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Reviews
The Animals of Farthing Wood (1993)
All for One and One for All
As a child I was used to watching such programs as Postman Pat but this was different, it depicted reality and truthfulness through being scary and emotional unlike the vast majority of programs.
As a general comment it's fair to say that AOFW rocked, but like any book-to-television program there were changes, like the sex of some animals. There are three series of this, the first one is the journey to White Deer Park and the second and third are at WDP.
Like many other people said the first series was probably the best having me on tender hooks. We meet all the animals, and what an unforgettable bunch they are. We had Fox being courageous as the leader and Badger as his faithful 'right hand man'. Owl as the wise one, Kestrel as the scout of the group, Rabbits as the clumsy ones, Hares as the more selfish creatures, Weasel who provided the humour and many more. Along the way we met Vixen and Whistler. Series one saw the deaths of the Newts, Pheasants, baby Mice and a Rabbit, which as a child was quite frightening. But the saddest moment of the series was the Hedgehogs getting run over - makes me well up. At the end they eventually arrive at White Deer Park.
Series Two showed how they struggled to fit in at WDP and the new dangers that faced them i.e. Scarface, the dangers of winter and what Spring has to bring. The covered topical issues in S2 i.e. hunting, racism (red/blue foxes). The Charmer/Ranger storyline as the Montague/Capulets worked very well. Scarface was the main threat of S2 - killing Mrs Vole, Mrs Hare and Mrs Rabbit as well as one of Fox's cubs - Dreamer. The series ended with Adder killing Scarface - ending his reign of terror. S2 also followed the story of Fox Cub Bold who, after arguing with Fox, left the Park. We followed his amazing journey and how he was struggling and eventually returning to the Park with his mate - who was carrying his cubs - to die after making peace with his Dad. S2 also saw the death of Mole and the arrival of his son. The saddest moment of S2 was Badger dying as he represented the oath of mutual protection. His last scenes were the most heart wrenching one can watch.
Series 3 as people have said was the worst. There was some happiness as Adder found a mate. The series began with Weasel and Owl - original FW characters leaving the park to go start a family. In my opinion, this was a bad idea as too much of the story was set outside WDP. It also saw the death of the Great White Stag and the takeover of Trey - an ignorant Deer. Many characters disappeared between the last two series - Kestrel, Friendly, Hare, Speedy. I didn't like this as Kestrel and Hare were my personal favourite characters. S3 saw the takeover of Rats in the park, which was a weak storyline and wasn't very climatic. Several friendships joined in the series - Plucky/Dash, Spike/Toad - which was nice to see as the original friendships from S1 - Owl/Adder, Weasel/Badger, Mole/Badger, Rabbit/Hare - had now been split up. The arrival and death of Sinous (Adder's Mate) showed us a different side to the snake. We saw Weasel give birth to Cleo and Fido - which provided lots of humour and we saw Owl meet a mate (Hollow) before being encased in cement and freed before returning to WDP. The rats eventually left and Fox declared that Plucky will be the new leader of the AOFW. The end had a montage of the journey to White Deer Park, which was sad to watch.
Highlights included Owl going death and talking to Mrs Vole, Rabbit's hiccups, Badger dying, Hare/Rabbits scenes, drunk Weasel, Kestrel being 'so very embarrassed' and pretty much most the series.
All in all, a fantastic series, just a shame kids nowadays don't have the opportunity to watch things like this.