BBC to bring the famous five to TV

Absolutely! I hold no candle for Enid Blyton although I read loads of her books as a child. Many children love a formula and knowing exactly what to expect - possibly because when you're a newish reader it makes it easier to have an idea what's going to come next. Also the familiar is comforting - adventure with no real peril.

I doubt any actual children are calling for this remake. Enid Blyton isn't a "name" to them surely?

George has already been a bit queered.

https://amp.theguardian.com/stage/2022/sep/20/childhood-holidays-everyone-wishes-they-had-the-famous-five-return-in-a-musical

If the original idea isn't diverse enough for today's kids, something new should be written and produced instead.
Box ticking at it's best.”

Yes. They won’t bear any resemblance to the original books - unless of course BBC decide to use them as an example of what a wicked racist classist woman Enid Blyton was.
I don’t see the point of adapting for TV any book written before the 1980s as all will have aspects which are unacceptable today. As pp have said, write new material.

It's not even as if the STORIES of FF were very good. I mean, Blyton had about four or five storylines and about a dozen stock archive characters, and just recycled them endlessly. There was rarely much mystery to be solved because you could always tell who the baddy was (mean piggy little eyes etc.). Blyton was very much someone who made instant judgments about people based on their appearance or first impression, and her books reflected that.

There was another similar mystery series written around the same time which was loads better and I'm trying to remember the author and series title....

The 1978 series is on Britbox/ITVx at the moment. There was also a series with Jemima Rooper as George from the 1990s though I can't see that streaming anywhere.

Since I was a tomboy, I thought George was bloody wonderful.

Fully expect transing given what the BBC is like these days.

Justmuddlingalong · Today 08:20
I loved the books and tv series as a child. It was of it's time and if they're going to fart about with it, what's the point?
If the original idea isn't diverse enough for today's kids, something new should be written and produced instead.
Box ticking at it's best.”

This.

Nicolas Winding Refn is such a weird person to be doing the famous five.

I'm picturing a picnic with lashings and lashings of ginger beer under harsh neon lights where no-one speaks, followed by the graphic dismemberment of a main character.

He's not been woke or fashionable with his previous work so I think there is a fair chance he wouldn't do something as naff as Transing George.

The Famous Five helped to make me a feminist at a very young age. Of course George, and all girls, should be able to do whatever boys do. And Julian was so bossy and Anne was so wet but Dick was sweet. And it was so racist and classist but despite recognising that Enid Blyton was horrible about poor people and foreigners I still read them all. Didn't read any to my daughter though.

FF books are period pieces, updating and making them diverse is really not going to work - it's 3 siblings and a cousin, and they don't have any other friends. I fear George will be a 'them', which nicely avoids challenging gender norms.

Five Go Mad in Dorset was Comic Strip. Jennifer Saunders was Anne and Dawn French was George.

I remember watching a kids' TV series in the 70s

I agree. I don't think a black Anne Boleyn is appropriate and I'd love to see original programmes about African or Chinese women for instance.

Is it beyond their wit to make a children's series about five (or whatever number) children having adventures with their pet?

It doesn't need to be the Famous Five. Just take the core concept and run with it.

Those books were popular because of the formula and adventure, not because of the stereotypes - sex, class, race, you name it.

It's stupid to call it an adaptation - just pay some bloody writers to come up with good new content, and don't hog tie them with 70 odd year old stories that don't need retold (again).

When I read the books to my sons we often end up on a little digression about what a prick Julian is

my first thought when I saw this thread was ‘oh no’

please don’t trans George

I can't get on with colour / sex blind casting in TV and film but I do appreciate the need to give jobs to a diverse range of actors. I think it works fine on stage where you aren't looking for realism.

I just saw julius Caesar with female Brutus and Cassius. It made Shakespeare more interesting.

Mind you 80 days around the world was good despite diverse casting.

I can't see that famous five is worth messing with. You either do it as it was or you do a completely different story that fits the modern world.

So many good books that could benefit from a lavish bbc budget.

If George isn't non-binary, I'll eat my hat!

I think the problem is that we're essentially seeing the collision of two trends here. On the one hand, media content seems to be becoming increasingly risk-averse and derivative; everything has to be based on a book or comic book or a sodding remake of something that was made before. On the other hand, there is pressure to have more non-white characters in TV and films.

The inevitable and awkward solution to this dilemma is "OK, let's make yet ANOTHER remake of Henry VIII/Jane Austen/Famous Five (for the millionth time) but just crayon a few characters in as being different colors. Yay, that's that diversity box ticked!"

I'd rather see more original content from more diverse parts of the world featuring more diverse actors, but that would demand some originality and appetite for risk-taking.

The word 'progressive' is a big red flag in this context. One step away from 'queering'.

They've done TV adaptations before, do we need yet another?

I'll keep an open mind until I see it. When it comes to these stories, they are of their time and I would rather see TV adaptations reflecting that. We now live in a time where society is more diverse so books written now can reflect that. It's still ok for older texts to stay true to the context in which they were written.

I do really enjoy the Malory Towers adaptations but the racial diversity does grate a little because we know for a fact that Malory Towers wouldn't have been like that. You can ignore it because it doesn't really affect the story. It probably would feel weird if we suddenly had a black Dick or a Korean Julian though as they're meant to be siblings. I don't think international, or even interracial, adoption was a thing in 1940s Cornwall.

Good old Anne being the perfect little wife, LOL.

Does anyone remember "Five Go Mad in Dorset" from "Ripping Yarns"? They had Anne wandering around with a big feather duster at the campsite, dusting the grass and trees: "No, I don't mind being dominated, because at least I'm quiet and pretty, not like poor George" !!

By "diverse," do they mean ethnically diverse?

I feel like, either retain the 50s setting and the original cast in all their whiteness, or write an updated version if you want a more ethnically diverse cast (or just use the "kids on an adventure" theme to write completely different adventure stories?)

1950s was, quite honestly, overwhelmingly white and it certain wasn't color-blind; if you have a bunch of multi-ethnicity kids wandering around the British countryside c. 1950, people would have noticed and commented and said things. If non-white characters are handled in this kind of color-blind way, it pretty much amounts to lying about the past.

Even as a child I could see that George was reacting to the sexist expectations that being a girl meant being meek and domesticated like Anne.
She wanted to be bold, wild, active and her way of expressing that was to say she wanted to be a boy. No- one thought that actually meant she was a boy. Just that she didn’t want to be praised for being “a good little housekeeper” in the way Anne was.

Exactly. My blood is already boiling at the thought of them making George anything but a tomboy.

I loved the books and tv series as a child. It was of it's time and if they're going to fart about with it, what's the point?
If the original idea isn't diverse enough for today's kids, something new should be written and produced instead.
Box ticking at it's best.

Malory Towers managed Bill being an old fashioned Tomboy fine... so maybe they will manage it?