Kay Harker and Cole Hawlings Picture accessed via BBC There are few things more Christmassy than the opening few bars of the theme tune to The Box of Delights . In fact, the tune is based on Victor Hely-Hutchinson's Carol Symphony and had been used in radio adaptations of the same novel years earlier than the 1984 television series. Clearly, everyone already knew that you just couldn't improve on that sound to evoke the magic of Christmas which - for me and for many - is so wonderfully explored in John Masefield's story. As a viewer, one of the things I enjoy most about the television series of The Box of Delights is the acting. Child actors are precarious things: too sweet and they're almost unbearable to watch, not sweet enough and they're unbelievable. They must walk that fine line between the two, and it is a perilous one! Most young actors fall into the first category, where their on-screen presence is almost dangerously saccharine. Not so the child actors ...
So, the New Year Resolutions went out the window. But don't they all? I was in a staff meeting after school today, and it was mentioned that Park Primary had reopened, and needed some interim supplies before they could get their stock up again. For those of you who didn't see it on the news, Park Primary in Invergordon was burned down after an old laptop caught fire. Amazingly, all the staff and children got out and were not harmed. They reopened last week, but have lost all of their supplies. My headteacher, a practical-minded individual, was hoping to put together some textbooks that we don't use. My first thought was that it was World Book Day this week, and the school had no library. Surely, if they had lost all their textbooks, they would have lost all their library books too! Imagine that! No books for the kids to sail away on. No chance for the children to fight or fly with dragons, or meet superheroes and wizards. With that in mind, I determined to package...