The Return of the Borrowers

THE RETURN OF THE BORROWERS is the second and final series of the BBC adaptations of the Mary Norton novels. Pod, Homily, and Arrietty are back and better than before, and as a whole this series has an edge over the first. There's more action, more incident, more danger, and more adventure throughout.

I think the reason this second series works better is that it doesn't take a couple of episodes to get to know the characters and their world: it gets straight into the meat of the storyline, which follows an action-adventure template with plenty of cliffhangers just like those 1930s serials of old. There are also more characters to enjoy here, with future star Ben Chaplin particularly hissable as one of the villains of the piece.

Sian Phillips and Tony Haygarth return and continue to be value for money as the scheming humans, but it's the acting of the central family who really make this work; the actors know each other and get along so well now that you truly believe they're a close knit unit. The latter episodes in the model village are particularly well realised, and that bittersweet ending still packs a punch. As ever, Spiller is the coolest character ever.