Five Go Mad in Dorset

Five Go Mad in Dorset was the first of three Five Go Mad specials from the long-running series of The Comic Strip Presents... television comedy films. It first aired on the launch night of Channel 4 (2 November 1982), and was written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, and directed by Bob Spiers.

The film is a satirical parody of Enid Blyton's Famous Five books, in which the titular Five – children Julian (Richardson), Dick (Adrian Edmondson), George (Dawn French), Anne (Jennifer Saunders), and their dog Timmy – arrive from holiday at their uncle Quentin (Ronald Allen) and aunt Fanny's home.

With their uncle missing, the Five decide to spend several days in Dorset, visiting an abandoned castle and encountering Toby (Daniel Peacock) and shopkeeper (Robbie Coltrane, who also appears as a gypsy the Five encounter), as Toby becomes kidnapped after the Five banish the youngster from their group due to their cliquish nature.

The special mocks and satirises aspects of Blyton's books, most notably out of date sexism, racism and class snobbery of the books (the Five make racist remarks to a porter at the train station when they are picked up by Aunt Fanny, repeated remarks about Anne as a "proper little housewife") and the formula of the young adventurer genre (most notably kids overhearing criminals discuss their plans, which are portrayed as characters stating "blah blah blah" and key plot elements), as well as the running gag relating to the books' constant mention of the various feasts the gang indulges in while on picnics. The film's phrase "lashings of ginger beer" became so well known that it is now often mistakenly attributed to Blyton herself, although it never appears in any of the Famous Five books.

The film also makes overt references to bestiality in George (implying a romantic relationship between her and Timmy) and overt references to the criminalisation of homosexuality in pre-1968 Britain. Julian and George are implied to be gay, and the film's climax reveals that the group's uncle Quentin is a "raving homosexual" who faked his own kidnapping in order to abandon his "nymphomaniac" wife, Aunt Fanny.

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