The Famous Five

This is one series that has the power to literally transport one in time back to his or her childhood of growing up with Enid Blyton books. The Famous Five along with other book series as the Five Find- Outers, the Secret Seven and others had the power to captivate the growing child's mind and deliver them into the arenas of adventures that are truly captivating and thrilling. It was therefore tremendously exciting for me to discover that the Famous Five made it into a television series towards the end of the seventies. Who can ever forget the fact that the actors in these adventures are children just like us living ordinary lives in rural England. Even though I was growing up in India at that time, somehow Blyton's mode of description enabled me to instantly relate to those kids and the adventures they fell into. I read almost all of Enid Blyton by the end of the early seventies. The Famous Five provided endless excitement and portray no-nonsense kids having excitement in the course of their daily lives. It is regrettable that today's kids mostly cannot relate to children half-a-century ago. And who can fault them? Times change. Today is the day of the iPad and the iPhone, fast food and an even faster life. We are living in an era where we are witnessing the transition of generations. Soon, many would not even know who Enid Blyton was. Except for old codgers like me who grew up with her great storybooks.

At 18, I am a huge Enid Blyton fan. I have read a lot of her books, and have loved them to death. They are funny, charming and have a real sense of innocence and enchantment about them. That said, I absolutely love this show, it maintains all of the charm of the books and is just a lot of fun to watch.

It is pleasant to look at, with crisp photography and the scenery is often gorgeous. The music is wonderful as well, the theme song is great to sing along to and the background music is beautiful, adventurous and haunting. The writing is touching and funny constantly, and the story lines are faithful in structure to the books and still have their sense of adventure and fun.

Everybody acting wise are well cast, from lead down to supporting. Julian is still intelligent, Dick is gentle, Anne is actually more likable than she is in the books and George is suitably tomboy-ish. Aunt Fanny is an inspiring mother figure and Professor Kirren is fussy, strict yet caring and intelligent. The real star though is Toddy the dog as Timmy, I loved Timmy in the books, I adored him here, he is so cute and likable not to mention well trained as well.

Overall, if you love Enid Blyton and love the Famous Five, I think you will like/love this. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The Famous Five were the first 'novels' I had picked up to read when I turned eight. Enid Blyton's Five brought a lot of adventure into my life and I couldn't wait to read all of them...and then this series was aired on our telly as reruns in the early '80's, every Sunday morning at 10:00 am. The first thing I still remember about this series is the song: We are the Famous Five, Julian, Dick, Anne, George and Timmy the dog.

Michelle Gallager as George and Timmy are the two characters I really liked in the adaptation. Marcus Harris was also another child actor who I immediately liked...the story lines were well adapted, as far as I remember - from the perspective of a kid, these episodes were sensational. I watched parts of these shows on youtube again a while back and they still are full of memory. The food that the children eat, the places they have their adventures in, the characters that they portray are all wonderful and take one back to the time when we were children and would love to be a part of one of the Five's fabulous adventures!

Since growing up is based on curiosity, experimenting, and also learning to live with the consequences, this TV show, as well as the books it's based on, are awesome references for kids in that aspect. Even if the show is rather light on the 'consequence' part, the young group has actual scares and gets punished when they misbehave.

For a child, everything is really a mystery, something to be discovered and understood. In my opinion, the mindset that this show tries to develop is essential if you want to grow up.

Also, this show was extremely entertaining!

The 1978 Famous Five series has always been a favourite with me. I was only 12 at the time it began, but watched repeats of it during my teens. I always loved Michelle as George, but I've heard that she died some time ago. This is very sad if true! It is lovely to think we have this series to remember her by. I'm glad that the rest of the 'Five' in this show are still living and doing well. I have most of this series on DVD now and even though I'm well out of my youth, still play the show once in a while. I liked Quentin Kirrin in this series and his wife, they were great and Quentin was very much like his book self, eccentric, short-tempered,yet gentle and kind. Although, I wish we had seen a little of Julian, Dick and Anne's parents-they did occasionally come into the books, but I can't remember much of them in the series, at all-if you watch the 1996 series you do see them with their 3 children, a little. I wish more of Enid Blyton's books were produced for TV, children still love them and read them today. The 1996 series of 'Five' is also a very good one for those who enjoy this Blyton series.