be a bit more positive if I got myself an older version of the text. I managed to find one on eBay for around five pounds, which was good because there weren’t very many copies. The copy I have brought however has been loved good and proper. It has had several owners who have written extensively in the inside cover, not to mention some of the pages are loose. It also comes with pieces torn from the corners and rips in the paper. In theory, how could I not love and enjoy a story that had clearly been the source of reading and re-reading throughout the years? Well, lets take a look shall we?

Slow, Slow, Not So Slow, Slow

Seriously, I think this may have been the slowest starting Blyton that I have ever read. The children have just come back to Peterswood after their spring term and are itching for another adventure but its surprisingly slow to start. We’re a good five or so chapters in, having been introduced to Fatty’s “hilarious” new disguises of a telegraph boy and butcher’s boy. One day those disguises are going to get him into trouble, and in fact they do in this book, he gets himself caught by Mr Goon and locked up. It’s only his ability to get out of a locked room that saves him this time.

This little bit of drama is probably one of the most exciting in the book! Due to the nature of the mystery of the spiteful letters there isn’t a lot of clues or suspects for the FFO to follow. In fact it is all rather pulling at straws and then gets solved in literally the last four or five pages and even then I’m not sure that the whole thing ties up neatly. I would suspect that Blyton had been trying to mimic Agatha Christie’s mystery writing style but without the practice. I dare say that if I read the book again I may enjoy it more, but I just didn’t have time to do that when I had to review it for you. I might get round to it eventually.

I just can’t see the magic in this book, the oomph, the sparkle, the finish to it that you see in so many others of Blyton’s books. Now I come to think about it, I haven’t felt that magic in the FFO at all, and I’m not overly sure why! It might be because of my childhood mindset that nothing could be as good as the Famous Five.This was certainly not helped when I joined the Enid Blyton Society forums and discovered that lots of people were raving about this character Fatty, who I had no idea about, and saying that he was much better than Julian! Oh, my aching heart. Anyway, I’ve gone off topic in a spectacular way haven’t I? Maybe one day I’ll treat you to a blog called “The FFO and Me” and we’ll explore all these bits and bobs then!

Our Suspects

How many suspects can you have in a poison pen letter mystery? Answers on a postcard please, because it can literally be anyone you so think of!  With the initial mystery of the letters being shrouded from the FFO, we spend a good chunk of time wondering what the matter is with the maid Gladys and why she leaves so suddenly. When the five children find out what is afoot, they have no starting point. Goon has the letters, and they have nothing to go on – there are no clues that come with a poison pen mystery.

It feels very haphazard in the search for clues as to the culprit of the letters, but everything is circumstantial. I know that the Find-Outers aren’t really police dectecives but even Fatty with all his research and knowledge of literary sleuths can’t magic suspects out of the air.

In the end they narrow it down to three suspects, Mrs Moon, Old Nosey and Miss Tittle. They only get this far because there is a change in the delivery of the fourth letter. It was shoved under the door of a victim and not posted from the market village. These three people were all out early in the morning that the letter was delivered so they are the ‘prime’ suspects. Even then its impossible to find a way to prove that any of them did it!

Fatty as usual has a way to identify the real perpetrator, he will disguise himself and go around collecting handwriting samples from their three main suspects (two of whom were not introduced until this early morning letter posting business.) We get very little investigation into the three suspects themselves, and come to that anyone else who makes the list in the book, whereas usually the Find-Outers books provide a lot more detail and depth into their suspects.

The long and the short of it is that you do not know who the wrong-doer is until the last chapter, and even then it seems mucked up. Goon was supposed to be a few steps ahead of the children and failed abysmally by dumping the main ‘clues’ into their lap and accusing them of planting them so he would go down the wrong path. Now I can usually identify a Blyton villain very quickly  and with this one I had a hunch, but wasn’t sure. The options were there to jump to anyone because each reason seemed so flimsy to suspect them or to cancel them out.

The revelation from Fatty at the end was over dramatic and very poorly handled on the part of Inspector Jenks, who as an Inspector should have asked Fatty to tell him what he suspected first of all before he went forth and accused someone who may have possibly been the wrong person! Gah! (as Goon would say) at least the Famous Five recognise there are consquences (Julian getting his ears boxed by Mrs Penruthlan comes to mind) but no, there is never any comuppance for Fatty because he is magically always correct even though its hard to see how!

Anyway, lets just say I’m not overly happy with the layout of this mystery… Before I go into another full blown Fatty – I – Can’t – Like – Him rant!

Let’s Wind this Up!

I suspect that most of you are about to write in the comments and tell me to read it again, and that Fatty is really nice and amazing etc etc, but I have news for you; I just don’t like the boy! I reckon thats just where it ends for me. The others I do like, Philip, Bets, Larry and Daisy. Its a shame they get overshadowed by Fatty because I reckon they would do just as well on their own!

Unfortunately Spiteful Letters is not one of my favourite Blytons and I don’t know if it will ever be; the plot is full of holes and it is definitely not one of my favourite Five Find Outer books. Sorry to those who like it, but its just not for me!

Let me know what you think in the comments!

Next review: The Mystery of the Missing Necklace

 

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Monday #199

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Fiona

It’s a new year now and we’re hopefully getting back into the swing of real-life and blogging. We are starting off with a Five Find-Outers theme and then something a bit different on Sunday.

wedfrisun999

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Five on a Treasure Island – a review of the unabridged audio

Posted on January 6, 2017 by Fiona

I’ve gotten quite into my audiobooks this past year – they definitely help me to read more. I can ‘read’ an audiobook during times when I couldn’t hold a print or ebook, like when I’m walking to work or on the bus or those rare times I’m doing housework. I much prefer unabridged books as I feel only they ‘count’ as having really read a title. I don’t think you can say you’ve read a book if it’s been heavily abridged and dramatised.

Anyway, I have an audible account (started off as a gift, then I took my free month and never got around to cancelling) so I always seem to have a few credits waiting to be spent. I just can’t seem to listen fast enough to have finished one book before a new monthly credit appears (not when I’m also borrowing audio books from my library…)

ANYWAY, to get to the point, I decided to have a go with the Famous Fives on audiobook. I’ve listened to most of the one-hour dramatised adventures (and reviewed them too) but I thought it was time to see what the full stories were like. And of course, I had to start at the beginning with Five on a Treasure Island.

JAN FRANCIS

Jan Francis is the narrator for the whole series as far as I know, which for me is a bit of a shame as I can’t say I’m a huge fan of her voice work. The standard narration is fine, I have no problems with her reading voice, it’s her attempts to do different children’s voices that I didn’t love.

On the plus side, she did manage to make the different characters identifiable and her occasional Timmy noises were much better than some we’ve heard on the dramatised versions.

She does makes Anne sounds rather overly-girly (very high-pitched) and Julian very stuffy and even more pompous than he really is. I can’t put my finger on it but they all just sounds very affected. You can listen to a free sample on the Audible site (I think you get about five minutes) so you can judge for yourself.

THE UNBRIDGED TEXT

While the text is unabridged, it is not unaltered. As far as I can tell these are taken from the 1997 cassettes with the TV cast on the cover, which doesn’t shed any light on why the updatings are so different to the ones in the 1997 paperback book. I can only imagine Jan Francis was reading from an earlier edition when she made the recording (or they made their own alterations, some based on earlier revisions).

Some surprising things are left in – such as Dick’s golliwog and many, many (maybe all) of the instances of queer. But the children wear jeans throughout instead of shorts, and the luggage-hole of the car has been updated to a boot. Comparing the first chapter I can now see there have been a few more changes than I thought. A couple – like pursing her lips rather than pursing up her lips could just be slight misreadings on the narrator’s part, it’s easily done.

There are definitely still references to spankings (rather than tellings off) in later chapters and things like putting the call through haven’t been changed. So it’s a slightly strange version of the text to me. Saying that, the alterations are not generally noticeable unless you’re the type to have obsessively memorised the entire book word-for-word. I’ve read it at least twenty times and even I don’t know it word-for-word.

MY THOUGHTS

Part of the reason I got this was for something to listen to while trying to get to sleep. A new book would have probably kept me awake trying to pay attention to a story, but this was familiar enough to let me doze off. I did rewind to where I left off every night so I did listen to the whole thing in the end (it’s only just over four hours but it lasted me more than a week that way). Probably not the biggest compliment you can pay a work – It helped me fall asleep! – but it’s true.

Mildly annoying voices aside I enjoyed listening to a familiar old favourite.

 

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Famous Five for Grown Ups: Five Go Gluten Free

Posted on January 4, 2017 by pippastef

glutenfreeA sneaky purchase after Christmas because I was blessed with one of these spoofs at Christmas time. I didn’t have much choice of book as Five Give Up the Booze and Five Go on a Strategy Away Day were both sold out. However, I ended up with Five go Parenting and Five Go Gluten Free. Shall we see how Gluten Free compares to Brexit?

How it all starts

We join the Five on a picnic for Anne’s birthday and the others are just about to hand over their presents to the birthday girl. Julian gets her a spa weekend, Dick a healthy lifestyle cookbook – containing the recipes and benefits about being gluten free, and George buys the super modern Anne (who does Bikram Yoga!) a spiralizer.

On the way home Anne reads her new cookbook and decides that the Five are putting lots of toxins and things into their body with things such as gluten and she wants them to have a go at this toxin-free diet in her book. Part of the reason they agree to this is because Anne seems to be the only one who knows her way around the kitchen. As she tries to keep the Five on the straight and narrow, they find themselves growing ever more hungry, grumpy and low on energy, and morale starts to crumble. All we need to know is; can the Five stick to the diet?

What happens

As Anne struggles to keep the Five on the diet, she is also wrestling with her own convictions about the diet and meditates to help herself with the struggle of the ‘detox’ but she powers on. In fact she starts managing the Five in a manner that is reminiscent of my weight loss coach telling me to identify trigger times and plan! She tells the others that they have to think about things they can do instead of eating cake or drinking too much. The boys for example have a friend’s birthday coming up and Anne knows that if they drink too much they will end up eating ‘bad’ foods and tries to come up with a solution for them, i.e not drinking that much.

Needless to say it fails when the boys end up drinking too much, George ends up snacking on her workmate’s cakes and Anne stuffs a packet of Wotsits in her mouth. Anne decides that they need to be out of the city where they are living and away from temptation. They head down to Kirrin (which we are assured is in Dorset – I’m glad someone apart from Blyton managed to clear that one up!)

Unfortunately going down to Kirrin isn’t the best idea as a very technically challenged Aunt Fanny hasn’t been on her computer to read her daughter’s email about the new gluten-free diet and has baked numerous cakes, biscuits, and gluten-filled items that they shouldn’t be eating. They can’t even escape to the relative safety of Kirrin Island because a specific kind of vole lives there now. Timmy would definitely be after chasing them, so they can’t go there to get away from the terrible things they were putting in their bodies.

Anyway towards the end of the book, Anne admits she may not have been completely right about the non gluten diet and sees how miserable it’s making her cousin and brothers. She agrees that they can go back to their usual diet, even though shes disappointed at the fact her experiment hadn’t worked. Though I think this should give the others enough of a shove to get in the kitchen and not expect Anne to do all the cooking in the future. That is, if they don’t want to be on another diet.

My thoughts

Much much much better written and thought out than Five on Brexit Island, perhaps because there was more time in fact to think and plan a story. On discussion with a friend, she agreed with me that Brexit Island was written to suit the feeling of the UK just after the historic vote on the 23rd June 2016.

Gluten Free does feel very tongue in cheek about the fad of being gluten free just because it’s seen as a good thing to be dietary wise, instead of as a result of a serious illness. As shown in the book, it is hard to maintain especially when you have no real reason to be gluten free.

A few bits could have done with a little change, mostly to go against the Blyton stereotypes; such as Anne getting the run of the kitchen, and all the cooking stuff for her birthday. I’m not saying that it wouldn’t have worked so well with someone else being the main character this time around, but it would have nice to maybe have seen one of the boys in charge of the kitchen and on a health kick or something. I’m just saying. Vincent missed out on a trick there to really turn the Blyton world on its head.

We also have the hilarity of political correctness gone mad; throughout the book Anne is constantly told not to call Julian “Ju” as it sounds wrong in today’s multi-cultural society so Dick and George are trying to convince Anne to call him Julian or “Jules” (I hate Jules.) When she accidentally calls him “Ju” in front of a group of school children the Five find themselves running, potentially for their lives,  away from the school in case they have offended anyone. Its an interesting twist and could have been an interesting novel in its own right. I wonder if Bruno Vincent will think of bringing it out next time, “The Five get caught by Political Correctness” sort of thing!

Anyway, I enjoyed this one more than Brexit and its made me curiously optimistic for Five Go Parenting.  This is one I would definitely recommend reading!

Have you read it? What do you think?

Looking for something else to read? More Famous Five for Grown-Ups reviews can be found here.

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Monday #198

Posted on January 2, 2017 by Fiona

Happy New Year to all! Hope you had a restful New Year. We’re not slacking this week and we’ve got two blogs coming up for you, hope you like them!

monday198

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The Famous Five 70s Style: Five Go to Billycock Hill

Posted on December 30, 2016 by pippastef

Before I start properly, I want to apologise to everyone because I believe that at the beginning of this series of blogs I said I would review the episodes as they appeared on the collectors’ edition boxed set discs. As some of you may have noticed that hasn’t really happened. An oversight on my part I can assure you. What I shall endeavour to do in the new year is go finish these episodes in order and then go back and review the ones I have missed! I’m really sorry for the oversight and I hope you can forgive me. Anyway, on to Five Go to Billycock Hill.

What I liked

First of all, the fact that the screenplay is written by Gail Renard, who we have established in the past as being a superior screenwriter for the Famous Five episodes we have seen before. Renard has fantastic attention to detail in adapting the novels into screen appropriate. I don’t know if anyone else pays attention to the writers of the episodes, but realistically the ones I’ve seen of Gail Renard’s have pretty much all been smashing adaptations.

The main thing to focus on with this episode (apart from the level of detail included) is the wonderful fact that all our main characters are included in this version. We get Toby, and his little brother Benny with the piglet Curly, who I am sure you all know is a key part of the story. Curly the piglet even obliges us by running away towards the end of the episode. Jeff Thomas, the dashing pilot cousin, makes an early appearance as well, establishing all the make visiting characters within the first five minutes or so.

Overall with all the relevant parts of the story were kept in and the little touches, like the Five all being crammed in one tent when the storm is on its way and all three boys visiting the Butterfly farm to see what’s going on during the evening and almost getting caught. The inclusion of Mrs Janes was a nice touch as well for this episode, because there is a lot of what she says that helps the five put the mystery of the missing planes and pilot together.

The niggly bits

Once again I’m sure this is basic nitpicking, but everyone knows by now I do try and tell you what exactly bugs a true Blyton fan. Unfortunately its the simplest things that come down to the situation the cast and crew had to deal with.

The simplest thing in the books – the Billycock caves. They seem wonderful and magical in the book, each glowing and showing off wonders that as a child I could barely imagine. I had never seen stalagmites or stalactites but I knew what they were the first time I did get to see them, and I knew how to tell the difference (I was a precocious 8 year old!) Anyway this (clearly) valuable life skill is missing from this adaptation (and from the 90s one – even though they had more time). In fact there are no caves whatsoever in the episode; they have been replaced with an old ‘haunted’ house which is not explored at any point before they discover Flight Lieutenant Jeff Thomas in the cellar.

Another sizeable issue with this episode is that young Mr Janes – Mrs Janes’ nasty son – has a particularly small role and only appears in about two scenes and has less of a part in showing the Five that something dodgy is going on. In fact I think you only get to see him for about 2 minutes in full, which probably is about equal to the time you have him present in the book, but its not handled very well.

Second to last nit pick I promise; Uncle Quentin turns up! When doesn’t this man come rushing in to try and look after the children or take them home? I swear Michel Hinz’s Uncle Q turns up in every episode whereas at least Christopher Good’s Uncle Q does at least have a reprieve. I am never sure if this is just so Hinz can deliver a dry “grown-up” line for Dick to flick something funny and witty back at him. At the end of this episode, Hinz says  “You better decide who gets that treat.,” or something approximately like that, when the Five, and Toby, are told that they may be able to go up in an RAF fighter jet and Dick’s reply is seriously cheeky and yet, fits in perfectly with Gary Russell’s characterization of Dick.

trouble-quote-2

See? Who else would suggest that the piglet should be allowed the treat of going up in an RAF plane? Only Dick!

My last complaint is the one you get every time –  they do not have enough time to include everything! My nitpicking would not be so bad if they had had more time  –  at least an hour –  to go through the adventure properly picking up on all the little bits and pieces seasoned Blytonites like myself know so well! I hope one day we get a chance to have a proper adaption made of our favourite books just so we can make sure all our favourite bits are in them in the correct places! Who agrees?

Conclusion 

Hands down, one of the best episodes of the bunch, only let down by the time constraints and the caves or lack of thereof realistically. Superb performances all round from the cast, the visiting members one of the best supporting casts I’ve seen from these episodes.

So, grab what’s left from your Christmas feasts, finish the sherry (or make a cuppa), find the DVD and put it on. Let me know what you think!

All that remains for me to say is: Happy New Year! Hope you’ve all had the best 2016 and I wish you the best for 2017!

 

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2016 birthday and Christmas presents round up

Posted on December 28, 2016 by Fiona

Every year I get spoiled on my birthday and at Christmas (the two days being only ten days apart) and every year I then show off what I got that’s Blyton-related. This year is no different!

fotojet-collage1. Five Go Gluten Free by Bruno Vincent – yes one of those very controversial Famous Five for adult books that came out this year. I might well hate it, but I’m always willing to try something at least once!

2. Who’s Who in Enid Blyton by Eva Rice – ‘don’t you already have that?’ I hear you ask. Followed by ‘and didn’t you write 10,000 words on how awful it is?’. The answers are yes, and yes. But this is a newer and updated version which I believe addresses perhaps two or three of my criticisms and so I wanted to have a look at it.

3. My birthday card from my mum – made from a charity shop sourced copy of Five Go to Smuggler’s Top.

4. Five Go on a Strategy Away Day by Bruno Vincent – if I’m giving one a go I might as well try two. I picked the two I thought sounded the best to ask for.

5. A Famous Five book mug – on which examining I said ‘the books are totally in the wrong order!’

6. A keyring with miniature Blyton books – which ones can you identify?

7. The envelope my card came in – I was most worried as my mum made it from ‘one of the books you left at home when you moved out’. And then I remembered I had left a duplicate copy of the Second Holiday Book. I’m still kinda appalled she tore up a perfectly good book, though, but it serves me right for leaving it where she could find it!

8. Another view of the mug

And some more things I got which are more tenuously connected:

fotojet-collage2

  1. Rye Royal by Malcolm Saville – Saville is definitely a contemporary to Blyton when it comes to adventure/mystery stories and he has been mentioned on this blog quite a few times. I have all the rest of the Lone Pine series so this means I can finish reading them now. I’ve been after a copy for ages but this ones one of the hardest to find in its original and unabridged form.

2. A new cover for my Kindle – in a Cath Kidston book print.

3. Quiet please… I’m reading! sign – made by my mum as it was hard to find a nice one online. The page is from a Harry Potter book this time. (The woman does love destroying books!)

4. A book-pile pin

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I hope you all got lots of Blyton goodies too!

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Monday #197

Posted on December 26, 2016 by Fiona

We hope you had a very merry Christmas! Here’s what we’ll be doing this week.

christmas-is-love-come-down-toearth-a-gift-of-infinite-worth

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Blyton at Christmas 1951-1962

Posted on December 23, 2016 by Fiona

A final instalment of Blyton at Christmas! (Unless I get more Christmas stories by next Christmas). The first parts are 1920-1945 and 1946-1950.

hollyborder

The 1950s, continued

Father Christmas and Belinda, 1951

I reviewed this two years ago, giving an overview of the story as well.

Father Christmas and Belinda

The Six Bad Boys, 1951

Although not a Christmas title in the traditional sense, it does feature Christmas in the middle. Probably to draw a parallel between the happy family Christmas in the family homes compared to the one in the boys’ cellar.

The day before Christmas came at last. There was great excitement at Barlings Cottage. The Christmas-tree had come and was being decorated by the three children. Parcels were arriving by every post. Cards stood all along the mantelpiece and on the book-cases.

Frisky was as mad as the children. He tore here and there, barking when the postman came, barking when the tree fell over, barking at ever opportunity he had!

“I wish I could bark like that,” said Donald, standing perilously on top of the ladder to pin up some holly-berry strands. “I should be barking all day long too! Isn’t Christmas fun? I wonder how Bob and Tom are getting on. Mother, isn’t it a shame, Bob’s mother is going away for Christmas, ad he’s got to go to an aunt he doesn’t like.

– leading to –

[the policeman] also described how Bob had been found down in the cellar on Christmas Day.

“He had dressed a little Christmas-tree, and hung it with presents for the rest of the gang,” said the policeman, amid a dead silence. This was the first they knew of the Christmas-tree! Good old Bob! They all wished they had seen the tree. Bob hung his head. That Christmas night seemed a long time ago now but he could suddenly see the gaily-decorated cellar, and that little tree lit with its candles.

Images from "The Six bad Boys" illustrated by Mary Gernat

Images from “The Six bad Boys” illustrated by Mary Gernat

The Little Christmas Tree from Enid Blyton’s Buttercup Story Book, 1951

This story is about Robin and Susan, whose mother is ill at Christmas – and it shows Blyton doing what she was so good at, taking a familiar element and working it into a new story.

Daddy doesn’t know all the things Mummy does when Christmas comes,” said Robin. They both looked very gloomy indeed. Christmas without Mummy would be horrid.

“Mummy always digs up the little Christmas tree that grows in the garden, and hangs it with dear little presents,” said Susan. “We can’t expect Daddy to do that – he’s so busy and worried. The little tree will be sad not to be dressed up and made pretty.”

“Well – I don’t want it without Mummy,” said Robin. He looked gloomily out of the window to see the tiny fir tree growing in the garden. It really was a dear little tree.

Susan looked at it too. A sparrow flew down to the tiny tree and perched on the topmost spike. Susan suddenly had an idea.

“Robin! I’ve got such a good idea!” she said. “Even if we don’t feel like using the tree for ourselves, we could use it for the birds. We could hang biscuits and crusts and nuts and bacon rind on it. The birds would love it.”

Their neighbour sees all this and thinks them very good children for doing it, instead of grumbling about not having a proper tree. So once all the bird treats have been eaten off the tree she borrows it and loads it with candles and presents for Susan and Robin.

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Famous Five 70s Style: Five on a Secret Trail

Posted on December 21, 2016 by pippastef

This episode is one I remembered from my childhood, I think it was one that I had on video with Five on a Hike Together. I don’t remember a lot of the episode as a rule, but I certainly remember the beginning with Anne and the house! Let’s see now, with hindsight, if the episode is close to the book.

The Good

What really strikes me about this episode is the way it actually seems to stick to the story in the book. Obviously we skip ahead a little to Anne joining her cousin on the moor, where she is staying because Timmy was being laughed at for having a cone over his head where he had hurt his ear. So far so good, the girls are on the moor, camping with Timmy and they go to look at the Roman ruins and get introduced to Guy and his dog Jet.

After mentioning that there is a lake they can swim in, George and Anne leave Guy and walk straight into his unknown twin brother, Harry, who is perplexed by the girls familiarity and rebuffs them sharply.

The whole plot then takes off, with the girls sheltering inside the ruined cottage during the storm, and being woken by Timmy barking. At first they believe it down to the thunder, but then they see a silhouette at the window and get very scared, agreeing to pack up and go home the next morning. On cue the boys turn up and a plan starts to unfold.

The details are whats important in episodes like this; the book, Secret Trail starts off quite slowly, mostly because the boys don’t arrive until chapter eight it takes me ages to get through the faff of the girls’ first chapters, but then the interesting stuff begins to happen and the whole adventure takes off. Weaving in and out of the mystery people trying to scare them out of the cottage and trying to work out what the bad guys are looking for. In a strange twist we don’t find out what the Five plus the twins Harry and Guy manage to find until right at the end, which also happens in the book. Usually we found out early whats been stolen but this is a nice twist. Maybe Blyton was trying something new?

Richard Sparks, the writer of this episode, has stuck pretty close to the book, just the few odd lines where you can definitely tell that Blyton hadn’t wrote that, but otherwise a successful adaptation.

The Not So Good

Really there is very little wrong with this episode, it doesn’t differ from the book too badly, but just the odd placement of dialogue and random words. For example right at the beginning where George and Anne meet up, and George is telling Anne about Timmy’s cone of shame, she almost immediately takes it off. I mean obviously for Toddy, the dog who played Timmy, it must have been uncomfortable or he was unable to understand why he was wearing it; so realistically it would have to be removed as soon as possible.

glauberBasically we come down to my own pedantic opinions and feelings on certain things for this episode, it really is hard for me to fault. However, we are again stuck with a comic villain, dark beard, hair, and a foreign accent provided by an actor called Gertan Klauber (who I have now found out played Mr Slither in the 90s Famous Five; Five have a Wonderful Time).

One last peeve, and this time it comes down to the filming and the use of the dark filters instead of letting the children film at nighttime. Even with the digitally remastered DVDs this episode’s nighttime scenes with the children are extremely hard to view and almost come close to making a great episode unwatchable.

Final Thoughts

Five on a Secret Trail has to be one of the best adaptations of a Famous Five novel. All the key components of the novel are there and with the shorter time frame we actually seem to get a slow novel moving fairly quickly, efficiently, and effectively. Richard Sparks did us proud on this episode so if you haven’t watched it, I suggest you do!

As always don’t forget to let me know what you think of the episode!

And from me that’s all until over Christmas, so let me wish you a happy one and I’ll see you on the other side! Merry Christmas!

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