The book on which this is based is a little-known children's classic written by the 20th century British author John Masefield; a man chosen above W B Yeats and Rudyard Kipling to be Poet Laureate, so you'd expect something special.
The TV series was first shown in 1984 in six parts (during the six weeks before Christmas: the final part was shown on Christmas Eve, which is when the finale of the story takes place). It is largely faithful to the book and much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the page. The main deviation, and a peculiar one, is that the very mad Arnold of Todi is transformed into a malevolent character, which he certainly wasn't in the original story.
Robert Stephens (later "Sir Robert Stephens") hams it up beautifully as the truly evil wizard Abner Brown. All the pentagrams, demons and dark spirits such as the Waterfall Boy are still there, which is refreshing in these politically-correct times, and a whole lot nastier than the average Harry Potter flick. Some children who watched the original series acquired a lifelong fear of clergymen after watching Abner! Foxy-faced Charles "ha ha, what?" is also excellently played. The child actors make a good effort, although (perhaps surprisingly given the success of the series) none of them went on to greater things.
CGI in 1984 was in its infancy, with primitive blue-screen, Quantel effects and animation being used to recreate some of the magical scenes from the book. It was effective at the time but has dated very badly; this could be seen as period charm, but modern kids may not be impressed.
Director Renny Rye improves on the (notoriously weak) ending of the book with a wonderful conceit which makes the viewer wonder what really happened. It leaves a nice warm feeling, and after all, it will always be Christmas in Condicote. Home for the holidays indeed.
The TV series was first shown in 1984 in six parts (during the six weeks before Christmas: the final part was shown on Christmas Eve, which is when the finale of the story takes place). It is largely faithful to the book and much of the dialogue is lifted straight from the page. The main deviation, and a peculiar one, is that the very mad Arnold of Todi is transformed into a malevolent character, which he certainly wasn't in the original story.
Robert Stephens (later "Sir Robert Stephens") hams it up beautifully as the truly evil wizard Abner Brown. All the pentagrams, demons and dark spirits such as the Waterfall Boy are still there, which is refreshing in these politically-correct times, and a whole lot nastier than the average Harry Potter flick. Some children who watched the original series acquired a lifelong fear of clergymen after watching Abner! Foxy-faced Charles "ha ha, what?" is also excellently played. The child actors make a good effort, although (perhaps surprisingly given the success of the series) none of them went on to greater things.
CGI in 1984 was in its infancy, with primitive blue-screen, Quantel effects and animation being used to recreate some of the magical scenes from the book. It was effective at the time but has dated very badly; this could be seen as period charm, but modern kids may not be impressed.
Director Renny Rye improves on the (notoriously weak) ending of the book with a wonderful conceit which makes the viewer wonder what really happened. It leaves a nice warm feeling, and after all, it will always be Christmas in Condicote. Home for the holidays indeed.