Malory Towers series 2

[Aroundtheworldin80moves]

Didn't realise there was a new Series!
Currently watching with DDs.

Kanaloa was this your version... it's terrible

@Kanaloa

It’s not the diversity I mind at all! I’m not that type of person. It’s more that if you were going to change the storylines and characters completely, it would have been better to make a new programme about new characters. It just seemed a bit odd to make a Malory towers adaptation and decide to change the characters and plots completely.

So things like Alicia being American - if I remember correctly she was quite disparaging of Zerelda the American character! Also I felt like Alicia was quite a lot nicer, while in the books she was very sharp which is how when her downfall comes about she learns to reign herself in.

Agreed.

Why do they do this?

@Legoisthebest I had those ones!

I'll get a picture of DDs ones tomorrow.

Alicia is Canadian in the telly version not American. Canada is part of the Commonwealth so back then Alicia would have been almost considered 'one of us'.

@Legoisthebest

Oh my God!!! That’s my exact copy from childhood

No idea why they look like that. I presume the artist was told ‘schoolgirls’ and just drew a picture of some kids they knew at the local school. I spent ages as a kid examining the front cover and trying to figure out who was supposed to be who. No luck! I had all the others in the same style but they made a bit more sense, eg Daphne falling off the Cliff which made sense because it matched the story.

If I had to hazard a guess I'd say the girl on the ground (who looks remarkably like Reese Witherspoon in Election) is Gwen, short dark hair is Darrell and then it's anybody's guess who the others are!

Yes the girl on the ground is probably Gwen. She has quite a silky face. For some reason I thought the girl with short dark hair was Alicia.

So random. No clue why they’re wearing 90s school uniforms either. Although the blue blazers in the other ones are just as confusing! They could at least give the artists a colour scheme to work with.

DDs ultra recent copy (last year in fact). The St Clares were bought same time, so place, but a lot more vintage design...

@Legoisthebest

Alicia is Canadian in the telly version not American. Canada is part of the Commonwealth so back then Alicia would have been almost considered 'one of us'.

Yes possibly so. I suppose the character is just very different from how I felt she was described in the books. Same with Jean, who was the shrewd Scots girl in charge of collecting the subs money who becomes friendly with Ellen later. In the television show she’s English - some of the time it just didn’t feel familiar or related to the books. Or matron who was a sort of motherly figure in the books. I loved her arguments with Irene every year and how she had been there when Alicia’s mother was a student. It felt like a lot of things were changed to the point that it felt unfamiliar.

DD still likes it though! I just would have loved a proper old fashioned adaptation that was more true to the books. But I do see how this new one would be more appealing to kids, even ones who aren’t familiar with the books.

I never understood the covers that were modern.
When I first read them (in the 80s) I always just knew that they (plus other Enid books) were books set in 'the olden days'. The same I knew that The Secret Garden or Carrie's War was 'olden days'. It was something everyone just knew. No one considered them to be contemporary set.

I'm a bit sceptical about the school's use of an electronic bell system. Did they in the 1940s? At my school they had a big traditional bell on the top of the school which someone had to ring by pulling a rope. I doubt that the neighbours really appreciated the 7 a.m. rising bell.

Oh fabbo!

@GoodPrincessWenceslas

I'm a bit sceptical about the school's use of an electronic bell system. Did they in the 1940s? At my school they had a big traditional bell on the top of the school which someone had to ring by pulling a rope. I doubt that the neighbours really appreciated the 7 a.m. rising bell.

We still don't have an electronic bell! Stand at the top of the playground steps ringing a handbell for us!