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AsbelMctalisker

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I`m not sure if this is the right place to post this but I recently found it on YouTube and think some of you might find it of interest. It brought back a few memories for me anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3rMsmR3IPQ
Most people know of the old BBC version and the even older 1979 Mendez animated film but I wonder how many know that there was an even older British TV serial done back in 1967.
Since this was back in the pre video days it was long assumed to be lost but apparently a few fragments survive.
It may look a bit blurry but this is a 405 line B&W video recording so the resolution isn`t great but that was the UK standard back then.
 
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My first exposure to Narnia was the 1970's animated version of LWW (the american version). I didn't know about the books then. I think my Mom found it some where or it came with something else. We had it on VHS a long time. A few years ago I found it at Walmart on DVD and was overjoyed. I love the music. Evening Star was so kind enough to make me a soundtrack for the film so I could have the music forever. :) Even though I've read all the books, seen the first three movies that have been made, played the PS2 games I will always treasure the animated version as it was my first exposure to Narnia. LOL I can remember as a kid cramming myself into my parents tiny wardrobe and waiting for entrance into Narnia. :p
 
For me, my first encounter with the Narnia books was finding "The Voyage of The Dawntreader" in my primary school library and it was a story that stuck in my mind for some reason. That set me looking for the other books, and I eventually found "The Lion The Witch and The Wardrobe" after a bit of a hunt.
It wasn`t untill a couple of years later though when watching that old version on TV that my interest was rekindled a bit, I was really getting into Fantasy and SF more seriously by that point, and that got me reading all the books for the first time.
So finding that clip on YouTube was a bit like meeting a very old friend as I hadn`t seen it since it was shown back in 1967!
 
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Yes, it dosnt stand up to modern standards but when it was made British television was largely using equipment in some cases dating back to the 1940`s.
A couple of years later there was a big shift to the 625 line system and colour, the old stuff just wasn`t valued and the UK commercial TV network was even worse than the BBC for wiping old tapes for reuse.
It looks like this fragment only survived because its part of a copy of the series that must have been sold on to somewhere in Eastern Europe, hence the Cyrilic writing on the YouTube page.

I kind of hope the next bit in the sequence survived as I seem to remember that they actually have the actors adopt the same poses that the characters use in the Pauline Baynes illistration when Aslan and the Witch have their conversation.
(Update) OH good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tqzb2qIazKs
 
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1940's? Fascinating! I had not realized that there WAS any such thing as electronic video recording (distinct from FILM) that long ago.
 
I think that the earliest TV video recording technology was available from the early 1950`s but TV broadcasting actually started in the UK back in the late 1930`s with live broadcasts so the Pevensies might just have had a TV set, though its unlikely.

The thing was though that some of this very early technology was still in use in British television up until the late 1960`s and I think it shows both in these clips and in a lot of the early surviving Dr Who episodes.
 
Asbel
Thank you so much for sharing the links! It was amazing to see, and I liked the casting, especially the White Witch with her cold blend of beauty and ice.
 
Totally agree with this :):)
I doubt if there are all that many people out there that would disagree with Copperfox on the music!

On the acting in the older version, yes there are some very good performances in it. Probably because the acting and narration has to carry the story with the limitations in technology and effects they were dealing with.
The same thing is to some extent true of the later BBC version and I don`t think the movie was altogether bad in that respect either.
I sometimes think though that, with all the modern effects technology available a lot of modern TV and film directors have lost the ability to tell a good story!
 
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Anyone else notice how the music from the animated version of LWW from the stag hunt and when Aslan is resurrected it sounds like "here comes the bride"?
 
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