Old Curtains in The Shape of Lions
With the news that Disney has bailed out of the third big-screen Narnia adaptation maybe it is time for the rediscovery of the late 80s and early 90s adaption of the series by the BBC.
In 1988 the BBC adapted the first of the Narnia series for television, and screened it in six parts, on Sunday evenings in the run-up to Christmas. One of the earliest television memories I have is, (aged almost four years-old), watching The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe. It was shortly after watching the series open-mouthed in awe and amazement that, (according to my parents), I first stated that I wanted to work in television. Most children chop-and-change their mind about what they want to do when the grown up on an almost daily basis, and I am sure a life in television was one of many career choices for the infant Adam… along with being a Policeman, an actor, and a rhinoceros. However, sure enough almost twenty years later, and I am indeed working in television. In part, (I have no doubt), thanks to Narnia.
In the UK over ten million people watched the first episode of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when it was first show, and the entire television serial has now been released on DVD. Given that twenty years have passed since the first airing of the series, the effects do look somewhat ropey. Some of the flying effects are clearly filmed on a blue screen, and the hordes evil spirited are called up by the White Witch, some thoroughly poor animation is required to make do. That said, some of the effects throughout the series are brilliant, Aslan, the lion is still a very impressive even today- voiced by Ronald Pickup, the head took months to make, covered in yak hair and filled with animatronics to let the eyes blink and look left and right, the nose can wrinkle and the mouth is operated by the guy inside the costume. Meanwhile the centaur, (part human - part horse), is frankly a very clever bit of television trickery.
The BBC budget clearly had run out at this point, as Aslan’s body was made of stretched car seat covers. And yet despite this, there is a charm that the Disney big-screen adaptation fails to capture. In 1989 the BBC followed up with Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The scenes on the Dawn Treader at night were particularly wonderful with a stand-out performance by 3 ft tall Warwick Davis as Reepicheep the fearless mouse. The Silver Chair was produced in 1990. It was the fourth and last of the Narnia books that the BBC adapted for television. Although this adaption is not as good as the others, the ever watch able Tom Baker stars as the pessimistic Puddleglum.
The BBC adaptions are considerably more faithful to the original texts, than the Disney version despite being limited in terms of budget and technology. However, because of the closeness to the source text, there are several places in the adaptions that do appear somewhat sexist to an adult audience today. There is no denying that the books themselves are riddled with sexist and racist material, however taken in context they were written in the 1950s and Britain was a fairly racist place at the time. The spiritual themes and Christian allegory that permeate the books however are certainly more obvious in the television series than the films… To this I will simply say that if a fictional book, references an even older fictional book then it makes no difference to me.
So despite the criticisms, the dodgy effects, and the occasional lacklustre child acting, the BBC adaption of the Chronicles of Narnia is a joy to watch. It is part of my childhood, sitting by the fire watching the telly.