Jennifer Anne trying to escape...!

Call this one a holy grail of sorts: part homage to one of the fave TV series of my childhood, part homage to one of my fave actresses....

It all started with a series of mystery books by the celebrated children's author, the late Enid Blyton, written between 1942 and 1963. A series featured as its main characters four kids and a dog, specifically two brothers, their younger sister, their tomboyish female cousin and her dog.... the FAMOUS FIVE.

In 1977, there started production of a new TV series based on said series of books, produced by Portman Productions for, and broadcast over ITV via, Southern Television, between July 1978 and August 1979. Two series/seasons, 26 episodes total. ENID BLYTON'S FAMOUS FIVE.

This pic features one of those book-based episodes....

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Two well-known scientists, Professors Terry-Kane and Pottersham, have gone missing, presumably turned traitor to their country.

The Five would be spending their holidays caravanning around Faynights Castle, all except their cousin Georgina--I mean, George--who had a cold and wouldn't be joining her cousins Julian, Dick and Anne.

She would get better, and she and her dog Timmy would join up with them, caravanning in the field near Faynights, next to where a group of fair-folk were camped. Not unfriendly those fair-folk, but they are suspicious of outsiders, and thankfully the kids had won them over, gaining their trust.

The Five thought they could visit Faynights Castle like they had wanted, but, upon finding it closed to visitors (that day?), including the tower, which they most wanted to visit, settled for a bit of lunch back at their caravan camp site. There Julian, Dick and George would take turns looking at Faynights using George's binoculars which she would calmly warn time and again to be careful with, because after all they were her "Christmas and birthday present!" "Yes, we know!"....

Soon they would discover a man standing in the window of the tower, and from a copy of that day's newspaper they discover he could be one of those missing scientists. They decide to venture inside Faynights Castle that night and try to find him/them.

One thing for sure, a castle as old as Faynights that hasn't been lived in for years can be a bit scary and discerning, especially at night, but the Five manage to find a way inside. Torches (flashlights) are certainly a must for this trip. Added to the fact that someone was watching them through a eye-hole in the wall and suddenly flinging towards them, landing behind them to startle.... "It's just an old knife." A blunt dagger, if you will. Unnerving Anne a little bit was bad enough without Julian and Dick adding further jitters, something about whether anyone inside the castle now knows they're there. "Oh, don't!" But proof of recent previous entry by anyone in the castle was confirmed by the discovery of burnt wood/ashes in the fireplace, still warm.

Now Anne discovers the door which they came in was now locked shut, but Julian assures her they would get out, somehow.

They venture up the staircase, and thanks to Timmy's keen sense of smell they would find a door to the tower... and the door to where one of the missing professors was kept. So they had found Professor Terry-Kane, but where was Pottersham??

Right above them at the top of the stairs of the room where Terry-Kane has been kept was Pottersham himself, the real bad guy, as it turns out. He kidnapped Terry-Kane and kept him here in the tower of Faynights so that he could later cart him off out of the country and force him to work for some foreign secret service! And now the Five, including Timmy, are also his prisoners....

All but Anne.

Upon the group's discovery of Terry-Kane, Anne thought of getting a candle to light up the darkened room better. She went up to get one she saw on a chair by the first door. Upon getting the candle, she heard someone coming. As it turned out, Pottersham himself. And he did not notice her hiding by that door when he slowly advanced on the others, gun in hand, and trapped them.

This would be her chance to escape and she would. Pottersham suddenly hears her escape and soon chases after her, locking the others in the room behind him.

Halfway down the stairs, she would take refuge off to the side behind the main staircase. He himself would stop halfway down, looking around carefully for her. She had to throw him off her trail. Then she remembered the blunt dagger Dick has found that she now carried, along with her torch. Quickly flinging the dagger far into the next room would distract Pottersham long enough for Anne to head quickly down to the foot of the staircase and finally out of the castle.

She would soon head off to find the fair-folk and ask for their help to rescue the others.

And so Terry-Kane was rescued and Pottersham would be captured by the fair-folk.

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And here I feature Jennifer Masterson cosplaying as the very Anne Kirrin played by then child actress Jennifer Thanisch, hiding off to the side behind that very great main staircase from that very same Pottersham.

Jennifer Thanisch's Anne sports an interesting and wonderful hairdo, which was probably the hardest part to render in 6TEEN-style, but hopefully I have came very close in replicating it.

Jennifer herself is seven years my senior, with a birth milestone coming up this April. I first discovered her and this TV series back in 1980, three years after she started starring in it at age 13, two years after Southern first broadcast it over ITV, and one year after the last broadcast thereof. And, as the pubescent kid I was at the time, I kinda developed a crush; whether for Anne or for Jennifer, I still cannot tell you....

ENID BLYTON's FAMOUS FIVE would be Jennifer's most famous acting bout (she would make few acting appearances since then). Among her acting credits include the horror-thriller DARK PLACES (1973) and as Flying Squad Detective Inspector Jack Regan's daughter Susan in three episodes (1975-76) of Thames' THE SWEENEY.




Jen Masterson, 6TEEN © FreshTV Inc & NELVANA Ltd.
THE FAMOUS FIVE by Enid Blyton © Enid Blyton estate / Chorion / Hodder & Stoughton / Hachette UK.
ENID BLYTON'S FAMOUS FIVE (1978-79) © Portman Productions for Southern Television.
Southern Television, name, logo © Nic Ayling. Southern Television programme archive © Nic Ayling / Renown Pictures / Southern Star Group / ITV Meridian Television.

"We are the FAMOUS FIVE,
Julian, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the do-o-o-og!
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