Return To Treasure Island (TV Series)
Return to Treasure Island is a Disney mini-series, starring Brian Blessed as Long John Silver.
Disney Channel contracted the UK ITV broadcaster HTV Wales to actually produce the series, and it was shot in Wales, Spain and Jamaica. It was written by John Goldsmith, and directed by Piers Haggard and Alex Kirby.
HTV Wales' staff had little experience of high-end TV drama, but Director of Photography Tony Impey headed a crew which surpassed themselves in producing a very classy-looking series.
Brian Blessed played Long John Silver and one crew-member commented on the amount of preparation Blessed must have done - his Long John character was in place from the first day: a cunning, dominating man with boundless energy. Blessed had to appear to only have one leg, so one was bound up under his long coat while shooting, and his other developed massive muscles as it took his whole weight over the months.
The chief stunt man was Alf Joint, one of Britain's top action supervisors. He was particularly well known in his trade for doubling Richard Burton in Where Eagles Dare.
Consternation was caused at HTV Wales when Geoff Shepherd was introduced to the editing crews as their Supervising Editor. Shepherd, editor of several drama series and TV films was a staff-member of sister-company HTV West, and the Welsh editors resented his appointment. In fact, many editors, assistants and dubbing crews came and went during the long months of post-production - many staff-members simply didn't have the skills to complete a drama series.
Director Piers Haggard was injured while shooting at Almeria in Spain. Riding a horse, he was thrown forward when the animal stopped suddenly, and his pelvis hit the tall horn on his saddle. In hospital, he continued to work, as Geoff Shepherd brought 16mm editing equipment into the room and played him the latest edits for his comments.
Music for the series was composed by Terry Oldfield, whose score for the BBC history series "In Search Of The Trojan War" had impressed Piers Haggard.
Series producer Alan Clayton played one of the pirates, Jed. During the shooting of the final episode, in which the treasure is actually dug up, the production crew resigned themselves to the fact that if their producer couldn't be found, it was because he was off somewhere dressed as a pirate.
The final close-ups of Long John Silver rowing away from Jim Hawkins' ship and revealing that he had stolen all the diamonds from the treasure casket (inside a secret compartment of his crutch) were actually filmed on the roof of HTV's Pontcanna Studio (since demolished) in Cardiff.
Just before the series was transmitted in the UK, an author who had written a novel years earlier entitled "Return To Treasure Island" contacted HTV, seeking a small remuneration for what he saw as the use of his title. Rather than deal with him, HTV very quickly (and expensively) added the words "John Silver's" to the "Return To Treasure Island" title on every episode.
The series was aired in 1986. John Goldsmith rewrote his scripts as a novel published by Pan Books in the UK. The series' first video release was in a drastically shortened form, but subsequent releases have retained its full 10-episode format.
(References: Interview with Roger Mitchell, one of the series' assistant Editors).
Read more about Return To Treasure Island (TV Series): Cast
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