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The Famous Five is a fictional group of Child Detectives , composed of four Children and their Dog , created by Enid Blyton . Blyton wrote several such Detective series, including The Secret Seven and the curiously titled Five Find-Outers And Dog , but the Famous Five are the best-known and most Popular of these. All the ''Famous Five'' books have been adapted for Television at some stage. as Anne, Michele Galager as Georgina, Gary Russell as Dick, Marcus Harris as Julian from ''"The Famous Five"'' (1978-1979) television series]] OVERVIEW The first books in the series were written during the 1940s , and some of the basic concepts can now seem extremely Dated . Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are Siblings . During their Holidays , they are regularly sent to stay with their Aunt Fanny (later reprints renamed the character Aunt Aggie) and Uncle Quentin, whose Daughter , Georgina, is a Tomboy always known as George. Every time they come together, they find themselves obliged to solve a Mystery which usually, but not always, has a criminal behind it. The Location of the adventure varies from book to book. Sometimes it will happen close to George's home, and "Kirrin Island", a private island, presents many opportunities for such activities. On other occasions, the children may go Camping or Hiking or be sent on holiday together elsewhere, but they are always accompanied by George's dog, Timothy, affectionately known to the children as Timmy. Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known; in her later life, she admitted that that girl was herself. CHARACTERS
BIBLIOGRAPHY Enid Blyton wrote 21 Famous Five books; in chronological order they are: #''Five on a Treasure Island'' ( 1942 - ISBN 0340796146) #''Five Go Adventuring Again'' ( 1943 - ISBN 0340796154) #''Five Run Away Together'' ( 1944 - ISBN 0340796170) #''Five Go To Smuggler's Top'' ( 1945 - ISBN 0340796189) #''Five Go Off In A Caravan'' ( 1946 - ISBN 0340796197) #''Five on Kirrin Island Again'' ( 1947 - ISBN 0340796200) #''Five Go off to Camp'' ( 1948 - ISBN 0340796219) #''Five Fall into Adventure'' ( 1949 - ISBN 0340796235) #''Five Get into Trouble'' ( 1950 - ISBN 0340796227) #''Five on a Hike Together'' ( 1951 - ISBN 0340796243) #''Five Have A Wonderful Time'' ( 1952 - ISBN 0340796251) #''Five Go Down to the Sea'' ( 1953 - ISBN 034079626X) #''Five Go to Mystery Moor'' ( 1954 - ISBN 0340796278) #''Five Have Plenty of Fun'' ( 1955 - ISBN 0340681195) #''Five on a Secret Trail'' ( 1956 - ISBN 0340796294) #''Five Go to Billycock Hill'' ( 1957 - ISBN 0340796308) #''Five Get into a Fix'' ( 1958 ISBN 0340033630) #''Five on Finniston Farm'' ( 1960 - ISBN 0340681233) #''Five Go to Demon's Rocks'' ( 1961 - ISBN 0340796332) #''Five Have a Mystery to Solve'' ( 1962 - ISBN 0340796340) #''Five Are Together Again'' ( 1963 - ISBN 0340796359) Blyton also wrote a number of short stories featuring the characters, and there are also books written originally in French by Claude Voilier (the Five have long been extremely popular in translation in the French-speaking parts of Europe ) and later translated into English . The French/English books (not written by Blyton, and for the most part contemporary to their era, i.e. the 1980s) are generally regarded as Inferior by Blyton Aficionados and at least in the English-speaking world, have never equalled the popularity of the original books. The title of one of these books - "The Famous Five in Fancy Dress" - has been a particular object of ridicule for some. The original books are set in a backdrop of rural England with old-world values teaching Innocence , an element often missing from current children's literature. The stories almost always take place in the children's holidays when they come home from their respective boarding schools. Kirrin Cottage, which is George's home, and all the other places they visit are set in the countryside where the children discover the simple joys of cottages, Picnics ("with lashings of Ginger Beer " - an oft-quoted cliché but never actually mentioned in any of the 21 books), Bicycle trips, home-made food, islands, Sea shores, and always have a thrilling Adventure . The characters are chiselled with a very few words, there are no swirling descriptions of the scenes, but that is what fuels a child's Imagination and make the readers think for themselves. TELEVISION SERIES The Famous Five 1978 television series had 26 episodes of thirty minutes. It starred Michele Galagher as Georgina, Marcus Harris as Julian, Jennifer Thanisch as Anne, Gary Russell as Dick, Toddy Woodgate as Timmy, Michael Hinz as Uncle Quentin and Sue Best as Aunt Fanny. It also starred Ronald Fraser , John Carson , James Villiers , Cyril Luckham and Brian Glover . The screenplays were written by Gloria Tors , Gail Renard , Richard Carpenter and Richard Sparks . The episodes were directed by Peter Duffell , Don Leaver , James Gatward and Mike Connor . The series was produced by Don Leaver . One of its most memorable aspects was the theme tune. Intro Song lyrics: ''Wherever there's adventure to be found'' ''Just a clue or a secret message bring the Famous Five around'' ''Whenever there's a mystery to be solved'' ''up in the ruined castle or down in smugglers' hold'' (Chorus:) ''We are the Famous Five'' ''Julian, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the dog'' ''We are the Famous Five'' ''Coming back to you, time after time, after time'' Ending song Lyrics : ''Whatever awaits behind closed doors'' ''Strange noises in the cellar or the sound of creaky floors'' ''We never let a mystery pass us by'' ''Just leave a clue and leave the rest to the Famous Five'' (Chorus:) ''We are the Famous Five'' ''Julian, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the dog'' ''We are the Famous Five'' ''We're coming back to you whenever there's time'' ''Coming back to you, time after time, after time'' The 1978 series was contemporary, that is, set in what was then the present day, and was produced by Southern Television for the ITV network in the UK. All the books apart from ''"Five On A Treasure Island", "Five Have A Mystery To Solve"'' and ''"Five Have Plenty Of Fun"'' were dramatised; the first two were excluded because the Children's Film Foundation still had the film and TV rights to the books (see below), and the third because it could not fit in the production schedule, and plans to make a third series which would have included this story plus new ones written purely for television were abandoned after the Blyton estate exercised its Veto . A later TV series was produced around 1996, a co-production between a number of companies including HTV , Zenith North and the German channel ZDF ; this was also shown on ITV in the UK. Unlike the previous series, this was a period piece, set in 1953 , and also unlike the previous series it dramatised all the original books. Of the Juvenile actors the best-known is probably Jemima Rooper , who played George. VIDEO AND DVD The 1978 series was released on Video with reasonable regularity between 1983 and 1999 , many of which are still easy to find second-hand, although the Sound and Picture quality is not always what it could be. A four-disc DVD collection, containing 23 of the 26 episodes produced for the 1978 series (and two episodes from the 1996 series) was released in region 4 ( Australia and New Zealand ) in 2005 . The box and disc art identify it as a release of 1996 series. (The distributor had licenced the 1996 series but due to an administrative glitch, it was supplied with master tapes and artwork for the 1978 series.) The error was corrected in a later release. The 1996 series was released in its entirety on video; only the adaption of ''"Five On A Treasure Island"'' seems to have been released on DVD in the UK, although there are apparently some rare mainland European DVD releases of the series, available via certain Websites in the UK (these are, of course, Region 2 DVDs). A three-disc DVD collection, containing 13 of the 26 episodes of the 1996 series, was released in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 (these are region 4 DVDs). This release followed the erroneous release of the 1978 series with 1996 artwork, and is marked "Revised Edition" to avoid confusion. There are also two Children's Film Foundation films of the Famous Five books - "Five On A Treasure Island", made in 1957, and "Five Have A Mystery To Solve", produced in 1963 - plus other film adaptions of the books made in countries such as Denmark . COMPUTER GAME In 1990 an Interactive Fiction Computer Game based on the first of the books, ''Five On A Treasure Island'', was released. It was Programmed by Colin Jordan and first released for the little known SAM Coupé by Enigma Variations. He originally started Coding the game on the ZX Spectrum using his own "worldscape" technique. When the SAM Coupé was launched, he switched to it as the target platform while still hosting the code on the ZX Spectrum. He later Ported it to the Amstrad CPC and completed the ZX Spectrum version. The game was also ported to the Commodore 64 , Amiga and Atari ST by others. PARODIES The Five also inspired the Comic Strip Parody , '' Five Go Mad In Dorset '' and its sequel "Five Go Mad On Mescalin", in which the characters express sympathies with Nazi Germany and opposition to the Welfare State , Homosexuals , Immigrants and Jews , in an extremely broad Parody not so much of Blyton but of wider perceived 1950s Prejudices . The parodies were deliberately set towards the end of the original Famous Five "era" ( 1942 - 1963 ) so as to make the point that the books were already becoming outmoded while they were still being written, although the continuing popularity of the books even in the 21st Century may be seen to suggest otherwise. A story in The Guardian 's G2 supplement also parodies the Famous Five. It argues that Anne, Dick, George and Julian are charicatures rather than characters, portraying Anne as having no life outside of domestic labour. To the informed reader, it neatly highlights the power struggle between Dick, George and Julian while Anne is sidelined. It also shows how the lives of the children are ideological rather than realistic, referring to a "delicious fruit cake they had bought from the local paedophile - sorry, red-cheeked farmer and his wife - that morning". NEW SERIES In 2005 Chorion announced the production of a new animated series based on the books, to be broadcast on British Television in 2007 . EXTERNAL LINKS |