Recently found this snippet on Wikipedia.
"All the books apart from Five on a Treasure Island, Five Have a Mystery to Solve and Five Have Plenty of Fun were dramatised; the first two were excluded because the Children's Film Foundation still had the film and TV rights to the books (see below), and the third because it could not fit in the production schedule. Plans to make a third series which would have included this story plus new ones written purely for television were abandoned after the Blyton estate exercised its veto."
A third series would probably have rounded things off nicely.
Southern TV Famous Five Proposed Third Series
Yes, the beginning of "Treasure Island" (when Julian, Dick and Anne meet George for the first time and George is behaving very unfriendly) was mixed into the plot of "Kirrin Island again". And thus, the 1978 series' first episode "Five on Kirrin Island" was created.
Gary Russell (Dick) and the others were much disappointed about the Blyton estate's veto. Gary writes:
"... we were sad (we knew by now we would not be doing a third series because the Blyton Foundation had refused permission for us to write new adventures - imagine my annoyance when those bloody dreadful French Famous Five books materialised eighteen months later) ..."
I am a huge fan of the 1978 series and still a little sad that no third season was made.
Gary Russell (Dick) and the others were much disappointed about the Blyton estate's veto. Gary writes:
"... we were sad (we knew by now we would not be doing a third series because the Blyton Foundation had refused permission for us to write new adventures - imagine my annoyance when those bloody dreadful French Famous Five books materialised eighteen months later) ..."
I am a huge fan of the 1978 series and still a little sad that no third season was made.