More directly educational than perhaps any other Children’s Film Foundation (CFF) film, The Boy Who Turned Yellow is also one of the most entertaining, eschewing dialogue and plot for visuals. This probably accounts for its popularity with the wide age range of CFF audiences who voted it a ‘Chiffy’ winner several times.
The story begins when John Saunders (Mark Dightam) loses his pet mouse, Alice, on a school trip to the Tower of London.
The next day, while travelling on the Underground (having been sent home from school for falling asleep in class), John is on a tube train when suddenly the compartment turns yellow, along with John and a woman who is also in the carriage (reading Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men and looking like she just stepped out of Biba).
The now yellow train arrives at the platform, causing pandemonium. It seems that a virus has hit London, turning a number of people yellow.
That night, an alien named Nick (Robert Eddison) – short for ‘Electronic’ – appears via the TV set at John’s house and whisks the lad off to the Tower to look for Alice.
Nick wears yellow overalls and a crash helmet topped with a flashing light, travels with the aid of a pair of yellow skis, and has a fascination for electricity (he eats the stuff). He explains to John that those who have turned yellow have been identified by the aliens as “helpers”.
John earns Nick’s trust due to his liking for yellow (which stems from his support for Norwich City football club), and the pair enlist the help of John’s brainy classmate, Munro (Lem Dobbs).
But John is arrested by Beefeaters who are going to chop his head off.
John escapes by asking to watch TV as a last request and disappearing into the set. Nick disappears and John finds himself back in school just at the moment he was about to fall asleep and be sent home.
Now he is able to answer questions about electricity and remains in class. His journey home after school is incident-free, and he doesn’t turn yellow.
The cause of his daydreaming is revealed to be anxiety about his pregnant pet mouse (John’s mother had told him she would drown the babies).
But, when he gets home, he finds the babies have already been born, and his mother relents and decides he can keep them.
Neatly executed special effects include jump cuts allowing people to appear and disappear and coloured strobe lights to suggest how John and Nick travel via the television.
Shown on television over Christmas 1984, as the first CFF feature to be presented by the BBC, The Boy Who Turned Yellow remains a well-remembered entry that also helped launch a new generation of CFF enthusiasts.
John Saunders
Mark Dightam Nick
Robert Eddison Mrs Saunders
Helen Weir Mr Saunders
Brian Worth Doctor
Esmond Knight Teacher
Laurence Carter Supreme Beefeater
Patrick McAlinney Munro
Lem Dobbs
Director
Michael Powell
Video
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The story begins when John Saunders (Mark Dightam) loses his pet mouse, Alice, on a school trip to the Tower of London.
John earns Nick’s trust due to his liking for yellow (which stems from his support for Norwich City football club), and the pair enlist the help of John’s brainy classmate, Munro (Lem Dobbs).
The cause of his daydreaming is revealed to be anxiety about his pregnant pet mouse (John’s mother had told him she would drown the babies).
