Five Children and It : Writer David Solomons


Writer David Solomons on adapting FIVE CHILDREN AND IT:


This is the first feature film from Scottish writer David Solomons whose drama THE FABULOUS BAGEL BOYS starring Denis Lawson and Michael French screened on BBC1 in 2001.

He explains how he came to write the screenplay for FIVE CHILDREN AND IT: “I wrote an original screenplay called THE LAST GREAT GHOST TOUR which was not a film for children but had supernatural and fantasy elements. The script went to the Henson Organisation and landed on Lisa Henson’s desk in Los Angeles. She then called me seemingly out of the blue – that Hollywood call that all writers wait for – and asked if I would be interested in adapting E Nesbit’s book.”


David had no hesitation in taking on the challenge: “Lisa and director John Stephenson had firm ideas about which aspects of the original book they wanted to retain. They loved the children and the relationships between them, their politeness, their Englishness, the way in which the wishes fade at sunset, the wishes involving flying and the pots of gold. Those elements they wanted to keep. Otherwise I had free rein to do what I wanted with the story.” The five children remain as Cyril (13), Anthea (12), Robert (11), Jane (8) and the Lamb (18 months) all of whom are looked after by the housekeeper Martha.

David took those features as a starting point and set about adapting for a modern audience a book that was written more than 100 years ago, whilst retaining its period flavour and charm: “It’s a good old-fashioned story, the kind of book you settle down and read by the fireside. There were never any plans to make the film a contemporary story – we wanted to build on the fairytale elements, the period drama, the glow and innocence of childhood, the elements that could make it a timeless classic.”


He continues: “My first challenge was that the book is episodic. I vaguely remembered the BBC serial shown a decade or so ago that suited that format of a series of self-contained stories. However it didn’t seem to me that that would work for a feature film. I needed to find a way to make the story flow, to find the narrative drive.

“We also needed emotional highs and lows. I pretty much immediately decided to set the story in 1917 at the height of the First World War with the Father going away to fight which gives the film an emotional undercurrent that seemed to me to be missing from the original story.”

Emotional depth was also added with the addition to the story of two pivotal new characters as David explains: “I decided that what we needed was a villain, which is where the character of the five children’s cousin Horace comes in. We all know those acquisitive little boys who have to buy the full set of everything.” Horace collects and dissects toys in his underground laboratory. “He’s an evil scientist in the making and his machinations bring about the film’s climax.”


At the head of the household is Horace’s colourful and eccentric father, the second invented character: “Horace needed a guardian, and that was Uncle Albert. I was very lucky in that Kenneth Branagh was attached to the project fairly early on, and I was able to sit down with him and develop the part with his input. He has brought the most amazing amount to the role which he plays quite brilliantly. Kenneth had a very Dickensian image of Uncle who we saw not as an idiot but as an eccentric who lives in a parallel world with occasional flashes of inspiration.”

David also fleshed out some of the characters that already existed in the book: “For example, I felt that the character of Martha needed to be more magical and mysterious. We never know what her connection with ‘It’ is – she too could be as old as the hills.”


As for the pivotal character of ‘It’, the grumpy Psammead: “I have always been a big fan of puppetry so writing a script knowing that Jim Henson’s creature workshop would be designing ‘It’ was like a dream come true. Our ‘It’ is wonderfully different and very individual. He is cute but he has a proud aspect. I loved the attitude he had in the book and wanted to take that, but along the way most of the book’s original dialogue has been lost.” He comments: “Interestingly enough the Creature Workshop is based in North London’s Camden Lock which seems rather fitting as in E Nesbit’s sequel to FIVE CHILDREN AND IT the children stumble across the Psammead again - in the heart of Camden Town.”

Another major change was the location for the children’s exciting find: “In the book the children go on holiday and find the sandfairy in the distinctly unglamorous surroundings of a gravel pit. I decided to take them to a spooky house riddled with corridors down which you could easily lose yourself. I loved the idea of the discovery of a hidden door, of a secret tunnel under the creepy house. I wanted the children to step out onto a magical, sun-drenched beach with golden sands, azure skies and gently lapping crystal blue waves, a complete contrast to the cold, wet and miserable place they had just left behind.”

The book’s greatest strength, he felt was “the hook of E Nesbit’s story, the idea that the wishes fade at sunset. That is a tremendous idea and certainly opened up all sorts of possibilities.” E Nesbit’s idea ran as follows: Do you ever imagine what you would do if you were suddenly granted three magic wishes? How would you go about it? Would you plan your requests carefully or would your wishes just come tumbling out? Would you tell the grown-ups? Do you think you would be able to cope if something went unexpectedly wrong?