Mallory Towers!

[PlomBear]

On BBC iplayer from Monday!

I have binged watched with my mum (they live with me). She and I both read them as girls. We loved it. Yes it was different but I think they modernised the girls so that they could iron out the bullying etc without changing the period feeling.

I really, really don’t like the TV version of Matron. They’ve basically turned her into a David Walliams character mixed with Miss Trunchbull

Good spot. I've just read it was produced by David Walliams' production company King Bert. (In collaboration with another company).

This thread is a bit hard - I've jumped quite a bit and not read it all as I'm only on episode 2. They've all been released haven't they?

Yes you can watch all 13 episodes BBC iPlayer.
I'm loving it, I've got 2 episodes left then going to dig my old books out to read again.

Yes ! This is a reason for lock down.

I liked it and will be downloading the books to read again. A nice break from all of the darkness

Mind you, thought Darrell was a bit judgy of Pamela wanting you do the season rather go to teaching college.

As a former teacher I would say Pam made the right call

I’ve loved bit unsure at first but yes a lot of the classic scenes from the books, can’t wait for next series now.

In this version, Pamela is surely destined to come straight back to MT on qualification, devoting her life to teaching generations of schoolgirls till she takes over as head.

I've watched up to episode 5 and I'm quite liking the actress playing Darrell. She's quite natural too, while a couple of the others a bit like they've been to the Emma Watson School of Child Acting.

Alicia isn't anywhere as hard as she should be though!

I've watched four episodes so far - I didn't think I'd like it, but I do! There's a lovely innocence and nostalgia about it.

My DDs are both gripped, but both agree it is nothing like the books.

I roll my eyes that whenever they are in the pool, they have to mention that "the lifeguard" is there. Don't like matron's character at all.

I quite enjoyed the ridiculous lacrosse match episode. But it is certainly aimed squarely at children rather than being a "family" adaptation.

I wish they had left Mam'zelle DuPont in though, she's such a major part of the books.

Agree that Alicia isn't hard enough, and in the books the girls would never mix with Ron, him being a lowly gardener, he would be beneath their notice.

In Enid's world, I mean.

I think the only boy to ever appear in a Blyton girls school story was Eileen's brother Eddie who was in Claudine at St Clare's and he was looked down for being common working class.

think the only boy to ever appear in a Blyton girls school story was Eileen's brother Eddie who was in Claudine at St Clare's and he was looked down for being common working class.

Didn’t Bill (Whilemena?) have 17 older brothers who accompanied to school on her horse. Some of them had very deep voices and were nearly men!!

Didn't Alicia also have an offscreen older brother, Sam, who kept her irrepressible cousin June in line in the holidays by handing out punishments, like a choice between being spanked with her own hairbrush (hmm) or running around the paddock fifty times before breakfast? Only of course June adores him?

Yes they did. What I should've said was Eddie is the only boy who plays a significant part in the school stories, rather than just being someone who was talked about or only had a line or two of dialogue.

I remember Eddie. He had a ‘weak’ face because he was a prole. Unlike the ‘strong, clever’ face of the insufferably smug middle-class Julian in the Famous Five. Just like Darrell’s father drove properly because he was a doctor, while Jo’s nouveau riche dad was a road hog and dropped his ‘h’s.

The Irene actress is likeable. If i was at Malory Towers in the film version I'd want to be friends with her. Who would other people want to be friends with?

Alpine I think out of all of them, I'd probably want to be friends with Sally. Although her mood swings have only been mentioned once so far, I think she's pretty reliable, and that's the sort of friend I need at the moment! The nurturing side of me also would want to be friends with Mary-Lou, but I'd probably be too scared of upsetting her in real life

As you can tell, I'm slightly overthinking this...

Ah, yes- Sally. Dependable is the word that springs to mind!

Not like (tries to remember the EB stereotypes..!)
Alicia...sharp tongued
Mary-Lou...timid, frightened of her own shadow
GML-dreadful and vain (didn’t like sports-heaven forbid!)
Jean-shrewd Scots girl
Irene-forgetful (every term she nearly lost her health cert?!)
Belinda-can’t actually remember-was she the arty one!?

What a pity, no subtitles yet again. So much of the iPlayer content lacks subtitles, even those shows which have subtitles when broadcast live.

It does have subtitles. Everything has subtitles on the BBC, and on iPlayer.

I watched episodes 1-5 with subtitles,but for some reason they've disappeared for episode 6. The 'S' symbol is missing too.

Starksforthewin may well be experiencing a similar glitch.

Finished watching it now. I enjoyed it despite it being different from the books. Roll on the next series. Wonder when they were planning to film it. It'll probably be delayed by the C word..(Trying not to mention it so i don't spoil our nice escapism thread)

Oh and they'd better have the brown and orange uniform next term!