User Reviews

I first had a glimpse of this excellent series in Spain, when I was a boy, although I didn't follow it at the time because science-fiction didn't appeal to me then. After I came to England, I learnt that here it was a big success in its day and has become a cult classic ever since. A couple of years ago, I bought the John Wydham novel -I was quite surprised to learn that he was also the author of the book on which "Village of the Dammed", a favourite film of mine, is based- and read it, and quite enjoyed it because the story is engaging and easy to follow and the scientific jargon is not unintelligible and boring like it happens very often with this kind of stories. So I decided to take a gamble, and bought the DVD of the first season, discovering by the way that is what the novel is about and the two sequels were completely created by the screenwriters. I found the adaptation a very good one and surprisingly faithful to the book, and both James Hazeldine -a very fine actor, sadly gone- and the boy Andrew Ellams are excellent in their parts. I saw all six episodes in one afternoon and I enjoyed them as much as I had hoped. Now, those were the days when British TV was making good quality children's shows with good story lines and aimed to teach some moral and human values to young audiences. Nowadays it is all about fancy special effects and absurd stories that insult children's intelligence instead of stimulating it. However, I guess that to very young audiences "Chocky" can be very hard to follow and even less to understand, sounding rather like mambo-jumbo and resulting tedious, but I would recommend it to youngsters from twelve or so onwards.

The second season is decently good, providing a more satisfactory explanation to Matthew's abduction in the previous one and developing the plot line in that direction, although the Albertine character is rather pompous and becomes quite irritating at times.

But the third season is DREADFUL, TERRIBLE and a complete waste of everything. Fortunately,I began to watch it only in YouTube because it wasn't available on DVD, and I couldn't get beyond the third episode. It has nothing to do with the original idea any more, the whole thing rests now on Albertine shoulders and she has become more childish and arrogant than before, in other words: a spoilt brat and a total pain in the arse. And the new kids are even worse! I wonder what Chocky saw in those half-wits as to want to educate them. Please!! The idea is so silly that it is insulting. The whole thing should be flushed down the drains.

But what matters is the brilliant first season, and I will always regard it as one of the most intelligent and worthy shows for children ever made.

A very different kind of kid's TV show from the 1980s. Based on a book by John Wyndham, this takes a literate and intellectual approach to the material, so no budget STAR WARS heroics or ray gun action here. No sir. Instead we get a quiet, thoughtful and often slow exploration of extraterrestrial intelligence on earth. Well acted by the kid throughout, not much in the way of action or peril, but lots of drama and occasional melodrama.

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 about 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.