The Borrowers | |
---|---|
Based on | The Borrowers The Borrowers Afield by Mary Norton |
Written by | Richard Carpenter |
Directed by | John Henderson |
Starring | |
Music by | Howard Goodall |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Cinematography | Clive Tickner |
Editor | David Yardley |
Running time | 164 min. |
Production company | Working Title Films |
Original release | |
Network | BBC2 |
Release | 8 November 1992 |
Related | |
The Return of the Borrowers |
The Borrowers is a British TV miniseries first broadcast in 1992 on BBC2 and then later on American television station TNT. The series is divided into six parts, and is adapted from the 1952 Carnegie Medal-winning first novel [1] and the second novel of author Mary Norton's The Borrowers series: The Borrowers and The Borrowers Afield (1955). The series stars Ian Holm, Penelope Wilton and Rebecca Callard and was directed by John Henderson. The series was named on the BFI's list of "100 Greatest British Television Programmes". [2]
Throughout the series, every episode (except the last one) ended on a cliffhanger. The series was followed by The Return of the Borrowers which aired in 1993, also on BBC2 and TNT.
Both series follow the Clocks, a family of tiny people who are forced to flee from their home under the floorboards in an old manor into the English countryside.
The Clock Family are "borrowers," tiny people who live in the houses of regular sized "human beans" (a borrower mispronunciation of human beings). They survive by borrowing all they need from big people and try to keep their existence secret. The main characters are a teenage borrower girl named Arrietty and her parents, Pod and Homily. During a borrowing expedition with her father and contrary to borrower nature, Arrietty befriends a human boy named George who lives in the home and develops a friendship with him.
The tiny family, who live under the kitchen floorboards of an old manor (Chawton House in Hampshire was used for on location filming), are eventually discovered by the other humans who occupy the home and are forced to flee into the English countryside. After finding an old boot to live in, the family befriends a fellow Borrower – a young man who goes by the name "Dreadful Spiller". Spiller helps them find a more permanent home by reuniting them with relations who had formerly run away from the same manor after one of them was seen and eventually relocated in the caretaker's cabin on the manor's grounds.
The Good Life is a British sitcom, produced by BBC television. It ran from 4 April 1975 to 10 June 1978 on BBC 1 and was written by Bob Larbey and John Esmonde. Opening with the midlife crisis of Tom Good, a 40-year-old plastics designer, it relates the joys and setbacks he and his wife Barbara experience when they attempt to escape a modern "rat race" lifestyle by "becoming totally self-sufficient" in their suburban house in Surbiton. In 2004, it came 9th in Britain's Best Sitcom. The lead roles are taken by Richard Briers and Felicity Kendal.
Sir Ian Holm Cuthbert was an English actor. After graduating from RADA and beginning his career on the British stage as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he became a successful and prolific performer on television and in film. He received numerous accolades including two BAFTA Awards and a Tony Award, along with nominations for an Academy Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1998 for services to drama.
Dame Penelope Alice Wilton is an English actress.
The Borrowers is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in order to survive. The Borrowers also refers to the series of five novels including The Borrowers and four sequels that feature the same family after they leave "their" house.
Kathleen Mary Norton, known professionally as Mary Norton, was an English writer of children's books. She is best known for The Borrowers series of low fantasy novels, which is named after its first book and, in turn, the tiny people who live secretly in the midst of contemporary human civilisation.
Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's fantasy novel by English author Philippa Pearce. It was first published in 1958 by Oxford University Press with illustrations by Susan Einzig. The story is about a twelve-year-old Tom who, while staying with his aunt and uncle, slips out at midnight and discovers a magical, mysterious Victorian garden where he befriends a young girl named Hatty. The novel has been reissued in print many times and also adapted for radio, television, cinema, and the stage.
Alan Armstrong, known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English character actor. He grew up in County Durham in North East England, and first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic".
Occult detective fiction is a subgenre of detective fiction that combines the tropes of the main genre with those of supernatural, fantasy and/or horror fiction. Unlike the traditional detective who investigates murder and other common crimes, the occult detective is employed in cases involving ghosts, demons, curses, magic, vampires, undead, monsters and other supernatural elements. Some occult detectives are portrayed as being psychic or in possession of other paranormal or magical powers.
"Vault of Death" is an episode of Thunderbirds, a British Supermarionation television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company AP Films for ITC Entertainment. Written by Dennis Spooner and directed by David Elliott, it was first broadcast on 23 December 1965 on ATV Midlands as the 13th episode of Series One. It is the seventh episode in the official running order.
The Borrowers is a 1997 fantasy comedy film directed by Peter Hewitt and starring John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie, Mark Williams, Hugh Laurie and Bradley Pierce. It is loosely based on the 1952 children's novel of the same name by author Mary Norton.
The Return of the Borrowers is a BBC TV children's programme first broadcast in 1993 on BBC2 and then later on American television station TNT. The series is adapted from the third and fourth novels of author Mary Norton's The Borrowers series: The Borrowers Afloat (1959) and The Borrowers Aloft (1961), respectively.
The Borrowers Aloft is a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton, published in 1961 by Dent in the UK and Harcourt in the US. It was the fourth of five books in a series that is usually called The Borrowers, inaugurated by The Borrowers in 1952.
The Little Grey Men: A story for the young in heart is a children's fantasy novel written by Denys Watkins-Pitchford under the pen name "BB" and illustrated by the author under his real name. It was first published by Eyre & Spottiswoode in 1942 and it has been reissued several times. Set in the English countryside, it features the adventures of four gnomes who may be the last of their race. At the same time it features the countryside during three seasons of the year.
Arrietty, titled Arrietty the Borrower in Japan and The Secret World of Arrietty in North America, is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi as his feature film debut as a director, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and Wild Bunch. The screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, was based on the 1952 novel The Borrowers by Mary Norton, an English author of children's books, about a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of a typical household, borrowing items from humans to survive. The film stars the voices of Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tomokazu Miura, and Kirin Kiki, and tells the story of a young Borrower (Shida) befriending a human boy (Kamiki), while trying to avoid being detected by the other humans.
The Borrowers is a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV special first broadcast in 1973 on NBC. The movie script was adapted from the 1952 Carnegie Medal-winning first novel of author Mary Norton's Borrowers series: The Borrowers. The film stars Eddie Albert, Tammy Grimes and Judith Anderson. It was directed by Walter C. Miller.
The Borrowers Afield is a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton, published in 1955 by Dent in the UK and Harcourt in the US. It was the second of five books in a series that is usually called The Borrowers, inaugurated by The Borrowers in 1952.
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The Borrowers Avenged is a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton, published in 1982 by Viking Kestrel in the UK and Harcourt in the US. It was the last of five books in a series that is usually called The Borrowers, inaugurated by The Borrowers in 1952.
The Borrowers Afloat is a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton, published in 1959 by Dent in the UK and Harcourt in the US. It was the third of five books in a series that is usually called The Borrowers, inaugurated by The Borrowers in 1952.
The Borrowers is a 2011 British television film starring Stephen Fry, Christopher Eccleston and Victoria Wood, based broadly on Mary Norton's 1952 novel The Borrowers.