The BBC is bringing Enid Blyton's The Famous Five books to life through a new TV series. The three-part series will be the first time the BBC has ever adapted The Famous Five for the screen.
The new series is being created by Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, who directed the 2011 blockbuster film Drive starring Ryan Gosling, and Matthew Read, who produced Peaky Blinders. The BBC adaptation will follow the five adventurers in an "odyssey-style story" which is being filmed across the south west of the UK.
Explaining his wish to create a series on The Famous Five, Refn said: “All my life I’ve fought vigorously to remain a child with a lust for adventure. By reimagining The Famous Five, I am preserving that notion by bringing these iconic stories to life for a progressive new audience, instilling the undefinable allure and enchantment of childhood for current and future generations to come.”
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Each of the three episodes will be 90 minutes long and will be shown on the BBC in the UK and TF1 in France. Episode one of the series has been written by Read, episode two by Priya K Dosanjh and episode three has been written by Being Human producer Matthew Bouch and Read.
The BBC believes the series will introduce the books to a new generation of children. Patricia Hidalgo, director of BBC children’s and education, said: “Bringing these books to life with a new reimagining of The Famous Five is a real treat for BBC audiences and a celebration of British heritage.
“These stories are loved around the world and bringing families together is a key part of our strategy so we hope it introduces a new generation of viewers to these wonderful adventures.”
Will Gould, co-founder of Moonage Pictures which is producing the series, added: “Moonage Pictures was created to provide the right creative environment to explore ideas without limitation and this provides us with exactly that opportunity… This Famous Five will be a modern, timely and irreverent action series.”
Enid Blyton write the first The Famous Five book, Five On A Treasure Island, in 1942. She wrote 21 books based on the characters and also created The Secret Seven.
TV adaptations of the books have been created in the past. An ITV series came out in 1978, a CITV series was published in the 1990s, and Disney even created a cartoon series called Famous 5 On The Case. But the BBC has never adapted the stories for television,
