h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I watched The Box of Delights this festive season, and I enjoyed it after having read this Entry.

A definite flavour of Narnia about it, where Christian themes are in there, entwined with Pagan themes. Good special effects, although the blue-screen scenes had a slightly distracting fuzzy edge to them that my eyes are more aware of now than they perhaps would have been in the 1980s. Impressively scary plotlines too. It was more surreal than I was expecting, but very clever how the audience becomes as confused as Kay about what is reality...

You can probably tell that I loved it when I was 4 and I do think the story must have influenced CS Lewis when he later wrote Narnia as there are so many similarities. I also really enjoyed the BBC's Narnia adaptation when I was young too.

Sadly newer televisions with sharper pictures make it easier to spot special effects defects. I recently re-watched 1953s' 'War of the Worlds', which had special effects involving flying Martian war machines, which were models suspended by wires that were originally completely invisible. The way the film was made involved a colour film process causing a blur that slightly reduced the picture resolution, with the wires cleverly hidden in the blur so they could not be seen. When I first saw the film as a child I was amazed by these very effective sequences. Sadly the digitally remastered version available on DVD has removed the blur and improved the resolution, which means the wires now stand out like anything. So though picture quality has definitely improved, it is to the detriment of the film's effects that the film was actually about, making it a rather pyrrhic victory.

Have you seen the BBC's 'Five Children and It', or its later film adaptation?

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Ah, I didn't see this when I was 4, but I certainly did enjoy the Chronicles of Narnia when I was 8. I like how you pull out the similarities between the two works in this Entry. I haven't seen Five Children and It, but I vaguely recall it was one of the books the teacher read to us in our class storytime...

That's really interesting about the special effects and digital remastering... Pyrrhic victory indeed...

My eyes are quite well attuned to blue screen, because we visited the Granada Television Experience (where Coronation Street used to be filmed) and one of the rooms in there was a blue screen where the visitors sat on a raft and watched themselves in the sea on the TV monitor. I couldn't' get on the raft, and I was wearing a blue jumper, so I looked really weird on the monitor, and the fuzzy edge was visible there. Makes sense that the effect would be better in a proper production, but the digital version would enhance the fuzz rather than the effect...

When did you visit the Granada Television Experience? I've never been into a television studio but the Uni has a green screen room next to the office I used to work in in the basement about four office room moves ago. I also regularly cycle past the site where Meridian's television studio used to be, but it is now being developed into housing.

'Five Children and It' is one of the books that was adapted by the BBC in the same era and has since had a film version made in 2004 with a CGI Psammead that completely lacked the charm and personality of the BBC puppet.

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Coincidentally, my parents arranged for my childhood videos to be digitised for my birthday, so I know it was 1988 when I first visited Granada Studios Tour. We went a few times before it closed in 1999. I see the plan is for that site to be developed into housing as well... The tour used to be great fun, as they had Coronation Street, and Sherlock Holmes sets as well as the blue screen and a MotionMaster Theme Park ride

The new BBC Tour in Salford is good too - we saw the Blue Peter set, and Gordon the Gopher, and people could have a go at presenting the weather using Green Screen, but it wasn't a full day out like the Granada Experience was.

I didn't know there had been a film version of Five Children and It. It is interesting indeed how CGI has a different flavour to it compared with more creative special effects...

I've not been to either. I have been to the National Media Museum in Bradford which has a green screen area which the children really enjoy. The National Media Museum were given the entire Ray Harryhausen Collection, but inexplicably didn't really seem to want to do much with it, so it was taken back. When I went they only had a very small display when they had so much to show. I've also been to the Museum of Moving Image in London a couple of times, which has sadly closed.
Thinking about it, though, I did go to a h2g2 meet at the BBC Experience once, soon after the BBC took h2g2 over. That was good fun – I got to go in front of a green screen and do a weather forecast with the whole map of the UK behind me (but of course I only talked about the Isle of Wight). Sadly they didn't allow photos inside the Experience, and I think that's closed now too. Even the Doctor Who Exhibition in Cardiff is closing this year, which is a bit sad… I'll have to try and get there before it does.

They've been talking on and off about another film version/sequel to 'Five Children and It', it is one of those stories that is regularly made. Of course a film has to hurry much more than a television series, and you don't get the same chance to get to know characters.

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I am amused to imagine the weather forecast for the UK with reference only to the Isle of Wight

I watched the DVD extras last night, and was pleased to see the interview from 2004, as I had wondered what Devin Stanfield did after playing Kay - his hair is impressive indeed! Interesting from the Blue Peter interview of 1984 that he was keen even then to get a steady job rather than be an actor and risk unemployment...

Well it's only fair - a large number of weather forecasts only mention the mainland after all

This television series is one of my earliest memories, but it is shocking to think that even the recent interview's a fair few years old now

I have plans to write about a related series...

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I watched the Pebble Mill clip tonight. Very clear that the scenes such as the picture coming to life were digitally enhanced in the film to the detriment of the effects, as the clip was not digitally enhanced and the same scene wasn't half as fuzzy round the edges...

Take Two was funny, where some children said the effects were great, while others said they could have been better Amusing how Kay was 'too posh' for some of them, too, whereas compared to my junior school classmates their accents sounded similarly posh... I like Devin's voice, and it definitely suited the character

It only goes to show that you can't please everyone all the time…

But you're right, the children complaining that Kay was too posh didn't have strong regional or cockney accents. Personally I always enjoyed a bit of fantasy in which the characters spoke with Received Pronunciation. It added to the magical atmosphere, which if everyone spoke with more down-to- accents it brings the story down to earth and preventing it from take flight.

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