Malory Towers review – midnight feasts and horrid
sneaks make for a ripping Blyton yarn
The CBBC adaptation of Enid Blyton’s boarding-school classic bowls along so smoothly and sweetly, it’s hard not to love it
Lucy Mangan
@LucyMangan
Mon 6 Apr 2020 18.00 BSTLast modified on Tue 7 Apr
2020 08.57 BST
4 / 5 stars4 out of 5 stars.
The North Tower girls ... Zoey Siewert, Twinkle
Jaiswal, Beth Bradfield, Sienna Arif-Knights, Ella Bright, Danya Griver,
Natasha Raphael, Imogen Lamb and Saskia Kemkers in Malory Towers.
The North Tower
girls ... Zoey Siewert, Twinkle Jaiswal, Beth Bradfield, Sienna Arif-Knights,
Ella Bright, Danya Griver, Natasha Raphael, Imogen Lamb and Saskia Kemkers in
Malory Towers. Photograph: John Medland/BBC/WildBrain/Queen Bert Limited
There is a strong argument that Enid Blyton would not
have become quite the powerhouse she did had it not been for the second world
war. She wrote her first full-length children’s book in 1937 (she would produce
more than 800 further such volumes during the next half century) and became
fully established during the years of the conflict. It seems likely that the
upheaval of the time created the perfect emotional appetite among a bewildered
and powerless juvenile populace for formulaic, just-thrilling-enough adventures
for brave children, or cosy boarding school stories that always ended with the
good triumphant and the bad suitably punished – or shown the error of their
ways and thoroughly reformed.
How right, then, that she and her particular brand of
succour should return to us now, at a time of renewed national crisis. The BBC
released its new 13-part adaptation of Malory Towers early on iPlayer when the
schools closed, to provide extra entertainment for children suddenly shorn of
occupation – and respite for parents suddenly overwhelmed. Now the series is
being broadcast on CBBC, as originally planned.
The great skill in adapting much-loved material from
big literary brands is to work out what is and is not broke. Blyton was a
self-made, self-maintained brand – she knew what she could do and that it was
successful, and did it, at a peak rate of 10,000 words a day, for 50 years
without feeling the need to deviate from or stretch beyond her natural reach.
It is a lesson the writers of the series, Sasha Hails
and Rachel Flowerday, have applied in abundance. They have kept Blyton’s utter
lack of cynicism and her unstinting willingness to put the child reader (here,
viewer) first and address them directly, simply and without condescension. They
have kept the sense of joy and freedom Blyton’s characters always exude, and
they tread as unerringly as she did the fine lines between jeopardy and real
threat, moral dilemma and true conflict. The programme-makers are aided by a
fine cast, especially Ella Bright as the central character, Darrell Rivers, who
manages to pull off being cheery and (overall) good without being dull. Above
all, Hails and Flowerday keep all the liveliness and charm the books have for
readers who come to them at the right age and remember them fondly for decades
thereafter. (A warning to the latter: do not attempt to reread and recapture
the moment. Generally, it does not go well.)
The famous Blytonian weaknesses have been
unobtrusively addressed. The cast is diverse in numerous ways – aside perhaps
from class, which was probably always going to be a bridge too far for a 50s
boarding school series – and Miss Grayling implicitly envisages careers for the
“goodhearted, loyal women unafraid to forge new futures” in a world explicitly
acknowledged (as was never done by Blyton) as still suffering the aftermath of
war. Gwendolyn is as chided for her belief that all women need do is get
married as she is for … well, being Gwendolyn.
At the same time, the behaviour and treatment of
Gwendolyn is deepened. Instead of simply being the loathsome drip and sneak, a
love-to-hate figure for the dorm and for generations of readers, we see her
struggle with loneliness and an inability to make friends: she strikes out in
response to her problems rather than through simple malice. That does not mean
we need to forgive her for her public revelation of Darrell’s secret shame,
mind you. Lines must still be drawn.
All the right tropes – midnight feasts, lacrosse team
selections and disappointments, the formidable Matron (a Trunchbullesque figure
played by This Country’s Ashley McGuire), the rock pool (although it now has a
lifeguard, one of the few details that does strike an unnecessary unBlytonian
note of modern realism) – are hit. It bowls along so smoothly and sweetly that
you would be hard pressed not to love it.
Although. Although. There is a … boy. He is from the
village, his name is Ron and I am not sure how I feel about that yet. Still,
overall – absolutely ripping.
'Downton for kids': BBC brings forward Malory Towers
adaptation
This article is more than 1 month old
Enid Blyton’s girls’ boarding school adventure
provides tales of hope in times of crisis
Tara Conlan
Published onFri 20 Mar 2020 14.51 GMT
When Enid Blyton wrote the schoolgirl series Malory
Towers after the second world war she injected tales of hope and camaraderie
into it to reflect a Britain coming together after a time of crisis.
Now the BBC hopes its modern adaptation of the
boarding school adventures of 12-year-old Darrell Rivers will do the same and
it has brought the programme forward by a fortnight to Monday as a boost for
children missing their final week of school because of the coronavirus.
Although TV’s first adaption of Malory Towers is set
in the late 1940s, it has been brought up to date with an ethnically, socially
and visually diverse cast and contains many themes relevant to today’s
audience.
Sasha Hails and Rachel Flowerday, who adapted the
books for the 13-part TV show, said it has a particular resonance in the
current climate.
“It feels like absolutely the right time to tell it …
as part of the exploration of our times,” said Hails.
She said despite Malory Towers being about
schoolgirls: “This is a show for families, kids can watch it with their parents
and grandparents; they’re universal stories.”
The rise of the #MeToo movement also makes the time
right for Malory Towers, as Flowerday explained.
“There’s a brilliant quiet feminism in the books and
we wanted to draw on that. It was so liberating and exciting writing a show
where nearly every character on screen nearly all of the time is female.
“It’s really powerful we’re able to do that; we’re at
a place in the world where people will sit down, we hope, and watch it. Almost
every scene passes the Bechdel test!”
Zoey Siewert, who plays prankster Alicia Johns, added:
“Most of the cast is girls and women and I love that because there’s not a lot
of women who are main roles in shows these days.”
Her co-star Ella Bright, who plays Rivers, said her
character was “quite a feminist role model”, which was “a good message for
young children, especially young girls”.
Although Blyton has been criticised in the past for
not being relevant, producer Grainne McNamara said: “Actually Blyton is quite
progressive in her thinking … the way she represented those girls in the school
is you can go out and be anything and do anything you want, and I think the TV
series has really tried to lift that out of the book and focus on it.”
The show has kept the fun, midnight feast and tricks
from the books but does not shy away from darker themes such as bullying, loss
and vaccinations. The TV version has introduced new characters and ideas such
as dyslexia but overall it has what McNamara called “a warm sunny feel” making
it like “Downton Abbey for children”.
Filmed in Canada and on location in Cornwall and at
Devon country house, Hartland Abbey, McNamara said: “It looks like the Railway
Children; we’ve consciously made it like that [so] you’d want to go there. We
want every viewer to want to go to Malory Towers and feel they want to be
Darrell Rivers or Gwen or whoever.”
More diverse characters have also been introduced as
Hails explained: “We obviously wanted a diverse cast, as did the BBC, to
represent our viewers of today but we wanted it to be authentic. Once we dug in
it was quite clear that Britain has been more diverse than it’s often accounted
for.”
With 500m worldwide sales of Blyton’s books, there has
been global interest in the series, which is being co-produced by David
Walliams’ company King Bert and Canadian company WildBrain. Flowerday admitted
they felt the pressure to get it right: “It was really important that we did it
justice and the cast and crew have done that.”
McNamara said “sackloads of mail” had been sent to
King Bert by fans of the books, “people are just so excited about it. I think
it’s that real nostalgia for it”.
Danya Griver, who plays Gwendoline Mary Lacey, said
many of the themes in the six Malory Towers books were relevant to children
today: “It’s good to see things don’t always go to plan; life is great and you
must always treasure the things that go well but sometimes they don’t and I
think it’s important for people to see if they’ve gone through a bad time
they’re not the only one.”
This Country star Ashley McGuire, who plays Matron,
said despite the modernisations: “We do try to stay faithful to how they would
have talked.
“The sensibilities in those books are things we still
look for today; they’ve got a comradeship … they fight for one another; they’ve
got good values. Some things are very different but it’s not a million miles
away from how we want our children to enjoy school and one another. They take
care of each other.”
Malory Towers will air on BBC iPlayer from Monday and
on CBBC in April.
SEE ALSO : https://tweedlandthegentlemansclub.blogspot.com/2016/11/enid-blyton-keeping-up-appearances.html’
New TV drama reveals Enid Blyton as a barking-mad
adulterous bully …
by Lisa Sewards for Mailonline
13 November 2009
On paper, the world of Enid Blyton was one populated
by happy, carefree children whose idea of bliss at the end of an
adventure-filled day was a slice of plum cake washed down by lashings of ginger
beer.
The setting was an idyllic Britain, one of thatched
cottages and lych gates, a fairytale time, in an age of innocence.
But the creator of Noddy, the Famous Five, the Secret
Seven and Malory Towers was in truth a cold-hearted mother and a vindictive
adultress who set out to destroy her former husband.
Barking mad: Enid Blyton will be played by Helena
Bonham Carter (right) in a new television drama
The darker revelations, which will dissolve the image
of Blyton conveyed by her 753 much-loved books, are part of a brilliant new
television biopic, starring Helena Bonham Carter as the author.
At first glance, Blyton's life seems unlikely material
for gripping drama, as much of it consisted of her sitting at a desk, knocking
off 10,000 words a day. Her books sold 600million copies around the world and
made her extremely rich and famous. Her works still sell eight million copies a
year.
But Blyton's home life at her cottage, Old Thatch,
near the Thames at Bourne End, then at Green Hedges, a mock-Tudor house in
Beaconsfield, was nothing like as idyllic as the picture she tried to create.
In spite of the children's nursery, crumpets for tea,
Bimbo the cat and Topsy the dog, all foisted on the public in convenient
photocalls to project the Blyton brand, the truth was more conflicted.
Enid Blyton pays a visit to Victoria Palace in 1958 to
meet some of the young artists who will portray her characters in Noddy In
Toyland
Fairytale time: The author pays a visit to Victoria
Palace in 1958 to meet some of the young artists who will portray her
characters in Noddy In Toyland
Children's favourite: Blyton's Famous Five books are
still delighting young readers across the world
'Enid's self-awareness was brilliant and she was
incredibly controlling, too,' explains Bonham Carter. 'I was attracted to the
role because she was bonkers. She was an emotional mess and quite barking mad.
'What I found extraordinary, bordering on insane, was
the way that Enid reinvented her own life. She was allergic to reality - if
there was something she didn't like then she either ignored it or re-wrote her
life.
'She didn't like her mother, so let her colleagues
assume she was dead. When her mother died, she refused to attend the funeral.
Then the first husband didn't work out, so she scrubbed him out.
'There's also a scene in the film where her dog dies,
but she carries on pretending he's still alive because she can't bear the
truth.'
Emotionally, Blyton remained a little girl, stuck in a
world of picnics, secret-society codes and midnight feasts. It acted as a huge
comfort blanket.
Many of Blyton's obsessions can be traced to her
father, who left her mother when Enid was 12. She then seized up emotionally
and physically.
'It was my job to understand how she became like this
in the first place, not to judge her,' explains Bonham Carter.
'When Enid consulted a gynaecologist about her failure
to conceive, she was diagnosed as having an immature uterus and had to have
surgery and hormone treatment before she could have children.'
Cold-hearted mother: Blyton with her daughters Gillian
and Imogen
The irony was that when she finally did have two
daughters, Gillian and Imogen, with her first husband, Hugh Pollock, she was
unable to relate to them as a normal mother.
She loved signing thousands of letters to her
'friends' the fans, encouraging them to collect milk bottle tops for Great
Ormond Street Hospital to help the war effort, and even ran a competition to
name her house, Green Hedges.
But her neighbours said Blyton used to complain about
the fearful racket made by children playing.
She was distant and unkind to her younger daughter
Imogen and there was clear favouritism in the way she privileged her elder
daughter Gillian, who died two years ago aged 75.
Imogen Smallwood, 74, says: 'My mother was arrogant,
insecure and without a trace of maternal instinct. Her approach to life was
childlike, and she could be spiteful, like a teenager.'
Although Imogen prefers to remain private, she did
visit the set to advise Bonham Carter. 'We had email correspondence before
Imogen visited the set. We agreed that I wasn't going to try to impersonate her
mother because this is a drama,' says Helena.
'Imogen is sensitive, but was very supportive and gave
me a few tips, such as how her mother did everything at immense speed because
she was ruled by the watch. Enid's domestic life was seen as an interruption to
her writing, which was her escapism.'
There is a poignant scene in the film where Blyton
holds a tea party at home for her fans, or 'friends' as she preferred to call
them. But her daughters are banished to the nursery.
'Enid is one of the kids at the Famous Five tea
parties - the jelly and ice-cream are as much for her as they are for her
fans,' explains Helena.
'It's also significant that when her daughters go to
school, a large mannequin of Noddy - her new child - arrives in the hall to
take the place of the children.'
Blyton's first husband, Hugh, called her 'Little
Bunny' and adored her. He helped launch her career after they met when he was
her editor at Newnes, the publisher.
Blyton's first book, Child Whispers, a collection of
poems, was published in 1922. She wrote in her diary soon after meeting him: 'I
want him for mine.'
They were married for 19 years, but as Enid's career
took off in the Thirties, Hugh grew depressed and took to nightly drinking
sessions in the cellar while Enid managed to fit affairs in between writing.
The marriage deteriorated and Hugh moved out. She
mocked him in later adventure stories, such as The Mystery Of The Burnt
Cottage, as the clueless cop, PC Theophilus Goon.
After a bitter divorce, she married surgeon Kenneth
Darrell Waters, with whom she had a fulfilling sex life.
Although the drama shows Blyton's flirtatiousness -
she entertained servicemen to dinner at the house while her husband was away at
war and found them and their attention attractive - directors chose to omit
some aspects of Blyton's apparently sensual side, such as visitors arriving to
find her playing tennis naked and suggestions of a lesbian affair with her
children's nanny, Dorothy Richards.
But the drama, which has been given the thumbs-up by
the Enid Blyton Society, does highlight the author's cruel streak. When Hugh
remarried, as she had done, Blyton was so furious that she banned her daughters
from seeing their father.
According to Ida Crowe, who later married Hugh,
Blyton's revenge was to stop him from seeing Gillian and Imogen, and to prevent
him from finding work in publishing. He went bankrupt and sank into depression
and drinking.
Ms Crowe, 101, is using her memoir, Starlight,
published this month, to break her silence on her feelings towards Blyton, whom
she portrays as cold, distant and malevolent. Ms Crowe confirms that during her
first marriage, Blyton embarked on a string of affairs, including a suspected
relationship with nanny Richards.
Yet Blyton could never forgive Hugh for finding
happiness of his own when their marriage ended.
Rosemary Pollock, 66, daughter of Ida and Hugh, says:
'My father. was an honourable man - not the flawed, inconsequential one which
was the deliberate misconception perpetuated by Enid.'
Ida and Hugh met when she was 21 and he was 50. In her
memoirs, she describes him as 'shatteringly handsome' - tall and slim with
golden hair and blue eyes.
After Ida narrowly escaped death in an air raid, she
says, Hugh asked for a divorce and Enid agreed. The memoirs claim, however,
that Hugh agreed to be identified as the 'guilty' party in the divorce in
return for an amicable separation and access to their daughters.
But Rosemary says: 'This agreement was a sham because
Enid had no intention of allowing him any kind of contact with either of the
girls. She even told Benenden, the girls' boarding school, that on no account
was their father, who was paying the bills, to be allowed near them.'
Ida and Hugh married within days of the divorce being
granted in October 1943. Gillian and Imogen were 12 and eight. Rosemary got in
touch with her half-sisters after Enid's death in 1968, at the age of 71.
Rosemary says: 'Gillian said the last time she saw her
father was when they were walking to Beaconsfield station and she had this
awful feeling she was not going to see him again.
'She said that on her wedding day, she looked around
the church and hoped her father would turn up. My father said he was devastated
not to have been invited to Gillian's wedding.'
Rosemary has also accused Enid of wrecking Hugh's
literary career. 'Enid was capable of many vindictive things and she didn't
want her former husband occupying a prominent position in London publishing, a
world she dominated.
'My father had to file for bankruptcy in 1950 because
he couldn't find work. She also put out a story that he was a drunk and an
adulterer, and that he had made her life a misery.
'Incredibly, Enid even wrote to my mother three years
after they had both remarried, saying: "I hope he doesn't ruin your life
as he did mine."
'My father did drink, but it was in order to numb the
pain. I never heard him criticise Enid. He would praise her remarkable
talents.'
Certainly, Blyton is enjoying a renaissance. Disney UK
is planning a new, animated feature called Famous 5: On The Case, in which the
children of the original Five, and a dog, enjoy some new adventures.
She was also named Britain's best-loved author in a
poll last month.
Imogen attributes her mother's success to the fact she
'wrote as a child with an adult's writing skills'.
Despite her private life, no amount of detraction will
diminish Blyton as one of Britain's great writers who shaped millions of
childhood imaginations. Although it may be harder for the adults they grew into
to imagine what the creator of Noddy got up to in real life.
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