Monday

Posted on August 24, 2015 by Fiona

Once again another Monday, and another week of blogs for you. It’s a shame we’re not having some wonderful August weather to enjoy the Blytonian picnics I knew we all long for, however, maybe we shall get a chance still.

This week  Fiona will try and get time to review the text changes in The Island of Adventure, she’s hoping to finish the book this week.

I shall be have to be a bit vague as to my choice of blog and hedge my bets a bit. I may get chance to do another cake, chocolate I think this time, or it may be another TV episode, it depends on what I get time for.

This weekend we may be able to give you a little treat as we’ve had a few ideas. Keep your eyes peeled, if we manage it, it will make you laugh.

We have no blog news this week, so I shall leave you with some pictures I took this evening on my walk in my local park, Dinton Pastures.

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Famous Five 90s Style: Five on a Hike Together

Posted on August 23, 2015 by pippastef

So as you’re aware we’ve had a bit of a shift about with the blogs this week, it will come as no surprise to you that its left to me to entertain you this Sunday.

Earlier in the week I re-watched Five on a Hike Together and assessed the adaptation of the episode against that of the book. As it’s my favourite book, I often enjoy this episode but looking at it with a more critical eye meant that I was able to see a number of flaws in the story more keenly than before.

Injured Timmy ( Marco Williamson & Jemima Rooper)

Injured Timmy ( Marco Williamson & Jemima Rooper)

We start off having jumped a great chunk of the beginning of the story, to the Five already on the moors and Timmy having got himself stuck in a rabbit hole. I am just going to mention it now, that Connal was really NOT stuck in a rabbit hole and was fine. However a dog that can whine on demand like that has got to be a god send. The one thing I never really got with the books was the fact that Timmy could indeed fit down this particular rabbit hole, especially if he is as big a dog as we are led to believe.  I don’t imagine that rabbits dig particular big rabbit holes for that reason! However, I would find it more believable if it was say the entrance to a badger set that Timmy was investigating and got stuck in as I believe that badgers are somewhat bigger than rabbits.

Anyway, Timmy’s hurt leg leads them to a village and Dick and Anne get sent off the wrong way. However, instead of being given dodgy instructions by Julian and then an old man in a cart who can’t speak properly, the children are given instructions by a postman. I mean if anyone would be able to tell you where a bed and breakfast was it would be a postman wouldn’t it?

Well either that he’s not a very good postman or Dick just can’t follow instructions. I doubt we will never know! They end up at Dirty Dick’s farm and have to hide in the hay loft as there is no old mother about to hide Anne in the attic. Dirty Dick starts out by being a really scary villain but by the middle of the episode there is a shift away from his menacing persona to an all too comic one like many other villains. When Camille Coduri‘s Maggie gets involved Dick goes from being all moody and dangerous to being the muscle and as thick as two short planks. In the book this is never the case, all right Maggie seems to be in charge but Dick is never really portrayed as stupid. These sorts of sweeping errors are the ones that really grate on the nerves of a book worm. This is why producers can’t really be trusted with TV and film adaptations.

Anyway, moving on. Another sore point of the adaptation is that there is no fourth point on the map that Dick gets given by the escaped convict. In fact, there is just no steeple. I assume this is for location reasons, as it would be harder to find somewhere with a steeple. However, when we come to the lake scene where the children are all trying to spot the markers apart from the tall stone and dead tree the chimney isn’t shown so why they couldn’t add the steeple in, I have no idea.

This is one of the most important and atmospheric scenes in the book and in fact the

Dick and Julian discussing the merits of Dick being right all along. (Paul Child & Marco Williamson)

Dick and Julian discussing the merits of Dick being right all along. (Paul Child & Marco Williamson)

whole series, and it’s sad to see that the material they were given to work with wasn’t held in higher regard. I sort of understand why the children didn’t go back for a midnight dive into the lake, health and safety for one. For another Marco Williamson was still recovering from a broken leg (incidentally this is why he’s left out of several shots, seen limping, left behind on numerous occasions and why Paul Child gets to take the lead a lot more), so the idea of him diving down into the lake like the do in the book is hard to justify.

Some of the nicer things about the adaptation do include the fact that there is more of a ‘natural’ rivalry between Dick and Julian, as Dick gets to take the lead a little more instead of being side lined (as noted in Five Go Off in a Caravan, this rivalry probably begins when Marco’s leg actually is in plaster). As always it’s nice to see the boys tussling a bit more than they do in the books, even if some of it is over acted.

Overall, I do like the locations for Two Trees in this episode, it’s a perfect Gothic mansion and I have made up my mind to visit it one day. I just wish that it had been a more successful episode script wise. To me this is one of the best books in the series and its had a lot cut out or changed for no real reason, and that’s disappointing.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to re-read Five on a Hike Together to calm myself down!

Posted in Blyton on Screen | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

A Review of The Bumper Blyton Improvised Adventure

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Fiona

This is a really hard review to write as I don’t really know where to begin. Going right back to the beginning makes sense I suppose – so, a couple of weeks ago we got a message on the blog from a member of an improvised comedy troupe. The title of the performance alone was enough to have me bouncing in my seat – The Bumper Blyton Improvised Adventure. And the best thing was they were performing at the Fringe Festival in Edinburgh. That’s only around 60 miles from me. Oh, and it was free! That was pretty good, too.

433699_9f3f73e22a9f44fe811c2deecd00d80e.jpg_srz_1200_1200_75_22_0.5_1 (1).2_75

MAKING PLANS

Straight away I set about wheedling my partner into coming along with me and he actually agreed despite liking Blyton about as much as taking the bins out. Terribly unfortunately for him he wasn’t able to get the time off work to come with me, but my mum (who is responsible for introducing me to Blyton) had already volunteered to accompany me so we were all set.

Train tickets were booked, the Fringe site was checked and double-checked for times and locations, Google Maps was consulted to find as many second-hand bookshops in the area as possible and then last Thursday we made the journey.

JULIAN NEVER NAVIGATED TO THE WRONG STATION…

Stupidly I had managed to book tickets to Haymarket instead of Waverly and naturally there was a row of barriers instead of friendly station guards so we had to get off at Haymarket about a mile from where we wanted to be. Google Maps were again consulted (so much more convenient than trying to unfold and refold a paper map however good Julian was at it) and intrepidly we set off, heading for the Westport area behind the castle.

THE SHOW

To cut a long boring tale short we browsed some bookshops (and were very restrained and well behaved about not buying anything), had lunch, wandered around the Royal Mile then headed over to our venue for the four o’clock start time.

There were several shows ongoing at The Counting House but there was a man outside with a barrel and leaflets directing people to the right rooms. We were told that we should join the queue on the stairs for the Blyton show. We didn’t need to panic as there were seats reserved for us but it was heartening to see a long and growing queue forming for the show. One gentleman took it upon himself in a particularly Julian-like way to check everyone joining the queue was indeed intending to see the Blyton Improv and weren’t looking for the comedian performing in the attic or such like. There were a variety of people from the very young to rather older, plainly-dressed and very fashionably dressed there.

The doors opened right on four o’clock and we headed on into the ballroom (pausing to help ourselves to the boiled sweets on offer) and found our seats. As with most improvs the cast needed the audience’s help to come up with various parts of the show. Pens and paper were passed around for titles, locations and drawings of “things”, and names were suggested via finding out our Blyton Names. You too can find out your Blyton name – all you need is the name of a grandparent (you can choose one that matches your gender or not it’s up to you!) and your first school. That makes mine Gladys Macalpine, a suitably Blytonian name I feel!

Ideas were picked at random and we ended up with The Farmhouse Five and the Adventure of the Champagne Case taking place in Porton Down which was illustrated by a map involving two pyramids by the sea.

Our two heroines began the story (typically Blytonian 9 year old twins called Jean and Edith) packing to go and stay with Aunt Fanny in Porton Down. Aunt Fanny didn’t manage to pick them up from the station but Quagmire turned up instead, and putting their luggage in his cart, drove off and left them by mistake. Porton Down being a modern and efficient place the cart was car-drawn and so the poor twins had no chance to catch up and had to walk all the way to Aunt Fanny’s wine shop.

The wine shop is in trouble though (mostly as I suspect Aunt Fanny drank half the stock) but the twins declare they’ll help paint and decorate and make it a success.

Scenes were changed by the dinging of a bell – rung by the other cast members who were either trying to save their fellow actors from a ridiculous situation or were simply eager for their turn.

Next we were introduced to a Lord whose name I just can’t remember – a recluse living in his castle. The third actress partnering him played the role of Susan, his maid, and to her horror and our amusement he suddenly brought up the song she sang all the time – the wine song. That left her with no choice but to come up with a wine song on the spot. Wine wine, it makes me feel fine! Our forgotten named Lord has refused to go out for 12 years after returning from Panama. His life his empty despite his twelve o’clock sherry and his two o’clock gin and his four o’clock port. That was because (cue flashback) he had met a beautiful woman in Panama and drunk the most wonderful champagne with her. He was unable to find a case of that special champagne ever since.

Finally persuaded to leave the castle the Lord takes the name Morton Dinkum (or Tinkum if you were my mother listening to the same performance) and heads to the local wine shop. Somehow he and our twins end up at the pyramids (which are completely normal and not out of the ordinary at all for the south of England). They house the tomb of Colinkhamun, obviously an important English-Egyptian character. The mummy is awoken when Morton Dinkum grabs the bottle of champagne it is clutching, and the walls begin to close in on them. In a bizarre twist the mummy is Daphne Spumante – the beautiful Texan lady from Panama.

Ding! The scene changed and somehow they had escaped the deadly pyramids, taking the champagne back to Aunt Fanny’s wine shop for a suitably happy ending.

Those are merely the bare bones of the fifty minute performance. I can’t possibly decide what my favourite part was.

Nominations would have to go to:

  • The moments where one actor leapt on stage to act out the hieroglyphs showing Colinkhamun’s life and the other cast members’ increasingly ridiculous descriptions for him to work with.
  • Quagmire’s tale of being left by a puddle and being raised by swans. When asked if he sees them any longer he replied “Well, I got hungry.”
  • Quagmire’s ability to make everything sound ominous. Particularly the fact he got hungry and wandered off to find food and did not in fact eat his adopted swan family.
  • The wine song and the reprise at the end where  the rest of the cast tried to sing along half a second behind the leading lady.
  • The Trip Advisor man who collates a newsletter of reviews and sends them around the world for holiday makers. He photocopies them to make it easier – taking a photograph of the newsletter and copying them by hand that is. Perhaps he should copyright that idea, his name was Mr Xerox after all.

The cast clearly have a great rapport and really enjoy their performances. It was great to see them egging each other on and saying things that forced the others to have to come up with songs and poses and ridiculous answers. The miming was great, which it had to be as there were little to no props. Two chairs and a few hats were all they had to work with so everything else was to be imagined with waves of the arms and positions of the hands.(Saying that, my mum leaned towards me at one point and whispered what are they doing? I had to answer PACKING! as it seemed pretty obvious to me that they were folding clothes and putting them into a case.)

It was all done with a fondness for Blyton at the forefront. It gently poked fun at the upper class environments of her books without ever becoming unkind. The whole audience from the small children in the front row to the older adults at the back seemed to have a wonderful time if the peals of laughter were anything to go by.

Jean

Alison Thea-Skot as Jean/Daphne Spumante, Amy Cooke-Hodgson as Edith, Heather Urquhart as Susan, Jonah Fazel as Quagmire, Justin Brett as Aunt Fanny, the hieroglyphics, the mummy of Daphne Spumante and Oliver Izod as Morton Dinkum and the Trip Advisor man.

I wish I’d been able to go back and see a second performance to see what they came up with using a different set of prompts but it wasn’t to be. I can only hope they’ll perform it again somewhere near me.

One final point – did you know that Enid Blyton is still alive in fact? She lives in a hut on Arthur’s Seat and is known as the crazy lady. Improvised Fact.

 

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The Adventurous Four by Laura  

Posted on August 19, 2015 by worldofblyton

 ~A bit of a reshuffle here at the World of Blyton for you today, we didn’t take into account our busy social schedules and Fiona realised that she wouldn’t have time to write a blog for today so we’re putting Laura’s review of The Adventurous Four up for you instead. Stef ~

The Adventurous Four, 1st Edition Cover by E.H Davie

The Adventurous Four, 1st Edition Cover by E.H Davie

Around this time of year – it’s the middle of winter here in Australia and I woke up to snow a few weeks ago – I start reading books set in summer, preferably near the sea or on an island. This includes Famous Five books like Five Run Away Together and Five Have A Mystery To Solve, any of the Malory Towers books set in a summer term, and The Adventurous Four.

The Adventurous Four was published in 1941 and has a very patriotic theme throughout, especially once things go wrong (I’ll try to avoid too many spoilers) and the girls are reminded to be brave.

It starts in September on the northeast coast of Scotland, where Tom, his younger sisters Jill and Mary, who are twins, and their friend Andy are planning a sailing trip out to Little Island to camp and watch the birds. I like the four children – Tom is fairly obsessed with food, the twins have different personalities with Jill being more impetuous than Mary, and Andy is very much the older, take-charge character of the four.

After packing a huge amount of food, Tom’s camera (very important to the plot) and the gramophone (also essential) onto the boat, they set sail despite Andy’s concerns about the morning’s red sky. Things quickly go wrong with a storm blowing up, sweeping them past Little Island.

They eventually end up on the rocks of another, more desolate island. It’s the first of many islands and they’re all seemingly uninhabited. There is evidence that people lived on their island once – potato plants and ruined houses – which somehow always made the setting seem even lonelier to me.

Once they’ve set up house in the only building still standing – Mary becomes like Anne for a few seconds and wonders if there’s anything to use as a curtain – they decide to make their way to the next island, which has lots of caves. One of these is mysteriously full of tins of food, so the children help themselves and promise each other that they’ll pay the owner. I always wondered why they weren’t more worried about who was leaving food on a seemingly deserted island.

The next day they spot a mysterious seaplane near the second island and hope for a rescue, until Tom recognises “the sign of the crooked cross” on the wings. The enemy are apparently on these islands – they’re never named but I guess the readers of the time knew who Blyton meant – so the children uncover their plans and take some photos of what they’re really up to.

Tom and Andy also manage to steal a boat and the four hope remain hidden on their original island until they can escape, but the seaplane doesn’t help matters. Neither does Tom leaving his camera in the second island’s store cave, especially because he goes to get it and is made a prisoner.

The twins and Andy manage to evade capture using the seaweed trick (which I’ve come across in other Blyton books) and Andy frees Tom with the aid of the gramophone, but now the enemy know that someone is on these islands. The children have to escape the island and tell everyone about the submarines. After one attempt failing when the enemies appear on their island, Andy comes up with a more daring plan.

After a few more surprises, a couple of rather remarkable coincidences and several patriotic speeches, there’s one more surprise for the children when they eventually get home. It’s a good read, nearly as good as being on a sunny island.

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Monday

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Fiona

We failed to get Laura’s blog on in time yesterday, whoops! But we’ve got it scheduled for next Sunday now. We have reached more than 600 posts on the blog now, so I hope the odd missing one can be forgiven!

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I’ve finally gotten all my books out of their boxes this week and onto my new book cases. It turns out I have enough Blytons to fill an entire book case plus have some left over.

I hasten to add not all the books on that second book case are Blytons. Just some of them. I hope this means I can find everything I need more easily – I’ll just have  problem if I buy any more books!

 

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The Circus of Adventure

Posted on August 14, 2015 by pippastef
The Circus of Adventure without Dustjacket

The Circus of Adventure without Dustjacket

So I finally got stuck into The Circus of Adventure, and I have to admit, for all my sins I haven’t been able to finish it, but I have read 3/4 of it so feel refreshed enough to review it for you!

Before we even begin on the story however, I do feel I should mention the extra special, long introduction from Blyton at the beginning of the book. She says how she was going to end the series with The Ship of Adventure but all the children’s letters persuaded her to carry on. How right the children were – just because Bill and Allie got married (spoilers, sorry!) that didn’t mean the story of the Mannerings and Trents was finished. It’s true that the Adventure series only carried on for two more books, and the last one is rather a disappointment in respects to some fans but I feel I would have been disappointed if the series ended at The Ship of Adventure which I feel isn’t one of her strongest Adventure books. Circus however has to be one of my favourites. Right up there with Castle and Sea. Maybe you’ll see why when you’ve finished reading the blog. I hope so.

The beginning of the book starts with the children coming home for the spring holidays. They’re loud, excited and eager to be at home with Aunt Allie, and their new addition to the family, Bill. Aunt Allie, or Mrs Mannering, has now become Mrs Cunningham – I wish Blyton had written their wedding, I wonder if Bill was late because he was on a job? (Maybe I’ll fill that hole in one day and write it for you all!) Anyway, she announces to the children straight away that Bill has suggested that they all go off somewhere on holiday and that they are to unpack and pack immediately.

Chaos then envelopes them all as they try to pack enough, but “not too much” as Mrs Cunningham says. She only wants them to take one set of clothes each, which is rather bold considering how quickly the Famous Five and the Mannering/Trents get themselves into adventures and often come home as muddy as people who have been to the Glastonbury rock festival (if you don’t know what this is, or what I mean, Google Image it. You will soon understand). Still eventually she manages to get them to pack suitably and not let Jack take all his heavy bird watching books.

In the middle of the packing however, she gets a mysterious phone call from Bill saying that he’s agreed to look after a friend’s nephew during the hols, which the children don’t like, but there is a consensus that they would rather have this boy than lose Bill for the holiday. Bill arrives him shortly with Gustavus Barmilevo and the children instantly dislike him as he’s strange, has long hair and is younger than them. The boys vow to put him in his place and become unusually hard with the young boy.

I suppose this feels strange because the Five are usually in the company of someone younger and the Trents and Mannerings tend to do a lot on their own without outside parties being present In fact, Tassie in Castle and Lucian in Ship are the only two companions in the whole series up until this point. Gussy reminds me a bit of Richard Kent in Five get into Trouble, and is a bit spineless to begin with and then suddenly he steps up to the plate. Its a remarkable transformation.

The big secret around Gussy is that he is actually the prince of a place no-one had heard of (and it’s a big old secret that Blyton made it up), Tauri-Hessia. Please don’t ask me to pronounce it, because I don’t even think I could. Given that it is a fictional country I cannot tell you where it is, however from a guess I would say it would be over towards Romania, Ukraine and the eastern block of Europe, just because of the way Blyton describes the clothes of the villagers later on in the book. That’s my thoughts on it anyway.

Now, when Gussy gives the game away by telling the children that he really is a crowned Prince, we finally get from the slow moving dullness of a ‘normal’ holiday to the exciting part where Gussy is kidnapped by some men who do not like his Uncle, the King’s, ruling and plan to put the weak Gussy on the thrown. In the act of catching Gussy, the men also take Philip, Dinah and Lucy-Ann from the cottage where they are staying. A clever plot device from Blyton was to have Allie and Bill overpowered on a late night walk and Jack outside watching the owls.

Jack manages to come back to the cottage just as the others are being bundled away and jumps on the back of the car and manages to stow away on the plane that is used to transport them all to Tauri-Hessia. When he’s there he has the problem of not knowing any of the language and through a series of mishaps Jack ends up with the Circus who are happy enough to have him and Kiki along, as well as travelling close to where the children are being held.

Jack attempts a daring rekkie to see where the others are being hidden, and then with the help of the Circus people rescues them. This is the book where I really decided that Jack was my favourite Adventurer because he does everything so level-headedly and he was so brave and daring. I think it also became one of my favourite books because of this long passage where you got to have an adventure on your own with Jack and Kiki.

The story as well is just as colourful and joyful as usual and is full of fun and adventure, in fact one of the biggest they’ve had because this adventure is the first one where they’re supposed to be protecting someone and its gone wrong. It shows as well that Bill is only human, even though he is an amazing secret agent. There are lovely little touches in Circus that make it one of the strongest in a very strong series. There are never as many plot holes in the Adventure series than the Famous Five, but that might be simply down to the fact that the Adventure series is only eight books long and is a much closer knit series than the 21 volumes of the Famous Five with stories that are very episodic rather than part of a carry on in a way.

Anyway, please let me know your thoughts on Circus. Where does it come on your list?

The Circus of Adventure Dustjacket

The Circus of Adventure dustjacket

Next review: The River of Adventure

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My Eighteenth Noddy book: Noddy Goes to the Fair

Posted on August 12, 2015 by Fiona

My eighteenth Noddy should have been Cheer Up, Little Noddy which I was going to review last week. Unfortunately when I opened it I discovered the first 18 pages were missing (what a swizz!) and that put paid to a review. So this week I’m skipping onto the next in the series which I was able to pull from my new bookcase instead of from a plastic box.

The cover - though mine is more of a forest green.

The cover – though mine is more of a forest green.

Noddy’s tale, this time, opens on a very windy morning. It blows Noddy’s hat off and then it blows off Mr Plod’s helmet. Noddy really is most disrespectful to the policeman, even if he is annoyingly intent on catching Noddy up to no good. He had left his car on a corner with Bumpy Dog looking after it but being a troublesome animal Bumpy Dog went off and left it. I’m not sure that Bumpy Dog could really be considered responsible for a vehicle but either way Noddy is in trouble for his bad parking.

Mr Plod says he will lock up Noddy’s car for a week, and so Noddy says “I SHAN’T let you,” which somehow seems worse than his usual tantrums and protestations. While Mr Plod is distracted by his escaping helmet he decides to hop in his car and drive off – that way he can still go to the fair that Miss Fluffy cat has told him about.

Thus begins a life on the run for little Noddy! He manages to go about his usual day at first, ferrying his passengers around Toy Village but when he returns home for lunch Mr Plod is waiting for him! He is spotted by the policeman but drives off in a hurry – buying a sandwich for lunch before taking Tessie Bear to the fair. She isn’t too concerned about gallivanting about with a wanted criminal, she just worries that Mr Plod may find them at the fair.

Bumpy Dog turns up at the fair too and makes himself somewhat useful fetching hats which have blown off in the continuing winds. Suddenly a lot happens all at once. Mr Plod arrives at the fair and loses his helmet to the wind. Bumpy Dog catches the helmet and runs off with it. Noddy and Tessie Bear try to evade Mr Plod and run into old Saucepan Man (the same Saucepan Man as lives in The Faraway Tree perhaps?). They’ve met him before apparently – and Ee-aw his donkey – but that must have happened in one of the books I haven’t yet read. Anyway, at this point Noddy also realises he’s lost all his money through a hole in his pocket and decides to go looking for it.

So we have Mr Plod searching for Noddy, Noddy searching for his lost money and Bumpy Dog running about with the policeman’s helmet.

Noddy’s search for his money is fruitless but Ee-aw allows him and Tessie to ride for free and they do so, Noddy making up a song to sing along the way. (Not the most discrete behaviour when you’re hiding from the police but such a Noddy thing to do.) It’s mentioned that the Saucepan Man is almost deaf from the saucepans he sells clanging so I think he must be the same character – Blyton does do that on occasion especially with her fantasy stories, crossing over characters.

Bumpy Dog returns minus the helmet, and gives Noddy some of the pennies he had earned by catching so many hats and so he and Tessie Bear head over to the coconut shy for a turn. One of the coconuts has a face painted on it and a familiar blue helmet on top…

After winning themselves a coconut they hear the bad news that Mr Plod has managed to find Noddy’s car even if he couldn’t find the little toy himself. He has taken off the steering wheel so that Noddy can’t drive his car and Noddy is furious.

I’ll get his helmet and stamp on it! I’ll pull off his buttons!

Thankfully Big Ears is a bit more sensible than Noddy and points out he’d end up in jail alongside his steering wheel if he did that. Noddy hatches an alternative plan instead, when he sees Mr Plod getting a ride on the roundabout all on his own. He bribes the roundabout man into giving Mr Plod a very long ride indeed, and when he goes off to buy some food Noddy speeds up the roundabout to make Mr Plod giddy and sick.

The roundabout man rescues him at last but it’s Tessie Bear that manages to persuade him to give up the steering wheel – by promising to show him where his helmet it. Instead of being grateful he’s furious at the coconut made to look like himself and scares everyone at the fair into hiding – while Noddy and Tessie Bear escape in Noddy’s car.

I kept expecting Noddy to have his comeuppance all the way through as he really behaves quite badly. I don’t exactly like Mr Plod either (neither do the residents of Toy Village if the coconut incident is anything to go by) but that doesn’t make Noddy’s behaviour OK. I swing back and forth over whether I like Noddy as I read these books and after this title the answer has to be ‘No’.

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Happy Birthday, Enid!

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Fiona

Having been born in 1897, it would be Enid Blyton’s 118th birthday today. I think that’s the perfect excuse to celebrate with a piece (or indeed pieces) of cake. Don’t you?

Virtual cake to celebrate with

Virtual cake to celebrate with

Posted in Enid Blyton | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Monday Madness

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Fiona

“Here we are again, as happy as can be, all good friends and jolly good company”

Did you like my singing? It sounds a bit like nails down a chalk board really, which is a shame. However it is Monday again, more of an excuse for me to stop singing and deafening everyone! Hope your weekends went well. We’ve been getting used to our new schedule here at World of Blyton. I hope it worked for you?

This week however, we will be posting a Sunday blog as one came in from the lovely Laura who has been re-reading The Adventurous Four and has done a smashing review for us!

Fiona isn’t quite sure what she’ll do this week, as she’s just moved into her new flat and has yet to unpack her masses of books!

I’m trying to power through Circus of Adventure to review for you, and I shall try and have it done by blogging day.

And with that, I don’t think we have any more news for you. I hope you enjoy our blogs this week, don’t forget we are taking contributions still!

I shall leave you with a picture from my walk at Bourne End yesterday. Hope you like it!

The River Thames at Bourne End.

The River Thames at Bourne End.

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How to Throw a Famous Five Party

Posted on August 7, 2015 by pippastef

I know I know, I have failed to bring you a review of The Circus of Adventure  yet again, but I’m sure you’d rather I’d had a refreshing read of it, before I wrote about it. This means that I’m going to write about how to throw a Blyton party based on the children’s events I’ve been doing at work for a year or so now.

These events are mostly for children aged 5 to 8 but I’m sure they can be adapted for older children as well, and even for adults if you were that way inclined!

For the preparation, I would take a look at our recipes on the blog (which can be found a little way down this page) and see what Blyton inspired food you’d like to make for your party. Don’t forget the two most important things however; sandwiches (and plenty of them!) and ginger beer or lemonade! Those are what make a Blyton feast – don’t leave them out of yours!

I used this picture for the

I used this picture for the “Name the Five” part of the activity, but you can use whatever picture you want!

To start off, I always ask the children if they know the Famous Five, and can they name all of them by sticking the names on a picture of the Five. I chose a picture from the 90s TV series for this part as I’m sure the children would respond better to real people rather than Eileen Soper’s lovely drawings. Of course for older children or adults you can use the illustrations.

To make the name tags I just wrote the names out large on a word processing document and printed them out and cut them up.

The children then use blu-tack to stick the names over the character and hopefully, they’ll have got them all right. On Monday we had a bit of confusion over who was George and who was Dick and then who was Dick and who was Julian, but we got there in the end. They all seemed pretty clued up that the dog was Timmy though and that Anne was the one in a dress!  If you’re making it a big party, make sure you have a couple of sets for this part and make sure you organize the children into teams! We don’t want any squabbles now, do we?

IMAG0808So the next part is all done with paper plates and felt-tip pens. Weaving a story into the party you say that now the Famous Five have introduced themselves, that you’re all off on a picnic. Using the paper plates the children design their own picnic, drawing what they would like to eat on a plate. Usually you get some pretty samey things coming up but you do get the odd weird thing. I’ve had “blue raspberry lemonade” come up before. Now that certainly wasn’t in any Blyton book.

However the children can get quite creative, and its lovely to see the way they come up with all the yummy things that they would take on a picnic. Its a good one for adults too, because often they haven’t drawn in years and this is a chance to get back into the swing of things.

The next part of the story would be that after the picnic, George and Julian have a row and George storms off, just like Five Go Off to Camp for example. I have never worked out a reason why they row, but you can fill that in yourself. Following on from that the story then turns into “George gets kidnapped!” again, haven’t worked out a reason why, but you know children aren’t all that into detail at lot of the time. But if you can think of a reason please feel free to put it in.

The Treasure hunt tags with the clues as to George's whereabouts are spelt out!

The Treasure hunt tags with the clues as to George’s whereabouts are spelt out!

Now comes the hard work part. Before the party you will need to get some pieces of paper, or in my case I used parcel tags that were on offer in Hobbycraft last year, and write the letters of the place George is being held prisoner on them. One letter on each tag or piece of paper. Then, using blu- tack, you need to hide them all over your available space. The bigger the better, because you have more options on where to hide them then. Tell the children that they can help find George, but they must go and find these clues! In my adventure the letters spell out “Kirrin Island dungeon”. Also if you want, try and find a map of Kirrin Village. If you have the 2014 Famous Five Annual, I believe there is a map of the village in there.

With the clues all collected, try and let them  spell it out themselves, but ultimately if you need to, do some steering. I usually tell them to look at the map and see if there are any letters on it that match what they have. The “K” tag is a good place to start as if you’re basing your adventure in Kirrin, it helps them get the first word.

Jemima as George, with her curly hair. Doesn't she look grand?

Jemima as George, with her curly hair. Doesn’t she look grand?

When they’ve worked out your clue the next part is to “find and rescue George”. I do this by having a picture of George put up somewhere for the children to find. This obviously helps if you have a big space, as again, they have to work harder to find her. I use a picture of Jemima Rooper to tie in with the picture at the beginning where they have to name all the Five, but feel free to use any picture you want.

After that its a simple case of doing a collage on a line drawing of Timmy the dog. I found a picture a year ago now that I’ve been using, but I can’t find a replica on  google now. So I’ve found an alternative which can be found here. You will need glue sticks and scissors for this part and please just be careful of little fingers and scissors! They do produce some masterpieces I can tell you!

So there you are, that’s how to host a Famous Five party! Let me know if you give it a try, I’d like to know how it goes!

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The Island of Adventure – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 12

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Fiona

The first week of our new schedule hasn’t quite gone to plan. Tonight I settled down to  review Cheer Up, Little Noddy for you. Unfortunately when I opened the book I discovered it started on page 19. Nearly a third of the book was missing so I didn’t really feel I could review it! Thinking quickly I decided to just skip to the next book in the series before my brain caught up with itself and remembered all my other Noddys (in fact almost all my books) are in my new flat. Thankfully the half-dozen books I’ve still got here include two copies of The Island of Adventure so I’ve been able to get on with comparing them. 

Oh – and to add to the generally disastrous feeling of the evening as I went to start this post I discovered that last time I forgot to change the title of the post and therefore did two part tens. I’ve fixed it now, though, so onwards and upwards. 

Previous parts (correctly numbered!) are one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and eleven.

My own copy of the book is an 8th impression from 1955 (it was my mum’s before it was mine) and the modern copy I’m comparing it to is a Macmillan one from 2001 (one I borrowed from Stef).

Reading both and taking notes
Island of Adventure Millennium edition by Larry Ronstant

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: AN EXTRAORDINARY FIND

Our first change this chapter is on the usual lines of gender equality. Jack originally says that If I were a girl, I bet I’d burst into tears. It has become If I were a baby. After that, he had said But as I’m a boy, I must just grin and bear it. That doesn’t make so much sense now that boy has become baby so it has been changed to but I won’t do it. I must just grin and bear it. It’s funny sometimes how they try to stick to exactly the same wording with one word replaced and other times they feel the need to rewrite things. To stick nearer the text it could have been But as I’m not, I must… or But as I’m grown-up/older, I must…

Much like in our purses one-pound notes have been done away with in the modern edition. Jack had found bundles of one-pound notes along with bundles of five- and ten-pound notes but now he just finds the fives and tens, which apparently are enough to make people rich beyond their wildest dreams. If we’re sensibly updating here, surely there would need to be twenties/fifties/hundreds there? I mean… who bothers mass-counterfeiting fivers and tenners these days?

Lastly the only queer has become strange.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: A BAD TIME – AND A SURPRISE MEETING

Bucking the trend this time, and we’ve gained a hyphen where half starved becomes half-starved. We also get a new alternative to queer – mysterious, and another instance of queer is simply removed rather than being replaced.

And finally they’ve decided to rewrite another sentence instead of just replacing a word. The original line reads his voice breaking in a queer way, with joy and relief. It’s now his voice breaking in a great gasp of joy and relief. Again, to stick closer to the original text it could simply have become his voice breaking in a strange way. Or even his voice breaking with joy and relief. I really hate how the editors think they know how to write better than an author as successful as Blyton.

I’m going to count that as seven changes which brings us to 117 in total. Just three chapters to go now, and Goodreads informs me I’m 87% of the way through the book.

 

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First Monday of August

Posted on August 3, 2015 by Fiona

From this week we’re going to have a different posting schedule. Our current one worked just fine for us for the past year or so but at the moment things are very quiet on the contributor front and we’re struggling to fill our Wednesday slot. With that in mind we’ve decided to change things about so that we’ll do our posts on Wednesday and Friday. That gives us the weekend off – though if anybody sends us anything we can post it on a Sunday.

That means this week’s schedule looks like this:

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One thing that won’t change is our Monday post complete with our usual photo gallery. This week’s aren’t my latest photos as they’re still on the camera but I’ve been out enough lately to have some others to use.

 

Not a very spectacular picture but I also saw my very first hare last week (and spent several minutes wondering what on earth it could be):

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Famous Five 90s Style: Five Fall Into Adventure

Posted on August 2, 2015 by pippastef

I, like Fiona, have not managed to bring you the promised blog this week. I really need two weeks head start to finish a book in time at the moment and what with one thing and another (extra shifts at work, interviews, meetings etc) I haven’t had chance to even start The Circus of Adventure, so you’re getting a review of Five Fall into Adventure 90s style instead.

So to start off, I’m going to make myself sound like a parrot and say that like most of the other episodes, and I’m afraid that this one needs it most of all, we needed at least two episodes. Two twenty-five minute episodes to really, really get all the juicy detail and plot twists and turns out of it. Its rushed, its lacking elegance. We barely get to meet Jo the Gypsy girl before we’re expected to trust her implicitly.

Also, I’m sorry, Jo and George look nothing alike in this adaption (And if I’m honest, they looked nothing alike in the 70s adaption either). It would take some stretch of the imagination to think that Jemima Rooper (George) and Vanessa Cavanagh (Jo) to be described as almost identical. Some of the jokes that Blyton has Dick and Julian say in the book fall flat on their faces in the TV episode because of this stark difference between the girls. 

We start off the episode, getting a good look at Red Tower, and we’re in no doubt that this menacing looking man is  villain, and up to no good. Actually all the villains in this episode are well done. Simmy and Jake are not comic as Perton was in the last episode, Red Tower is creepy and frightening and Markoff is downright scary. In fact he’s probably the scariest of them all! I think its such a shame we didn’t get to see more of them, and get a chance for them to really settle into their characters more. This could have really made the episode ten times better.

Five Fall into Adventure is one of my least favourite books, and that’s only really because it takes so long to get going with any real vigor. The arrival of Jo is fairly late on in the book, and her real significance isn’t known until much later when George and Timmy disappear.

What we also lose in this adaption is the growing fondness between Dick and Jo after the initial conflict where he mistakes her for a boy and gives her a bruise on her chin when he punches her for trying to take on George. For the time we have, Paul Child and Vanessa Cavanagh do very well, even though Cavanagh’s Jo remains quite aloof and prickly, whereas in the books, Jo begins to really trust and connect with Dick. I think as well as needing the time to set this up, what was really needed here was a bit more maturity in both actors, I think in the second series they could have managed it much better, and produced a much better result. A lot more of a believable result as well. Some people like to imagine a hint of romance with Dick and Jo from what’s said in the book (I’m afraid I disagree) and you really can’t get that feeling from the episode.

Another point about the actors needing to be older: Julian in the books has a lot of responcibilty given to him as his Aunt and Uncle have to disappear to Spain for a holiday and Joan/Joanna the cook looks at him to assume the male role in this house – such as locking up. I also think that Fanny and Quentin are expecting him to step up to the plate as well, and be in control. In the book he does this very well (he’s a mature for a 16 year old (its mentioned in the earlier editions of the book how old he is)) but I’m afraid to say that this falls short for Marco Williamson. Williamson does his best but unfortunately this is something that would have been more authentic in the second season because he not only would have looked more the part but had the grandeur to carry it off.

68d339edebe5ea8ade459741d3d88dfeFor one of my least favourite books I do feel that this episode is well structured and well turned out for the time frame that they have. There is just too much to fit into one episode however, like many other of the episodes we’ve had a look at. I don’t think that there is a Blyton fan out there who would disagree with me.

Anyway, view the episode here, and let me know what you think! Happy viewing!

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Reblog: 10 Signs You Read Too Much Enid Blyton as a Child

Posted on July 31, 2015 by Fiona

This is not what I promised to bring you today but in my defence I have been busy lugging my enormous book collection to my new flat. I nearly packed the Noddy I planned to review – it’s one of about six books I’ve left here to keep me going – but in the end I just ran out of time.

So what I am doing is bringing you what I promised to on Wednesday and forgot (that’s a whole other story though.)

Stef and I spotted this on Buzzfeed (a dangerous site where a casual visit loses you several hours of your life as you jump from one list to the next) and while most of the 10* ring true we can’t possibly agree with the idea that there can be TOO MUCH Enid Blyton. It’s not possible!

*Sorry, I don’t really like ginger beer.

Anyway, you can read for yourself and see how many you agree with (and if you win any points at #1.)

10 Signs You Read Too Much Enid Blyton As A Child

Brought up on the Famous Five and The Twins At St Clare’s? You might find most of this familiar…

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Disclaimer: Buzzfeed is a site for grown-ups so other articles may not be suitable for a younger audience.

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Last Monday in July

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Fiona

Well well well! Its the end of July! July! Where has this month gone?! We’re in the middle of summer already and the dreaded D-month is fast approaching. Madness.

So given that we’ve got one more week left on July I best tell you what we’ve got for you this week. We’re going to do a bit of a reblog, or article sharing as I’m sure its more like, for our Wednesday blog. Don’t forget, we’re looking for contributions for the blog!  Please don’t forget to send us any thing you think we would like.

Fiona will be reviewing Cheer Up Little Noddy on Friday, and I shall try and do my best to read and finish reading The Circus of Adventure to continue my Adventure series reviews.

Also this week, we shall be creating a letter to approach the National Trust and English Heritage about purchasing Old Thatch (see Fiona’s blog last week). Please email the blog with a picture or a scan of your signature if you wish to have it added to the letter. The address for those of you who need reminding is worldofblytonblog@hotmail.com please do send us an email if you wish the house to be open to the public.

Anyway thats it for today, so I shall leave you with some nice sunset pictures I took the other day when I was out for a cycle ride. Hope you like them!

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Making Blyton’s Food: Victoria sponge

Posted on July 26, 2015 by pippastef

I’ve been back in the kitchen again, creating a cake that I think is an important part of Blyton’s food. I can’t think of an instance at this moment in time where Victoria Sponge is mentioned by name, but its certainly in the book by Jane Brocket. However I decided to try a recipe from a household name this week, the one and only Delia Smith.

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The recipe is taken from Delia’s Complete Cookery Course, The Classic Edition.  A book that I initially  looked at for finding recipes, but I hadn’t marked the page for the Victoria Sponge.

The ingredients that you will need for Delia’s Vicky Sponge are as follows:

  • 4oz or 110g of Butter, at room temperature
  • 4oz of 110g of caster sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • a few drops of pure vanilla essence (I used vanilla extract)
  • 4oz or 100g of self rising flour

    And to finish:

  • Jam of your preferred flavour (I chose raspberry for a change)
  • Sifted icing sugar.

I also chose to whip up some whipping cream to put between the layers with the jam. Yummy!

So here are the (modified) instructions for those of you who do not have the delightful Delia’s book at home:

  1. Preheat the oven to gas-mark 3, 325F or 170C
  2. Take your two sponge tins, and grease them and line the bases with greaseproof paper.
  3. In a mixing bowl (you won’t need a very big one) cream the butter and sugar together until you get a pale, fluffy mixture that drops off the spoon easily. You can use an electric whisk to speed this part up but a wooden spoon will do! (You’ll have amazing muscles afterwards if you use the spoon).
  4. In a separate jug or bowl beat the eggs together thoroughly.
  5. Then add them a little at a time, beating well after each addition (If you’re a beginner, Delia recommends a teaspoon at a time, beating after each addition so the mixture won’t curdle).
  6. When the eggs have been added, stir in a few drops of vanilla essence (or extract) with a metal spoon as it cuts and folds the flour in better than a wooden spoon).
  7. Have the flour in a sieve resting on a plate, then lift the sieve high above the bowl and sift about a quarter of the flour into the mixture and fold in. Then repeat until you’ve used up all your flour. The mixture should now drop easily off the spoon when you tap it on the side of the bowl. If it doesn’t, add 1-2 teaspoons of hot water.
  8. Divide the mixture equally between the two tins. If you want to get it exactly right, use scales to weigh how much mixture goes into each. Don’t worry about this if you’re happy with one sponge being marginally thicker than the other.
  9. Place them on the centre shelf in the oven, and they’ll take about 25-30 minutes to cook. When they are cooked the centres will feel springy when lightly touched and  no imprint remains.
  10. Then removed them from the oven and after about a minute, removed them from their baking tins, loosening the edges with a palette knife first.
  11. This tip is one that comes from a majorly talented baker friend of mine, who when I asked how do you get the two pieces to go together without having the usual problem of the rounded top of the cake, she said; when they’re fresh out of the oven, just turn one  over, and leave it to cool on the rounded side so that its flat. So that’s what I did and spread the jam and cream on the bottom of the flipped slice before sandwiching the two cakes together to make a delicious Victoria Sponge.

So, let me know how your own cake adventures go, and I shall tell you how yummy my own creation is tomorrow when I get to break into it with my Godmother and parents for tea time!

I can’t wait!

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Five Go Adventuring Again: An exciting audio dramatisation

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Fiona

This is one of the CDs I got free from The Daily Telegraph years ago when they were running a promotion. The only differences between this one and the one that you can buy in the stores is that this only has a paper sleeve and the story is split into two tracks rather than six or so chapters.

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This is one of the CDs where the actress playing George has also played Anne on other recordings. This gives the unfortunate side effect of her always sounding like Anne to me – even if she plays George a little more forcefully.

Julian and Dick have the same actors as the audio of Five Go Off to Camp. That means it’s Dick with a bit of a lisp but that never bothers me as I had that as a cassette tape as a kid and listened to it all the time.

Uncle Quentin is very jolly sounding at the start of the story and sounds quite friendly throughout. He rather lacks the snappish tone you expect from a stressed and over-worked scientist.

Mr Roland is fine, he sounds fairly authoritarian without sounding outright evil. If he sounded too much of a baddie it would have given the game away! One of the two artists (revealed to be Mr Thomas) has an accent – I think it’s Australian but I’m pretty bad with accents. It’s a little jarring actually, alongside the other voices. There’s no mention in the books that Mr Wilton or Mr Thomas has any sort of accent.

There’s not a huge cast in this story – there aren’t many characters in the book itself as they’re rather cut off in Kirrin especially once it snows. The only other characters in either the audio or the book are Mr and Mrs Sanders who are appropriately old and friendly sounding.

Timmy has reverted back to being awful unfortunately. If I had listened to these audios in some sort of order I wonder if I would find more of a pattern to the voice actors and Timmy-effects. As it is they seem to jump back and forth and swap around a great deal. It would have been wonderful if the same cast could have recorded all the stories.

Yet again I made some notations which haven’t made it into the blog – purely because I made them to check whether or not they appeared like that in the book and the answers turned out to be yes. It’s funny how listening to some sentences (this time including Anne calling her parents Mummy and Daddy, and Uncle Quentin holding his papers like a precious baby) is enough to make you question them. I then check the book and most of the time I then go ‘oh, so that IS in the book. Huh.’

 

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Monday

Posted on July 20, 2015 by Fiona

This week has brought a lot of Blyton-y things into my life (along with rather too much rain for my liking).

Firstly my latest journal arrived from the Enid Blyton Society – #57 Summer 2015 to be precise. In the editorial there’s an interesting tidbit – The Secret Series is to be republished by Hodder early next year but they are skipping The Secret Mountain as it’s too ‘un-pc’. Well you can imagine how I feel about that!

Next I headed to The March House Books shop and took advantage of their closing down sale (65% off everything!). There weren’t any Blytons left that I didn’t already have (I was clearly too slow) but I did get a Malcolm Saville, two Angela Brazils and an adventure tale by Doris Pocock.

After that I bought two books from a fellow forumite – Tales at Bedtime and The Three Golliwogs. I don’t usually go for Dean editions but I couldn’t resist this one even with its scribbled on cover. The original edition is very expensive and often the Dean is too. Probably because it’s so un-pc. The Dean edition has updated their names of course (I think they were Gollie, Wollie and Nigger? originally) but apart from that it’s the same. More recent versions have seen the book become The Three Pixies which is just a bit too far from what Blyton actually wrote for me.

Finally this morning I saw the news (thanks to Stef) that the Hawthornes are selling Old Thatch (take the Blyton details in the article with a pinch of salt as many of them are wrong). It has a hefty price tag of £1.85 million though, so I don’t think I will put an offer in unfortunately.

Anyway, coming up this week on the blog:

06-07 blog (2)

Wednesday is a question mark as we don’t have a contributor this week (unless someone sends us something by Tuesday night?).

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The Island of Adventure – How has Blyton’s original text fared in a modern edition? part 11

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Fiona

I managed to get through three chapters again this week, this time 22, 23 and 24. Only five more to go, now! The rest of the series is here, in posts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten.

My copy of the book is an 8th impression from 1955 (it was my mum’s before it was mine) and the modern copy I’m comparing it to is a Macmillan one from 2001 (one I borrowed from Stef).

Reading both and taking notes
Island of Adventure Millennium edition by Larry Ronstant

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: A TALK WITH BILL – AND A SHOCK

Again the wireless set is now called a radio, and then the wireless is referred to as the set. 

They’ve cut a sentence from where Philip fiddled with the wireless too. Originally it reads He twiddled one or two knobs. Music came from the wireless when he twiddled one knob. A Morse code came from it when he twiddled another one. In the updated version the middle sentence is cut for no apparent reason.

Also, his dialogue after that is then altered. He originally asks Y2 Do you want to leave a message for Bill? as he speaks to him over the wireless. This has become Do you want me to leave a message for Bill? It’s a completely pointless change as it doesn’t make the meaning any clearer.

Lastly they continue the trend of doing away with hyphens and stock-still becomes stockstill (which my spell checker does not like).

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: ANOTHER SECRET PASSAGE

Going on the past few chapters it seems the editor’s goals have changed from removing all traces of queer to simply reducing the number of times it occurs. It’s in this chapter three times – the first time it gets removed and the queer little tower room becomes just the little tower room, but when looking at the queer old map or one queer map it’s left alone.

A line gets cut from this chapter too, from when Bill goes to sit by the window after Philip has gone to bed. He lit a cigarette and thought for a long time is missing – I suppose our hero can’t smoke in case he passes on his bad habit to the readers.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: A JOURNEY UNDER THE SEA

There were four queers in this chapter, and the editors left one – in queer phosphorescent lights. Queer lights became strange lights though, in a queer place became peculiar and rather queer is now rather odd.

The reddish rocks in the secret passage are corrected to greenish, so far that’s been entirely consistent at least.

The biggest changes are made to the paragraph when Bill and Philip are to go down the well. The girls were not to go has become The girls did not go (even though at this point no-one has gone). The first line does sound like it could have been an order that they were not to go, but it doesn’t actually say that Bill or Philip forbade them. After that they are no longer terrified of going (though Dinah says it would be beastlier to go down than stay behind) as indeed, the thought of going down the steep, cold well-shaft with only insecure staples for a foot- and hand-hold was terrifying to both of them becomes a much milder and less interesting indeed, neither of them like the thought of going down the steep, cold well-shaft with only insecure staples for a foot- and hand-hold.

The editor seems to have woken up a little for these chapters and we’ve got 5 unique changes. That doesn’t seem like a lot compared to some chapters but considering two of them were lines completely cut out and two were sentences completely re-written then it’s a fair bit. If I was counting every word that was altered I’d be here all day. And of course there are plenty of alterations I don’t count at the end as they’ve been made numerous times already.

Anyway, we’re at 110 changes now. (And about 100 too many?)

 

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Famous Five 90s Style: Five Get Into Trouble

Posted on July 17, 2015 by pippastef

This book is one of the more complex books when you get down to the characters and in a ways, although thrilling, the plot is sort of secondary. The characters and their interactions are what makes up for most of the story.

Richard Kent played by Stuart Piper

Richard Kent played by Stuart Piper

Especially with the introduction of the bothersome Richard Kent. Richard Kent is one of my least favourite characters in the series and he comes across just as badly in the 90s TV series. In fact, even though I’m sure the actor, Stuart Piper, tried his absolute best, there is no way to stop Richard Kent from being an odious little tick. Undoubtedly he does a marvelous job of making Richard so believably unlikeable that he must be commended. It is not a job I would have wanted. I wonder if Piper had read the books before he got the part because he really does a good job, if at times a little cringey at playing the spineless Richard.

This episode is very much one where Julian’s reputation for bossiness comes from, but also his humanity because he wants to give the spineless Richard a blooming great shake, but restrains himself. This doesn’t really come across with Williamson; Julian just comes across as an impatient school boy, and his attitude towards Richard is mostly one that reminds me of bullying. Dick and George don’t have much patience with him either, and Anne is the only one who might have a modicum of patience with him. There is a sense that Richard is the same age as Anne or younger, which may explain his arrogance, but doesn’t excuse the Five’s impatience with him.

I feel especially sorry for Richard during the scene just after Dick is kidnapped (outstanding fighting from Paul Child there, really looked like he got a few good bruises on those nasty villains), and asks to be taken home. He is genuinely terrified of Rooky and the others pay him no heed. Unfortunately emotions are running high because Dick has just been carted off to God knows where, but there is still a lack of understanding for Richard.

The rest of the story plays out very well in a way, most of the details are there, such as Timmy getting locked out of the house, and the discovery of the secret room are all nice touches. However when Julian sneaks out of the room the children have been sent to sleep in, and creeps off to find Dick and doesn’t explain to him how he came to be there is frustrating. I know its all down to the timing again, and its different in the book when you can skate over all the little facts and things, but still, all that effort not even to tell your brother how clever you were to find him? That’s a very un-Julianish thing to do!

Anyway I’ve come this far and not said a word about our villians. Like many of the other episodes they have come out comedic. The smooth, dangerous Perton is reduced to a sniveling, cack-handed idiot who can’t really form a plan and just seems to be more muscle. He doesn’t really seem dangerous, which is what Perton is in the book. His book alter-ego really gives the ideas that he is the brains of the outfit and Rooky is the brawn. This gets swapped around in the TV episode. Rooky manages to become the brains of the outfit, deciding that Richard’s kidnap will help them blackmail his father into helping them get rid of the diamonds they have stolen.

So overall, its a fairly decent episode, apart from the points I’ve mentioned. Some of them are purely down to time, and some are down to how well certain things would translate onto the screen and for a young audience and in those circumstances you can’t really complain. Still it would be nice, once again to have a little longer than 25 minutes for the episode. Its not my favourite one, mostly because its one of the ones that makes me cringe the most, but well worth a watch, even just for the eye-rolling at the holes in the plot!

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