Le club des cinq

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

I remember being extremely pleased when I saw that Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' was to be televised. Like so many children growing up in the 1970s, I loved Enid Blyton's books and still have most of my collection. I could never understand - and still cannot - why so many people sneered at her writing.

The 1970s series had a contemporary setting which meant, obviously, that some aspects of the books had to be updated. Nevertheless, the televised stories lost none of the appeal of the books. One could identify even more closely with the exploits of the Five as they whizzed down hills on their bicycles, devoured their cream teas and brought the local crooks to justice.

Additionally, the characters were well cast and remained true to the books. Eldest child Julian (Marcus Harris) was still the intelligent, sometimes over-authoritative leader whilst Dick (Gary Russell, previously Cyril in 'The Phoenix and the Carpet') was the gentler, thoughtful younger brother. Anne (Jennifer Thanisch) was more mature (thankfully!) than her book character. She still tended to prefer to opt out of the adventures although it was usually she who ended up saving the day for the others. George (Michelle Gallagher - spelt correctly?), plus her sidekick Timmy the dog (Toddy), remained the most complex character - the headstrong, fearless, loyal, truthful tomboy - based as she was on the young Enid Blyton. Sue Best was suitably maternal as Aunt Fanny whilst Michael Hinz added an element of mystery to the character of the absent-minded scientist Uncle Quentin Kirrin.

I bought four episodes of the 1970s series on video in the early '90s but do not know if it is still available. My favourite 'Famous Five' book was 'Five Go To Smuggler's Top' and it was given prominence as one of the few two-parter episodes of the t.v. series. Block the butler has to be one of the most enduring characters in children's literature!

I should be interested to know what became of the child actors, who would be around the forty mark now. Marcus Harris appeared on 'After They Were Famous' a couple of years ago; he was working with computers and writing a book. Does anyone know where the others are?

This was a favourite children's show on its release in the late 70s and it was aimed right at my age. As a child the adventures were wild. Children read the books and this show excited many more to do so. Such a treat on a weekday night to have an episode. One a week mind. Somehow George was the standout character. She was for all a good rough and readily abled that both boys and girls liked. But that never detracted from all of the other character's input and quality.

I would still rate it highly (and I am). People snigger at the age of the show and its obvious plot holes, but a kid is a kid and any kid whatever era it is in will enjoy this as much as us Gen X.

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!