The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Silver Chair [DVD] [1990]

The fourth and final instalment of the BBC's Chronicles of Narnia series has to be the best of the four! With a wonderful cast, including ex Doctor Who Tom Baker, Patsy Byrne and the brilliant Barbara Kellerman, Ronald Pick-Up and Warwick Davies all returning for this breath taking production. Tom Baker is particularly outstanding as Puddleglum the Marsh Wiggle. Baker is suitably cast in the role and his rich, deep voice and superb facial expressions steal the show, especially the final confrontation with the Green Witch, brilliantly brought to life by the returning Barbara Kellerman. Kellerman's chilling performance as The White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,is matched here by a scary display as the Green Witch. Richard Henders deserves special praise for his manic portrayal of the bewitched Prince Rillian and you just feel the adult performers are let down by a disappointing performance from David Thwaites as Eustace. The costumes are once again brilliant and the effects do remind you of the classic sci fi show Doctor Who, but the unbelievable costume of Aslan will mesmorise you. It is so life like and the voice work of Ronald Pick-Up gives one a great sense of the lion's authority. The sets are outstanding, particularly the underground scenes and the scenes at Harfang are also extremely good. The only niggle with the video, is that the cliffhangers from the end of each episode have been taken away and it has been blended into one long movie edition. This is a shame, as having viewed the original version, the cliffhangers are exciting, especially when Puddleglum is apparantly killed by the giants of Ettinsmoor. Definately one for the family this. In fact, I would recommend all of the Narnia tales on BBC Video. They will all make you enchanted forever!

"The Silver Chair" is the four and final adaptation of one of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, although I am surprised that this series was not able to complete the entire set of novels In this story Eustace Scrubb (David Thwaites) is being tormented at school and while looking for a place to hide from the bullies ends up entering the magical world of Narnia from a garden shed, along with another persecuted classmate, Jill Pole (Camilla Power). There Aslan gives them the task of rescuing Prince Rilian, the stolen son of King Caspian. This requires them to travel, along with Puddleglum the Marshwiggle (Tom Baker), north to the Deep Lands of the underworld belonging to the Green Lady (Barbara Kellerman). There they meet the Black Knight, who is under the enchantment of the evil Green Lady, who tortures him in a Silver Chair that sends him into a terrifying rage.

By the time you get to "The Silver Chair" you have either accepted the limited special effects of this production or not. Yes, the animatronics of Aslan are almost unbelievably simplistic, but the kids always talk to him like he was a real lion and ruler of Narnia and that is all that really matters in the end. The costumes and sets are pretty good and above all the story is faithful to the Lewis narrative. One of the things I enjoyed most about the "The Silver Chair" is the way that Lewis elegantly works in Christian elements into the story. Azlan works hard to have Jill learn a series of signs, by which she and Eustace will be able to achieve their goal. However, Jill has problems remembering the signs and Eustace does not really seem up to the challenge. Then again, most great children's literature works on two levels, although clearly "The Silver Chair" and the other chronicles will appeal more to the kids, which is fine, because that is really who they were intended for even though they are arguably too good for the little ones.

The special effects in the BBC Narnia Chronicles serials get better with each series, and in The Silver Chair they are actually very good [for the period]. Picture quality likewise improves with subsequent serials. The naff cartoon overlays at the end that spoilt the Lion & Witch a bit are banished from this DVD (my son (9) remarked how bad they were). However in every serial the makeup for the Narnian animals is excellent and the sets are imaginative, very well made and varied - some quite fantastic in the Silver Chair. The varied cast are also totally convincing (although Aslan can get into trouble attempting lip-sync).

The story starts with Eustace and classmate Jill being chased by nasty school bullies. In desperation Eustace cries out for Aslan's help and suddenly they find themselves running in Narnia. There they discover that a distraught King Caspian has left Narnia in search of his missing son and only heir, Prince Rilian. Aslan charges Eustace and Jill with a quest to help find the missing Prince. In The Silver Chair, Tom Baker is really superb as the kind but miserable Marsh Wiggle [Puddleglum] - and the two lead child actors are very very good, with David Thwaites [as Eustace] probably giving the most memorable child performances in the entire BBC Narnia series. We were also impressed with the realistic 'nice' giants and the underworld episodes. For some reason I always find the final reunion between Eustace and Caspian at the end of The Silver Chair almost unbearably sad, something to do with lost childhood and 'age did weary them' I suppose. Try not to read too many reviews if you haven't seen the series though, as they can give away too much of the plot. Note that this Region 2 DVD set has all six episodes shown in their entirety as Aunty intended, each with the great intro, music and credits, unlike on the US region one DVD where the serials were edited and cut into a 'feature film' (badly affecting pace). Serialisation allows proper use of the scripted 'cliffhanger' and means your children can watch one a two episodes before bedtime.

The only reason not to buy this DVD is that the four DVD BBC set 'The Narnia Chronicles' is even better value as it includes the complete three seasons: The Lion & Witch, Caspian & DawnTreader, and the Silver Chair (another twelve episodes - 6 hours), plus many extras. These adaptations were screened from 1988 to 1990, and are superb value and highly recommended for anyone with preteen children over 4. These other BBC Narnia DVD's : Lion & Witch, Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader are naturally essential pre-viewing. This BBC series can't be bettered in terms of acting, content or imagination. Perhaps they compare rather unfavourably to the new Disney versions, particularly in terms of special effects, but the BBC often scores with the shear quality of it's adaptations in terms of casting, screenplay and script (Narnia fans will probably love both anyway). My only complaint really is that the BBC didn't serialise the other Narnia books: `The Magicians Nephew', `The horse and his boy' and `The Last Battle'. In many ways though the BBC's 'The box of delights' and 'The Borrowers' DVD sets compliment the Chronicles of Narnia, so try them as well.