Sound & Vision: July 1986
Buddy makes it to primetime
Hinton’s own version of his teenage novel was so well received when it was shown on BBC Schools TV earlier this year that it will now be shown in `kids primetime’. The first of five 20-minute episodes starts on Tuesday, 9th September at 6.50 pm. Nigel Hinton says that Roger Daltrey enjoyed playing Buddy’s dad so much (he prepared for the part by reading the novel backstage at last year’s Live Aid concert!) that he’d like to do a sequel. Puffin Plus have a special tie-in edition ready in good time.
COMING THIS AUTUMN –
The Antelope Company returns
The Lilliputian ship’s company first seen last winter in Return of the Antelope will be back on our screens in October/ December. The Willis Hall screenplay will again be adapted by him as a book; The Antelope Company Ashore will be published by Bodley Head (0 370 30775 5, £5.50) in September.
The Cuckoo Sister
Vivien Alcock’s story of Kate who, until she was five believed she was an only child and then discovered she had an older sister, is being filmed this summer in Hampstead and should be transmitted in the autumn. The Producer is Paul Stone of Box of Delights and Running Scared and many other successful TV versions of children’s books.
The Worst Witch
Also currently filming is a one-hour film for independent television based on Jill Murphy’s popular series. Diana Rigg stars as Miss Hardbroom and Fairuza Balk (from Return to Oz) plays Mildred Hubble. The plan is to make this an ITV Hallowe’en Special this October.
A classic revisited
Treasure Island has held a peculiar fascination for many writers. The latest variation/extension of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale is Return to Treasure Island, ten hours of early Saturday evening television time (the Robin Hood slot) starting on 5th July (ITV) with a two-hour episode. Six one-hour episodes will follow and on 23rd August comes the grand two-hour conclusion.
The story, according to John Goldsmith, has Jim Hawkins, now 22 and just down from Oxford, embarking on another voyage (to the West Indies) with Squire Trelawney, Long John Silver and all his old shipmates from the Hispaniola. Brian Blessed has the wooden leg and the parrot; Christopher Guard is Jim.
The novel version of Return to Treasure Island is also written by John Goldsmith and published by Pan on the adult list – treasure-hunting is for grown-ups these days it seems. The mutiny, treachery, danger and romance (watch out for the beautiful Isabella Zorillo) we are promised must be strong stuff. You have been warned.
Everybody Here – Again!
Nine episodes selected from the two previous series of this lively multi-cultural programme. Mike Rosen appears – so do lots of children. The Bodley Head `book of the series’ Everybody Here also by Mike Rosen, (0 370 30944 8, £3.95) is available: stories, songs, rhymes, games, jokes, things to do. The first episode goes out on Channel Four on Sunday, August 10th at 2.00 pm.
Books on Schools TV
Middle English (Thames) feature a dramatisation of Betsy Byars’ The Night Swimmers starting on Tuesday, 30th September at 11.44 am with a repeat on Thursday at 11.03 am. The Night Swimmers will be followed by a book programme on Betsy Byars later in the term.
Also promised – two dramas by Roger McGough and an original series by Gene Kemp.
Time for a Story
The Spring term series of this entertaining programme introduced by Bill Oddie will be repeated this Autumn starting on Monday, 15th September with a repeat on Thursdays. Stories by Hiawyn Oram, Tony Ross, Hazel Townson and Naomi Lewis.
Teacher’s booklets available soon. Pupils’ books and sound cassettes from Mercury Music Ltd, Time for a Story,
P 0 Box 194, Sevenoaks, Kent TN 15 8TZ, tel: 0732 883261.
