The Famous Five (1978) Southern (ITV)

"We are the famous five, Julie, Dick and Anne, George and Timmy the dog!

What a series!! ............well, it was okay I suppose if you liked your favourite middle class twats in 1970s flared trousers!
The series has a soft spot for me, because I was in the fan club, and I also had a big 11 year old crush on the girl playing Anne (well I didn't have much choice within that group really!)......In fact my first girlfriend..at the rather late age of 16...was an Anne lookalike called Natalia, who was a posh bit of skirt from the knob end part of town.
The Famous Five was pretty good in its day and was incredibly popular on the International market, being sold to over 17 countries. My big problem with it was the night scenes, which were filmed using a blue screen, which made everything incredibly difficult to see, so much so, that I generally closed my eyes to get a better feel of what the hell was happening!
There were plenty of household names during its 2 series run from 1978-79, such as  Patrick Troughton, Cyril Luckham, Brenda Cowling, Geoffrey Bayldon, Brian Glover, Ronald Fraser and an early appearance by Rupert Graves. The plots were taken straight from the Enid Blyton books, but as mentioned earlier, with a 70s feel.. In the mid 1990s a new Famous Five series was commissioned, which I tried to watch, and although the production was far better, I personally couldn't stand the programme due to that fucking whore, Jemima Rooper playing the part of George!