The Box Of Delights (BBC TV production, 1984)

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I remember being, as a five year old, scared and mystified by this programme to degrees which have never since been matched. It was a 6 x 30m episode series shown over autumn/christmas, and is still available on video in the UK (though sadly not DVD). I'd love to see it again, but my hideous DVD-snobbery prevents me buying it! Anyone else remember it? Is the book it's based on any good?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Thursday, 18 December 2003 18:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I associate it with Christmas in posh London households, for some reason.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved thi sso much. I have the book. I thought the series was based on the book and not the other way around?

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah i remember this being good, what about Tom's Midnight Garden?

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the show, but remembering hating it coz I saw it as one of those posho-anti A-team, this'll get them to read sorta shows. It was on Sundays, yes?

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom's Midnight Garden vs Box Of Delights vs The Snowspider vs Moondial fite.

― Anna (Anna), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

arrrrgggghhhhhhh! I choose The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Tom's Midnight Interweb Empire

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah this programme epitomised the BBC Pheonix in the fire/ swallows and amazons/ blue peter posh axis. i liked it.

― jed (jed_e_3), Thursday, 18 December 2003 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Box of Delights: Classic. The book, of course, has better special effects - although it was a sequel, so there were a couple of references to earlier events which I had no clue about. The book's fantasy sequences tend to be longer, and more bizarre.

I'm really not sure which is better: BoD or Moondial. They're very different, really. Moondial is definitely Less Posh - after all, BoD is all Edwardian Schoolboy Comes Home From Boarding School For The Holidays. It probably has more in common with The Children of Green Knowe.

― caitlin (caitlin), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:46 (twenty-one years ago)

It was a family favourite. I approved on principal because it had a former Doctor Who in it, my parents for the Radio Fourish reasons given above. It was outrageously costly for the BBC - I think the costumes alone cost a million, or something.

The book is decent classic literature, perhaps with references that would be too dated for Rowling's children.

The music is, I still think, one of hte best Christmas themes to grace television.

― Magnus, Friday, 19 December 2003 13:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I have the video Nick - you are probably right not to get it as they have edited it so the episode beginnings/endings are removed, which will surely change when/if they put out a DVD. We watched the first 30 minutes when I bought it back in April or so and have been saving it for Christmas Eve! I will report back or post on DYS or something when we do watch it.

Magnus OTM about the theme and title sequence - SO evocative.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Never saw it at the time (ie in 1984) but grew to love it through watching it with my son, obsessively over and over again, when he was about five. I love the Narnia adaptations as well (done around the same time, I think, all with that characteristic old school BBC Sunday afternoon serial style mixed with high-now-low-tech effects).

― David (David), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:33 (twenty-one years ago)

The Narnia ones were the same production house I think. I saw a picture again today and was reminded of why I didn't like them (that girl who played Lucy) but then I was a Narnia purist.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:35 (twenty-one years ago)

(Narnia) The bit where the mouse goes off in search of Aslan still brings a tear to my eye.

― David (David), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I'd stopped watching by that time. It was when I was 12-13 or so, so 'too old' for kids' TV.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

When I say 'still' I mean 'like it did 3 years ago' (that's when I discovered them)

― David (David), Friday, 19 December 2003 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I must be a Narnia purist too Tico Tico, I hated the Narnia adaptations despite the fact I loved those books. I loved both Box of Delights and Moondial, but they did scare me a bit as well. . Anyone remember The Sylvia Game? Now there was a scary kids programme....

― Melly E (Melly E), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:27 (twenty-one years ago)

As this is a kids tv thread i just want to mention KNIGHTMARE.

And regarding most of the serials mentioned, i would probably enjoy them with a vague nostalgic glow now, but at the time i thought they were pussywillow. The Box of Delights is a real Proustian memory dislodger - it also seemed to last for AGES i recall.

― pete s, Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:51 (twenty-one years ago)

Box of Delights! Moondial! Oh My god!!!!!!!

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Saturday, 20 December 2003 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Point of order: the Narnia series was 1988-90. The Box of Delights music was by Roger Limb, whose work rarely holds up when taken out of its original context and put in the distinguished company of Radiophonic CDs, but often sounds great on its true level; certainly for anyone who grew up in the 80s it hits the right, resonant nostalgia buttons (watching the recent Look and Read repeats on the CBBC channel I found his sweet, melodic style - the kiss of death when thrust among genuinely innovatory Malcolm Clarke and Glynis Jones masterpieces - *worked* once again; some of the word-learning songs almost had me crying).

Moondial was resonant and striking and voluminous and chilling and all the things you don't forget, ever. What on earth was The Sylvia Game?

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 20 December 2003 06:12 (twenty-one years ago)

The Box of Delights is a real Proustian memory dislodger - it also seemed to last for AGES i recall.

I think it was only three episodes, but they might have been longer than the usual half-hour; so, overall, it was the same length as (say) Moondial.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I remain hugely fond of Roger Limb's scores from the 80s - the synth chords acompanying the white out at the end of The Box of Delights title sequence never fail to get me all misty eyed. David Ferguson's music for Moondial was highly evocative too. It's disgrace that such an important childrens television programme has been deleted on video and dvd.

Both series were 6 epsiodes, caitlin, but TBOD may have edited together for repeats.

― Nathan W (Nathan Webb), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:18 (twenty-one years ago)

When BoD was shown again in 1986 they edited it into three hour-long episodes, so says the BBC website.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Aaah, I see. I know I watched both showings, but the repeat must have overwritten the memories of the original.

― caitlin (caitlin), Saturday, 20 December 2003 11:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I agree with most of what most people have said.

N. is correct. So are Magnus and Tico.

It is smashing.

I have not seen it since the 1980s.

― the pinefox, Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:22 (twenty-one years ago)

We should lobby to get it released on DVD.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

The best music Roger Limb ever did was probably for "Aliens in the Family" in 1987, a spine-tingler in all senses.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 20 December 2003 16:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I seem to recall being rather disappointed in the Wild Wood. The actual morphing of Hurn the Hunter was classic, but I seem to remember the trees as being drawn which seemed a bit naff (reminiscent of the drwan backdrops for the contemporary Captain Zep Space Detective i suppose). There was controversy among the Points of View letter writing brigade about Box of Delights when it came out as it was the first bbc series for children to cost a million quid "how dare they spend MY licence payer's money on the little brats" ect ect.

― MarkH (MarkH), Saturday, 20 December 2003 16:57 (twenty-one years ago)

a controversy probably heightened by the fact that late '84 was the exact time when the political Right turned against the BBC (hence the eventual fate of Alastair Milne, etc, etc)

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I vaguelly recall Aliens In The Family... Is it that I'm now 24, or is stuff like this just not being made for kids anymore? And if not, why not?

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:18 (twenty-one years ago)

If any thread ever needed a picture...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/box/images/box1.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/box/images/wolf.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/box/images/boxbrown.jpg http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/box/images/boxherne.jpg

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Saturday, 20 December 2003 17:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Robin, the Sylvia Game was on in the mornings one summer holiday - must've been more than 15 years ago now - and was a kind of ghost story about a little girl who looked just like another, long-dead, little girl, in a painting. I can't remember much else about it, except it gave me nightmares.

― Melly E (Melly E), Saturday, 20 December 2003 21:39 (twenty-one years ago)

was it on ITV, Melly? I virtually always watched the BBC on summer holiday mornings ... also there's the possibility that it was just very slightly before my time (as The Box of Delights is, unfortunately).

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 20 December 2003 22:37 (twenty-one years ago)

I think it was BBC but not entirely sure Robin - i think it might be even older than Box of Delights though, which would explain you missing it. i remember watching Sylvia in my favourite polka dot dress with a rose on it (!) so that would be when i was still at primary school - i am 27 now.....

― Melly E (Melly E), Sunday, 21 December 2003 13:14 (twenty-one years ago)

ten months pass...

Box Of Delights comes out on DVD tomorrow (Region 2, UK).

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Sunday, 31 October 2004 15:36 (twenty years ago)

!!!! thread revival of the year! he's not lying:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00067IEGY/qid=1099308490/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-0943701-0199040

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:25 (twenty years ago)

that's mother's xmas present sorted out then...

...oh hold on, i'll have to get her a dvd player too then...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:29 (twenty years ago)

Oh wow!

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:30 (twenty years ago)

Great! i never saw the last episode because i got so excited about christmas i was sick.

― Pete W (peterw), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:32 (twenty years ago)

Cor! BoD is such a great memory of Xmases past, I'm a bit scared to see it again in case it doesn't live up to my festive nostalgia.

― robster (robster), Monday, 1 November 2004 11:42 (twenty years ago)

never watched the series but do remember a line from the trailers:

"Come, be a beast with me in the wild wood"

they were simpler times...

― koogs (koogs), Monday, 1 November 2004 12:03 (twenty years ago)

surely a SILAS DVD reissue cannot be far away!

― debden, Monday, 1 November 2004 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Lovely. Doubtless I have said this before, but I have not time to review the thread this minute.

― the bellefox, Monday, 1 November 2004 16:25 (twenty years ago)

In case anyone's interested, the extra features for the DVD include:

Profile of author John Masefield
Interviews recorded this year with the director, Renny Rye, and the child lead (now all grown up) Devin Stanfield.
Photo gallery
Archive material relating to "Box", including clips from Blue Peter, Take Two and Pebble Mill At One.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Monday, 1 November 2004 18:47 (twenty years ago)

I had the book by John Masefield which, as usual, was better than the series - which was good in it's own right. Nostalgic Escapism!

― Schwa! (Schwa!), Monday, 1 November 2004 23:40 (twenty years ago)

It's only £9.99 at hmv.co.uk

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 08:52 (twenty years ago)

I think I'll get it tomorrow then. Hurray! I loved this.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 09:19 (twenty years ago)

The copy of the book I have is illustrated by Faith Jacques - who, as I've said in reference to Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, is a wonderful illustrator.

(it's only an abridged edition, though)

― caitlin (caitlin), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 09:27 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe I missed this thread first time around. BoD was awesome. I'm gonna have to buy this.

― beanz (beanz), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 09:37 (twenty years ago)

I have never seen this. Is it suitable for a someone who is seven? Or will she think it is 'kids' stuff'?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 10:54 (twenty years ago)

"Old posh kids stuff"

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 11:11 (twenty years ago)

I was 5 and it scared the SHIT outta me.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 11:31 (twenty years ago)

Can you still buy, like, ANY of the other shows mentioned here? I loved them all.

― B.A.R.M.S. (Barima), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 11:48 (twenty years ago)

WOW! We were in the pub the other night and there was a poster on the wall with a man in wolf's make-up and I said "that reminds me of the Box of Delights" and we discussed its greatness. Must... order... now...

― Madchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 2 November 2004 13:32 (twenty years ago)

So, I bought the DVD yesterday and have already watched five of the six episodes. It occurred to me how Doctor Whoish the opening credits are, even down to the box spinning like the tardis. And some of the special effects are a bit Doctor Whoish too, like when the foxy faced gentleman becomes a fox for an instant before the train goes into a tunnel in episode one. And the animation and flight sequences look very dated. BUT IT'S STILL GREAT!

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:12 (twenty years ago)

It could have been worse - thay could have done a George lucas style cgi update, yuk.

― jed_ (jed), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:21 (twenty years ago)

Ok you sold it to me. I was having second thoughts but I'll get it today.

xpost

― beanz (beanz), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:23 (twenty years ago)

Mine should arrive today, I hope.

― Sick Mouthy (Nick Southall), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:25 (twenty years ago)

I love the way things are named: The Boy Kay Harker, My Guardian Caroline Louisa, Seekings.

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:39 (twenty years ago)

It occurred to me how Doctor Whoish the opening credits are, even down to the box spinning like the tardis. And some of the special effects are a bit Doctor Whoish too

I might be getting a bit confused here, but: isn't Cole played by one of the former Doctors?

I remember, too, that the special effects in the sequence where Kay meets the Box's creator are very, very eighties-computer-graphics in style. Or, at least, that's how I remember them seeming; it must be at least 18 years since I last saw it.

(This is a must-buy for me, too, I think)

― caitlin (caitlin), Thursday, 4 November 2004 13:52 (twenty years ago)

Yes, you're right - when he goes to ancient Troy (?), the sand is very yellow and the sea is very blue and very computer generated. Thing is, I remember thinking it was pretty rubbish at the time - I much preferred the animated woodland bits - so I didn't mind when it seemed rubbish last night. I'm far more disappointed when things that had a real WOW impact when I was ten turn out to be utter pants, but if they've always seemed lo-fi I don't mind.

You're right about Doctor Who too. I didn't twig.
http://www.tnelson.demon.co.uk/cult/images/patrick_troughton.jpg http://freespace.virgin.net/greg.taylor1/watched_it/tbod_hawlings.jpg

― Madchen (Madchen), Thursday, 4 November 2004 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Just out of interest...

When I try watching things from my childhood (namely The Goodies, most recently) I get totally freaked out by, say, the shape of the rooms, and the overall effect is quite depressing. Doesn't this happen to anyone else?

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller), Friday, 5 November 2004 09:00 (twenty years ago)

The shape of the rooms???

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 5 November 2004 09:23 (twenty years ago)

So I watched the final episode and the extras last night. The Blue Peter interview is brilliant - Janet Ellis in tartan trousers, a bow tie and a string of red beads. None of them seem to be able to stop themselves saying "horrific". There's also a Pebble Mill episode with a truly nerdy gentleman talking about how they do special effects using a blue background. Bless.

The director went on to make three series with Dennis Potter. He was very proud of plucking Ewan McGregor from college for Lipstick on Your Collar.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 5 November 2004 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Shame about the ending eh...

― ledge (ledge), Friday, 5 November 2004 14:48 (twenty years ago)

Yes, it the kind of ending that I got told off for at the age of 10.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 5 November 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

the dvd was lurking in my christmas stocking, and we just finished watching it. i was relieved at how good it was (i must have been either four or six when i last saw it, and i could remember very little other than a couple of isolated scenes). the cartoons are a little lame but ok; the only really dodgy special effects are the ones when kay goes back in time.

the weirdest thing is how nonplussed everyone is when children get kidnapped, when they shrink or fly around etc. also the last ten minutes are pretty rub.

london ilxors are welcome to borrow the dvd, btw, i doubt i'll be watching it again for a while.

― toby (tsg20), Monday, 27 December 2004 18:42 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

I got this for Christmas, and what a delightful series it is. Still holds up very well. The dated special effects only make it even more charming.

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Monday, 16 January 2006 18:14 (nineteen years ago)

holy fuck, i'd forgotten all about this programme. the memory of watching it with my mum and dad - the shared anticipation and excitement and enjoyment - is one of the happiest of my entire childhood.

i have a vivid memory of the book containing a line about "buttered eggs", very early on, and thinking that sounded like the nicest (posh-kid) food imaginable.

and, hurrah, it's out on DVD. in fact, ooh, mädchen, gizza lend, go on.

the synth chords acompanying the white out at the end of The Box of Delights title sequence never fail to get me all misty eyed

i can't remember what this sounded like, but i know i loved it; so much so that i tried to record it using the built-in microphone on the shitty tape deck i used with my zx spectrum.

DISCLAIMER: i'm fully aware that this post makes me sound like a nauseating little middle-class brat. in mitigation ... i probably was. so, er, eat a dick, everybode!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:38 (nineteen years ago)

Grimly, I'll try to remember to bring it next time we are in the same place at the same time. In December I forced Stet to sit through the first episode and he survived, just.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Monday, 16 January 2006 19:57 (nineteen years ago)

In December I forced Stet to sit through the first episode

i can't really imagine that, somehow. heheh.

don't worry about bringing it to the pub or anything, it'll only get beer on it. i might buy it for my mum for her birthday. in, eh, july.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:01 (nineteen years ago)

It'll be three quid in Fopp by then.

― Mädchen (Madchen), Monday, 16 January 2006 20:48 (nineteen years ago)

happy birthday, mutha!

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Monday, 16 January 2006 21:16 (nineteen years ago)

I bought my mother the DVD for Christmas - and we still haven't watched it.

(that would mean spending three hours solid with the parents, of course)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:24 (nineteen years ago)

I remember it had a particularly haunting theme tune.

― chap who would dare to work for the man (chap), Monday, 16 January 2006 22:30 (nineteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

For those who haven't got the DVD yet, here's your chance to watch the title sequence and other goodies:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/box/

― Ben Mott (Ben Mott), Saturday, 4 February 2006 14:10 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

semi related - BBC4 are showing "The Pheonix and The Carpet" starting tonight. i remember it being a similar kind of thing though i was more of an age to enjoy it that The Box of Delights. i wonder how it will hold up after ll these years.

― jed_, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

Phoenix!

― jed_, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:33 (eighteen years ago)

omg how did i miss this thread. Box of Delights was one of the foundational artworks of my youth, i think. i still dream of it. never considered that it could be on DVD... am frankly terrified that it will disappoint... and this talk about the naff ending? i don't REMEMBER the ending... will watching it again ruin EVERYTHING just EVERYTHING?

I remember being, as a five year old, scared and mystified by this programme to degrees which have never since been matched.

man, so OTM.

― sean gramophone, Monday, 16 April 2007 17:46 (eighteen years ago)

Robin, the Sylvia Game was on in the mornings one summer holiday - must've been more than 15 years ago now - and was a kind of ghost story about a little girl who looked just like another, long-dead, little girl, in a painting. I can't remember much else about it, except it gave me nightmares.

The usually authoritative The Hill and Beyond(children's TV drama encylopedia) doesn't mention "The Sylvia Game" at all. In fact I can't find a single reference to a TV version anywhere online, only the original book by Vivian Alcock. Are you sure it wasn't called something else?

The closest I can find is something called "Come Back, Lucy", about a girl who switches places with her(evil) Victorian doppleganger, but that was from 1978.

― Jeff Leopard, Monday, 16 April 2007 21:44 (eighteen years ago)

Of course you could just be completely mad, or a big fibber. Either way it probably doesn't matter now, three years late...

― Jeff Leopard, Tuesday, 17 April 2007 18:38 (eighteen years ago)

seventeen years pass...

On BBC I-Player at the moment, if you fancy a bit of nostalgia, still holds up imho!

― Maresn3st, Monday, 23 December 2024 11:48 (ten months ago)

Indeed, goin' in..

― nashwan, Monday, 23 December 2024 14:15 (ten months ago)

The full version of the theme is lovely too – this is the part that includes the start & end credits music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9YJJN4EOsI

― Chuck_Tatum, Monday, 23 December 2024 15:01 (ten months ago)

need to reread the book to see if this angle is explored in more plausible depth but there's something v funny abt the actual-real existing philosopher raymond lully discovering the secret of eternal life and then 800 yrs later simply being a punch-and-judy man for kids parties

(= ppl who've figured out how to live?)

― mark s, Thursday, 26 December 2024 13:34 (ten months ago)

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