Jasmine, It's interesting to read your 21st century views - this side of Jurassic Park movies and CGI being invented.

But it needs to be considered as a 6-part TV serial for children, not a miniseries.
BBC adaptations of children's classics, made in the 1970s and 1980s, were more sedate than the action cartoon style of the 21st century. When this was filmed for television 40 years ago, it was popular, and there are exciting points at the end of each episode. 

(EDIT: oops, 30+ years ago, not 40) 

Tom Baker's Puddleglum has been very popular; to me he does not seem like Eeyore in the original stories by A.A.Milne (prior to Disney rewriting), but he DOES resemble the man Lewis based him on, Fred Paxford. I think he played him well.
https://www.narniaweb.com/2021/07/fred-paxford-the-inspiration-behind-puddleglum/

Casting the actress who had played The White Witch (like a screeching pantomime witch) for The Lady of the Green Kirtle was a mistake. It set up two generations of viewers to think the two characters were the same person (definitely are not).

Why do you find it "interesting" that Warwick Davis played two different characters? Finding capable actors this small (3'8") to play talking creatures was not easy then.

When I rewatched this a few years ago, I was impressed by the sets and details (such as at Puddleglum's house). I recently watched again, and loved the interaction between them. The big/small scenes at Harfang are quite well done with the bluescreen technology of the day.

Posted by: @coracle

Jasmine, It's interesting to read your 21st century views - this side of of Jurassic Park movies and CGI being invented.

I think the 1990's was in the process of CGI. When the BBC series of Narnia were made in the 1980's, they did not as much visual effects as by today's standards. Visual effects has come along way.

Posted by: @coracle

Casting the actress who had played The White Witch (like a screeching pantomime witch) for The Lady of the Green Kirtle was a mistake. It set up two generations of viewers to think the two characters were the same person (definitely are not).

It may have given the idea that the White Witch and the Green Lady are the same person. We certainly don't want Netflix to cast the same actress to play both witches.

Posted by: @coracle

Why do you find it "interesting" that Warwick Davis played two different characters? Finding capable actors this small (3'8") to play talking creatures was not easy then.

I think Warwick Davis played two different characters for BBC for budgetary reasons. At least they didn't allude to the way that Reepicheep and Glimfeather were the same person. And there's no way they could be. Reepicheep is a mouse and Glimfeather is an owl.

Posted by: @coracle

Casting the actress who had played The White Witch (like a screeching pantomime witch) for The Lady of the Green Kirtle was a mistake. It set up two generations of viewers to think the two characters were the same person (definitely are not).

I'm not sure that the mistake and the implication was entirely unintentional. The connection between the Lady of the Green Kirtle and the White Witch in the BBC series goes beyond the fact that they are both played by the same actress. I recently noticed, watching the LWW BBC for the first time (after only having seen the SC BBC previously), this sort of clasp or piece of jewelry that the White Witch wears, shaped like a snake:

I also thought it odd that her house should have a green hue, with depictions of snakes carved all along the walls. Perhaps they were intentionally trying to make some of the villains interconnected in the BBC series- the bird heads in Jadis' crown in the above picture are somewhat reminiscent of Tash, as well.

@rainyweather oh wow, that is something I have never noticed (and I have been watching it since 1988 when it was first screened in UK!) I do think of the WW's house as being white and greeny-blue.
But NOW I'll have to pop my discs back into the player and watch those details again. Thank you for pointing it out.

Early on in Narniaweb, we had some strong discussions on the issue of whether the Lady of the Green Kirtle was the same person as the White Witch. We got an official comment from the C.S.Lewis Estate, who said they were different people. We had to ban the topic, as a few people refused to accept this and wanted to keep arguing!
An extra thing that added to the problem was that someone in HarperCollins put an explanation into one Edition of the books, saying that the two were the same person. 

Something worth mentioning is that I did watch it on YouTube, and it was a fan-made remaster. It just occurred to me that perhaps the house didn't (and doesn't) look green in the original. I'd be curious to know when you watch it again whether the house appears more blue, @coracle.

@rainyweather 

I watched the remastered version of the BBC Narnia a few months ago and I am not sure about the colors, but I noticed that the picture is a little brighter than it is on my DVD’s.  There is not a huge difference in the clarity, but the remastered version does look a little more appealing to the eye. If they made a version for blu-ray it would probably look like that. It is similar to what they did with the old classic Dr. Who.  

Posted by: @coracle

Early on in Narniaweb, we had some strong discussions on the issue of whether the Lady of the Green Kirtle was the same person as the White Witch. We got an official comment from the C.S.Lewis Estate, who said they were different people. We had to ban the topic, as a few people refused to accept this and wanted to keep arguing! 

Yes, and we hope Netflix avoids casting the same actress to play both witches. I mean, no two characters can be the same person. While the White Witch and the Green Lady have similarities (they are both witches and both wanted to take Narnia for their own), there's no way they can be the same person.

Posted by: @narnian78

If they made a version for blu-ray it would probably look like that.

It will probably have a clearer picture. I have a blu-ray player, though you can basically play both DVD and blu-ray disc. Usually, blu-rays come with both blu-ray and DVD, and now even digital copy where you can watch anywhere. It might come in handy for road trips. My TV has a 720 picture quality, so it's pretty clear.

@jasmine_tarkheena 

Yes, I noticed on my 40 inch screen that the picture on both blu-rays and DVD’s is clearer than a standard DVD player.  The quality is very good on almost all of the discs.  I doubt if the BBC would release the old Narnia series on Blu-ray because it wasn’t made in high definition, and they won’t be able to make much money from it.  Of course, if the HD format becomes cheap it is possible that they will do it someday.  They did it with the old classic Dr. Who, which surprised me.  🙂

BBC may not currently have rights to do any further releases  Netflix has it in their basket right now .

@rainyweather The LWW disc on my BBC set does show somewhat green tinged walls etc at the witch's house. She can't just have white and black and grey, and so some blue or green tinge is okay.
However I don't consider that the wall decorations were carvings of snakes. They look more like Celtic tracery patterns done in wrought iron.

The SC decor at the Black Knight's rooms is an odd mix of black, white, grey, the stone of the location room where it is filmed, and some multi-coloured stained glass windows (of evil faces with large teeth, some monsters- possibly a snake with a cat-like face between the two largest). The creatures portrayed in the other decoration include several dragons (there's even a small silver statue of one on the table where he sits to talk to the children!), which are very much chunkier than a serpent would be. Only in the room with the Silver Chair do we see predominantly green light through the windows, and murals behind it of huge serpents.

The greenest things otherwise are parts of Puddleglum's costume and makeup.

Two other things I noticed: the way serpent-woman shows her teeth when she talks to them especially in profile, and a drop of liquid that fell from the nose part of Rilian's helmet when he leans over to threaten Jill!!

Posted by: @coracle

The LWW disc on my BBC set does show somewhat green tinged walls etc at the witch's house. She can't just have white and black and grey, and so some blue or green tinge is okay.
However I don't consider that the wall decorations were carvings of snakes. They look more like Celtic tracery patterns done in wrought iron.

I just looked back at the scenes in the Witch's house- you're right: they do look more like Celtic tracery patterns than snakes. I did like the greenish/blueish tinge to the walls. I haven't seen the Walden LWW movie in quite a while, but my first impression of the inside of the Witch's house in the BBC series was something along the lines of, "Hmm... this seems a little out of theme with the winter thing- it doesn't look exactly icy," and then "But wow- the architectural style and coloring actually make it creepier than the house in the Walden movie." Later, I thought that maybe it came across as a little scarier because of the lighting (if I remember correctly, the house in Walden was better lit, not quite as shadowy). I also reflected that ice can sometimes have a greenish tint, so perhaps it's not so out of theme as I had initially supposed.

On a different note, what did you all think of the portrayal of Rilian whilst still enchanted? I remember I was confused when I first saw the SC BBC series because Rilian seemed so angry and mad (and the other kind of mad, too ). He came off a bit creepy and crazy to me with all the shouting and invading of the other characters' personal space. It wasn't at all how I recalled him behaving in the book. I thought that in the book- though he did certainly get defensive of the Lady of the Green Kirtle- he wasn't quite so angry, and was laughing and somewhat friendly (even if he was a little silly and rude). 

@rainyweather his characterisation was very mixed, very unclear whst he was like. Sometimes I thought he was going to hurt Eustace, and at others he just laughed like the title character in Amadeus. I didn't like his helmet much, and it wasn't clear why he wore it all the time - looks like he still kept his hair and beard tidy! 

Barbara Kellerman’s performance in The Silver Chair as the Lady of the Green Kirtle may have been a little better than in her role as the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  She appears angrier in The Silver Chair, but perhaps she was a little less exaggerated. It is not surprising that some people thought that the Witch and the Lady were the same person. It may have been better if two different actors had played the roles, which would have helped to avoid the confusion of the two characters. I haven’t seen Ms. Kellerman in anything else besides the BBC Narnia and she may have given up acting after performing her roles in that series.  Overacting is not considered to be so great today, and people don’t like it so much. But she may have done better in other television series.

Posted by: @coracle

@rainyweather his characterisation was very mixed, very unclear whst he was like. Sometimes I thought he was going to hurt Eustace, and at others he just laughed like the title character in Amadeus. I didn't like his helmet much, and it wasn't clear why he wore it all the time - looks like he still kept his hair and beard tidy! 

I think he wore the helmet to hide the reveal that he was Rilian to the audience, who had already seen his face in the flashback during the Parliament of Owls.

Posted by: @rainyweather

On a different note, what did you all think of the portrayal of Rilian whilst still enchanted? I remember I was confused when I first saw the SC BBC series because Rilian seemed so angry and mad (and the other kind of mad, too ). He came off a bit creepy and crazy to me with all the shouting and invading of the other characters' personal space. It wasn't at all how I recalled him behaving in the book. I thought that in the book- though he did certainly get defensive of the Lady of the Green Kirtle- he wasn't quite so angry, and was laughing and somewhat friendly (even if he was a little silly and rude). 

This is the main reason I don't like the BBC Silver Chair much. I feel like it's super obvious that freeing Rilian from the chair is the right thing to do since he's so much nicer when he's begging them to do. In the book, while he was really annoying when he was enchanted, he didn't seem dangerous whereas when he was unenchanted, he did seem crazy and dangerous, understandably enough, so even if you know the story, you can sympathize with the characters being wary of letting him loose. What the book did was so much more interesting the TV serial.