Developing the trend of having more involved stories in Look and Read
throughout the 80s, this series finally did away with Wordy, along with
the whole concept of separate learning bits. Instead, we get almost the
entire programme taken up with telling the story, with just one quick
song in the middle.
The story itself was all-out fantasy, with three kids pulled into a mural
they'd painted in their playground and asked to help save the dying land
of Pelamar by retrieving the missing parts of its mysterious power source,
the Veetacore. This involves a lot of trying to read difficult passages,
and charging off round the neighbouring country of Widge, inhabited by
the horrible furry little Widgets. The children are lead and helped by a
flying dragon called Gorwen and a big talking mouse called Rodey (who
inherited the arrogance and the voice - Charles Collingwood's - of Wordy).
Until they succeed, Pelamar turns increasingly barren and its inhabitants
just fade away to nothing. The situation is further complicated by the
big baddie Charn, who wants to hijack the Veetacore for his own evil
purposes.
This unit is often dismissed when people look over the Look and Read
canon due to its lack of teaching bits and, in particular, of Wordy. This
is unfair, as the story is actually a nicely executed fantasy and, based
on emails I've received, seems to be the most popular story in schools
today. The story, by the way, seems to owe a great deal to the Chronicles
of Narnia: Gorwen is Aslan, obviously, and Charn was the name of that
dead world that Digory and that girl rescued that woman from in The
Magician's Nephew. Well I can't really remember much about the book, but
that world was definitely called Charn. Also, notice the large number of
former Look and Read cast members reunited here: Charles Collingwood, as
mentioned above, plus Dark Towers and Fair Ground! narrator Sean Barrett
doing Gorwen's voice, and David Collings in his third Look and Read role
(following twin appearances in Dark Towers) as Charn.
24 апр 2014
