From Time to Time, Into the Niche of Time

Well, I said I was probably going to get a DVD copy of From Time to Time, and now I have. I wonder how many British children’s fantasies start with kids taking a train journey to a big old place where the past is still somehow alive and mysterious things are sure to happen. I remember The Box of Delights (book 1935, TV special 1984) begins in a similar way, and of course The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (book 1950, film 2005), and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (book 1997, film 2001). From Time to Time is adapted from the L. M. Boston book The Chimneys (later The Treasure) of Green Knowe (1958). The film came out in 2009, directed by Julian Fellowes and starring Maggie Smith, just before they started Downton Abbey. Fellowes read and loved the books when he was a boy, and the time was right (in the wake of the popularity of the Harry Potter films) for an adaptation. So when the story starts near the end of WWII with Toseland (Tolly) on a train headed for his grandmother’s ancient house of Green Knowe, I felt I was on familiar ground. I could almost imagine that Kaye Harker and the Pevensies were on the same train with Tolly, getting off at a different station.

Anyway, it’s safe in the Archive now, available to be watched on the big TV and not just the computer screen.

Since it’s the first of the month, ‘tis the time for new acquisitions. The same mail that brought me From Time to Time brought me The Adventures of Baron Munchausen #4 from NOW comics, the last volume in an adaptation of Terry Gilliam’s fantastic film. I THINK (though at this distance I am not absolutely SURE) that I have all the other three volumes; it’s been a while since I looked at the comic bin in any detail, and it’s rather heavily buried at the moment. I’m positive I have #1, though. I suppose that’s another quest in my future. [Update 5/6/24: Quest achieved! I do have all four now, and for once my 'What's In the Box' guide actually worked!] However, this should be [and is!] the fulfillment of a long-standing, nagging lack.