SILVERPOINT Series One
Carry On While Camping
To parents, Camp Silverpoint sounds like a great place to send your kids: a wooded retreat where they can detox from technology, form bonds with other children and have fun trying everything from rafting to paintball. To kids, however – or at least the young characters of this CBBC show – Silverpoint holds a bigger fascination.
There’s something going on in the woods just outside the camp, a weirdness that involves a peculiar metal device buried in the ground that can warp the air around it and even teleport objects. There are also rumours of a group of children who went missing 23 years beforehand on that very spot, which means that despite being off-limits, this mysterious patch of forest is catnip for our nosy heroes. As with all shows like this, the adults are either ineffectual or sinister (“Do you trust anyone over 20?” asks one teenager), which means the kids keep their find to themselves… with dangerous results.
Silverpoint has a lot going for it. It’s gifted with an excellent, extremely watchable cast, whose characters all feel like individuals rather than cookie-cutter “written for TV” kids. Filmed in the scenic countryside of Northern Ireland, it has punchy pacing; there’s an almost quaint, Enid Blyton-esque sense of adventure; and it’s also funny. “That light…” muses one mirror-staring lad approvingly, after the magical device blasts him with power, “I think it bleached my teeth!”
However, the series as a whole does feel at least two episodes too long, which means it might struggle to hold the attention of younger audiences. You’ll see some plot twists coming, too, so it’s not entirely original. And it beggars belief how easily these teens avoid adult supervision; if this camp were real, the owners would be liable for multiple lawsuits at the very least.
But the show’s confident self-assuredness and its gutsy end-of-season cliffhanger promise bigger – and maybe even better – shenanigans for series two.
Maiya Silveston, who plays deaf character Kaz, is the daughter of former Eastenders star Rita Simons (Roxy Mitchell).