The Silver Chair (BBC serial)

"Remember the signs ...."

The Silver Chair was the 4th and final serial of The Chronicles of Narnia miniseries, released in 1990. It was later edited into a feature-length film and released on DVD.

Cast

 * David Thwaites - Eustace Scrubb
 * Camilla Power - Jill Pole
 * Tat Whalley - Chief Bully
 * Ailsa Berk - Aslan/Dragon (puppet)
 * William Todd Jones - Aslan (puppet)/Glenstorm the Centaur
 * Ronald Pickup - Aslan (voice)
 * Geoffrey Russell - King Caspian
 * Richard Henders - Prince Rillian/Black Knight
 * Michael Walter (credited as Big Mick) - Trumpkin
 * Warwick Davis - Glimfeather
 * Mike Edmonds - Second Owl
 * Roy Boyd - Lord Drinian
 * Barbara Kellerman - Lady of the Green Kirtle
 * Tom Baker - Puddleglum
 * Nick Brimble - Giant Porter
 * Joshua Penton - Young Giant
 * Stephen Reynolds - King Giant
 * Lesley Nicol - Queen Giant
 * Patsy Byrne - Giant Nurse
 * Melanie Gibson - Giant Chambermaid
 * June Ellis - Giant Cook
 * Amanda Loy-Ellis - Giant Cook's Helper
 * Christopher Birch - Old Giant
 * Bill Wallis - Warden
 * Joe Hall - Sentry
 * Jack Purvis - Golg
 * Jean Marc Perret - Young Caspian

Episode One
Aired 18 November 1990

Eustace Scrubb and Jill Pole enter Narnia from the grounds of their school, which is plagued with bullies and where Jill is one of the most targeted victims. They enter Aslan's Country but Eustace accidentally falls off a cliff. Aslan appears and blows Eustace away to Narnia, while he informs Jill of her task in Narnia. After being blown to Narnia by Aslan, she is to meet up with Eustace and tell him to greet an old friend - the aged king, Caspian. The king's heir and only son, Prince Rillian, disappeared some years ago and his father has lived in sadness ever since. It is their ultimate task to discover the lost prince and bring him back to Narnia.

Jill eventually meets Eustace near the great castle of Cair Paravel, and a boat has just departed. They realise that King Caspian is on the boat and they have missed him, but are allowed to stay at the castle after speaking to Caspian's elderly servant, Trumpkin the dwarf.

Episode Two
Aired 25 November 1990

That night, they leave the castle with Glimfeather the owl and another owl, who take them to the Parliament of Owls for the full story on Prince Rillian. Glimfeather's friend (whose name is not mentioned) tells them that the Queen of Narnia had been killed by a vile serpent in the Narnian woods a few years earlier, and her son Rillian had gone back to the forest several times in hope of destroying the serpent, only to find no sign of it at any time. After a while, Lord Drinian (another of the King's lifelong friends) confronts Rillian and orders him to stop trying to find the serpent, as it is too dangerous.

Rillian then told Drinian to come with him to a part of the forest, where a beautiful lady appears. Drinian's horse suddenly makes a noise, and frightens the lady away. The next time Rillian went out, he failed to return. Drinian later spoke to Caspian about his and Rillian's visit to the forest, and urged the king to "slay him speedily" as a traitor, but the king could not go through with it - he had lost his queen and his son, and it would be too much for him to lose his friend as well.

The owls then speak of their belief that the woman in the forest and the deadly serpent were one and the same - and possibly of the "same crew" as the White Witch.

They aid Eustace and Jill in their search for the lost prince by taking them to a marshwiggle called Puddleglum, who acts as their guide in the quest. Shortly after beginning their journey, they encounter a group of giants who are hurling rocks off the top of a hill. In their panic, the two children manage to dodge the rocks, but then notice Puddleglum's pointed hat lying behind a rock. They fear he is dead.

Episode Three
Aired 2 December 1990

Puddleglum emerges from behind a rock and tells the children to move on. They continue their journey through the isolated northern parts of Narnia and after some distance they meet a lady on a horse, riding on horseback alongside a knight in black armour (who does not speak a word). The lady introduces herself as the Lady of the Green Kirtle, and tells them to pay a visit to the Giants of Harfang (beyond the Ruined City of the Giants) where there will soon be an Autumn Feast.

As they pass through the Ruined City of the Giants, Jill falls down a hole which she identifies as a passage, only to find that it leads nowhere. They then continue their journey to the castle, where the King and Queen giants let them stay.

That night, Jill has a nightmare in which Aslan appears and demands that she tell him the signs that she has uncovered in her quest to find Prince Rillian - but she has missed all of them.

Episode Four
Aired 9 December 1990

The next morning, Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum look out of a window of the castle and see the words UNDER ME inscribed in a nearby hillside. Jill realised that she fell into the E of the message, and that Prince Rillian must be somewhere under that inscription.

They later explore the castle, and enter the kitchens. Jill reads a recipe book to find that Man is on the menu for the Autumn Feast, and Puddleglum then reads that Marshwiggle is also on the menu! They escape immediately, only to be spotted in the distance by some of the giants, who release their hounds in pursuit. Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum escape the hounds by crawling through a hole under a rock, only for them to fall a distance down a slope moments later.

They suddenly hear a voice asking them what their purpose is in the Deep Realm, and Puddleglum replies that they fell down by accident. The voices replies that many fall down, but few return to the sunlit land. The person who is speaking turns on a light and his lamp reveals a huge army of sombre-looking Earthmen. The leader of these men introduces himself as the Warden of the Underworld, and instructs them to come with him to see the Queen of the Underworld.

After walking some distance, they reach a boat which carries them to the other side of the underworld across a vast lake.

Episode Five
Aired 16 December 1990

Eustace, Jill and Puddleglum finally finish the boat journey, and the Warden takes them to living quarters in the next phase of the Underworld. They are taken in by a knight wearing an ornate silver mask, and Eustace recognises him as the knight on horseback who had been travelling with the Lady of the Green Kirtle the previous day. The knight then shows them the Silver Chair itself - he is later restrained in it by two Earthmen, only for the others to set him free. The knight then destroys the chair with his sword and snarls: "Lie there in ruin, vile engine of sorcery."

The Knight rips away his mask and introduces himself as Prince Rillian. He thanks them all for rescuing him, and asks if his father is still alive. "He lives, my lord, but is old and frail", is Puddleglum's response.

They then proceed to leave the apartment, but the door opens just as they about to exit, and the Lady of the Green Kirtle walks in. She sees the ruined chair, and demands to the travellers: "Which one of you three has dared destroy the silver chair?"

Episode Six
Aired 23 December 1990

Prince Rillian then confesses to his mistress that he destroyed the chair, and proceeds to tell her that he is no longer her slave - but is the rightful heir to the Narnian throne. The witch then uses her spells to convince Eustace and Jill that the "other world" (their own world and Narnia) does not exist, and that her world (the underworld) is the only world.

Puddleglum then defies the witch, only for her to knock him out with a vicious spell. She continues to hypnotise the children, while Puddleglum regains consciousness and places his hand in the witch's fire, screaming: "Aslan!"

The witch's spell on the children is crushed and they regain their memory of the overworld. Puddleglum then continues to tell the witch that he definitely did live in a place called Narnia, and even if there isn't such a place, then it is far better than the "black pit of a world" that she could come up. He finishes his taunt by stating: "We four can create a dream world to lick your real one hollow!"

The witch is furious that Puddleglum has threatened her, and as he and the other three proceed to leave, she turns into a serpent but is quickly killed by Rillian. The prince then realises that the serpent who killed his royal mother was no other than the Lady of the Green Kirtle. They then flee the apartment, but everything suddenly starts to rumble and the roof is falling down - because the witch had ordered her slaves to dig through the roof of the underworld for an invasion of the overworld. Earthmen are panicking and running all over the place outside, but the four overworlders manage to get through the carnage and reach a patch of light near the very top of the overworld.

Jill goes first and the others notice that she disappears. Eustace follows her through and they are helped through the gap by two fauns. They shout back to the others that they are in Narnia and when they come through, Glenstorm the centaur instantly recognises the last one of them as Prince Rillian.

Rillian finally makes it back to Cair Paravel, from where his father is still on a voyage to the end of the world. He had told everyone that he wanted to visit the places of his youth, but many believed that he had gone to seek Aslan to ask him who should be the next monarch of Narnia, as he didn't expect to see Rillian again. Eustace and Jill watch Caspian return to Paravel and Rillian greets his father before he dies. The audience then hail Rillian as the new king, and Aslan later appears to congratulate Eustace and Jill on the work they have done in Narnia. He then promises to take them back to their own world.

But first they stop in Aslan's Country. They look into the stream and see an image of the dead King Caspian. Under Aslan's instruction, Eustace drives a thorn into the lion's paw and the flow of blood bubbles over Caspian's face. The elderly man becomes younger in a few seconds until he is recognisable as the 13-year-old Prince Caspian. He walks on the water and greets Eustace, before telling Aslan that he has always wanted a glimpse of Eustace's world.

Aslan agrees to Caspian's request, and takes them to the outer walls of Eustace and Jill's school. Aslan forces a crack in the wall and the bullies appear at the other side, only to be chased away by the three children in knight's armour. They then say their goodbyes and the story is over.

Difference of the book
There are some scenes unrelated like the dragon appearing at Ruined City of the Giants. At the end of the film when they emerge from the Underground Kingdom it is summer, during the day. In the book, they emerge into Narnia during the winter, in the middle of a celebration, at night.

Der Silberne Sessel (BBC)