I’ve been catching up with the new Just William adaptation on the iplayer. Although the programme is on Children’s BBC I think it probably has a large amount of middle-aged viewers. Set in the 1950s the whole thing has a very nostalgic attraction for people of a certain age, even without the entertaining and well acted stories.
The Brown family home has been so well kitted out. They even have the same antimacassars (chair back covers) still in the 1960s, but for some reason I really love the low tech 1950s kitchen. All of the characters have been well cast, including Jumble the dog.
Sadly Violet Elizabeth Bott doesn’t have red hair but otherwise I think she was very good and seemed to enjoy being covered in mud. At that time kids tended to be skinny due to rationing which continued well into the 1950s and the fact that they were allowed to run wild all over the place and use up their excess energy and burning off calories all the way. Unfortunately Daniel Roche who plays the part of William doesn’t quite fit the bill because his bones are quite well upholstered and he would definitely have had the nickname of Fatty or Podge or something similar and un-PC – in those days. But I can see why they wanted to have him playing William Brown after his success in Outnumbered. Douglas, another of The Outlaws, is even tubbier but I don’t suppose they could put them on a starvation diet just to make things look even more authentic.
They seem to have made just 4 episodes but I’m hopeful that they have more planned for the future. Martin Jarvis is the narrator, he seems to have cornered the market on Just William stories, amongst other things, but he does have a lovely voice.
Niranjana, I know that you won’t have much time to watch tv but I really hope that you’ll be able to see this new series of Just William on Canadian TV at some point in the future.
That BBC link doesn’t work in Canada. Hmpf. Snobs.
I’ve heard the Jarvis audiobook, but it didn’t work for me at all–I knew the books so well that I got very impatient, waiting for lines I knew were coming. I actually haven’t gone back to audio books since–that was my first and last attempt.
Niranjana,
Shame! I wish Auntie Beeb would let everyone watch on the iplayer. It wouldn’t bother me that people would be seeing it for free when people in the UK have to pay for a licence, which I think is their reason for blocking it. I thought it might work in Canada though.
I haven’t listened to any audio books, unless you count snippets of Roald Dahl books when my sons were at that age. Dahl read them himself and he was good. I don’t much fancy the idea really, I like to do the voices myself! But Martin Jarvis seems to do a lot and is popular.