SPOILERS ALERT!!!

Hello everyone! 🙂

Welcome to ‘Bradley’s Basement’ blog and I’m Tim Bradley!

So, for my birthday this year, I had a nice gift from my best mate from school – Stephen. It happened to be ‘The Box of Delights’ – the 1984 BBC TV adaptation, based on the 1935 children’s fantasy novel by John Masefield. And I’ve got the 40th anniversary DVD edition!

Nice! 🙂 Actually, ‘The Box of Delights’ is easily considered a Christmas story, considering it takes place at Christmas time and it was shown on BBC1 from November to December 1984, with the sixth and last episode being shown on Christmas Eve. That’s very fitting. 🙂

I seem to be getting Christmas stories for my birthday from Stephen. I had ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ back in May 2023 – which was a Christmas production, then I had ‘A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong’ in May 2024, and for this year, I have ‘The Box of Delights’!

Interesting pattern that. Not that I mind, as I particularly wanted to revisit ‘The Box of Delights’, which I saw many years ago but didn’t really pay much attention to it at the time. I believe I was interested in something else and I didn’t take ‘The Box of Delights’ seriously.

So, with more focus this time, I’ve been able to get a clearer idea as to what ‘The Box of Delights’ is all about. I also think I understand why I didn’t take to ‘The Box of Delights’ on an initial viewing. Mainly because there were aspects of the story that I didn’t understand.

This is because the story of ‘The Box of Delights’ happens to be a dream for the young hero Kay Harker. It’s something that’s revealed in the final episode of this story. I believe this was the case in the original book. I was rather surprised when it ended up being a dream.

The production is visually impressive and well-directed by Renny Rye. I believe it was the most expensive BBC children’s TV drama ever made then, having a mix of live action and animation, as an extensive use of Quantel Paintbox and chroma key effects were used. 🙂

‘The Box of Delights’ happens to be produced by Paul Stone, who went on to be the producer of ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ BBC TV series (which I’ve seen recently on Blu-ray). 🙂 It was also adapted by Alan Seymour, who later adapted the ‘Narnia’ books for BBC TV.

Essentially, the story of ‘The Box of Delights’ is about a young schoolboy named Kay Harker who’s entrusted with a magical box that allows him to time-travel, shapeshift and shrink. Kay has to protect the box from an evil magician, who wants the box for himself. 😐

Devin Stanfield plays Kay Harker in the story. There’s also Patrick Troughton (well-known for playing the Second Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’) who plays Cole Hawlings, the man who gave the Box of Delights to Kay. It’s good to see Patrick Troughton in this fantasy TV drama.

Robert Stephens plays Abner Brown, the evil magician who wants the Box of Delights for himself. I’ve heard Robert Stephens play Aragorn in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ BBC radio series. It was rather surreal to see him in the flesh in this story and being the villain for a change.

There’s also Geoffrey Larder as Foxy Faced Charles and Jonathan Stephens as Chubby Joe. Patricia Quinn plays Sylvia Daisy Pouncer in the story. I’ve seen Patricia Quinn in the ‘Doctor Who’ TV story ‘Dragonfire’ and she would later marry Robert Stephens in real-life.

There’s James Grout who plays a police inspector in the story. James Grout played Barliman Butterbur in ‘The Lord of the Rings’ BBC radio series and I’ve seen him in episodes of the original ‘All Creatures Great and Small’ TV series as well as ‘A Very Peculiar Practice’.

John Horsley, who I’ve seen in the BBC sitcom TV series ‘You Rang Milord’, stars as the Bishop of Tatchester. There’s Carol Frazer as Caroline Louisa – Kay’s guardian, Heidi Burton as Jemima, Joanna Dukes as Maria, Flora Page as Susan and Crispin Mair as Peter.

There’s also Glyn Baker as Herne the Hunter, Anne Dyson as the Old Lady, Helen Fraser as Ellen, Charles Pemberton as the Chief Constable, Bill Wallis as Rat, Nick Berry as Pirate Rat, Jason Kemp as the Waterfall Boy, and Nicholas Chagrin as the Bronze Head. 🙂

Philip Locke, who I’ve seen in the ‘Doctor Who’ story ‘Four to Doomsday’ and Series 4 of ‘Jeeves & Wooster’, plays Arnold of Todi. There’s also Bruce White as the Greek Captain, Julian Sands and Angus Kennedy as two Greek Soldiers, and Simon Barry as the Mouse. 🙂

Whilst watching the story, I recognised the incidental music being composed by Roger Limb, who’s composed many ‘Doctor Who’ TV stories in the 1980s like ‘The Caves of Androzani’ and ‘Revelation of the Daleks’. It was a treat to find him doing music for this. 🙂

I’m pleased to have revisited ‘The Box of Delights’ on DVD after so many years and been able to give it proper focus this time round. I didn’t appreciate it at the time when I first saw it many years ago, but I’ve enjoyed it more thoroughly in the 40th anniversary DVD edition.

On the 40th anniversary DVD edition, there’s a new making-of documentary called ‘Time and Tide’, which I’ve seen some of for this review along with special features made for a previous DVD release. I hope I’ll revisit ‘The Box of Delights’ soon and do a thorough review on it. 🙂

Many thanks Stephen for ‘The Box of Delights’ as a birthday gift this year!

Thanks everyone for reading!

Bye for now!

Tim 🙂