TV PICK OF THE WEEK
The combination of a Danish filmmaker known for his dark, sometimes violent movies and a much-loved classic of 20th century English children’s literature actually works remarkably well.
Whoever suggested the unlikely pairing of Enid Blyton with Nicolas Winding Refn, director of films such as cult thriller Drive, starring Ryan Gosling, deserves a pat on the back. Winding Refn reimagines the adventures of Julian, George, Anne, Dick and their dog Timmy for a new audience and brings the stories’ sensibility subtly into the 21st century, while setting it firmly in the past.
Radio broadcasts in the background of the main action suggest that we are roughly in the period that the early Famous Five novels were written, namely the 1940s, but as always, these stories take place in a timeless, magical fantasy world where unexpected, exciting things happen to children in the school summer holidays.
In The Curse of Kirrin Island, the first of three 90-minute episodes, the children try to track down some treasure that’s somehow connected to the Knights Templar. Resourceful only child Georgina (Diaana Babnicova), known as George, leads a happy outdoorsy life, on a remote farm on the island with her mother Fanny (Ann Akinjirin) and inventor father Quentin (James Lance). George is singularly unimpressed when her parents announce that her cousins Julian (Elliott Rose), Dick (Kit Rakusen) and Anne (Flora Jacoby Richardson) are coming to stay for the summer. When they arrive, she is unfriendly, not to say downright rude, as she has things to sort out – the most pressing of which is her recent discovery of a dead body. Once her cousins prove themselves to be more than up for an adventure or two, George softens and the gang begin to get on famously.
The darkness of Winding Refn’s previous work surfaces occasionally, most notably in the dastardly behaviour of baddies Thomas Wentworth (Jack Gleeson) and his sidekick Mr Boswell (William Abadie) which includes trapping the five inside a crypt below a London church and leaving them to die. It is overall a cracking adventure, with fine performances from the young cast, alongside some impressive canine acting too, from a bearded collie cross named Kip as Timmy.