The Queen's Nose

The Queen's Nose was one of my favourite shows growing up. A girl named Harmony finds a 50 pence piece which grants wishes when the queen's nose is rubbed.

Naturally, as with all stories with wishes things inevitably go awry, leading to many comic moments which carefully danced the line between being faithful to the book and taking a certain artistic license, maintaining the humour of Dick King Smith's book..

The later series's were not quite as good, probably due to a new and unfamiliar cast. However, with great stories and a fantastic supporting cast, it definitely deserves to be fondly remembered.

If only more shows nowadays could be as clever and witty.

I don't think the previous writer really understood the concept behind the Queen's Nose...it's based on a book of the same name by the brilliant children's author Dick King-Smith. In the book (as in the early series) Harmony is given a magical 50 pence piece with an unusual design on (a wreath made of clasped hands - these were the old 50 pence pieces) and a riddle to solve. Once she solves the riddle, she discovers that by rubbing the coin exactly on the spot where the Queen's nose is (on the profile of the queen on the coin) she is granted one wish out of a total of seven. The book (and the first series) dealt with her ensuing adventures. Admittedly the later series were tired and had little to do with the original story, but the first few were great and were (mainly) true to the book. I thought they were great when they first appeared on television - one of my weekly television highlights! (After having watched the series and read the book I even came across an old 50 pence piece with the same design and half believed it would grant me wishes too - well, I was a lot younger then!)The acting and the pace were both well executed - well worth watching.

For the first couple of series (back in 1995), this was a good series. But, like with so many CBBC programmes adapted from books, it has run on far too long - losing all of its originality and degrading into pathetic slapstick.

I believe it was based a a Dick King Smith novel - the title 'The Queen's Nose' was because you had to rub the Queen's nose (on the 'head' side)on the 50p to make a wish. It was the tale of Harmony and her family, including the mysterious Uncle Ginger - (who knew all about the magic coin, amongst other things!).

I can only think that the BBC continues to make this because the children who watch it these days don't have the attention span to watch a 'real' programme (which this once was) with a proper storyline and plot.

The first time I experienced the Queen's nose was when one of my all time favourite teacher (Mr. Ryan) read us the book in school.

He'd read us a couple of classics like the Iron Giant and The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe but it was the Queen's Nose by Dick King Smith that caught my attention and subsequently it was the first book I ever brought with my pocket money.

Years later I found out it was going to be a CBBC as a series and I told everybody to watch to the point of annoyance.

The first season of the Queen's nose is; although not 100% faithful to the book, is everything a fan of the story could have wanted. The second and Third gave us a glimpse of the characters lives and; I think was honest to the feel of the story.

That having been said I only recommend the first three seasons because it did get a bit silly from there.

We all had a 50 pence piece at one time in our lives and we made a wish by rubbing the queens nose. Eventually, the nose began to fade, so did the wishes and then so did this amazing, brilliant TV show. I first watched this series while it was still in production in 1995, I was hooked and absolutely loved it! However, the earlier series are more better, this is what attracted me to the show. Victoria Shalet (Harmony) & Heather-Jay Jones (Melody) played the sisters, they tolerated each other but what 2 sisters don't? The series was the best when it centered around Harmony and her 50 pence piece, but as the series grew, more characters started to come into the show & that's when it sort of changed - the coin fell into someone else's hands (Ella James) and I didn't find the show as interesting. I still think the show is definitely a 10/10 because of its originality and like I've already mentioned, the original cast in the earlier series were great to watch! It's just a shame they don't make TV shows like this no more.