1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Discuss the television and film adaptations of Enid Blyton's stories.
Dick Kirrin
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1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Dick Kirrin »

I thought I might just start the discussion, sorry if I beat anyone to it. I suppose it'll get me some time in a locked room in a certain attic... :shock: .. but anyway.

I think that the TV adaptation is quite well-made, considering that it comes from an entirely different era. We see the Five depart, with some comic relief when George impatiently wants to get away and Aunt Fanny asks for last-minute checks.

One of my favourite scenes of the whole series is in it, too. The camp scene where and when they meet Richard for the first time. He is introduced as a show-off right from the start, George is still in her sleeping bag and the boys, well, they don't have much time to react. Before they know what happened they have company...

The bike trip is cool, too. Richard starts of boasting as best as he can - and he does that very well - and soon finds that he cannot live up to his boasting. When he falls, it's is clear that the person falling off the bike is a stunt man, not the young actor himself.

When Dick gets caught instead of Richard, well, Gary really did a grand job there. The noises in the underbrush, he goes to explore and jumps back with a fright when Hunchy and Ted jump out of the bushes and grab him.

I could go on for ages, but this should do for a start.

Cheers

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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

I had thought we were starting the watchathon on Sunday 30th but it's great to read your thoughts about the 1970s adaptation anyway, Dick! I too have already watched it and will post about it later. In the meantime, if anyone hasn't yet seen it and isn't sure where to find it in the DVD set, it's on Disc 4. I also watched the 1990s adaptation to compare the two. For anyone else with the Dutch set (De Vijf), it's De Vijf Als Detectives on Disc 6.
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Dick Kirrin »

I'm terribly sorry, Anita.
Didn't we say the 23rd? I thought we did, but anyway. I won't post anything before the 40th, so that everybody gets a chance. I'm really sorry that I rushed things.

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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Lucky Star »

Dick Kirrin wrote: I won't post anything before the 40th, so that everybody gets a chance.
The 40th?? You may never post at all if you're waiting for the 40th to come around. :lol: :lol: The 30th will be fine Dick. :D :wink:
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Dick Kirrin wrote: I won't post anything before the 40th
:shock: I thought there was only 30 days in September! :lol: :lol:

I'll post this week about my favourite episode. :D

8)
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Moonraker »

Ah, that explains your caption comp entry, Julie! :D

Good on you, Dick, for getting in first! :wink:
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Dick Kirrin wrote:Didn't we say the 23rd?
We did at first, but then changed it to the 30th.
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Moonraker »

We seem to spend more time talking about the readathon than actually talking about the book/tv series!!! :roll:
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Nick »

I'll do my best to participate but I've just become a Dad :D and finding time to watch the TV is a tad tough at present!
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

How lovely, Nick. Please open up another thread in General Natter so we can all congratulate you on the news. :D

8)
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

I watched this episode again last night, as I never tire of watching my favourite. I thought Richard Sparks who adapted this book for the series did a good job. Okay, Hunchy didn’t have a hump back, and Rookie wasn’t as fierce looking as the book, but those are just minor points.

I love the way Dick and Julian really show themselves as leaders in this episode, and Julian is really ‘masterful’!! Telling Richard Kent to ‘Get at the back’, when they cycle along on bikes, and when he says to Richard who asks – “What about me?” And Julian replies with scorn, “What about you!” All brilliant lines and well-acted.

Dick makes me laugh when on discovering who Richard Kent is when he says – “Not the Thurlow Kent who’s down to his last 20 million, and gets the reply how many others are there? Only to then look away with a raised brow and says “Blimey!”

Owl’s Dene isn’t quite a spooky looking as in the book, but at least they did get the opening and shutting of those gates, even though they were worked by the switch in the car, and not the big wheel that Julian turns in the house.

In the books when Richard escapes and is chased by Perton, that always has me on the edge of my seat, and so did the one on screen. Can’t think why Richard didn’t start to run straight away though, instead of messing around when he got out from the boot!!

All in all a good episode, very book like, which is a great plot!

8)
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Like Dick and Julie, I enjoyed the 1970s adaptation. I hadn't watched Five Get Into Trouble more than once or twice on video because the picture quality was particularly poor, hazy with bleached colours, so it was a treat to see the much clearer images on the new DVD set.

It's good that the story is a two-parter as there's plenty of opportunity for meaningful interaction between the characters and I must say I was impressed by the acting of Michele, Jennifer, Gary and Marcus, who came across as very natural, though Marcus did perhaps overdo Julian's "masterfulness" just a tad - not that Richard didn't deserve to be reprimanded! Jennifer makes a lovely Anne, warm and friendly without being too "girly". Having re-read the book as well as watching the episode, Anne certainly isn't timid or babyish in this adventure. She shins up a tall tree in a trice, commits the name "Owl's Dene" to memory when she overhears the crooks talking about it and offers to hide in the car boot in an attempt to escape.

The villains are well portrayed too, all strikingly individual - Mr. Perton suave, Hunchy eccentric, Rooky a bully, Solly rough-looking... The 1970s series is very strong when it comes to the casting of baddies and minor characters.
Julie2owlsdene wrote:In the books when Richard escapes and is chased by Perton, that always has me on the edge of my seat, and so did the one on screen. Can’t think why Richard didn’t start to run straight away though, instead of messing around when he got out from the boot!!
I think Richard's legs were stiff from being curled up in the boot, so he found it hard to run at first.
Dick Kirrin wrote:The bike trip is cool, too. Richard starts of boasting as best as he can - and he does that very well - and soon finds that he cannot live up to his boasting. When he falls, it's is clear that the person falling off the bike is a stunt man, not the young actor himself.
I hadn't noticed the stunt man but will look out for that next time!

I've got more to say but will leave it there for now.
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Dick Kirrin »

As you said Anita, for interaction, you cannot beat Jennifer, Gary, Michelle and Marcus. They do the job so well you'd be tempted to think they were related. So the idea of having them all together in the farmhouse during the production and have them spend as much time together as possible paid off, in my humble opinion.

Marcus may overdo the high and mighty Master Kirrin, but still he doesn't look ridiculous, which poor Marco in the 1990s series is always made to look. Personally I think he doesn't overreact when Richard confesses that he must be the reason why Dick was kidnapped, he still keeps his temper after all and puts Richard in his place with a few words. If he overdoes it at all, it's at the beginning of the cycling tour with Richard. OK, it might seem a bit too military style to have a clear cycling order - they are not going to war after all, but upon second thoughts it makes sense.
George forgive me for saying it, but having the girls lead, he makes sure that nobody gets lost because (s)he might have trouble with keeping up the speed. Which is, sorry George, more likely to happen to Anne and her than to Dick and Ju. And to keep Richard near, well, from the way he got him to know, I'd be a bit careful, too.
And when first they meet, it's Dick, not Julian, who says something about sausages being private... whereas Ju offers to leave if Richard wants them to. The same happens again a bit later, with George telling Richard not just to invite himself and Ju interfering with a "Hang on, you two."
So all in all, I shouldn't say he's overdoing it. Marcus normally manages to be both bossy and still likeable, I think.

The kitchen scene is great, too. Hunchy trying to scare them and George and Julian keeping up the morale by cracking jokes. "Anne's laughing..."
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

What do people think about the way it was filmed? A good story in terms of pace and tension, in my opinion. There was just enough setting of the scene to get a feel for the characters and location before the action began, tension was built up effectively and a feeling of creepiness was created (sinister villains; the grand staircase with the ironwork bannisters throwing spooky-looking shadows on the walls and vaguely echoing the appearance of the gates; eerie shots of Julian's eye surveying things through a crack...) I remember feeling quite scared as a youngster at the part where the children race frantically to the gates, only for them to shut before they can get through. The idea of being trapped in that isolated house with the crooks made me shudder.
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Re: 1970s TV series watchathon - Five Get Into Trouble

Post by Julie2owlsdene »

Yes, I too think the filming was just right, Anita. There was a bit of spookiness and tension in both the episodes. Owl's Dene was a really spooky place with some of the furniture covered over, suggesting that only parts of the house were being used. I felt you did tend to hold your breath as Julian popped out of the bedroom they were locked in for the night, and watched whilst the room was checked and locked, and when he was hiding from Hunchy on the landing, Hunchy could easily have turned around and spotted him, but of course he didn't.

Aggie played a good part, being scared and frail, too. Even Perton came over well as in the books. I also loved the way Timmy sat on the back of George's bike. :)

8)
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