Blandings, Series 1
adapted by Guy Andrews (BBC, 2013)
Series One of Blandings, although adapted rather loosely from the P. G. Wodehouse books (and lacking their most memorable character, Gally Threepwood), nevertheless manages to conjure up a merriment not out of keeping with its source material. Well cast, fast-moving and frivolous.
The Return of the Antelope
by Willis Hall (The Bodley Head, 1985)
Hall excels in depicting minor characters and incidental detail, yet there remains a largely untapped visual element to this children’s fantasy of Lilliputians who have ill-fatedly retraced Gulliver’s Travels back to England. The book reads like — and is — an adaptation from television.
Chocky
by John Wyndham, adapted by Anthony Read (Thames Television, 1984)
A patchy adaptation, quintessentially early 1980s, featuring well-pitched performances by James Hazeldine and child actor Andrew Ellams but terribly written female parts. The intrigue of a young boy’s mind-to-mind alien encounter is built and sustained across six episodes without ever really peaking.