An edition of The Box of Delights released to tie in with the 1984 BBC1 television adaptation.
Script Writer
Alan Seymour
Television DetailsAlan Seymour
The Box of Delights
6 × 30 Minutes / BBC1 / Colour
21/11/84 Episode One: When the Wolves Were Running
28/11/84 Episode Two: Where Shall the 'nighted Snowman Go?
05/12/84 Episode Three: In Darkest Cellars Underneath
12/12/84 Episode Four: The Spiders in the Web
19/12/84 Episode Five: Beware of Yesterday
26/12/84 Episode Six: Leave Us Not Little, Nor Yet Dark
Archive Details / DVD Releases
The Box of Delights has been released unedited on Region 2 DVD in the UK (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com). However, the individual release has now been deleted, meaning the serial is only available in the Children's Christmas Classics box set along with the BBC adaptations of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Snow Queen (Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.com / HMV.com).
The Box of Delights
Publisher Lions Format Paperback Publication Date October 1984 ISBN 0006724159 Original Price UNKNOWN Illustrator Faith Jaques Country UK
Edition Notes
- The front cover shows Patrick Troughton as Cole Hawlins and Devin Stanfield as Kay Harker.
General Notes
- Based on the 1935 novel of the same name by John Masefield, The Box of Delights was a major six-part serial adapted by Alan Seymour for the 5pm children's slot on BBC1. Starring Patrick Troughton as Punch and Judy man Cole Hawlins, and Devin Stanfield as schoolboy Kay Harker, the story, set in the 1930s, saw the strange and magical box of the title fall into the possession of Kay after his return home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays, and the battle to keep it out of the hands of the villainous Abner Brown (Robert Stephens) and his gang.
Alan Seymour's other credits include scripting the BBC's four Chronicles of Narnia adaptations between 1988 and 1990, and episodes of the children's supernatural anthology Spooky.
Along with the BBC's famous Ghost Stories for Christmas of the 1970s, The Box of Delights has since firmly established itself as a Christmas favourite for many fans of UK telefantasy productions.
The book itself is a sequel to Masefield's 1927 novel The Midnight Folk, which also featured Kay Harker and the villainous Abner Brown. A tie-in edition showing Devin Stanfield as Kay on the front cover was released by Lions in October 1984 (ISBN: 0006724167).
