Posted by John Wilson on July 12, 2003 at 11:28:03 from 203.96.58.8 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: AR Videos and Audio Tapes posted by Dave Thewlis on June 30, 2003 at 22:46:05:
Hugh Brogan’s Biography says that the Ransome’s 1962 convalescence:
“was shattered by the arrival of a team to make a television version of Swallows and Amazons. They began by proposing to blow up some of the rocks in the Peel Island harbour, and went on from there. According to Arthur their child-actors were ugly, their Captain Flint was ‘common’, their script a travesty of his book, their rural characters were made to talk Cockney and they introduced some Cockney villains. Genia missed no chance of telling him he was a fool ever to have consented to the project, and he sadly agreed with her” (page 431).
But he notes Genia’s poor opinion of PD, WD & ML, and her scathing criticism of PM which was only saved by his mother who liked it (page 389).
He also notes a "charming little (1982) television seris on Channel 4, in which the actor and angler Sir Michael Hordern recited AR’s words in voiceover while the screen showed him fishing in the rivers mentioned in the book and re-enacting some of the incidents described”. The book was “Rod and Line” (1929), from his Guardian column (page 294).