Television.AU wishes everyone a very Merry Christmas!
This Christmas Day we flashback to Christmas, 1968. For the ABC‘s children’s series Adventure Island Christmas was a double celebration as it coincided with the show’s 300th episode.
To celebrate Christmas and the series milestone, Adventure Island presented its own version of Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol and other Christmas tales — starring all the show’s regulars including Nancy Cato, Colin McEwan (pictured right), Liz Harris, James Smillie and Brian Crossley — over the course of the week.
TV Week previewed the Christmas special with a double-page feature, giving fans of the show a rare glimpse at the show in colour as they were used to seeing it on TV in black and white:
Source: TV Week, 25 December 1968.
Is it lost or is the a Christmas carol version of adventure Island still exist. I would love to see it. if it was around it would become a classic tv special
Sam – It does still exist. I watched it last month at the NAA.
Hi Andrew. I am thinking of visiting the NFSA in Canberra. How did you find this episode? The NFSA website just has episode numbers listed and I was wondering if there is any additional information in the NFSA Museum.
Hi Gary,
Sorry for the late reply. I saw the episode in the National Archives of Australia as opposed to the NFSA although I know the NFSA hold some as well. The particular episode mentioned in this article is episode 300 which is the Christmas episode for that year. It can be found at this link https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/DetailsReports/ItemDetail.aspx?Barcode=13178725&isAv=Y. If you need anymore help please let me know.
– Andrew
Hello there,
I have a question…can you please tell me who did all the set designing and painting for the set of ‘Adventure Island’.
Can you please name in alphabetical order as i am looking for a certain name.
I have many happy memories of watching this show as a child, especially my favourite Panda.
Regards
Tracey Chappell