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Enid Blyton’s Famous Five series of novels have captured the imagination of generations of children, selling millions of copies every year since the 1950s.
The stories, set around a cast of five children on their school holidays who inevitably get caught up in adventures, have been already been the target of numerous film and TV adaptions both in the UK and further afield.
The latest BBC adaptation is set toreturn to screens on Friday. The Famous Five: Peril on the Night Train will be a full standalone 90-minute episode, and shouldn’t require much in the way of catching up on plotlines or backstories.
Its predecessor The Curse of Kirrin Island aired in December, and was praised by i for “incredible” production values offering “tremendous” fun.
It’s actually the third time the classic book series has been adapted for terrestrial TV. The BBC first did so in 1978, and ITV in 1995.
According to a BBC teaser, the Famous Five will need to deliver the Algebra Engine, a type of proto-computer, to the Secret Intelligence Service’s top-secret facility in Scotland. The journey that will take them to a sleeper train making a journey to the Highlands.
The show is produced by Danish film director Nicolas Winding Refn, whose reputation up to now rests on rather more adult fare. His movies include Drive, a critically acclaimed 2011 movie featuring Ryan Gosling, the violent 2008 prison biopic Bronson, featuring Tom Hardy, and 2016 fashion thriller Neon Demon.
However it’s not his first foray into the world of TV. He directed a Miss Marple TV movie, Marple: Nemesis, in 2007.
You can catch the latest episode at 5.30pm on Friday on CBBC. You’ll also be able to watch it on iPlayer, alongside the previous episode that aired in December.
Who is in the Famous Five cast?
The new series features a cast of largely unknown actors, but there are definitely a few big names you might recognise on the credits.
Jack Gleeson
Gleeson plays Thomas Wentworth. You might remember the actor from his acclaimed performance as sadistic teenager Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones, a showing which garnered the Irish actor significant praise from critics.
he took a break from acting, but has since appeared in independent theatre and BBC miniseries Out of Her Mind.
Diana Quick
The English veteran actor will play Mrs Wentworth. Quick, who has been on screen since 1971, picked up an Emmy and a Bafta nomination in 1981 for her portrayal of Lady Julia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited. It has been praised as one of the best literary adaptations to ever hit the small screen, and is said to have inspired recent movie hit Saltburn.
Other actors to appear include:
- Diaana Babnicova (Don’t Breathe 2, The Sea Beast, Possum Trot)
- Elliott Rose as Julian (The Northman)
- Kit Rakusen as Dick (Foundation, Belfast)
- Flora Jacoby Richardson as Anne
- James Lance as Quentin (Northern Soul, Bronson, Marie Antoinette)
- Ann Akinjirin as Fanny, George’s mother (Moonknight, Beforeigners, I May Destroy You)
- Kip as Timmy
Where was Peril on the Night Train filmed?
According to production company Moonage Productions, the new series was filmed across the South West of England and Wales.
Scene were filmed in Cornwall, North Somerset and Gloucestershire, in specific locations such as Port Isaac, Tyntesfield, and Gloucester Cathedral.
The producers did not choose to film any of the series on the Isle of Purbeck, Dorset. It is one of the most commonly mentioned locations in the Famous Five novels and creator Enid Blyton visited the island regularly for over 20 years.
