The View from the Junkyard

“Beware of Yesterday”

Beware of yesterday, especially when yesterday is achieved with Colour Separation Overlay. Kay goes back into the past in search of Arnold of Todi, the original owner of the Box of Delights. He seems to think that giving Arnold back his box will solve everyone’s problems, although the logic escapes me. Abner clearly doesn’t know where the box is, and Joe’s suggestion that Cole might have given it to Kay is met with derision. I’m not sure why he would think Abner will stop looking for it and let everyone go because it has been passed on to somebody else, even if that somebody else is the box’s original owner. The whole sequence is rather pointless, adding jeopardy but failing to move the story onwards, with Arnold reacting angrily and refusing to take back the box. I suppose his refusal to accept it is interesting, suggesting that the power it brings could be a curse as much as a blessing. Somewhere hidden away here is a theme of being careful what you wish for, but it is buried deep beneath some fairly disposable and momentary danger. Continue reading →

“The Spider in the Web”

The “spider” of the title presumably refers to Abner, but what flies has he caught, and what will he do with them? There is a theme of capture and escape this week. We get confirmation that Caroline Louisa is officially missing, Abner admits to imprisoning Cole Hawlings, and by the end of the episode Peter has been “scrobbled” too. But the really interesting one is Maria, whose loyalties were in doubt. She certainly comes up trumps here. Continue reading →

“In Darkest Cellars Underneath”

If you thought there was a weak cliffhanger to the end of the previous episode, it does at least lead to a very important scene at the beginning of the third. There are a couple of revelations here, one of which makes more sense if you have read The Midnight Folk. Most children watching this at the time, myself included, wouldn’t have realised they were actually watching a sequel, in terms of the original novels. Like many children who saw this, I was inspired to buy John Masefield’s original books. So when Kay sees Sylvia Daisy Pouncer and says, “she used to be my governess and she’s a witch”, it might seem like an odd info dump, but it’s a consequence of The Box of Delights being a sequel to The Midnight Folk, in which Sylvia was the antagonist. Abner featured too, but was of lesser importance. It seems a little odd that this information was even included here, as Sylvia is re-established as Abner’s lover, so why do we need to know about any past history beyond that? It’s possible that Alan Seymour was keen to keep his script as close to the original as possible (and it is a very faithful adaptation), although he didn’t bother explaining the backstory with Rat, who used to be Kay’s ally in The Midnight Folk and has now turned traitor. Continue reading →