Life After Narnia
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What else needs to be said about these productions. Good
acting, stunning costumes and an unwavering devotion to the
original stories; for any Narnian fan they are a must. The only criticism I have heard levelled at them is the mixture of real life and animation, particularly in 'The Lion'; this filming technique has never gone down well with fans.
The four productions are now fairly old (the last was released in 1991)
whilst productions of The Magicians Nephew, The Horse
and His Boy and The Last Battle were never attempted.
The dramatisation of The Silver Chair had an air of
finality about it and although the BBC said they considered
filming The Last Battle a question mark remains over how
serious they were.
With the announcement that The Silver Chair was to be the final production there was a public outcry of disappointment from parents (probably prompted by children enchanted by the series). The BBC went on record as saying that a production of The Last Battle would have been too complicated to make. This is perhaps a referal to transforming a talking donkey (Puzzle) and ape (Shift) from the page to screen. Rumours abound, however, that the real reason for the BBC not producing The Last Battle was that it was too Christian in content.
In the years since The Silver Chair was televised there
has been on going talk of the BBC changing their minds over
producing The Last Battle. With the subsequent lack of
hard evidence these rumours seem to be unfounded. Anyhow without
radical recasting such a venture could not go ahead. Michael
Aldridge (Professor Kirke in LWW) died in 1994 whilst the child
actors: Richard Dempsey (Peter Pevensie); Sophie Cook (Susan Pevensie) Jonathan Scott (Edmund
Pevensie); Sophie Wilcox (Lucy Pevensie); David Thwaites (Eustace
Scrubb); Camilla Power (Jill Pole)
have all grown up to the extent that they could not adequately
pass for the ages of the characters in the book.
Life After Narnia
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