Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44784 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-10-07
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 152 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
First transmitted in 1984, Chocky is a six-part TV adaptation of John Wyndham's clever novel. Matthew, an apparently normal 12-year-old boy, starts talking to an invisible presence called Chocky, who quizzes him on a wide variety of subjects as if unfamiliar with life on Earth. Over the course of the serial it is suggested that Chocky is an alternate personality or, after Matthew has been helped by Chocky to rescue his sister from drowning, a guardian angel. But we realise early on that this non-imaginary friend is in fact an alien who has made exploratory contact with the boy. Though Chocky manifests as a swirl of blue light, this is a rare piece of TV science fiction that sticks to the domestic arena, exploring ideas rather than playing with special effects.

Wyndham's very 1950s-styled novel is updated by making the kids less well-spoken, and throwing in Rubik's cubes and space invaders video games, but adaptor Anthony Read's script preserves the virtues of the novel. Young Andrew Ellams is fine in a demanding role, and there's good-quality puzzled concern from dad James Hazeldine and 80s TV's resident sexy mum Carol Drinkwater. Apart from a few eye-abusing 1984 fashions--Jeremy Bulloch's huge glasses and blinding white jeans in a cameo as a psychiatrist--and the general leisurely pace, which is no bad thing in such a careful piece of drama, this has dated little. Those who remember its first broadcast will find it lives up to the memory, and those who weren't born then should still find it an entertaining watch.

On the DVD: Chocky on disc can be accessed as a marathon two-and-a-half-hour watch or as six individual episodes (the latter is recommended). Print quality is fine given the techniques of its production. A nice extra is a 20-minute, in-depth chat with writer Anthony Read. --Kim Newman

DVD Description
DVD Special Features
Interview with Anthony Read

Running Time: 2 hrs 32 mins
Ratio: 4:3
Audio: Mono

Synopsis
CHOCKY is a children's science-fiction classic of the 1980s, based on the novel by John Wyndham. When young Matthew Gore (Andrew Ellams) starts exhibiting surprising new skills, it turns out the improvement is due to an alien residing in the boy's mind.

Customer Reviews

Unpretentious and Enjoyable.
It is always with a bit of trepidation that I approach the film or tv version of a book I liked, wondering whether it will come over so well on the screen. "Chocky", I am glad to say, is one that did and does.

I first read it not long after it was written, and always liked it. Its theme, which has seen quite a bit of use both before and since, is that of "first contact" with an alien being made by a child. 12-year-old Matthew Gore starts hearing "voices" from an alien life form, and the rest of the book is largely his and his adoptive parents' attempts to come to terms with the phenomenon.

The characters, though perhaps better educated than the average, are basically a pretty ordinary lot, and are completely bewildered by what is going on. Matthew's mother, in particular, takes a very good part as she is driven almost hysterical in her attempts to deal with what is happening to her son, and one of my regrets aboout the sequels is that she did not appear in them. The father manages to stay a bit calmer, and gradually comes to accept that Chocky is real and not a psychiatric phenomenon, but he too is as out of his depth as one might expect in such a situation. As for Matthew himself, to my mind he looks and acts a bit younger than his supposed age, coming over more like a bright ten-year-old, but then his original was a 1950s (or at most early 1960s) twelve-year-old, not a 1980s one, so perhaps the makers of the serial were being true to their source.

In this they were consistent. The serial sticks very closely to the book, which means that it is all very low key and "cosy", with almost no melodrama until we get to the kidnapping at the end, and even that is played down, without violence or much sense that Matthew is in danger - though the parents are convincing as they worry about their missing child. Otherwise, the focus is how matthew's involvement with Chocky impinges on his otherwise pretty normal sort of life, with his teachers raising their eyebrows about the sudden enhancement of his academic and artistic performance.

All in all, the was a good read, and the serial is a good view. If you like it unpretentious and enjoyable, grab this dvd.

Chocky
I was only 6 years old when this series was first aired in 1984 but i can remember really enjoying this series. For this reason i was really pleased and suprised when i saw that it was to be released on DVD. 19 years on and apart from being slightly dated i found it very enjoyable to watch. I was especially impressed with the performance of the young lead (Matthew) and of the late James Hazledean (Matthew's father). The series is very intelligent and certainly does not speak down to it's audience. It is also quite original and certainly reminds me of how childrens TV has fallen from grace in the last decade. If you enjoyed this series 19 years ago i don't think you will be disappointed. If you havn't seen it before, then i recommend it. Especially John Wyndham fans.

Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space
This mid-80s television adaptation of John Wydnham's awesome 1968 novel "Chocky" could have been properly rubbish, but the adaptation works very well. The makers of the show decided (not unreasonably) to move the action forward to circa 1983 rather than circa 1966, and this gives them some extra stuff to play with like the Atari console and the Rubik Cube (more on them in a minute).

Matthew is an ordinary middle-class kid in southern England. he doesn't excel at anything. One day his father overhears a conversation Matthew is having with a friend (he can only hear Matthew, maybe the friend is out of his earshot). It turns into a debate about why months don't have 32 days. Matthew's dad quickly realises nobody else is present. Maybe it's an imaginary friend, he thinks, despite that the conversation is just a bit too weirdly elaborate for an inaginary friend. But 11 year old boys don't have imaginary friends, do they?

The conversations continue, some of them painful. Dad's new 'station wagon' (I'm quoting the book here, I know it's called an estate car in the UK) is laughed at by the new presence, for being unecological, slow, dangerous, and for not floating over the ground. Matthew cries and protests, but the presence is insistent that 20th century technology is wanting.


The kid's parents continue attempting to believe that Chocky is some kind of fantasy figure, but deep down they know Chocky can't be: Matthew has suddenly started counting in binary even though he's never heard the term 'binary'. His previously childish attempts at drawing have suddenly become an art sensation: like Vermeer seen thru a fish-eye lense.

What's up with this kid? Is he 'a bit wacky' or is he in touch with an alien from a galaxy far, far away?

Well, you'll have to read the book or watch the DVD to find out. If you've read the book you won't be entirely disappointed by the TV series - it's from an era of kids' TV that didn't dumb down or pander to short attention spans (e.g. The Changes, or Zammo snorting class A's)... err, where was I? Yes, and if you like the TV series go read the book because it wins, big style. For some reason it's not Wyndham's best appreciated work, but it's my favourite by a few thousand light years.

Minor criticism: having Matthew complete a Rubik cube (with Chocky assistance) is ok, but the Atari console scene where Matthew gets an improbable hi-score on Space Invaders, and the console starts giving off smoke, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of microprocessor technology and a dip into hopeless melodrama worthy of "Seaview")

*Kudos to costume department for Carol Drinkwater's "Kamikaze" t-shirt.

All in all, this series has set the bar fairly high for re-makes. According to various sources, none other than Steven Spielberg has acquired the film rights. If they transport it to middle-class America it will lose its power. That would be like filming "The Crying Of Lot 49" and transporting it to Orpington, mate. Think about it.