BBC to bring the famous five to TV

[Dinopawus]

Just seen this in the Times.

For the love of Timmy, can the BBC please leave George as the Tom-boy she is?

Im not confident.

Famous Five go on a progressive adventure for new generation in TV adaptation

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/25335ec2-1388-11ee-b768-bb6d328f2d92?shareToken=8042c7bc7e8225df45e0537407fb335a

we really need to be moving away from the bigoted prevailing ideas that simply being the girl or boy that you are is not 'special' enough. Your sex is a fact; but your individual character and preferences are entirely up to you

Couldn’t agree more.

I agree with you completely, but I thought the point the PP was making was that it’s not in the least unlikely that an early teens tomboy in 2023 would either be affected by the social contagion in which many girls claim NB identities, or would have been persuaded by others that she must be a boy. Not that they were saying it was a good or desirable thing, just a likely thing.

I have no idea what the BBC plan, but I can guess. I don't need any more 'progressive' garbage shoved down my throat.

Call me a cynic, but I can't really see why they would be considering remaking it if they weren't planning on making it 'progressive' - quite possibly centring George as a key trans/NB figure. The productions in the 70s and 90s were great; yes they were dated, but they were set when the stories were, so that's always going to be the case. What would they have to add now, if not to make them 'progressive'?

It's so lazy, really, riding on the coat-tails of a well-known story and then completely transforming it for your own agenda. If you want to make a programme about children in 2023, go ahead and write one and make it; if you want to cash in on the name of pay tribute to the work of Enid Blyton, respect that she never set any of her stories in the 21st century.

Perhaps the BBC could take a stand and reclaim the word tomboy by showing girls that it’s perfectly possible to have short hair and like sports without it meaning that you’re trans and therefore need to pump your body full of hormones or worse.

If I had to predict how they will handle George, it will be to make it clear that she should be trans, but isn't allowed to be by the unreasonable constraints of the time. There will be a sympathetic adult who "gets it" and accepts her as a boy, and we will all be directed to conclude that people should always be allowed to "be themselves". They obviously won't use the words trans or non binary, but it will be obvious what they mean.

As soon as I see "progressive", my heart sinks. I was of the Famous Five's time i.e. a 50s childhood. There were a lot of girls like me in my school - short-haired, sporty, so-called tomboys with a fuck-you attitude to the stifling roles we were expected to play. Nor did it mean we would grow up to be lesbians either. Most among my group became career women, got married and had children.

We just had a damn good childhood, with loads more freedom than children today and carried our fuck-you attitude through to our teenage years - none of this fretting over male expectations of girls that is all too common today.

As for what we thought of the Famous Five - Julian was an arsehole, Dick was the boy you wanted as a friend, George was the girl you wanted to be and Anne was a pathetic wimp.

Hands off the Famous Five I say and shove your "progressive" bollox where the sun doesn't shine.

If they make George trans, it will go further than the original in dictating what girls can and can't be.

I will be very surprised if "diverse" and "progressive" involves any changes to the social class of the famous quintet.

A TV series where a group of children have adventures and show resilience could be entertaining and inspiring.

Especially if it shows a tomboy, children who love their dog, who don't need entertaining by adults and who are capable of surviving without phones & McDonald's.

I'm just not convinced that a BBC adaptation of Enid Blyton would deliver it.

And would it be awfully naughty to point out that the most likely character to trans is the middle aged scientist?

Well they have started filming already, apparently. I wonder who the adults are going to be

This write up sounds quite promising:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nicolas-winding-refn-the-famous-five-enid-blyton-bbc-zdf-1235523719/

George was a tomboy icon for me when I was little. It was brilliant to have someone like me represented in books I read. Didn't give me the urge to bind my chest or shove a toilet roll tube in the front of my pants.
It just let me enjoy larking about climbing stuff, not wearing frills and generally being brave.

Enid Blyton said George was based on herself. She married more than once and had children. If they want to show George as trans it should be with a later life detrans story.

a) I'm still a tom-boy today (45 years later)
b) I think they will not stop until there are no role models left for girls :(
c) I'm quite disappointed to see on a feminist board people pooh-pooing Anne and her contribution to the stories - for fucks sake, no-one would have anywhere to sleep and nothing to eat if Anne wasn't there. Also she often solved the mystery by noticing something subtle the others missed.

Growing up I somehow managed to climb trees/build dens/hurtle about on a bike/roller skates as well as popping on some ballet shoes for a few hours/week. It's what most girls did in semi-rural England in the 70's (no interesting shops sports centres/swimming pools/gyms for miles).

I devoured Famous 5 alongside the other series. Presumably they've been altered a fair amount over the years (as they certainly seemed to be infra dig for quite a few years).

What's the betting that Timmy is a labradoodle or something!

George probably did want to be a boy, absolutely. But it wasn't any more possible for her then than it is for teens today.

I think it’s perfectly valid on a feminist board to be uneasy that the only girl role model is to provide domestic service, because the other girl that is active and brave feels she can only do that as a boy.

A story about four children with two girls called Anne and Georgina where Anne was more passive but noticed things and Georgina more active but both children are clearly girls and all four make their own bracken based beds would be better role models (especially without Julian always wanging on patronisingly about Anne being the perfect housewife all the time).

However possibly that story not have stuck in the national psyche quite so much.

Totally agree about Anne being actually a valuable member of the group. But, she couldn't just be a girly girl - she was SUCH an exaggeration of a type- dusting the bushes, getting scared of everything etc that it was hard not to look down on as a child. Not like George who was "almost as good as a boy". And who would actually want to be solely responsible for everyone having food etc while being looked down on as pathetic.

So actually there's a lot to unpack there about Enid blyton's attitude towards women/girls. But I still really liked the books as a child so meh.

I'm quite disappointed to see on a feminist board people pooh-pooing Anne and her contribution to the stories - for fucks sake, no-one would have anywhere to sleep and nothing to eat if Anne wasn't there. Also she often solved the mystery by noticing something subtle the others missed

As a small girl who was always the youngest and sometimes struggled to keep up I liked Anne because she was truly brave, often doing things even when really scared.

Was googling some involved; found it ironic that Nicholas is also working on this

Plot twist will be if Anne is transed

Yes it'll be this. Entirely get rid of an opportunity for a female actor and instead throw another bloke into the mix.

Also Ann is perfect transgirl material. Stereotype galore.

Dylan whatisname for Ann?

That's essentially Swallows and Amazons, give or take a few extra characters. Anne is not a patch on Susan for sheer authoritarian organising of her rash and distractible siblings.

That would certainly be more progressive than transing George which would just reinforce a rather extreme form of narrow sex roles as somehow novel, rather than an even stronger version of old sexist roles and norms.

I still don't quite understand how we came from the 1960s and 1970s gender revolution to what is happening today where up is down and down is up.

Oh gosh yes!

Someone recently mentioned the FF. I have wondered what the gender critical opinion of George would be.

To avoid causing offence, should George be called Georgina(her given name) in the series and drop the whole "she wants to be a boy" character arch to avoid giving the idea it could be trans-ideology?

She can of course, still be a tomboy.