THE FAMOUS FIVE

Enid Blyton's first Five novel, "Five on a Treasure Island" was published ion 1942. From then until 1963 Twenty one books were published following the adventures of Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog.    Selling over 100 million copies the book series is one of the most popular children's series in the World. 

In the late 1970s Southern TV and Portman Productions decided to make a A Famous Five TV Series. Filmed over 2 consecutive Summers the series aired in 1978 and 1979 on ITV, with the first episode broadcast on Monday 3rd July 1978 at 4.45pm. 

The series, which was all filmed on location on film at Exbury House, The New Forrest and Christchurch and was the most expensive children's Series ever made at that point. 

The series was very successful and there was a lot of Tie in merchandise produced as well as comic strip adventures serialized in the Look In magazine. 

The original novels were reissued in paperback with photos of the covers taken from the TV series. 

18 of the original 21 books were adapted for the series. The rights for 2 of the books could not be obtained and "Five have Plenty of Fun" didn't fit into the TV schedule.

Hopes of a third series, using original stories created by the writing team were dashed when the Enid Blyton Foundation refused to give permission and the series ended.

From 1983 the episodes started to be released on Video and became very popular again. Finally a DVD box set was released buy Koch Media in 2012 containing all 26 episodes and some special features including a Reunion of cast members Marcus Harris (Julian), Gary Russell (Dick) and Jennifer Thanisch (Anne). Sadly Michele Gallagher who played George died in 2001.

In the Summer of 1978 I was 10 years old. At that point I had not read any of Enid Blyton's Famous Five books.  However, was excited for a new Children's series starting on ITV.  After the first episode I was gripped. I loved the characters and even developed a crush on Marcus Harris! Plus that theme song was so addictive. 

It was so much fun watching kids on TV go out and do exciting things. Although did make me feel that I was the only one who must have a boring life. Surely all other kids were off having Famous Five like adventures during their school hols?!

Discovering the series was based on a series of books I set off to the library to lend a couple and started reading them. The hardback copies I borrowed had little drawings of the characters. I was most put out that they didn't resemble the TV cast and particularly Timmy who was referred to Timothy initially looked nothing like a border collie.  For me the TV series cast were the definitive article and I didn't like the imposters in the drawings! 

It was a great relief when the books started to be reissued in paperback, with pictures of the TV cast on the cover and the pencil drawings removed.  These were the definitive books for me and I set about collecting them. 

I remember having a Jigsaw and a couple of annuals, although I  didn't discover the video releases until early 2000s and would then hunt them down in charity shops. Although the quality wasn't always great so it was lovely to finally get the DVD boxset.

In 2023 I've just done a rewatch of the whole series and for the most part it still holds up and is fun to indulge in simpler times where kids could go off and have adventures and outsmart the adults.  Some of the single episodes feel too short to do the whole book justice and even some of the double episodes could have been longer but that's only a small criticism.