The Phoenix and the Carpet (1997 serial)

The Phoenix and the Carpet is a BBC Television adaption of the 1904 book of the same name by E. Nesbit about four children in Edwardian England who acquire a phoenix and the adventures they have as a result.

The Phoenix and the Carpet
GenreDrama
Created byE. Nesbit
Written byHelen Cresswell
Directed byMichael Kerrigan
StarringDavid Suchet
Music byPaul Hart
Country of originUnited Kingdom
No. of episodessix of 28 minutes each
Production
Producer(s)Giles Ridge for HIT Entertainment
Release
Original networkBBC One
Original release16 November 1997 to 21 December 1997

The six-part serial was first broadcast in 1997 and starred David Suchet as the Phoenix.

Production

The series was produced for BBC Television by HIT Entertainment and took the format of six 28-minute episodes, first broadcast on BBC One between November and December 1997.[1]

The Phoenix and the Carpet is part of a family of BBC productions about the adventures of the Bastable children, based on novels by E. Nesbit, launched in 1991 with Five Children and It in six episodes, followed in 1993 by The Return of the Psammead. All three were adapted by Helen Cresswell, and apart from the children the Psammead, created and voiced by Francis Wright, appears in all three.

The serial was first released on DVD in a truncated version, only half as long as the original, but a full version was issued in February 2015.[2]

Outline

In the first episode, a second-hand carpet is delivered to the Bastable household in London. Impatient for the arrival of Guy Fawkes Night, the four Bastable children had set off fireworks in the nursery, leading to a fire. Rolled up in the carpet, the children find a large egg. When they accidentally knock it into the fire, it hatches, and a talking Phoenix emerges. The new carpet is a magic carpet and can take the children anywhere, and with it they have some exotic adventures.

The Phoenix is a friend of the Psammead, whom the children already know, and his help is sometimes called upon.

In the sixth episode, the Phoenix decides it is time for him to begin his cycle again, going up in flames to arise from the ashes in two thousand years’ time. He lays an egg, and immolates himself.

Cast

Notes
  1. Mark J. Docherty, Alistair D. McGown, The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclopedia (Bloomsbury Academic, 2003), p. 102
  2. 'The Phoenix and The Carpet' 1997 BBC mini-series finally coming to DVD at digitalspy.com, 27 Dec 2014, accessed 27 July 2020
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