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The Spellits SHADOW PLAY
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SHADOW PLAY
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    > Episode Listings
    > Cast and Crew
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Site maintained by Ben Clarke
(Sorry, I can't provide videos or any other materials, so please don't write to ask!)

ON TV:Mondays 4th & 11th September 2006 on the CBBC Channel
Thursdays from 21st September 2006 on BBC Two
ON VIDEO:Video Plus Pack about £45 from the BBC
DVD Plus Pack about £55 from the BBC
> More information on the official BBC Schools Programme Guide

Shadow Play Introduction

A part-historical, part-contemporary story, a bit like Spywatch. The story will start with a present-day lad on a boating holiday on the Norfolk Broads with his new step family, getting caught in a storm and sheltering in an old manor house. The lad then becomes embroiled in a Victorian plot through an old diary he finds that comes to life.

Modern lad (Ben) and Victorian diary writer (Tom Ri... oops, I mean Hester) then apparently meet up and go off for an adventure in nineteenth century Norfolk, which will involve Victorian wherries (canal boats), Victorian fairgrounds, Victorian technology and inventions including the beginnings of cinema (probably developed from the camcorder that Ben has with him) and all sorts of Victorian riverside goings-on.

The carefully researched Victorian stuff and local activities like reedcutting and those wherries will help link it in to the history curriculum in schools.

Ben's coming to terms with his step family will be contrasted with Hester's rights, responsibilities and education in the Victorian period - the experiences of the past used to reflect on the present blah, blah, blah. That links it in to the citizenship curriculum.

The whole thing will be a mystery adventure serial, but in a return to the traditional Look and Read format, there will also be distinct educational segments in each episode, including songs! It was originally thought that there wouldn't be any (like Zzaap and the Word Master didn't have any) because its so difficult to find new songs that are good and catching and useful and don't end up ruining the whole thing - these criteria have apparently now been met. Anyway, that content links it in to the literacy curriculum.

The story bits were recorded over a period of just over two weeks (the classic old Look and Read dramas were all shot strictly within a fortnight, so this one is taking a little longer) from Monday 3rd November 2003, and attracted the attention of some of the local press. One such article is linked below, but if anybody finds any others in the Norfolk papers, the education papers (if any of them give a hoot about schools TV anymore) or anywhere else, please let me know!

There will be an accompanying story book, to be released at the end of February 2004, but if you want to get the teacher's notes and posters then you have to buy the pricey video pack as they aren't available separately. This would seem to be yet more evidence of the BBC's conspiracy to phase out schools television broadcasting by forcing you to buy the tapes anyway, therefore making the actual broadcasts redundant, however the programmes will be carefully made so that they stand alone as good educational resources themselves, whether or not you buy the extra material.




Episode Listings

1.   A Light at the Window
When Ben and his family take refuge in an old mansion, he discovers that he can see into the Victorian world through his camcorder.
2.   The Girl in Blue
Hester meets Nathan, who takes her to meet his family on board a big cargo wherry. Nathan helps Hester find out about the mysterious happenings at the house.
3.   A Flicker at the Fairground
Ben follows Hester and the servant, Katie, to a local fair. Ben tries to talk to Hester about the Girl in Blue who seems to be haunting him.
4.   Phantoms and Photographs (aka Photos and Phantoms)
Ben helps Hester to escape from the Wherry after she makes a discovery. He finds out a bit more about the girl in blue.
5.   A Secret Comes To Light
Uncle Augustus comes to the rescue of Nathan, who is in the clutches of Bob Trimby.




Cast and Crew

Written by
Producer
Director
Carolyn Sally Jones
Sarah Miller
Dirk Campbell
With thanks to Broads Authority, Norfolk Wherry Trust, Galliard School Enfield, Beaver Road School Manchester, Hillhead School Glasgow, Eric Edwards & How Hill Trust, filmed on location in Norfolk, sketch writer Peter Corey, sketch music Big George, studio technical manager John d'Souza, studio lighting cameraman Graham Banks, studio make-up Judith Barkas, studio production co-ordinator Michelle Parr, studio engineer Simon Storey, vox pops cameraman Edward Capes, vox pops editor Alex Morgan, researcher Kieron Schiff, chaperone Diana Thompson, graphics Adams Trainor, production design Alan Spalding, Jo Manser, art director Jo Manser, props Anne Carlyle Gall, Paul Halter, Ben Grist, John Hemsley, costume design Ros Little, costume Ros Little, Judy Pepperdine, Amanda Harward, Miranda King, Naomi Gurdol, make-up design Christine Penwarden, make up Christine Penwarden, Jenny Lenard, Celia Baxter, Tracy Gaines, marine co-ordinator James Wakeford, divers Ian Nichols, Ross Waters, Emma Jones, Josh Richardson, assistant director Gerry Wigzell, Diane Kasperowicz, locations manager Tom Hamilton, production accountant Emma Lynch, script supervisor Justine Hatcher, casting Angela Grosvenor, Jeff Capel, runners Adam Campbell, Kieron Schiff, Craig Scrivener, Katie Ward, on-line editor Simon Warner, colourist Nick Adams, dubbing mixer Richard Stillitto, location sound Steve Phillips, Jeff Milner, camera assistant Nora McGoldrick, gaffer Steve Arthur, electrician David Thom, grip Tim Critchell, music Alan Coates, Kim Goody, off-line editor Bob Cook, lighting cameraman Jerry Kelly, series consultants Sue Palmer, Sallie Purkis, line producer Helga Dowie, executive producer Sue Nott

Starring













Presenter
With
Jack Bannon as Ben
Naomi Miller
as Emma
Patrick Robinson
as Cal
Sophie Aldred
as Roz
Anabel Barnston
as Hester Moreton
Timothy Bentinck
as Uncle Augustus
Laura Davenport
as Aunt Sophie
Janine Duvitski
as Katie
Faye Jackson
as the Girl in Blue
Cameron Crighton
as Nathan
Francis Magee
as Mr Bob Trimby
Patience Tomlinson
as Mrs Alice Trimby
Adam Donnelly
as George Moreton
Ben
as Meg the dog
Angellica Bell
Doreen Mantle
as Queen Victoria
Paul Bigley
as Dogsbody




Stuff

Shadow Play has only had the bare minimum of teaching resources published to go along with it - in fact it's the first Look and Read since Badger Girl twenty years earlier not to have some sort of computer game accompanying it. Here's what you can get:

Shadow Play story book Story Book
The story of Shadow Play in five chapters matching the TV episodes. It's told in the third person which gives it quite a different tone to the TV version, where the main narrative thread comes from Ben talking to his 'video diary'. Each chapter has about 3,000 words (approximately - I'm not going to sit around and count them all!) so there is quite a lot of detail in it that you don't get from the TV, especially at the end when Ben gradually realises what each of his individual encounters with the Girl in Blue actually meant. It's apparently ideal for shared reading and for pupils of all abilities.

Written by Carolyn Sally Jones with illustrations by Guy Redhead. Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2004. ISBN 0-563-54850-9.

You can buy them in packs of five - intended for classroom use - for about £11.99 (SUBJECT TO CHANGE) from BBC Educational Publishing, or "BBC Children's Learning" as they've decided to call themselves this year. Contact them directly or, if you're a teacher, use www.bbcschoolshop.com.


Shadow Play video plus pack Video Plus Pack
A massive great plastic case housing a video of the story, along with a plastic bag containing the teacher's notes and posters. These separate resources aren't available individually - you have to buy them together in this pack, so if you tape the story off the telly you can't just get the teacher's notes cheaply.

Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2004. ISBN 0-563-50350-5.

Available to buy for about £34.99 plus VAT on the video (SUBJECT TO CHANGE) from BBC Educational Publishing. Contact them directly or, if you're a teacher, use www.bbcschoolshop.com.

Shadow Play teacher's notes Teacher's Activity Book
40 pages of notes for teachers on the story and each episode, including photocopymasters with extracts from the story and Victorian background work, and lots of ideas for things to talk or write about and teaching points. It also comes with two posters, one teaching reading strategies, the other showing bits from the story with full-colour versions of the illustrations from the story book.

Written by Sue Palmer, with illustrations by Guy Redhead, song lyrics by Peter Corey and virtual goggles creative writing idea by Sarah Bott. Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2004. ISBN 0-563-50350-5, as part of the Video Plus Pack.

Shadow Play video tape Video Tape
All five episodes of the story on one video. The episodes are complete including full end credits and the nifty new eyes animation on each episode, plus there's about 5 seconds extra at the end of the last episode as the wherry continues to sail away into the sun that wasn't broadcast on BBC2 - so it's obviously worth buying just for that! The picture is in 14:9 with little black bars at the top and bottom, which means it looks wrong on both widescreen TVs and normal TVs - but you just have to live with that "compromise" rubbish from the BBC these days and try to ignore it. The writing on the tape actually says "Shadow Plays" (sic), so BBC Worldwide obviously weren't paying much attention when they printed it.

Published by BBC Worldwide Ltd, 2004. ISBN 0-563-50350-5, as part of the Video Plus Pack.





Notes

      This story was originally announced under the title A Victorian Mystery, though I think this was merely an early working title and never intended to be used on the end product.
      In the old days, when the BBC had a whole schools TV department (rather than just an Education division of the Factual & Learning department as at present) Look and Read, like other schools programmes, was overseen by one producer or executive producer, who would stay with the programme for many years or decades and would be in charge of choosing somebody to write stories for the series, as well as directing and physically making the programmes themselves. So they would develop a good relationship with some particular writers who could be invited back to do new stories.
      These days, series are maintained by commissioning editors, who decide that they need to make a new story, then go an choose somebody to write it and somebody to make it - they aren't involved hands-on themselves. So there are two stages involved in deciding what the new story will be: first the commissioning people choose a vague subject and technical stuff like the number of episodes they want. In this case, they wanted a mystery story set in Victorian times, so they asked for A Victorian Mystery. In the case of the previous Look & Read story, the commissioners wanted a story based on computers, so gave it the working title Cyberscape.
      Various writers or production teams then propose all sorts of different ideas based on these vague concepts, and in the end one of them will be awarded the commission. Now the person who has won the assignment to write the story brings in their own ideas including their own title: in this case Sally Jones has brought in the story involving a diary, wherries and all that; in the previous case producer Karen Johnson brought in Victor Virus, the Word Master and the author Berlie Doherty with the new title Word Master.
      Things have been done in this two-stage way since roughly 1990-91, when the BBC sacked all the experienced old schools producers and closed down the schools TV department. I reckon Earth Warp was the first Look and Read to be conceived by the process, whereby the BBC wanted a story to do with pollution and aliens saving the earth, and eventually David Angus's script was chosen.

Lazy 'Pick of the Week' write-up, from TES Teacher 27/02/2004, p.20The story got a half-hearted blurb in the Times Educational Supplement just before its first transmission, which seems to have basically been cribbed from the Primary Catalogue, published almost a year earlier - they didn't even notice that the title of the story is no longer A Victorian Mystery. Following this, as usual, were some spirited and original write-ups of various Channel 4 secondary schools series and documentaries for grown-ups. That pretty much sums up the TES's whole attitude towards primary schools TV these days.
(So you see, Buss, I DO read your columns, and I DID notice you copying this site on March 26th, so THERE!)


The full cast list for Shadow Play is now available above. According to the publicity list provided by the BBC, the famous ones are: Patrick Robinson ('Ash' in Casualty), Sophie Aldred ('Ace' - Doctor Who's assistant - in Doctor Who), Timothy Bentinck ('David Archer' in The Archers), Janine Duvitski (Foyle's War, Mrs Bradley Mysteries, One Foot in the Grave, About A Boy) and Francis Magee (Angela's Ashes, Where the Heart Is, 'Liam Tyler' in EastEnders).

And the characters will be: Modern family: mum Roz, dad Cal, boy Ben, girl Emma; Victorian world: Hester a girl, Uncle Augustus an inventor, Aunt Sophie his sister, Katie a maid, The Girl in Blue a girl in blue, Nathan a wherry boy, Mr Trimby a wherry man and Mrs Trimby his wife.
If you happened to read anything else about any of the characters that was accidentally written here previously then you should forget it. Forgetting... forgetting.... forgetten. Good.

Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. See the Air Dates section for precise dates and times.
      Spring 2004, BBC2
      Autumn 2004, CBBC
      Spring 2005, BBC2
      Spring 2005, CBBC
      Spring 2006, BBC2
      Spring 2006, CBBC




Links

A news story from a local Norfolk paper on the filming of the story bits, including interviews with the producer and some of the cast, plus a picture of the lad playing Nathan.
http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/news/newsStory.asp?Brand=EDPONLINE&Category;=NEWS&ItemId;=NOED04+Nov+2003+22:59:58:100

A feature in the Norfolk section of the BBC website about the lad playing Ben, including an overview of the whole story and more comments from the producer and cast.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/norfolk/kids/look_and_read.shtml

An educational introduction to the TV series in Norfolk County Council's website for schools, including a guide to all the episodes, a massive downloadable information sheet containing publicity photos and - oh look! - a lovely link back to here!
http://www.norfolkesinet.org.uk/pages/viewpage.asp?uniqid=202

The pesonal homepage of actor Timothy Bentinck, who played Uncle Augustus - there's a picture of him in character on the front page. Also read his Blog (link at the bottom of the page) or watch 5 minutes of video clips from Shadow Play (Video link on the left).
WARNING: The video shows Uncle Augustus's big scenes - which are right at the end of the story and give away the whole mystery plot. Don't watch the video until you've seen the series first!
http://www.bentinck.net/frame1.htm

The Trimbys' wherry seen in the story is a famous real one called Albion. Read about its history and see pictures of the vessel on the Norfolk Wherry Trust website (as officially recommended in the Teacher's Notes!).
http://www.wherrytrust.freeserve.co.uk/histo.htm

> CLICK HERE for more general links about Look And Read and schools TV.



Thanks to Karen Johnson and Justine Hatcher, plus Nathan Hickton, also based on material from the BBC Primary Catalogue 2003-4.

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