I'm sure I've told my story of my first viewing of the BBC Narnia productions in other forum threads, but considering I love those productions so much (despite their obvious flaws - and almost, in some cases, because of them!)  I first saw BBC's production of LWW in 1989, when it was first aired on Australia's ABC television station (our national free-to-air non-commercial broadcaster).  As I recall it, my father (who was a teacher at a Christian school at that time - later the principal of the same said school) had heard about it and wanted it recorded.  I think he asked me to record it from memory.  5 year old me watched it as I recorded it for him, and I ended up taking more of an interest in the series than what my father did. The series was released episodically here in Australia and from memory, the series first aired one episode a week when LWW commenced.  It was originally shown during a kids/teens afternoon tv cover series called "The Afternoon Show" hosted by James Valentine.  PC and VDT may have also been shown during the afternoon show as well, I don't recall the specifics, but I do know that I watched them when they were released on ABC tv as well.  SC I recall being shown around 1991 here in Australia, and I recall it being shown on a Saturday evening, half an hour before the evening news (which on the ABC on weekends used to commence at 6pm if my memory serves me correctly - although their weekday news broadcasts commenced at 7pm which I think they all do weekday & weekend now).  Further to my longwinded explanation of my viewing of the BBC Narnia productions in Australia - I know they repeated them at least once after the original airing of them, but by about the mid-1990s the ABC had apparently lost its rights to broadcast the series - despite me writing a letter or two to request the series being repeated!

My first impression of the series, I loved it.  Every time I hear the theme tune, even today, it brings me back to my childhood.  At 5 years old, I was too young to really care too much about the weaknesses of the production, such as the adult-sized beavers and the other cheap costuming.  I just accepted it as they were portraying a good story and was caught up in it.  I suppose it helped because I grew up on watching re-runs of the Muppet Show (which I really loved), Fraggle Rock, and an old puppet production of The New Adventures of Blinky Bill that aired here in Australia as well (running from 1984-87).  All this growing up on puppetry I suppose made me not really care about how real or not the BBC ones looked - I just liked the stories they were depicting.  And clearly I loved them a lot, because I would watch them on VHS for years afterward and bought a special edition DVD box-set in around 2008 or 2009 as well and have very much introduced them to my kids.

@pete 

I’m glad that there are some people here loved the series at first sight.  Some people are technology snobs and think that something that looks dated or was made on a low budget isn’t worth their time. But the people who made the series were forced into making it with a little bit of money or not making it at all. They were able to make programs that many people loved, and as a whole they did a pretty good job. I liked the title Wonderworks under which the series aired.  PBS had at that time other high quality children’s programs which also aired under that title such as Anne of Green Gables. As for me I am glad the BBC Narnia was made. 🙂

I probably saw it when I was either 4 or 5. I can't remember which.

In the early 1990s. I didn't see the original broadcast, instead we had the LWW bumper video which was released. I'd say it was a hit with all the family . Lots of childhood nostalgia tied up with that first BBC series. Didn't know about, or watch, the other series until they came out on DVD in the early '00s. Some of the effects are a laugh – especially things like the daft-looking snake in The Silver Chair and the bowling pin beavers – but I'm too fond of the BBC series to really mind.

I was in London on my first overseas trip, and I watched it with the family whose house i stayed in for about 2 months. The two young boys didn't know what they were expecting, but their mum and I were excitedly looking forward to each episode. We loved it.  

Partway through Episode 1, transmission broke down, and the voice of the continuity announcer said something about there being a mystery in Narnia, and it was a mystery what had happened, but they would be back to it shortly!

For me, it was either 1989 / 1990 - like Pete, it was playing for us on ABC television. At the time, I was either reading The Silver Chair or The Last Battle with my mum (we read the books in chronological order - apologies) and I was just stoked to see that someone had adapted the books. I remember they had The Lion, the With and the Wardrobe, followed by Prince Caspian and then The Voyage of the Dawntreader.

We recorded all the episodes to VHS and watched them many times over the years to come.

I had only seen the animated 1979 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in my year 6 class in 1989, so having these stories on the small screen was a big deal.

What you just wrote there @coracle, reminds me, I still have the VHS you sent me containing Past Watchful Dragons, which as I recall it, you said aired the week before LWW premiered?  The video you sent me, also has the 6 LWW episodes on it, and prior to one of them a BBC announcer announcing the episode that is about to begin with a photo from one of the scenes.    You may remember this, but I think that VHS also contains a pretty cute Christmas advert promoting the old mini coopers - two of them meeting at a front door underneath some mistletoe.

@pete Your experience is almost identical to mine — watching them when they first aired on the ABC in Australia in 1989 — except that I was 7 that year, not 5! And I had, in fact, only very recently finished reading through the entire series of the seven Chronicles for the first time (serialising them a few chapters per night, reading in bed with Mum and taking turns), so I was delighted that there was now a TV version.

And what did I think of the BBC series? Pretty much like most people here, I loved those adaptations (and still do) for what they were: earnest, well-meaning, totally ridiculous in places with the awkward costumes and really-not-so-special effects, but with their heart in the right place and, overall, hugely faithful to the original books. Those were the days when adapting a classic children's story for film or television meant taking the actual story that the original author wrote and sticking as closely to it as possible (like the legendary film of The Railway Children or the original BBC adaptation of Swallows and Amazons) — not totally rewriting it into whatever some hotshot film-maker(s) would apparently prefer it to be. (Not looking at anyone in particular, of course... )

And yes, as I know I've said multiple times before, the cheap nature and sheer hokey-ness of the BBC Narnia productions was obvious even to us as '80s kids. Yes, there were other shows on TV that used similar combinations of puppets and costumes and live action, some more effectively than others, and we all put up with it. This was still well before the days of stunningly realistic CGI wizardry — we didn't even know that such things would one day be possible. On the other hand, though, we were also aware that given enough money and know-how, really creative film-makers could still come up with quite stunning fantasy worlds on screen using only traditional methods. The Neverending Story (the original 1984 version, never mind the disappointing sequels) was one of my and my sister's favourite movies in those days, and I've watched it again recently and it still holds up amazingly well. But not all studios had that kind of budget and that level of talent, and the good old Beeb (yes, we do call the BBC that) definitely didn't.

And we just put up with it — and sniggered a lot at the bottle-shaped Beavers and Aslan unconvincingly "flying" and being unable to lip-sync and all the rest of it — and loved those shows anyway, because they were the only screen adaptations of Narnia we had, apart from the little 1979 animated film of LWW, and they were more than good enough. And to make up for what they lacked, well, there were always the books themselves to go back to, as there still are.

@pete I don't remember it! [but I love the idea of the mini coopers meeting up!]

@courtenay  @sir-cabbage  - those beavers are not bottles, but giant walking Kiwifruit!!!

I remember how ridiculous the beavers looked, although I thought the voice actors that played them actually did their job quite well. The other talking animals looked somewhat better. Their costumes would probably have worked for a stage play about Narnia, where realism and expensive special effects are less important.  

Posted by: @narnian78

I remember how ridiculous the beavers looked, although I thought the voice actors that played them actually did their job quite well. 

The same people who wore the costumes did the voices. I thought their costumes made speech slightly difficult. 

@coracle 

Considering what they had to work with I don’t think they did too badly. I had no problem understanding them. If it had been an audio production like Focus on the Family I think their voices would have worked not only for the beavers but the other talking animals too.

Posted by: @coracle

The same people who wore the costumes did the voices. I thought their costumes made speech slightly difficult. 

 

For all the ridiculousness of their costumes, I think Kerry Shale and Lesley Nicol did a great job with their performances of the characters.  Kerry Shale's passion with which he delivers the Wrong will be right poem is one of the most memorable highlights for me!  And as I write this, I'm visualising Lesley Nicol's joyful and excited expressions as she watches the coronation near the end of LWW.

I want to say second grade. Except the copy we got from the library only had like the first 3 episodes on the tape (yes it was a VHS) so we ended on a cliffhanger and just kept rewatching that for the next week. 

Don't remember how long it was until we managed to go back for the other half of LWW. Didn't watch the rest until after the Walden film came out. 

Silver Chair is my favourite and Prince Caspian is definitely my least. I get that they were trying to save money but combining with VDT really messed up the pacing.