The New Famous Five

[Julie2owlsdene]

Good point Nigel. I totally agree. As you say, we've had Famous Five, Noddy, film versions of the Adventure series, with Phillip, Dinah and co.

I'd love to see a series with Fatty and co. from the books as Enid wrote them.

[Lucky Star]

Yes an FFO episode would be wonderful if it was done completely faithfully to the books. Sadly the chances of the TV company being able to resist meddling are small.

[Pippa-Stef]

And the Chorian would want it changed as well. More money in profit and less money spent on it!

Shame that Money makes the world go round isn't it?

[Moonraker]

As I've said elsewhere, change is not a modern plague. The 1950s CFF Five on a Treasure Island was hideously altered - one of the worst changes was Aunt Fanny becoming Aunt Margaret.

[Bannerman65]

Having the BBC do the adaptions, does make a lot of sense. My only concern though, is the BBC still owned by the Government (like with the ABC in Australia), or is the BBC a private company now?

If still owned by the Government, the BBC won't be concerned with shareholders, so the money earned by such productions, can be channeled back into programs.

[Rob Houghton]

I have always thought that the company that does 'Heartbeat' would make a very good adaptation of the Five Find outer books. I even thought 'Ventris' would make a good Mr Goon. I see no reason why the Find outers couldnt be aimed at a family audience, rather than at child viewers.

[Tony Summerfield]

There is a lot of wishful thinking in this thread, but sadly I think it is a bit of a pipe dream! I would love to see a six-part serialisation of an Enid Blyton book, but I would probably choose a stand-alone novel, such as The Boy Next Door. There is something slightly unsatisfactory about a book being condensed into half an hour and I'm afraid this is what would happen with something like the Find-Outers.

The reality is that these series don't go down particularly well. The second series of the 90s Famous Five got dropped by the ITV Network half way through as it had such poor viewing figures. I have in the archives all the TV Times that had the 70s series in it, and it would appear that the same thing happened to the second series there. Four stories were shown (three two-parters) and they then went back and repeated two stories (Caravan and Camp) from the first series. I need to liaise with Gary Russell on this, but it would appear that four stories never got shown at all.

Going back to where this thread came in, I have now added the first eight stories from the new series to the Continuation novels in the Book Listing. Have a look as I am sure it will provide something further to moan about!

[Pippa-Stef]

Shame, but it's good to dream isn't it?

[Anita Bensoussane]

Going back to where this thread came in, I have now added the first eight stories from the new series to the Continuation novels in the Book Listing. Have a look as I am sure it will provide something further to moan about!

Hmm - the titles are a world away from Five Have a Wonderful Time etc!

[Viking Star]

I don't know if it's true, but I thought I read somewhere in the forums that the next series of the 70's FF was cancelled because Chorion (or whoever owned the rights at the time) wouldn't agree to ITV/Southern writing completely new stories in addition to covering the remaining books?

There is possibly more scope for the FFO books to be given sufficient screen time. For example the jokes on Goon, Fatty putting on disguises, pondering over the clues and the children dividing up the tasks to be completed in order to solve the mystery. I did mention this to Leah, the Chorion rep, at the recent EB day.

I believe I read somewhere Tony saying that TV companies aren't interested at the moment in period settings - which would take away a lot of the charm and appeal of the FFO books.

[Julie2owlsdene]

There is a lot of wishful thinking in this thread, but sadly I think it is a bit of a pipe dream!

Tony is probably right, but hey guys, why not make our own short play. We could take an extract from one of the Find Outers books. If its good enough, maybe Tony could let us perform the production on the next Enid Blyton Day. I'm all for acting like a kid!! Baggsy being Bets though!!

[Pippa-Stef]

There is a lot of wishful thinking in this thread, but sadly I think it is a bit of a pipe dream!

Tony is probably right, but hey guys, why not make our own short play. We could take an extract from one of the Find Outers books. If its good enough, maybe Tony could let us perform the production on the next Enid Blyton Day. I'm all for acting like a kid!! Baggsy being Bets though!!

Can I write it? Please?

[Tony Summerfield]

If its good enough, maybe Tony could let us perform the production on the next Enid Blyton Day.

[Pippa-Stef]

Does that mean "No" Tony?

[Moonraker]

I think it means, "Oh goodness; what in heaven's name have I started now!"