The Enid Blyton Society

Billy Farmer wrote:I have got the edited version of The Castle of Adventure, on DVD, but I am watching the full version, which I downloaded from YouTube.

Thanks for mentioning this, Billy! Nigel gave me a VHS tape of The Castle of Adventure many moons ago, but when I had the tape in hand, I didn't have access to a VCR, but now that I have access to a VCR, I don't have the tape! YouTube will be such a life saver.

Good to know you take such special care of my presents.

I enjoyed watching episodes 5 & 6 of The Castle of Adventure, this afternoon, only two more episodes to see, below is a screencap of Susan George (from The Castle of Adventure).



The screencap above, was done from the edited version of The Castle of Adventure, but in the full version of The Castle of Adventure, which can be seen on YouTube, the above screencap, would have been from episode 2.

As a matter of interest, I have never heard of the term screencap before. Is this industry jargon?

It's short for screen capture. Capturing a still image from a recording, usually.

Thanks for making that clear Fiona. I was also wondering about that.

Machupicchu14 wrote:Thanks for making that clear Fiona. I was also wondering about that.

Just came across this random comment of mine..

About the main topic, I tried watching "The Castle of Adventure" when I was small, and I don't exactly remember much about it, but I somehow stopped watching it (I have a feeling I didn't like how some of the characters were portrayed). Anyway, maybe now that I am older, I will give it a try and watch it, I've been reading the posts and it seems it's a good adaptation. (I might wait sometime, as I have just finished the New Zealand Adventure Series, so that I may enjoy watching an Adventure Series adaptation all over again)

I think it's the best single adaptation of a Blyton book and it's kind of amazing that they chose to make an 8 part series.

I wrote an article for the journal about it a few years ago where about 20 members of the cast and crew agreed to share their memories. Why they were willing to speak to a nobody like me is a mystery, but a thoroughly fine group of people.

I'm sure I've read that, Nicko. Wasn't there some issue with Susan George and that's why she's rapidly written out of the last few episodes?

Ah, yes. The funny thing about writing that article was that you realize that everybody involved had slightly different memories of the making and very often their memories contradicted each other.

Apparently Susan George wanted to have time off to go to a party though, and when that was refused she got a doctor's note to say that she wasn't well enough to film.

Was fascinating to finally learn the real reason behind Susan's departure. Also, interesting to note that her screen roles dwindled thereafter... I guess the acting industry doesn't easily forget those kind of diva antics!

Incidentally, the first episode went out thirty years ago today!

Susan George's film-company in 1990-1 was in fact involved with plans to do some historical drama films as well, so this may have been another reason - I was in talks at one point to write some of the scripts, but the project ran into the sand and was postponed. This would have been a medieval thriller, rather like ' Braveheart' to look at.

I'd have liked to see more TV films of the Adventure series of her as Mrs Mannering as I think she fitted the part well, and the teenage actors were good too; the Castle film showed that you did not need to change that much to make a reasonably modern adaptation. The Sea of Adventure could have been done as a crime thriller with speedboats, helicopters etc without altering the plot much - Enid was very up to date with her use of modern artefacts in the plot. But finding some tame puffins that would stay around long enough or perch on people's heads in the water to hide them from watching criminals might have been a bit difficult!