The Silver Chair

This is much better than the BBC's earlier forays into Narnia, partly due to the book it's based on. It's set in the bare, unpopulated wastes to Narnia's north, so the drab scenery is not a defect. Nor is the absence of extras. Puddleglum, C.S. Lewis's best Narnian creation, is played by Tom Baker, who fits the role as well as anyone on Earth. In general the acting is better in `The Silver Chair' than it was earlier on. Direction is crisper, costumes are more convincing: everything has improved. I have commented harshly on `The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe', and most of those comments apply here as well, but never to the same extent. This is actually okay television. Of course, an adaptation of the Narnia books should be much more than that.