New Zealand Adventure/Secret Series

[Wolfgang]

Due to the fact I was informed that an Agatha Christie series will be aired on the German eoTV station I realised the both the Adventure and Secret series are aired by this station in the afternoon.

[Machupicchu14]

Merged with an existing topic.

I think I'll start a new thread to discuss the Adventure Series (Cloud's 9) which I have recently watched.
Thanks to the fact I have not read the books for 6 years (the details of the stories are nearly non existent in my mind) I have been able to truly enjoy these series and I must say I totally and absolutely love them. I often tend to compare movies with books.(Really to save I love them is an understatement).

I can't believe I had never approached them before (well as they say better late than never), but I don't regret taking a chance and delving myself into them.
(Favourite EB TV adaptation).

Of course, the fact that a book was filmed in one hour movies allows more action to take place and a truly hair rising adventure can be portrayed on screen. They are beautiful and exciting to watch, not to say nerve racking when one 'thinks' the end has come for everyone. The four children I think were really week chosen, especially Jack and Lucy-Ann, being the youngest of the two I find them so cute. But overall the four children did it smoothly and realistic (lucky them for having such an opportunity!). But one of the highlights also  (something which I didn't care at all when I read the books as a child) is the relationship between Bill Cunningham and Ms Mannering (it's so adorable omg.. I get tremendously excited when I see them together in the films). The representations of Bill Cunningham and his wife are, in my opinion, spot on. I don't think I can imagine Bill as any other person that is not Malcolm Jamieson. (Not to mention he's so handsome).

It's difficult to say I have a favourite episode, because they are all do amazing but so far, the two that impacted me the most were Ship of Adventure (I nearly cried at one point when they children were on board and confiding so much in the bad person) and the Sea of Adventure (Bill taken prisoner and the children bravely going to rescue him)..

For those who haven't watched it, I 100% recommend it. It won't disappoint at all.
Also I found it interesting to read back on the articles in the 2016 EBS journals on the series.
The only sad thing is I wished there had been 30 Adventure episodes at least...

[Machupicchu14]

Finished watching all the Adventure Series episodes yesterday.
(Now a few days of complaints at the series not being longer until I start watching them again)

[Nicko]

For those who haven't watched it, I 100% recommend it. It won't disappoint at all.
Also I found it interesting to read back on the articles in the 2016 EBS journals on the series.
The only sad thing is I wished there had been 30 Adventure episodes at least...

I agree that it's a good adaptation and I enjoyed talking to some of the people involved in making it. I think they did a fine job considering how expensive it is to make a series with ships, helicopters, planes etc.

I'm glad if you got some interest from the journal articles that I wrote too.

[Fiona1986]

The Adventure Series better than the adaptation of The Secret Series. But that doesn't say much!

The episode they made up in place of Castle was fairly bad I thought.

[Machupicchu14]

I dearly loved "The Woods of Adventure"

Although to say the truth, I love all of the Adventure Series adaptations

[Nicko]

I agree that the Adventure Series is better than the Series Series. Partly because the Adventure books are also superior and partly because of some of the problems during production.

I do think it was pretty amazing that they could even make those shows though. Financially it was a huge, huge undertaking to make 44 episodes (I think that's right) and it could easily have been disastrous for the TV company. Thankfully for them they managed to sell them around the world.

[tiger76]

I ordered the Adventure Series boxset on ebay just now, they might take a few weeks to arrive, but if the reviews are correct they'll be well worth the wait, thank heavens for the internet, for some reason it's incredibly difficult to go into a shop in the UK, and simply purchase EB material that's been filmed, why is a question nobody seems to know the answer too, you'd have thought that there would be plenty of demand for one of the biggest selling authors in history, but apparently not.

The Secret Series is available on there also, but I'm sure that's missing an episode, so I'll hold fire on those for now, I might bite the bullet eventually if I can't find the complete set elsewhere however.

[Chrissie777]

I ordered the Adventure series a few years ago, but was very disappointed. It's nothing like the books. It's way too modernized for my taste. I wish they would have approached it like the 1990's Famous Five TV series which was superior to the 1970's FF TV series thanks to it's vintage clothing, old cars etc.

Hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless, tiger76.

[Wolfgang]

The Secret Series is available on there also, but I'm sure that's missing an episode, so I'll hold fire on those for now, I might bite the bullet eventually if I can't find the complete set elsewhere however.

If it's the 3-Disc set by unmbrella Entertainment, it contains all 5 films (90 minutes per film). I haven't watched it yet, but I just checked it out. Interestingly enough the DVD-burner of my old Laptop didn't have any troubles with the DVDs while the Blue-Ray-Burner of my Internet-PC had some problems with them.

[tiger76]

Ah! right thanks for that info Wolfgang very helpful.

[Paul Greaves]

For anyone interested, the Aussie box set that contains the Secret series, the Adventure serie AND the BBC drama Enid… is now on eBay. Although it carries a pretty hefty price tag. So I’m out!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145117556041 ... media=COPY

[Katharine]

The actual DVD price doesn't seem too bad, but with shipping added on, I'm definitely out.!

[Boatbuilder]

It's also a Region 4 DVD which will only play on multi-region DVD players. The postage is a joke.

[Paul Greaves]

Region 2 and 4 play on regular UK dvd players. My 90s Famous Five is the Aussie release and plays fine.