Famous Five Collection 1 (Episodes 1-13)   Starring: Michele Gallagher, Marcus Harris, Gary Russell and Jenny Thanisch Koch Media RRP: £24.99 DVM140003D Certificate: PG Available 21 May 2012

Ruined castles and rolling moors; mysterious islands and hidden caves: the Famous Five can find adventure wherever they are. Join them at Kirrin Cottage, or away on their holidays as they encounter smugglers, scoundrels and spies. Thankfully, Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny are always around to offer lashings of ginger beer. The series features the talent of classic British Actors including Patrick Troughton, Ronald Fraser, Brian Glover, David Rappaport and an early appearance from Rupert Graves. It was originally broadcast on ITV in 1978...

Ah... Enid Blyton's good old Famous Five. For people of a certain age, me included, The Famous Five were role models - kids whose adventures we wanted to live. I grew up reading the books and was eight when the TV series was originally broadcast.

The show adapted the original book series and follows the Famous Five: Julian (Marcus Harris), Dick (Gary Russell), Anne (Jennifer Thanisch), their cousin George (Michelle Gallagher) and her dog Timmy as they embark on their exciting adventures.

I knew I was going to be disappointed by this DVD release, mainly because it was the best thing on TV when I was a young boy and my memories of it are much fonder than they deserve to be. The show seems to live in a time when you didn't have to be able to act in order to be on British TV. I'm not just talking about the main child actors, but some of the guest stars. But, this is a show that is designed for children and doesn't really offer anything for adults. With that in mind, it does a wonderful job of bringing Enid Blyton's original tales to life.

In order to split this release evenly into two box set releases we have 13 of the show's first series episode on this 3-disc collection with the remaining six episodes from the show's first series and the full seven episodes from series two to be released separately in another box set.

On a rather anal note, the menu designer will no doubt kick themselves when they discover that it's not "Kirren Island" - It's "Kirrin Island".

Extras include Original Trailer (2 min, 27 sec which is clips from the series with the theme tune played over the top); and Interview (45 min, 48 sec new interview with one of the writers/script editors Gail Renard and actors Marcus Harris, Gary Russell, Jennifer Thanisch talking about their memories on the show).

While it's great to see this series finally released on DVD, I'm wondering how many fans that grew up with the show will be a little disappointed to see how it's not quite as entertaining as they remember it.

6

Nick Smithson