Out of adversity came magic: during the Second World War, children were evacuated en masse from London, packed onto trains with a suitcase and a label tied to their coats. Out of this experience - which would have been fresh in the minds of many of his readers when the first Narnia book appeared in 1950 - CS Lewis created a magical fantasy based on the evacuation of the four Pevensie children, who are sent to stay in the vast country house of the eccentric Professor Digory Kirke (portrayed in the first live big-screen adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia by Oscar-winner Jim Broadbent). Playing hide-and-seek one afternoon, Lucy, the youngest (Georgie Henley), climbs into a large wardrobe and, pushing deeper and deeper into the mass of coats, suddenly finds a secret door into a snow-covered land called Narnia.
THIS CHRISTMAS, AFTER YEARS OF WORK, THE FIRST
INSTALMENT OF CS LEWIS’
THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, REACHES THE SCREEN. HAL HAYES SALUTES THE ACHIEVEMENT.
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Her three siblings - elder brother Peter (William Moseley); older sister Susan (Anna Popplewell); and awkward middle brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) - soon follow her, finding themselves in a world of talking animals, where another war is being fought, this one between good - represented by Aslan the Lion (voiced in the film by Liam Neeson) - and evil, embodied by Jadis, the White Witch, played by Tilda Swinton.
Narnia is under a spell cast by the White Witch, which makes it “always winter, but never Christmas”. Coming across a strange human child in her domain, the Witch is first about to kill Edmund. But then she remembers the prophecy: her reign will come to an end if four humans sit on the throne of Cair Paravel. So she lures Edmund into her world with an endless supply of Turkish delight, in the hope that he will lead her to the other three. She can then kill them all, prevent the prophecy being fulfilled and rule Narnia for ever.
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