The Television Of Narnia!

Before the big-budget Disney efforts to adapt the Narnia tales, the BBC did its own little take over a decade before. As was to be expected they began with a sprawling adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in 1988. It's a devoted adaptation of the story, following the storyline closely and spanned six episodes. There is some clever use of puppetry to bring Aslan to life and he's given a very reflective and thoughtful but authoritative voice by Ronald Pickup. Barbara Kellerman is outstanding in a bravura performance as the White Witch. When she got mad, she made me wince a time or two. Core to adapting these stories is casting the children and this got it right. The young man who played Edmund (Jonathan Scott) in particular made the most of his role and Peter (Richard Dempsey), Susan (Sophie Cook), and Lucy (Sophie Wilcox) are all quite good. There is some animation used in addition to the costume work to bring the Narnian creatures to life, and one might just have to accept this collision of styles or it's going to ruin this effort for you. There's a gentleness to this production, as if they know they are handling precious materials. 

The next BBC effort was to adapt both the novels Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 1989 and between them also offered up six episodes. While discrete efforts technically, these are really two halves of a single story, featuring Caspian. When we first meet him of course he's but a boy unaware of the truth about his family, but who with the help of Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy is able to lead the Narnians to victory over an invading force which had occupied the country for many years. The highlights of these efforts are nearly all in the Dawn Treader section, which gives the viewer some crackerjack sea adventure. Warwick Davis is on hand as the gallant mouse Reepicheep in both stories. Caspian is a flawed man as King and while he is driven by a desire to do good, often falls victim to other desire. The introduction of Eustace (David Thwaites) and his constant complaining adds a real spice to that part of the tale. The young actor really gets a chance to annoy. His turn as a dragon is well wrought as well given the limits of the era. 

The BBC effort closes out in 1990 with another six episodes adapting The Silver Chair. Eustace is back and welcomes a new character in Jill Pole (Camilla Power). These two are whisked into Narnia and given a tough mission to find the missing heir of King Caspian -- one Prince Rilian. They find an ally in Puddleglum, a dour chap played delightfully by Tom Baker. Barbara Kellerman returns as another evil witch character, this one operating underground. Warwick Davis is on hand again, this time as an owl named Gilmfeather. This adaptation is true to the book save where they opt to juice up the ending a bit.

(Aslan and Friends)

All three of these efforts run over eight hours and adapt four of the seven novels. I wish they'd done them all, but really the last three novels are all mostly insertions or nifty brackets for the stories which are told. They are oddly apart from these core stories. 

More adaptations of Narnia later today. 

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