Has anyone seen the original two-tape VHS boxed-set of this for sale on ebay or ioffer recently?
Aside from those two sites, I wouldn't really know where to go, since it's been out of print for ages. :-/
"Nobody's gonna tell me how to think
Nobody's gonna use my blood for ink."---CGO.
Damn it, this is just plain weird. :-/
A representative from Fremantle Media just e-mailed me back and said that the 79-minute version now available on DVD in the states from A&E WAS the full-length version. That, as far as she knew, the BBC had never broadcast any other costume version of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS.
But I just can't believe that. I know what I saw. :-/ And, in that Postings catalog, they had a two-tape VHS boxed set that they said was over two hours long. The box said THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS on the cover, and it had a picture of the guy in the Mr. Toad costume, with the big, goofy prosthetic head on it.
Now, maybe they just got confused, and advertized a four-episode boxed set of the series as the feature film by mistake, or maybe this was some other costume version that no one has ever heard of, (Although, as thorough as IMDB usually are, you'd think they'd have listed it. They didn't list anything but the Disney version, the '96 British animated version, and this one. :-/ ) but I don't believe for one minute that they would actually split a mere 1hr and 20 min. movie over two VHS tapes. No freakin' way. :-(
Bizarre. :-/
"Nobody's gonna tell me how to think
Nobody's gonna use my blood for ink."---CGO.
"That, as far as she knew, the BBC had never broadcast any other costume version of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS. "
Might be because they were not broadcast by the BBC.
The film and subsequent series by Cosgrove & Hall were both shown on the UK's other main station and the BBC's deadly rival, ITV (in the days when Channel 4 and S4C were both still in their infancy and Channel 5 was still over a decade away from even being started up); they were repeated many times in the 1980s and 1990s. But the series was never broadcast at all by the BBC, as it was produced by Thames Television, which was a die-hard ITV franchise. Don't know which broadcasting company directed the original film but, being a Cosgrove & Hall production, it probably wasn't shown on the BBC either.
The film and some episodes in the series are now available on DVD in the UK, not sure about the US though...
Well, it turns out, I had the wrong movie altogether, a fact which, I might add, I didn't find out until I had actually ordered and WATCHED the DVD of the Cosgrove/Hall version from A&E. :-(
The one I was thinking of was the American Thorn/EMI version, made in 1984 as a feature film. I could've found this out a lot sooner, if not for the fuc ked up way that IMDB listed the film. (They listed this one as being part of the TV series, I believe. If I hadn't stumbled across that page by accident, I wouldn't have even known that this version existed. :-/ Thanks a lot, dipsh*ts. ;-( )
This version just had people dressed up in costumes, instead of puppet animation, and the film actually began with actors portraying Kenneth Grahame and his friends, on whom the characters in the book were supposedly based.
"Nobody's gonna tell me how to think
Nobody's gonna use my blood for ink."---CGO.
Was it the one starring Michael Gambon?
shareI don't think so, but I'm not entirely sure. What part did he play?
I know this much: It was directed by John Driver, and starred, among others, Martin Osterberg, Joseph Papke, Nate Peterson, and Devi Piper.
"Nobody's gonna tell me how to think
Nobody's gonna use my blood for ink."---CGO.
Ah - I know the one you mean, it came out in 1983 but was eclipsed in popularity by the Cosgrove & Hall version which came out the same year. As I remember it, John Driver's version was more of a play billed for screen rather than a screen production in its own right - same as the BBC's adaptation of the Chronicles of Narnia several years later.
Unforunately, while the Cosgrove & Hall adaptation and the 1990s live action version starring Michael Gambon and Michael Palin are still both available on VHS and DVD, I've never seen the John Driver in either format for many years.
Sorry bout that! :-(
Yeah, I'm afraid it's gonna be a copper-plated bitch trying to find a copy. ;-( I'm searching for it on both ebay and ioffer, but, so far, to no avail. :-(
You're right about it being more of a filmed stage play than a screen production. Everything but the riverbank scenes was actually filmed on a soundstage, and they did little to try to hide this fact. It featured actors in big "bobble-head" masks, and, at times, it seemed they were badly miked, as you could barely hear what they were saying. Little wonder that it's faded into obscurity, really. ;-) I find its ineptitude and low production values somewhat charming, though. :-D
The main thing I prefer about this one, as opposed to the Cosgrove/Hall version, was the fact that, in the beginning, it had actors that were supposed to be portraying Kenneth Grahame and his friends that the WITW characters were supposedly based on, sitting on the riverbank, while he tells them the tales, and it returns to those characters at the end.
Also, I think they stuck a little more closely to the book than the Cosgrove/Hall version. All in all, the Cosgrove/Hall version did a good job, and I enjoyed it, but having Mr. Toad appear before a female magistrate, back in those days, just seemed like a bit of a stretch. ;-D
What is the Michael Gambon/Michael Palin version like? Is it a faithful adaptation? If so, I might order a DVD of that, until I can find a copy of the Driver version.
"Nobody's gonna tell me how to think
Nobody's gonna use my blood for ink."---CGO.
Well it was the 1980s, everything live action seemed badly miked in those days, but when you watch repeats of such series now, they seem more "retro" in feel than "bad" if you know what I mean! LOL
As someone who loved Kenneth Grahame's original book when I was little (and still love it now at age 46), the reason I prefer the Cosgrove/Hall version to all of the other adaptations I have seen is because, although some parts were changed (for example, the female Magistrate, which was clearly included in order to increase the use of Una Stubbs' voice) or omitted (like the introduction and ending to the book, which both had to be editted out for budgeting reasons), I think that in terms of the overall layout of the film, they got it spot on - Sir Michael Hordern's gruff voice was well-suited for Badger for example, and David Jason's inimitable charisma and vocal acrobatics made him a good choice for Toad, while Ian Carmichael's kind voice and well-spoken, warm and friendly manner were just perfect for Ratty. I also loved the sets, which, considering they were made of cheap plasticine and wood, looked totally realistic; the theme tune was really relaxing and soothing and the incidental music was fabulous - from the creepy music when Mole got lost in the Wild Woood and Ratty went out looking for him to the hilarious music when Toad was crashing/stealing the motor cars...
While I loved the Cosgrove/Hall film, I have to admit I wasn't such a big fan of the spin-off series that Cosgrove/Hall did after the film - I thought that they should have kept Ian Carmichael voicing Ratty instead of Peter Sallis, as Sallis' voice turned Ratty from a kindly character into a rather clownish one, which I didn't think worked so well. Parts of the original film that had to omitted were uswed in the series (such as the 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' chapter) which seemed rather out of place in the "further adventures" where they tweaked with the format to turn it into a sort of sitcom, which I doubt Kenneth Grahame would have approved of...
The 1995 version with Messrs Gambon and Palin was reasonably faithful to the book, though it had a great deal of Monty Python-inspired humour in it. It's very amusing and certainly worth a look!