This children's TV series tells the story of three kids - Gavin, Peter and Jean - who decide to go camping in a field, partly due to Gavin's obsession with aliens. During the night Gavin hears a funny noise and a crash, but it isn't until the next morning that the kids notice that there is a burnt patch in the field. Gavin then bumps (literally) into a invisible object, which is most curious, but it isn't until they go back to their tents that they discover they have a mysterious visitor from outer space - a dragon called Danny, who is anything but brave! What follows is the children befriending the dragon and trying to hide him as he tries to get in touch with his fellow dragons in their spaceship and return to his home planet of Dragonama.
I have to say I loved this, just for it's sheer sweetness and pure escapism of children's shows of a different era. It won't win prizes for it's special effects - the dragon costume will raise a few chuckles - but it becomes all the more endearing for it because the heart of the story is so very innocent. As mentioned, Danny the Dragon is anything but brave, at times turning on the waterworks when he has injured himself or worried that he can't get home, and the special effects for the crying are marvellously simple as it is amusing. And he is voiced so wonderfully by Kenneth Connor, the Carry On star who did a fine turn in cowardly characters in his early years in that series. And he is not the only Carry On star, as he is joined by Peter Butterworth as the farmer who the children ask if they can camp in his field. I love the fact that at the beginning of the recaps for the later episodes the voiceover labels him as the "eccentric old farmer" - for that read psychotically deranged lunatic, as he is often firing off his shotgun, desperately looking for any aliens (or any passer by, it seems) to shoot, and Butterworth is great fun.
Indeed this series is populated by famous faces, including Frank Thornton (Are You Being Served?), Patrick Newell (Mother in The Avengers), Toke Townley (Emmerdale Farm), Bob Grant (On the Buses), Eleanor Summerfield, Carmel McSharry, Norman Mitchell and Damaris Hayman to name most of them. Patrick Newell and Frank Thornton feature heavily as the police constable who is suspicious of the children and what has happened in the woods, while Thornton plays his superior Sergeant who becomes increasingly frustrated and disbelieving of his shenanigans. Whilst Newell is a little too bumbling for my liking, Thornton hits all the right notes as his superior, and there are some amusingly memorable moments where he tears strips off him - not least one scene where Newell careers a speedboat into Thornton's prize garden and flattens him! Another memorable scene involves Danny the Dragon finding himself involved in a Fancy Dress Contest (hosted by a marvellous Eleanor Summerfield) and decides now he is on stage to launch into a impromptu singalong with all the kids joining in. To hear Connor as Danny roar "Come on kids!" midway through his song after being so wimpish in this series is particularly amusing, but a sneezing fit sets the place on fire and finally rumbles him to Thornton's sergeant.
But what is the most remarkable are the three child leads, as two are household names in pre-fame stars Jack Wild (Oliver!) and Sally Thomsett (The Railway Children, Man About the House). Indeed, it's incredible to think that Thomsett was actually 17 when she did this, as she looks all of about 12! Both are engaging leads who throw themselves into the realms of make believe, but the most surprising is Christopher Cooper as Peter - not least because this was the last acting job he had, despite a confident and sometimes amusing performance. For Jack Wild this was a time long before the drugs took over, and as such this is a hark back of more innocent times. It may be cheap looking compared to today's kids shows, but for me this is much more fun. It may not win prizes, but for me Danny the Dragon is a kids series I just love. I'd never seen it before, but I urge you to find it out. Show it to your kids - tether them down if need be - take the phone off the hook and just indulge in pure escapism and nostalgia - in this world, you might as well!
