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.

The Queen's Nose is a rather silly programme from the BBC and everybody just acts stupid at times.

This is about a group of children that find a coin (a 50p I think) than can grant wishes.

I don't really understand what this is about and where did that coin originate and how come it has special powers?

The BBC have made some good children's programmes over the years but The Queen's Nose has to be one of the worse. Also, what a stupid name for a programme. Whoever thought of The Queens Nose for the title wants their head examining.

Looking at the cast list, I'm rather surprised to see one of Britain's best loved actresses amongst the cast: the late Dame Thora Hird.

To sum up, a rather stupid programme.

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.

My 8/10 rating goes purely for the earlier series, with Harmony and Melody, going up to the time when they were staying on their relative's boat.

All series since then have gone down, mainly because of the absence of Harmony, and also because they decided to have a full cast of little kids with the coin.

For years we had Harmony as the owner of the 50p coin. As a child, I loved to watch The Queen's Nose - it was one of my favourite programmes, and hearing the theme music now brings back a whole host of memories for me =]

It had charm and sophistication, unlike its later series, and great contrast between the two very different sisters, Harmony and Melody.

I am also fond of it for my earliest memories of Liz Smith =]

I would agree with those of you who dismiss this programme as a complete waste of time, if you have only seen the more recent series.

How about you write to CBBC asking for re-runs of the earlier editions?

There's nothing wrong with that =]]