The Box Of Delights

The Box Of Delights (BBC TV 1984) repeated for its fortieth anniversary - and when it was first on it was nearly fifty years after the book came out. Which I didn’t know was the second of two, though it does explain some character connections, specifically why the villain discounts the hero.

Title sequence with eerie strings theme and assorted faces that would feel Whovian even without Patrick Troughton, end title cheerful symphonic version

(Compare the crowdfunding video for the official RPG I just discovered.)

The mix of video filming, computer animation like chromakey and traditional animation feels bumpy at times. Likewise the weather, where deep snow is a plot point and represented by effects but there was actual deep snow for some of the filming (which stopped a lot of it) and then it was maybe late autumn an episode later.

I’m more interested in the tonal oddness. Everybody rolling with it after very little alarm when discovering magic. The villains first presented as wolves in human form and then being regular criminals apart from their leader. And the resulting idea of a pretty regular gang of crooks working for an evil wizard. Not really getting what the villain’s plan was for disrupting a Christmas service. The way Kay can casually question adults and only the police inspector seems to remember he’s a child, even more so than the usual teen sleuth types. The pause to go boating while one of the sidekick family has been kidnapped. The reveal of the box’s rightful owner. A Brazen Head and assorted demons. A guy-in-a-costume talking mouse who appears as casually as an old friend.

My favourite part, the idea that one of the villains had to put on a Punch And Judy show.

A lot of this is the kind of thing I glossed over when I was ten, but not all of it. So when it pulls the “it was all a dream - or was it?” ending it seems to fit.