Swallows and Amazons

What?? Val??

I think Chris Trace had to leave as he was making bacon with someone not his wife.

BluePeter1.jpg
 
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idomeneus5 said:
hi all, i'm now 58, was born in uk and lived there till 1966, I distinctly remember watching swallows and amazons on the BBC at 5-30 (tuesdays i think) as it was after Blue Peter,( with hosts Chris Singleton & Val). I bought the 1974 movie and it is the tv episodes rolled into one. I loved Arthur Ransome's stories, still have couple of his books. They dont rate in the kids libraries these days. sad !!

I'll second Jenny Agutter to play the mum
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Read most of them with the kids a couple of years back and they loved them. There timeless! My kids love the film to which we got for them on DVD. I think its a shame they didn't opt for one of the other books rather than remaking the same film.
 
Good point. I like Winter Holiday.

On Tuesday I went to a friend's farm to practice with my trials car. He has AR's chairs in his kitchen. He used to know the great man
 
thanks Claymore your right i stand corrected as to the hosts of blue peter, (1 was only ten) sea hunt and flipper both in b & w were on then as well, think thats where my love of scuba stemmed from, cheers Peter P. p.s, lakesailer that pic brings so many memories flooding back. I reckon "we didn't mean to go to sea" another A.R. classic but set around the broads area ( as were a few of his books and videos)would make a great movie
 
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idomeneus5 said:
I reckon "we didn't mean to go to sea" another A.R. classic but set around the broads area
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?

Mostly set in the middle of the North Sea, surely? And the shore stuff is around Harwich, not the Broads.

Good book though. A candidate for the best of the series.

Pete
 
Whilst it is a good book, I think it would be a bit flat as a film. It's very intense and cerebral. Not enough action for Hollywood.
 
Lakesailor said:
Whilst it is a good book, I think it would be a bit flat as a film. It's very intense and cerebral. Not enough action for Hollywood.
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Didn't Mean to go to Sea? Yes, you're probably right. Also you need to be a sailor to really appreciate it. I wasn't proposing a film version.

Pete
 
I sadly didn't get into Arthur Ransome as a child, but read "We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea" as an adult and thoroughly enjoyed it. Another that I read a couple of years ago, "Great Northern" has a bit more action and might make a good film. The villian is not only an evil egg collector but, horror of horrors, drives a MOBO...
 
I only read Great Northern recently, despite having been a lifelong fan.
I'm afraid it was turgid.
Dick is my least favourite character.
 
I was at School in Windermere in 1962/3 when the lake froze. One of the Masters chose Winter Holiday to read to us on Sunday evenings - perfect choice!
 
jac said:
Iirc Ransome based Dick on himself. But I do know what you mean, Dick and Susan seemed to have much less fun.
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Can't let that pass! Dick was the one who had MOST fun - messing around with dangerous chemicals, creating interesting devices (the flash setup in "The Big Six" and the pigeon alarm in "Pigeon Post"), designing a furnace, learning to sail, an accomplished skater. And it is clear that the surveying that was John's forte was easy for him. He did all right in "Picts and Martyrs", too!

Dick probably shaped my life!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
Can't let that pass! Dick was the one who had MOST fun - messing around with dangerous chemicals, creating interesting devices (the flash setup in "The Big Six" and the pigeon alarm in "Pigeon Post"), designing a furnace, learning to sail, an accomplished skater. And it is clear that the surveying that was John's forte was easy for him. He did all right in "Picts and Martyrs", too!

Dick probably shaped my life!
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Not knocking any of the activities but they never came across as fun characters.
 
Some wonderful replies going on, but on a serious note, can any film possibly do justice to the books? The man was a genius, and he had his heart and his soul in the reality of life and in the essense of the water. Best teach kids to read, so they can be infused in the essential culture of the appreciation of water.
 
Probably not, but a couple of TV series and films on, we can hope there may be a real chance to encapsulate the feel of the books.
From my e-mail correspondence with the film-makers I am not hopeful.
 
Saint Louis said:
Best teach kids to read, so they can be infused in the essential culture of the appreciation of water.
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Amen to that.

Oddly enough, I recall telling my boss at Foyle's bookshop in 1991, that I'd always pictured actor Robert Hardy as Captain Flint/Uncle Jim...

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...to which my boss replied, "what, that pompous ass?"

Not sure why, but Hardy seemed to me to have the right combination of authority and mischievous humour.

The lake stories are great, but I think I rated We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea as Ransome's best. The description of the tide moving and the awful noises of the anchor dragging as the scope grows too short in the grey fog, with river-traffic all around, is as clear in my mind now as when I last read it, probably in the 'eighties.

(I haven't read all of this thread, sorry if I repeat an earlier theme.)
 
Saint Louis said:
Some wonderful replies going on, but on a serious note, can any film possibly do justice to the books? The man was a genius, and he had his heart and his soul in the reality of life and in the essense of the water. Best teach kids to read, so they can be infused in the essential culture of the appreciation of water.
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I would say some can do justice but if I were to choose between a book and a film,I'd choose the book. It's just that the limitation of our imagination and it would be a little disappointing seeing the characters and like,woahh..that's not what I imagined!
 
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