The Box of Delights is a children's novel written by the English Author, John Masefield and was published in 1935.  The BBC's 1984 television adaptation formed the central part of their Children's TV schedule in the run up to Christmas in that year.  Starring former Dr Who Patrick Troughton as Cole Hawlins, and Sir Robert Stephens as the villainous Abner Brown.  Devin Stanfield played young hero, Kay Harker.

In a nutshell, Kay Harker is travelling home on the train at Christmas time.  In so doing he gets mixed up in the machinations of Abner Brown and his cronies in their quest to own a magic box which enables its owner to shrink, fly and to travel into the past.  Of course the current owner of the box, Cole Hawlins - an ancient Punch and Judy man, is keen to avoid Brown obtaining the box.  He therefore entrusts the box to Kay.  After many trials and tribulations - an unbelieving policeman; a car that can fly and best of all, Nick Berry as a rat - good triumphs over evil as Kay eventually prevails against Brown.  If it wasn't a Children's story, I'd call it a rollicking good adventure.

I love The Box of Delights.  Of all the Children's TV series from the 1980's, it sums up Christmas the best for me.  The snow and the Christmas music / imagery is extremely evocative.  If the special effects look a little clunky from our twenty-first century perspective, well too bad, to a greater or lesser extent its part of the charm.

Children's Christmas Classics - Snow Queen/The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe/Box Of Delights List Price: £19.99 Sale Price: £9.98 Used From: £13.21 Average Rating:

The Box of Delights [1984] List Price: £14.99 Sale Price: £18.60 Average Rating:

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The Box of Delights - Part 1 Sale Price: £14.99 Used From: £3.89

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There were some excellent UK number 1's in 1984.  And due to their quality, they stayed up there for longer. Hence there weren't so many of them - a real case of quality not quantity.

There were 3 Wham! UK number ones. George Michael certainly had the knack of penning the perfect pop song, and of these three, perhaps Wake Me Up Before You Go Go is his most catchy.  Freedom will prove to be the most covered, but for sheer exuberance Wake Me Up... is da one!

Frankie Goes To Hollywood managed to match Wham!'s total score. They started with Relax - perhaps the most controversial of all the 1980's songs. Or perhaps not.  They certainly turned up the heat with Two Tribes, tapping in to the paranoia surrounding the impending nuclear war which still hasn't happened... yet.  But then coming up towards Christmas, they socked us straight between the eyes with The Power Of Love.  Marvelous and perhaps a truer refection of their abilities to find the public's pulse.

What is your memory of the 1984 Cup Final?  Mine is missing the second half because I had to go and do my Saturday afternoon paper round.  Ho ho ho, what bad planning...

Perhaps the most vivid memory of this year's competition was the mass of green that was Villa Park's Holte End, occupied by the Plymouth fans at their semi versus Watford.  You have to remember that this game was played in those halcyon days before the big four exerted their monopoly of the game in England.  (etymological point - can a group of four exercise a monopoly, surely, quadropoly...?)

If I remember correctly Everton's second goal came about from a barge on the Watford 'keeper by Sky TV's football pundit Andy Gray.  Gray's fellow Scot Graeme Sharp had put the Toffees ahead on 38 minutes.  All in all, Everton were able to impose their playing style much better on the game than Watford.

The earlier rounds had seen another defeat of Liverpool by Brighton and Hove Albion and another home win over Ipswich Town for Shrewsbury Town.  However, this season's biggest shock had been the third round victory of Harry Redknapp's Bournemouth over Man Utd.  Thus we saw the beginnings of Redknapp Snr's seemingly effortless ability to put teams out to beat United in the Cup.