@glenwit 

When the BBC Narnia was broadcast here in the U. S. the series was shown as three long movies. Prince Caspian was only an hour (or two episodes long as broadcast in the UK), which was not enough time to do the book justice. I think the BBC should have devoted three hours to each of the four books. It would have cost them more money, but that could have been a way of getting more of a complete story from the book. I would have liked Dawn Treader to have been longer too, but they wanted to save money by making shorter adaptations of both of those books.

I saw them in 1990, I think, when they were afterschool viewing for my children & when their Dad came home from work early enough to watch it with them, himself. From August of 1990 I was working at Campbelltown until May in 1991 so I am a bit hazy about what I saw the first time and what I didn't.

It was natural that LWW would be filmed first, but though I was happy at first, that Prince Caspian then Voyage of the Dawn Treader were filmed at all, Prince Caspian seemed far too short. Almost blink and you'd miss it, especially later, when I bought the DVD's and there was no romp through Narnia at the end. It was the basic story of the Pevensie arrival at Aslan's Howe, staging the single combat scenes between Peter and King Miraz, then on to the battle, then that being won, they all went home again.

VDT, with a double number of the episodes to PC, starred Samuel West as Prince Caspian, and David Thwaites as Eustace. It seemed better done than PC and was mostly true to the story as far as I can remember. The third volume of those BBC films, the Silver Chair, was much the best of the series to see, with Barbara Kellerman as the Lady of the Green Kirtle, with David Thwaites reprising his VDT role as Eustace, and a third actor in the role as King Caspian. The biggest weakness of that movie in my opinion, was using the actor who played Prince Caspian in the film of the name, rather than Samuel West of VDT for the casting of the young Caspian at the end of Silver Chair. There were stories then of filming Magician's Nephew, but I understand that Barbara Kellerman, who played both Jadis the White Witch in LWW, and LOTGK in Silver Chair, couldn't go back to play Jadis in Magician's Nephew as well.