Some time after finishing the article about Rudyard
Kipling’s Stalky & Co. and the four Molesworth books, I learned that a BBC TVseries based on Stalky & Co. was made in 1982 and that there are two more Molesworth books – albeit written and illustrated many years later by other people.
I had no idea that these additional works existed.
I found some reviews, and there were enough positive ones to make me decide that the extra material seemed at least worth a look. I bought the Stalky TV series on DVD; I had to buy the Molesworth books too as they were not in my library’s catalogue.
I wondered if I had done the right thing, as dramatisations of books I like are usually very disappointing and tribute books are rarely as good as the originals.
The Stalky & Co. BBC TV series
I have always believed that books stimulate
the imagination whereas films short-circuit it. However, I decided to watch the Stalky DVD
in the hope that it would add another dimension to the stories.
I don’t know what people who have never read
the book would make of the TV series; my balanced opinion is that while it was not a
complete waste of money and it was not so bad that I was outraged by the
dramatisation, it is lucky that I had not expected too much.
Some of the stories are shown out of
sequence, and only six of the original nine have been included. I wish that they had dramstised The Impressionists instead of The Moral Persuaders, which was very painful to watch.
Although the clothes the boys and masters
wear look authentic, as often happens some of the characters did not look at all
as I had envisaged them, the schoolmasters Prout and King in particular.
