A four-part serialisation of Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy about a girl who tumbles down a rabbit hole into a bizarre world.
Resting on a riverbank with her sister, Alice (Kate Dorning) is startled by a waistcoat-wearing White Rabbit (Jonathan Cecil) checking a pocket watch. Following him, she falls into the strange and illogical world of Wonderland. Her journey involves a series of surreal encounters with its peculiar inhabitants, including a imperious Caterpillar, the grinning Cheshire Cat (Michael Wisher), and the formidable Duchess (Claire Davenport). Alice joins a chaotic tea party with the Mad Hatter (Pip Donaghy), the March Hare (Neil Fitzwilliam), and a sleepy Dormouse (Elisabeth Sladen) before finding herself at the court of the tyrannical Queen of Hearts (Janet Henfrey). There she is compelled to participate in a bizarre game of croquet before witnessing a nonsensical trial for the Knave of Hearts (Mark Bassenger).
This adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s novel was a reunion for the celebrated Doctor Who production team of producer Terrance Dicks and director Barry Letts. The result is a version of Wonderland defined less by Victorian whimsy and more by the visual grammar of 1980s BBC science fiction. Shot entirely on video, the production makes extensive use of the era’s electronic effects, placing its actors in stark, synthesised landscapes created through Chroma Key (CSO). This gives the serial a distinct, studio-bound and occasionally unsettling quality, creating a dream world that is deliberately artificial and theatrical. The aesthetic stands in contrast to more opulent film adaptations, rooting this Alice firmly in the lineage of imaginative, effects-driven television fantasy.
Broadcast: BBC One, 4 Episodes, 5 January – 26 January 1986
Dramatised by: Barry Letts
Director: Barry Letts
Producer: Terrance Dicks
Music: Stephen Deutsch
Main Cast: Kate Dorning (Alice), Jonathan Cecil (White Rabbit), Pip Donaghy (Mad Hatter), Janet Henfrey (Queen of Hearts), Brian Oulton (King of Hearts), Claire Davenport (The Duchess), Elisabeth Sladen (The Dormouse), Michael Wisher (The Cheshire Cat), Roy Skelton (The Mock Turtle), Brian Miller (The Gryphon), Ian Wallace (The Dodo)
