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‘Malory Towers’ release date brought forward by BBC

Malory Towers is coming to the BBC sooner than we thought.

The BBC announced their plans to bring the release date of their upcoming television series adaptation of Enid Blyton’s Malory Towers. 

The first book, First Term at Malory Towers, was published in 1946. It follows 12 year old Darrell Rivers on her adventures and experiences in boarding school with her friends Sally, Alicia, and Betty.

The popular stories centred around a girls’ boarding school is still popular with kids and adults alike, prompting a full stage play tour adaptation only recently. The BBC have had plans for a television series for a while and have decided to push the release date forward to help entertain folk who are stuck at home due to the coronavirus.

The live-action series is produced by DHX Media and King Bert Productions, and adapted for screen by Sasha Hails and Rachel Flowerday.

“It feels like absolutely the right time to tell it … as part of the exploration of our times,” said Hails. “This is a show for families, kids can watch it with their parents and grandparents; they’re universal stories.”

“There’s a brilliant quiet feminism in the books and we wanted to draw on that. It was so liberating and exciting writing a show where nearly every character on screen nearly all of the time is female. It’s really powerful we’re able to do that; we’re at a place in the world where people will sit down, we hope, and watch it. Almost every scene passes the Bechdel test!”

Blyton has been criticised in the past for being slightly irrelevant, and at times a tad offensive, however producer Grainne McNamara said: “Actually Blyton is quite progressive in her thinking … the way she represented those girls in the school is you can go out and be anything and do anything you want, and I think the TV series has really tried to lift that out of the book and focus on it.”

The BBC series will be shown on CBBC in April, and will be available on the iPlayer from 23rd March 2020.

Malory Towers

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