E. Nesbit’s 1902 story Five Children and It was first broadcast on the BBC in 1951. In that version, the Psammead was played by a small boy (Thomas Moore) who mimed to actor Richard Warner’s voice.
Forty years later, this 1991 remake featured a sophisticated puppet Psammead made by the BBC’s Special Effects Department and operated by Francis Wright.
Five children – Cyril (Simon Godwin), Anthea (Nicole Mowat), Robert (Charles Richards), Jane (Tamzen Audas), and their baby brother, known as “the Lamb” (Lewis Wilson and Alexander Wilson) – are playing in a sandpit when they encounter a mysterious, grumpy creature – the Psammead – a sand fairy who is thousands of years old and has the power to grant wishes.
The Psammead persuades the children to share just one wish each day between them, with the caveat that the wishes will turn to stone at sunset.
All the wishes go comically wrong. Their first wish is to be beautiful, and when that backfires, they ask to be rich “beyond the dreams of avarice”. While the children are eager to spend their gold, none of the local shopkeepers will accept it.
The next day, Anthea wishes for wings, but at sunset, the children find themselves marooned on the top of a church tower with no way down.
Another wish transforms their house into a castle (but fortunately, Martha fails to notice).
After fending off a bully, Robert wishes to be bigger and becomes a giant. The other children make the most of the situation and exhibit him at a local carnival for coins.
The children’s infant brother, the Lamb, is the victim of two wishes gone awry. In one, the children become annoyed with tending to their brother and wish that someone else would want him, leading to a situation where they have to fend off kidnappers and Gypsies.
Later, they wish that the baby would grow up faster, causing him to grow all at once into a selfish, smug young man who promptly leaves them all behind.
The Pssamead eventually disappears, leaving the children to clear up an almighty mess before their mother gets home.
The series was released in the US as The Sand Fairy.
Anthea
Nicole Mowat Jane
Tamzen Audas Cyril
Simon Godwin Robert
Charles Richards It (Psammead)
Francis Wright Martha
Laura Brattan The Lamb
Lewis Wilson (1)
Alexander Wilson (2) Andrew
Paul Shearer Lady Chittenden
Penny Morrell Mother
Mary Conlon Sir Wulfric
Philip Rham
Video
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Five children – Cyril (Simon Godwin), Anthea (Nicole Mowat), Robert (Charles Richards), Jane (Tamzen Audas), and their baby brother, known as “the Lamb” (Lewis Wilson and Alexander Wilson) – are playing in a sandpit when they encounter a mysterious, grumpy creature – the Psammead – a sand fairy who is thousands of years old and has the power to grant wishes.
After fending off a bully, Robert wishes to be bigger and becomes a giant. The other children make the most of the situation and exhibit him at a local carnival for coins.
