The Enid Blyton Society

Ooh, I hope my dad will get them for me!

Maybe for Christmas ?

Chrissie777 wrote: Next year I plan to order the "Secret Series"
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Enid-Blyton-Sec ... 930&sr=1-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Did anybody already watch it and can tell me more about it?

I watched the series when it was first aired in Germany and recorded it when other stations aired them again. I also have a set of German DVDs (not the actual edition that's available), but haven't watched them in English yet. I read the books for the films though. I wasn't impressed with the German books of the series, and at least Secret Island is closer to the English book than that book they sell as a translation in Germany. I suppose you'll like it, it also features a monk, Chrissie .
I'm not impressed with Laura's ESP abilities she develops, but that's just my opinion. Some may think it adds to the story.

I must admit that I was rather disappointed with the Secret Series and as yet I haven't bothered to get the DVD set. The casting of the children was much better in the Adventure series and the stories stay slightly more closely to the originals. I thought Craggy Tops, location etc., was excellent. I must disagree with you Chrissie, as The Woods of Adventure was a completely new story and not based on 'Castle' at all. It was also possibly the weakest of the 8.

Silly me, it is the Secret series I have on DVD, not the Adventure series. I do have The Island of Adventure though, with Norman Bowler as a dreadful Bill Smugs and Wilfrid Bramwell as a pervy Uncle Jocelyn.

Wolfgang wrote: I watched the series when it was first aired in Germany and recorded it when other stations aired them again. I also have a set of German DVDs (not the actual edition that's available), but haven't watched them in English yet. I read the books for the films though. I wasn't impressed with the German books of the series, and at least Secret Island is closer to the English book than that book they sell as a translation in Germany. I suppose you'll like it, it also features a monk, Chrissie .
I'm not impressed with Laura's ESP abilities she develops, but that's just my opinion. Some may think it adds to the story.

Hi Wolfgang,

Yes, I'm fascinated by monks. One of my all-time CFF favorites is "The Ghost of Monk's Island" (1966).
Looking forward to watch the Secret Series!

I've got an adventure vidio (The Castle of Adventure) It was really good!

That must be the version with Susan George.

Moonraker wrote:Silly me, it is the Secret series I have on DVD, not the Adventure series. I do have The Island of Adventure though, with Norman Bowler as a dreadful Bill Smugs and Wilfrid Bramwell as a pervy Uncle Jocelyn.

Maybe you should watch the series together with Tony and discuss the finer details about it - and let us know about them as well

Tony Summerfield wrote: The Woods of Adventure was a completely new story and not based on 'Castle' at all. It was also possibly the weakest of the 8.

Well, Tony, I'm afraid we have to agree that we disagree about that. I think "Woods" is far more convincing than many of the later episodes, in which the villains tend to be caricatures. You might regard it as a minus that it is completely different from castle, but "Ship" or "River" are also extremely distorted.

I'm not sure why they changed castle like that, it was a nice book!!

Chrissie777 wrote:Maybe for Christmas ?

Good idea I'm bound to get them then!!

Wolfgang wrote: You might regard it as a minus that it is completely different from castle, but "Ship" or "River" are also extremely distorted.

I assume that the New Zealand TV crew was trying to modernize Blyton to make it more appealing to a new generation of children?

Darrell71 wrote:I'm not sure why they changed castle like that, it was a nice book!!

The British production company (TVS Television) who made the 1990 The Castle of Adventure still owned the copyright for that story, so the New Zealand production company (Cloud 9) had no choice but to change that one when they filmed the whole Adventure Series a few years later.

So "Woods of Adventure" is indeed "Castle of Adventure"?

It's instead of The Castle of Adventure. The story is completely different except that there's a castle in it!