The Castle Of Adventure Film, 1990

[blytonseeker]

The secret series has been released on DVD but only in dutch!!!

I'm lucky enough to have the whole set in English after begging and begging and begging....

[Susie]

The secret series has been released on DVD but only in dutch!!!

I'm lucky enough to have the whole set in English after begging and begging and begging....

How did you manage that?

[blytonseeker]

I begged cloud 9 over and over again. In the end they gave me a couple of the films on production tapes and the others I got from someone else and we each completed our set. I gave him what he didn't have an vice versa.

These things are impossible to get hold of...so sharing was the best option!!!

Cloud 9 didn't have any intentions of releasing them on dvd at all, so i was somewhat surprised to see the dutch release!

I preferred the Adventure Series though....

[dsr]

You don't have any access to commercial recording devices, I suppose?

They were broadcast on British TV a few years back, because I remember seeing part of one. The best hope for a copy would probably be if anyone video'd them at the time.

[Eljay]

We are actually doing a feature on these two films on the Enid Blyton Day.

*Gets very excited*

Excellent - I'd not reaslised Susan George had walked out half way through - do you know why?

According to Gillian Baverstock, the change from Allie to Aunt Jane was due to the serious and unexpected illness of Susan George. Hence they came up with the 'sick grandmother' plotline! As films are usually shot out-of-sequence, the ending unfortunately had to be filmed without her as she was still too ill to make an appearance at that time. When I first saw the series I was rather disappointed that Allie didn't return at the end of the story to say that her mother was well again!

Incidentally, I was saddened to hear of the death of Gareth Hunt (Bill Cunningham) on March 14th, aged 65.

[Eljay]

Hi everyone
I'm new here - just discovered the site a couple of weeks ago - although I have been a Blyton fan for over 20 years (I'm 29).

I think a DVD release of Castle of Adventure is well overdue. I have got the VHS release from the early 1990s, but I believe that cuts were made of approximately 30 minutes.

I recorded it off TV at the time of the broadcast - so whenever I watch it I don't bother with the official video. Although my off-air recording is getting a little worse for wear 15 years on!

best wishes
John

A DVD of this excellent series would indeed be most welcome, but I'm afraid it's highly unlikely as the copyright situation for programmes made by the long-defunct company TVS is very complicated...

[George@Kirrin]

Anyone spotted the mistake with Kiki

Jack, when presented with some seed says "Great, I'll put it in his cge, he'll like that"

The later "I call her Kiki, she calls me Jack"

Little gender confusion going on...

[Nicko]

I know that this has received a few mentions on the forum but I thought that it deserved its own thread...

Having watched the abridged version of this production recently it struck me that it's a great shame that it's not currently available and has been forgotten by many. I can only presume that it had a very big budget at the time as the production values are excellent and it features a very strong cast. The child actors all do a good job and having Brian Blessed, Gareth Hunt, Susan George and Richard Ridings involved lends the whole affair more credibility. The soundtrack helps to create more tension and the changes that were made to the book's plot are all understandable and don't detract from the story at all. As it was originally an eight part series, it also had the time to do full justice to EB's original book.

Does anyone have any more info on the production? For example, has a DVD release ever been discussed (even if only by the fans)? Were there ever any plans to make further series? Have any of the crew or child stars ever commented on the show (obviously I know that Rosie Marcel is now a major TV actress but for some of the other actors I think this was the closest that they ever came to stardom)?

Merging this thread with an older thread on the "Castle of Adventure" film. Welcome to the forums, Nicko! - Anita

[Eddie Muir]

Welcome to the forums, Nicko.

A DVD release of the 1990 film version of The Castle of Adventure would certainly be a welcome addition to anybody's Enid Blyton collection, but I don't know of any plans for its release.

Here is a link with some information about the film:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369317/fullcredits

[Tony Summerfield]

I am not quite sure where it is, but somewhere in an old Journal I did a short piece about this. They had actually been intending to film The Ship of Adventure, it was fully cast (Topol was going to be Mr Eppy) and all the scripts had been sent out, but just before filming was due to start they ran into location trouble. It was being filmed just off the coast of what was then Yugoslavia and the war started which made this a complete no-go area. The Castle of Adventure was hurriedly brought in as a replacement.

Ted Francis who wrote the script of the 'Ship' was due to be a speaker at one of our Enid Blyton Days. One of our most awkward moments as the audience was all ready and he never turned up!!

[Nicko]

Thanks for the replies and apologies for the fact that I didn't see that there was already a thread devoted to this film.

A shame to read that a DVD is unlikely and also to hear that Ted Francis' no show means that relatively little is known about this production.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Thanks for the replies and apologies for the fact that I didn't see that there was already a thread devoted to this film.

Don't worry - after all this time I couldn't remember much about what people had said about the film so it was nice to dredge up the thread, re-read it and add today's posts to it.

[Red Tower]

Ted Francis who wrote the script of the 'Ship' was due to be a speaker at one of our Enid Blyton Days. One of our most awkward moments as the audience was all ready and he never turned up!!

Name rings a bell. Was he Jeffrey Archer's friend? I wonder if he was too busy supplying an alibi....