Famous Five 90s Series

[Chrissie777]

The ones that are only one part feel crammed in and far too rushed, the two parters had a much better pace and of course, they could end on a cliffhanger, a guaranteed way of making sure you'll come back to watch the next instalment of something! They really missed a trick there .

I feel the same about the series. Two parters for each episode would have done better justice to the books.

[Rob Houghton]

I agree - I much prefer the slower pace of the two-parters. Smuggler's Top is one of my favourites in the 1990's series, because it was in two parts, the same with Billycock Hill.

[KEVP]

One thing I thought about with the 90s series (also I imagine for the 70s series, which I haven't seen) is that the UK has strict laws about child labor in the entertainment industry. I think children can only work 4 hours a day. So that means that a show about children takes twice as long (or longer!) to shoot than a show where the characters are adults. This shortage of time may have been why most of the books were just crammed into short half-hour episodes.

[Chrissie777]

Good point!

[Deej92]

Complete opposite for me. I love this series but I do wish all the episodes had been two parters, it would have allowed for them to put in more details from the books and stick truer to them. The ones that are only one part feel crammed in and far too rushed, the two parters had a much better pace and of course, they could end on a cliffhanger, a guaranteed way of making sure you'll come back to watch the next instalment of something! They really missed a trick there .

It's funny how we see things differently I prefer things short and sweet and I think that the one-part episodes worked just as well. All of the episodes were great though. My favourite has to be Five Get into a Fix. I love the location (my homeland), the characters and the storyline

[Carlotta King]

Love this one!
Again I wish it could've been snowy but that would have been impossible to do!
I love the mystery of the shimmering, its so thrilling. I think that's why Moon Castle is my favourite from the Secret series, because that's got mysterious shimmering in it too (and a creepy castle which is always good!).

The chap who plays Morgan was perfect I thought, he looked exactly like a big country farmer, but you could tell that he was kind too, underneath the loud voice and his seemingly unpleasant manner.

Aily was good too, completely different from the book but it worked very well, perhaps even better than the book!
When I read the book I always think of her as the bigger girl from the TV series rather than the very young sounding girl who hangs on to Julian!

And how did that bear topple out of the door when the door opened inwards?! he'd have fallen inwards surely!

[Nicko]

I would have thought that the decision to make a mixture of one and two-parters, was a bit of a no-brainer for the production company and ITV at the time. Making them all as two-parters would have required 42 episodes, which would have meant either two series of 22 and 20 or three series of 14.

If they had chosen the latter option, the cast would have been too old by the end of the run.

And if the channel had commissioned a series of 22 episodes, that would have been a massively ambitious undertaking and something that rarely happens in the U.K. for any drama series.

[Courtenay]

If they had chosen the latter option, the cast would have been too old by the end of the run.

Oh no, they wouldn't have been, surely? The Famous Five never age — everyone knows that.

[Deej92]

I've watched most of the first series now, although not in order. The only episodes I haven't watched are Five on Finniston Farm, Five Go Off to Camp, Five Have Plenty of Fun and Five Go to Smuggler's Top. Then I'm on to series two and after that, I think I'll start watching the 70s series

[Billy Farmer]

A long time, since I have watched the 1990's Famous Five TV series, I am now downloading (in order) some of the episodes from YouTube, will hopefully watch both parts of Five on a Treasure Island, this afternoon.

[Billy Farmer]

Enjoyed watching both parts of Five on a Treasure Island, this afternoon, I liked the cast, and the locations, were very good, the episodes were quite fast paced.

I like the 1990's Famous Five, TV series, but could never compare it, to the 1970's TV version, of the Famous Five, which is my favourite screen version of the Famous Five.

[Chrissie777]

Did you ever watch the 1957 CFF version, Billy?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blytons-F ... ure+island" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Billy Farmer]

Yes, Chrissie, I have seen the above version of Five on a Treasure Island, I can remember putting the DVD, on one afternoon, intending to watch only a few episodes, and I ended up watching all 8 episodes, a nice way to spend an afternoon.

[Machupicchu14]

That happened to me as well. I guess that it's very difficult to stop when you are seeing such an interesting movie I think the 1957 one is excellent.

Am I right in saying there is a 1964 version of one of the FF books, or is it another EB book. I'm not sure.

[Chrissie777]

This is the one and it's available on DVD, Maria Esther:

https://www.amazon.de/Enid-Blytons-Famo ... y+to+solve" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;