Film and TV productions across the years

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TV play (UK) 1966 produced and directed by Jonathan Miller

onathan Miller's adaptation of "Alice's' Adventures In Wonderland" came right in the middle of the "Swinging Sixties", when the Beatles were at their peak, psychedelia was the style, Carnaby Street was the centre of fashion and jobbing photographers became millionaires overnight.

Although nominally a play, the production was made on film and therefore still exists in pristine condition. It reached a level of sophistication unseen in 'Alice' productions before or since. Viewing it today is still a strange experience and is certainly not a production aimed at children. It poses many questions and conundrums and the surreal treatment requires several viewings to appreciate it fully. It receives only rare showings on TV but has just been released on VHS and DVD.

His interpretation was certainly influenced by the mood of the time, and it goes more than a little strange in places, from the odd use of Indian sitar music (played by the then very fashionable Ravi Shankar), to the disturbing sight of a character having a nervous breakdown. However, the occasional embarrassing moment is more than compensated for by the thought provoking viewpoint of a child wandering through an alien landscape of adult attitudes and prejudices.     The landscape is made up of familiar places and icons but there are no other children, only adults. The adults never question why she's there, they never question her going. She interacts with them, tries to understand them but ultimately fails.     All the characters are real people, the lack of animal masks means that the actors can give their characters a full personality, with facial expressions and body language. They're all the sort of people Alice would have seen around her in real life, with Victorian attitudes and exuding surprise that a child would attempt conversation with an adult.

Off guard, they reluctantly attempt explanations and justifications, but find they don't actually understand their own motivations. Alice moves on as they run out of steam, and they are as unaware of her going as they were of her arrival. Children should be seen and not heard, because their innocent logic might just reveal our own inadequacies and ignorance.

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