The Famous Five (series)

The Famous Five

Five on a Treasure Island Five Go Adventuring Again Five Run Away Together Five Go to Smuggler's Top Five Go Off in a Caravan Five on Kirrin Island Again Five Go Off to Camp Five Get Into Trouble Five Fall Into Adventure Five on a Hike Together Five Have a Wonderful Time Five Go Down to the Sea Five Go to Mystery Moor Five Have Plenty of Fun Five on a Secret Trail Five Go to Billycock Hill Five Get into a Fix Five on Finniston Farm Five Go to Demon's Rocks Five Have a Mystery to Solve Five Are Together Again
Author	Enid Blyton
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Children's literature, mystery, adventure
Publisher	Hodder & Stoughton
Media type	Print (hardback and paperback)
No. of books	21

The Famous Five is the name of a series of children's novels written by British author Enid Blyton. The first book, Five on a Treasure Island, was published in 1942.

The novels feature the adventures of a group of young children – Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina (George) – and their dog Timmy. Blyton created several similar groups for her detective series, including The Secret Seven, The Adventurous Four (not to be confused with The Adventure Series) and Five Find-Outers, but the Famous Five is the best-known and most popular of these.

Blyton only intended to write about six or eight books in the series but, owing to their high sales and immense commercial success, she went on to write 21 full-length Famous Five novels. By the end of 1953, more than 6 million copies of these books had been printed and sold. Today, more than two million copies of the books are sold each year, making them one of the biggest-selling series for children ever written. Over a hundred million books have been sold. Nearly all of the novels have subsequently been adapted for television.

A feature of the last page of the original books (and reprints) was an invitation to readers to join the Famous Five Club. Proceeds went to paediatric charities. Eileen Soper illustrated the original Famous Five series.

In 2008 Chorion, who owned the rights to Blyton's books and characters, published through Hodder's Children's Books the Famous Five's Survival Guide, a book that combines survival tips and facts with a story in which the grown-up characters revisit a case they failed to solve in their childhood. Following financial difficulties, Chorion sold world rights in the series to Hachette UK (Hodder's Children's Books mother company) in March 2013.

Overview

Three of the children, Julian, Dick and Anne, are brothers and sister. Their father is Quentin Kirrin's brother. Quentin Kirrin is married to Fanny and their daughter is Georgina, a tomboy who insists on being called George. During their holidays, Julian, Dick and Anne are regularly sent to the seaside village of Kirrin to stay with their Aunt Fanny, Uncle Quentin and cousin George. George owns a large mongrel dog, Timmy, who is very much part of the group and a character in his own right. Timmy accompanies the four children on every adventure.

The stories always take place in the children's school holidays when they have returned from their respective boarding schools. Every time they meet, they get caught up in an adventure, the location of which varies from book to book. Sometimes the scene is set close to George's family home at Kirrin Cottage in Dorset: Kirrin Island, a picturesque island owned by George and her family in Kirrin Bay, for example, presents many opportunities for adventure. George's own home and various other houses the children visit or stay in are hundreds of years old, and often contain secret passages or smugglers' tunnels. In some books, the children go camping in the countryside, on a hike or holiday together elsewhere. The settings, however, are almost always rural and enable the children to discover the simple joys of cottages, islands, the English and Welsh countryside and sea shores, as well as the adventures, picnics, lemonade, bicycle trips, home-made food, raspberry pop and ginger beer.

In some of the books, the four children and Timmy are joined by other children. Some of these newcomers start off being disliked by the four children including the gypsy girl Jo, and Henrietta, another tomboy; and some of them are friends from the start, including Sooty and Tinker, both sons of Uncle Quentin's scientist friends.

Blyton always said that George was based on a real girl she had once known: in her later life, she admitted that the girl was herself.

Characters

The five

• Julian

  Julian is the eldest of the five, cousin to George and elder brother to Dick and Anne. He is tall, strong and intelligent as well as caring, responsible and kind. His cleverness and reliability are often noted by Aunt Fanny. He is the leader of the group. He is very protective towards Anne. At the start of the series, Julian is 12 years old.

• Dick

  Dick has a cheeky sense of humour, but is also dependable and kind in nature. He is the same age as his cousin George, a year younger than his brother Julian and older than his sister Anne – eleven at the start of the series. Dick is very caring of Anne and does his best to keep her cheered up when she gets upset. He had a heroic role in Five On A Treasure Island. He also uses his wits in many adventures.

• George (Georgina)

  Georgina is a tomboy and insists that people call her George. With her short hair and boy's clothes she is often mistaken for a boy, which pleases her enormously. Like her father, Quentin, George has a fiery temper. She is fierce and headstrong, but very loyal to those she loves. She is sometimes extremely stubborn and causes trouble for her mother as well as her cousins. She is very possessive of Timmy, her dog. George is cousin to siblings Julian, Dick and Anne and is aged eleven at the start of the series. In one interview Enid confessed that George was based on herself.

• Anne

  Anne is the youngest in the group, and generally takes care of their domestic duties during the Five's various camping holidays. As the youngest, she is more likely than the others to become frightened and does not really enjoy the adventures as much as the others. She is ten years old in the first book of the series. As a small girl, she sometimes lets her tongue run away with her, but ultimately she is as brave and resourceful as the others. She likes doing the domestic things such as planning, organising and preparing meals, keeping where they are staying clean and tidy, be it a cave, house, tent or caravan. In Smuggler's Top it is suggested she is claustrophobic as she is frightened of enclosed spaces since it reminds her of bad dreams she has - however, this just shows how brave she really is as the adventures invariably lead the five into tunnels, down wells, into dungeons and other enclosed spaces.

• Timmy

  Timmy is George's faithful dog. He is a very friendly dog – clever, affectionate and loyal to the Five and to George in particular; he provides physical protection for the children on multiple occasions. George adores Timmy and thinks that he is the best dog in the world and often becomes angry when people insult him. In the first book of the series, George's parents have forbidden her to keep Timmy, and George is forced to hide him with a fisher boy in the village. After the end of the Five's first adventure, her parents relent and she is allowed to keep him.

Close friends

• Jo (Josephine), the gypsy girl

  Jo, clever but wild, joins the Five on several adventures. She is approximately the same age as the children and is a tomboy like George. Her parents were in the circus, but her mother left and her father was imprisoned for theft.

• Joanna/Joan

  Joanna is the housekeeper at George's house. She is an extremely kind woman who is often present at Kirrin Cottage when Uncle Quentin and Aunt Fanny go off somewhere. All the four cousins are extremely attached to her. She is sometimes referred to as Joan.

Family

• Aunt Fanny

  Fanny is George's mother, and aunt to Dick, Julian and Anne. Called Aunt Fanny by Julian, Dick and Anne, she is married to Uncle Quentin, and is, through most of Blyton's Famous Five novels, the principal maternal figure in the lives of the children.

• Uncle Quentin

  Quentin is George's father, and a world-famous scientist, who is kidnapped or held hostage in several of the children's adventures. He possesses a quick temper and has little tolerance for the children on school holidays, but nevertheless loves his family and is extremely proud of his daughter. In the first book of the series, it is established that he is the brother of Julian, Dick and Anne's father.

Film and television adaptations

Films

There exist two Children's Film Foundation films of the Famous Five books – Five on a Treasure Island, made in 1957, and Five Have a Mystery to Solve, produced in 1964.

Two of the Famous Five stories by Enid Blyton have been filmed by Danish director Katrine Hedman. The cast consisted of Danish actors and were originally released in Danish. Ove Sprogøe stars as Uncle Quentin. The movies are: De 5 og spionerne (Five and the Spies) (1969) and De 5 i fedtefadet (Famous Five Get in Trouble) (1970).

All four of the films have been released on DVD in their respective countries.

In 2012 the movie Fünf Freunde was released in Germany, with Marcus Harris in a small role.

Television

1978 series

The Famous Five 1978 television series was produced by Southern Television and Portman Productions for ITV in the UK, in 26 episodes of thirty minutes (including time for advertisements). It starred Michele Gallagher (she committed suicide aged 36 on New Year's Eve 2001) as Georgina, Marcus Harris as Julian, Jennifer Thanisch as Anne, Gary Russell as Dick, Toddy Woodgate as Timmy, Michael Hinz as Uncle Quentin and Sue Best as Aunt Fanny. It also starred Ronald Fraser, John Carson, Patrick Troughton, James Villiers, Cyril Luckham and Brian Glover. The screenplays were written by Gloria Tors, Gail Renard, Richard Carpenter and Richard Sparks. The episodes were directed by Peter Duffell, Don Leaver, James Gatward and Mike Connor. The series was produced by Don Leaver and James Gatward. Most of the outdoor filming was done in the New Forest and parts of Dorset and Devon.

Of the original 21 novels, three were not adapted for this series; Five on a Treasure Island and Five Have a Mystery to Solve because the Children's Film Foundation still own the film and TV rights to the books, while Five Have Plenty of Fun did not fit in the production schedule. Due to the success of the series, Southern Television were keen to make another season of episodes, but the Enid Blyton estate forbade them to create original stories.

The 1978 series was originally released on video by Portman Productions with reasonable regularity between 1983 and 1999, many of which are still easy to find second-hand, although the sound and picture quality is not always what it could be. A four-disc DVD collection, containing 23 of the 26 episodes produced for the 1978 series (and two episodes from the 1996 series) was released in region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) in 2005. The box and disc art identify it as a release of 1996 series. (The distributor had licensed the 1996 series but due to an administrative glitch, it was supplied with master tapes and artwork for the 1978 series.) The error was corrected in a later release.

A seven-DVD set containing the entire series and extensive bonus material was released in October 2010 in Germany by Koch Media; although with an option choose either the original English or German dubbed versions, the English version had non-removable German subtitles across the bottom the screen on every episode. The same company released the DVD set in England (without the fixed subtitles) on 25 June 2012.

A four DVD set containing all 26 episodes, without additional content, was released for region 4 (Australia and New Zealand) in late 2011, as Enid Blyton's The Famous Five: The Complete Collection. (Finnish punk band Widows (of Helsinki) made three different cover versions of the theme song, first one in early 1979, as did Irish indie outfit Fleur, in 1996.)

1995 series

A later series, The Famous Five, initiated by Victor Glynn of Portman Zenith was aired first in 1995, a co-production between a number of companies including Tyne Tees Television, HTV, Zenith North and the German channel ZDF (this was also shown on ITV in the UK). Unlike the previous series, this was a period piece, set in Wales, and also unlike the previous series it dramatised all the original books. Of the juvenile actors the best-known is probably Jemima Rooper, who played George. Julian was portrayed by Marco Williamson, Dick by Paul Child and Anne was portrayed by Laura Petela. Timmy the dog was called Connal in real life. In this series, because of the slang meaning of the word fanny, Aunt Fanny was known as Aunt Frances played by Mary Waterhouse. In some but not all recent reprints of the book, the character has been re-christened Aunt Franny.

The 1995 series was released in its entirety on video; only the adaptation of Five On A Treasure Island seems to have been released on DVD in the UK, although there are apparently some rare mainland European DVD releases of the series, available via certain websites in the UK (these are, of course, Region 2 DVDs). Fans of the series remain mystified as to why the rest of the series cannot be officially released in its entirety in the UK – the country in which it was made, and Enid Blyton's home country.

A three-disc DVD collection, containing 13 of the 26 episodes of the 1995 series, was released in Australia and New Zealand in 2005 (these are region 4 DVDs). This release followed the erroneous release of the 1978 series with 1995 artwork, and is marked "Revised Edition" to avoid confusion.

Famous 5: On the Case

See Famous 5: On the Case

A new animated TV series of the Famous Five began airing 2008. Famous 5: On the Case is set in modern times and features the children of the original Famous Five. These children are Max (the son of Julian and Brandine), Dylan (son of Dick and Michelle), Jo (daughter of George and Ravi, a tomboy who, like her mother, prefers a shorter name to her given name Jyoti) and Allie (daughter of Anne and John). It has not been stated whether their dog is the son of the previous dog, too. The new series was first announced in 2005, and is a co-production between Chorion (which currently owns all Famous Five rights) and Marathon in association with France 3 and The Disney Channel. Disney confirmed their involvement in December 2006. Stories were developed by Douglas Tuber and Tim Maile, who have previously written for Lizzie McGuire. Chorion claims on its Web site that "these new programmes will remain faithful to the themes of mystery and adventure central to Enid Blyton’s classic series of books." Blyton's biographer, Barbara Stoney, however claims it is nothing like the original stories. In total, there will be 130 episodes, and each episode will be 22 minutes long.

Reunion series

On 28 August 2007, it was announced on the BBC News website that a revival of The Famous Five is being developed. Julian, Dick, Anne and Georgina were all going to be in the story – now all as adults in their forties; they would also be joined by a descendant of Timmy the dog. Co-developer Twofour states "casting and writing talent is still very much under wraps and no broadcaster is yet confirmed. However, some of the best-known acting talent in Britain is already under consideration."

Other adaptations

Audio dramas

Hodder Headline produced in the late 1990s audio dramas in English, which were published on Tape and CD. All 21 episodes of the original books were dramatised.

The 21 original stories by Enid Blyton have been released in the 70s as Fünf Freunde audio dramas in Germany as well. The speakers were the German dubbing artists for Gallagher, Thanisch, Russell and Harris, the leads of the first television series.

For the sequels (not written by Blyton and decidedly more "modern" action-oriented stories) the speakers were replaced by younger ones, because it was felt that they sounded too mature. In addition to the original Blyton books, another 80+ stories have subsequently been released and published as radio plays and books in Germany. They are based on the original characters, but written by various German writers.

Theatre

A 1997 musical was made to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Enid Blyton's birth with the title The Famous Five and later released on DVD as The Famous Five – Smuggler’s Gold – The Musical.
Principal actors: Elizabeth Marsland, Lyndon Ogbourne, Matthew Johnson, Vicky Taylor, Jon Lee, Director: Roz Storey and also in the five

A brand new musical adaptation was premièred at the Tabard Theatre on 8 December 2009 and played until 10 January 2010.

Gamebooks

Two sets of gamebooks in a Choose Your Own Adventure style have been published. These books involve reading small sections of print and being given two or more options to follow, with a different page number for each option. The first series of these, written by Stephen Thraves, featured stories loosely based on the original books. They were issued in plastic wallets with accessories such as maps, dice and codebooks. The gamebooks were titled as follows:

1. The Wreckers' Tower Game, based on Five Go Down to the Sea
2. The Haunted Railway Game, based on Five Go Off to Camp
3. The Whispering Island Game, based on Five Have a Mystery to Solve
4. The Sinister Lake Game, based on Five On a Hike Together
5. The Wailing Lighthouse Game, based on Five Go to Demon's Rocks
6. The Secret Airfield Game, based on Five Go to Billycock Hill
7. The Shuddering Mountain Game, based on Five Get into a Fix
8. The Missing Scientist Game, based on Five Have a Wonderful Time

The second series, written by Mary Danby, was entitled "The Famous Five and You". These consisted of abridged versions of the original text, with additional text for the alternative story routes. The books in this series were based on the first six original Famous Five books:

1. The Famous Five and You Search for Treasure!
2. The Famous Five and You Find Adventure!
3. The Famous Five and You Run Away!
4. The Famous Five and You Search for Smugglers!
5. The Famous Five and You Take Off!
6. The Famous Five and You Underground!

Video games

In 1990 an interactive fiction computer game based on the first of the books, Five On A Treasure Island, was released. It was programmed by Colin Jordan and first released for the SAM Coupé by Enigma Variations.

He originally started coding the game on the ZX Spectrum using his own "worldscape" technique. When the SAM Coupé was launched, he switched to it as the target platform while still hosting the code on the ZX Spectrum. He later ported it to the Amstrad CPC and completed the ZX Spectrum version. The game was also ported to the Commodore 64, Amiga and Atari ST by others.

Later Ravensburger published the interactive CD games Famous Five The Silver Tower, Famous Five Treasure Island, Famous Five – Kidnapped for the PC or Mac.

Comics

Six comic albums drawn by Bernard Dufossé and scripted by Serge Rosenzweig and Rafael Carlo Marcello were released in France between 1982 and 1986, under the title Le Club des Cinq. Most of comic books in the series are based on Famous Five books created by Claude Voilier. Books were released by Hachette Livre. The first three of these volumes have also been released in English, under the name Famous Five. The titles included "Famous Five and the Golden Galleon" (which featured a sunken ship that was laden with gold with the Five fending off villains seeking to make off with the gold, "Famous Five and the Treasure of the Templars", where it transpires that Kirrin Castle is actually a Templar Castle that houses their hidden treasure which the Five ultimately secure with the help of members of the order, and "Famous Five and the Inca God" which was set in an antiquities museum and dealt with the theft of an Incan fetish.

Beginning in September 1985 a series of monthly Comic Magazine titles Enid Blyton's Adventure Magazine were published. Each issue published a full length illustrative comic book story adapted from Famous 5 Novels. The series came to end in the 1990s.

The Famous Five Effect

The seemingly perpetual youth of the Famous Five who experience a world of seemingly endless holidays while not ageing significantly, known more generally as a floating timeline, has been highlighted by a number of contemporary children's fiction authors as an influence upon their own work. J. K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series of books has been quoted as saying of the eponymous character: "in book four the hormones are going to kick in – I don't want him stuck in a state of permanent pre-pubescence like poor Julian in the Famous Five!"