Five Go to Mystery Moor is one of my most watched 90s Famous Five episodes, but I have to admit that I’ve only watched the 70s one a handful of times. So re-watching this episode felt new, and interesting. Read on to find out what I thought!
The Good
We start off nicely with the rivalry between George and Henry, George sorting out one of the stables and Henry is already pointing out to her that she’s not that interested in helping out with the horses. The rivalry between them is pitched just right so that it doesn’t overshadow the whole episode but just balances things out. As we can see in the end, George uses a clever trick to send Timmy to get help by telling him to find Henry instead of Julian and Dick which ultimately saves George and Anne from the travellers.
Lots of nice little touches weave in and out of this episode, such as the story of the Bartle brothers being told by the blacksmith as it is in the book, though there isn’t much mention of the mists and how dangerous they can so there is a little bit of a surprise when the mists come down later on in the episode.
The Five in the quarry with the railway tracks
I enjoyed the use of the quarry in this episode, using it as the Five’s camping place and hiding place and as the place they discover the parcels being dropped from the plane. The quarry in my mind has always been very atmospheric and its nice to have it in this episode in its proper place.
Overall the important bits of a true fan are included in the filming and its very nicely done. Mystery Moor is a very atmospheric book and its nice to see as much of that as possible being brought into the frame.
The Unnecessary
You may be wondering why I have named this section the unnecessary, if it wasn’t clear enough, this part is all about the changes that were made that didn’t really need to happen!
The biggest pet peeve of the episode is the simplest, stupidest and hardest to understand change of the whole episode – possibly the whole series – they changed
Sniffy?
Sniffer’s name to Sniffy. I mean, honestly, Sniffy! You can picture me rolling my eyes right? Good. There is no rhyme or reason (that I can see) for this change. It doesn’t change his role, his personality or his overall impact on the episode, so why change it? Why do it? I just don’t understand. It is the mostly completely pointless thing in the world!
Another character issue we face is the one that Henrietta is too girly! Once again we are faced with a tomboy who has long hair an overly girly attitude. We aren’t subjected to her boasting (which is frankly a relief) and her exploits with her brothers and millions of riding awards. She’s just too wimpy to be any competition for George which makes it hard to work out why George is so horrible to her, apart from the fact that Henry constantly winds her up about how she doesn’t want to be holidaying at the stables.
Sniffy’s father isn’t part of the bad guys either, just a grumpy traveller who happens be to used as a smoke screen for the real forgers who eventually get caught by the police – who like usual magically appear at the end to sort everything out. The fact that Sniffy’s father isn’t part of the bad guys just leaves way for another couple of characters, such as the strangely disconcerting creepy boss man who has dark glasses showing us all that he really is not a nice person!
Do dark glasses always equal a baddy?
Changes like this are seriously not needed, not when Blyton’s original work plays out like a TV program anyway on the page . It flows so well on the page that the adaptation loses some of that which is a shame.
Blooper
The one thing I did notice that struck me as quite funny was that during the scene with
Whoops!
Sniffy and his horse Clopper in the Moorland Riding School stable, there is a man behind the horse, clearly a trainer or something to stop the horse from getting nervous with all the strange children around. Obviously it is a health and safety issue but its quite funny to randomly see a man’s head popping out of the back of the horse. Its just an odd thing to happen!
Conclusion
Overall this episode is very well done, lots of nice touches and things added to make it a bit more like the book. The little touches are what makes it so good. Its not adapted by with of the two writers I have come to associate with the series, but rather a new name to me, Gloria Tors. I think if you have a look at the episode and consider it against the book you’ll see what a good job she has done!
What do you think?
No. 3. The Famous Five at the Circus Camp. This would either be Five Go Off in a Caravan or Five Are Together Again perhaps.
The flames caught hold of them. 
They began to make a guy. He really was a funny one! They stuffed his body with straw, and made him a round head on which they put a funny mask. Daddy gave Ellen an old hat, and Mummy gave George a pair of old trousers for the guy.
At the very beginning for example, Uncle Quentin drives Timmy to the train station while the Five go on their bikes and then pushes to the front of the queue to get the children and Timmy their train tickets. I mean talk about unable to do it for themselves! In the book they just make it to the station, get their tickets and get onto the platform for the train arrives. In this version they stand looking for the train for a good two minutes (which could be longer depending on how you interpret the time). It then becomes apparent that Uncle Quentin is meeting the Five down there – so why didn’t they all go by car or train? The answer to this question comes when Uncle Quentin leaves the Five at Tremannon farm in the car because he has a conference to go to. Does he not know that they can’t not get into trouble?
Yan, played by a young 
Fiona
pippastef
worldofblyton
World of Blyton 