Famous Five 90s Series

Discuss the television and film adaptations of Enid Blyton's stories.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Fiona1986 »

I also much prefer the 90s series.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Courtenay »

I've never watched much of either series, but the thing that always bugs me about the '90s one - does anyone else feel this too? - is that their version of Timmy seems far too small. In the books - as illustrated by both Soper and Maxey - and in the '70s series as well, he's a big, strong, burly dog who can easily hurl himself at villains to protect the children. In the '90s TV version, he looks barely bigger than a terrier! :?
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Fiona1986 »

I don't think Connal is much smaller than Toddy really. Timmy isn't a border collie like Toddy, either. I think for both series the producers just found the best acting dog for the role, rather than trying to find one that matched Blyton's description of a large mongrel with an overly long tail and a wide smile.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Chrissie777 »

Pippa-Stef wrote:That depends on the person. It certainly captured my imagination more than the 70's series. And a lot of Jemima's fans know her from The Famous Five.
I agree whole-heartedly with Pippa!!!
My Eileen Soper illustrated FF books were read in the mid to late sixties. I had seen "Five on a Treasure Island" (1957) on TV. So when I found out that the FF actually will be on TV in a TV series, I was excited and looked forward. I was so disappointed.
However, I didn't appreciate the attempt of the producer/director to modernize the FF and set them in the present time (and to be honest: I hated that song!).

So when the new TV series was on German TV in the mid 90's, I was kind of skeptical that this time it would be done the right way, but I was very pleasantly surprised :D . I love the actors (according to Soper's illustrations they always use the wrong kind of breed for Timmy, in the 1957 movie, the 1970's TV series as well as the 1990's TV series), the vintage feel, old cars, 40's dresses etc. This is like I imagined it.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Chrissie777 »

Courtenay wrote:I've never watched much of either series, but the thing that always bugs me about the '90s one - does anyone else feel this too? - is that their version of Timmy seems far too small. In the books - as illustrated by both Soper and Maxey - and in the '70s series as well, he's a big, strong, burly dog who can easily hurl himself at villains to protect the children. In the '90s TV version, he looks barely bigger than a terrier! :?
Courtenay, the dog is always too small in all FF movies/TV series. I wonder why they couldn't find a dog who looks more like Timmy as I've seen this breed from time to time.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Moonraker »

The sight of Julian hobbling around with his leg in plaster really irritated me!
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Chrissie777 »

Don't remember that. I have to watch it again.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Gary Russell »

Chrissie777 wrote:
Courtenay wrote:I've never watched much of either series, but the thing that always bugs me about the '90s one - does anyone else feel this too? - is that their version of Timmy seems far too small. In the books - as illustrated by both Soper and Maxey - and in the '70s series as well, he's a big, strong, burly dog who can easily hurl himself at villains to protect the children. In the '90s TV version, he looks barely bigger than a terrier! :?
Courtenay, the dog is always too small in all FF movies/TV series. I wonder why they couldn't find a dog who looks more like Timmy as I've seen this breed from time to time.
I thought Timmy was a mongrel. Part Setter, part spaniel.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Courtenay »

Timmy was indisputably a mongrel, but we're never given any definite evidence of which breeds might be in his ancestry. Here's the description from when we first meet him in Five on a Treasure Island:
...a big brown mongrel dog with an absurdly long tail and a big wide mouth that really seemed to grin... As a dog, Timothy was far from perfect. He was the wrong shape, his head was too big, his ears were too pricked, his tail was too long, and it was quite impossible to say what kind of a dog he was supposed to be. But he was such a mad, friendly, clumsy, laughable creature that every one of the children adored him at once.
Definitely not a Border Collie as per Toddy, but Connal doesn't fit the description any better!

Image Image

As Fiona said, the producers were probably focussing more on the dogs' acting abilities than their resemblance to the descriptions in the books.

We did have a discussion some time ago about a breed of dog that somewhat resembles Eileen Soper's illustrations of Timmy: http://www.enidblytonsociety.co.uk/foru ... f=4&t=6311" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; But especially as Enid acknowledged that Soper's illustrations were not exactly like her own mental image of Timmy, it's almost impossible to tell what the author herself really had in mind as his appearance.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Gary Russell wrote:I thought Timmy was a mongrel. Part Setter, part spaniel.
A dog which was part Setter would certainly fit the bill, I think.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Yes, I think Enid described Timmy as a mongrel.

In the first book she writes:-

A big brown Mongrel dog with an absurdly long tail and a big wide mouth that really seemed to grin!
And a few lines later wrote.

As a dog Timmy was far from perfect. He was the wrong shape, his head was too big, his ears were too pricked, his tail too long and it was quite impossible to say what kind of a dog he was supposed to be. But he was such a mad, friendly, clumsy, laughable creature that every one of the children adored him at once.

I think if I'd have seen Timmy I would have loved him at once too! :lol:

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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Courtenay »

Perhaps a cross between a Portuguese Podengo Grande (the breed Chrissie suggested) and an Irish Setter would produce the closest match to Timmy? :D

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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Wolfgang »

I might be wrong about it, but I think Enid Blyton mentioned that Timmy was based on a real dog, but Soper's drawing didn't do it justice because she had never seen him.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Moonraker »

Yes, good point, Wolfgang. We all think we know what Tim looks like, but most of us use Eileen's image of him.
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Re: Famous Five 90s Series

Post by Courtenay »

Wolfgang wrote:I might be wrong about it, but I think Enid Blyton mentioned that Timmy was based on a real dog, but Soper's drawing didn't do it justice because she had never seen him.
Yes, I did mention that earlier in this discussion:
Courtenay wrote:But especially as Enid acknowledged that Soper's illustrations were not exactly like her own mental image of Timmy, it's almost impossible to tell what the author herself really had in mind as his appearance.
Here's the quote I was referring to, as shared by Anita in another discussion:
Anita Bensoussane wrote:Enid Blyton based Timmy on a real dog belonging to a girl she once knew, and she accepted that no artist could read her mind and portray Timmy exactly as the real dog had looked. In The Story of My Life Enid wrote:
...although he was like Timmy (the dog in the book) in character, the artist has not drawn him quite as he looked - but then, she had never seen him, so how could she?
As I said in the thread about the Podengo Grande, I wish Enid had at least drawn a sketch of the dog she had in mind for Eileen Soper to work from. It would be so interesting to see exactly what she herself was picturing as she wrote about Timmy! But I guess we'll never know.
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