The second outing for the BBC’s modern spin on the Enid Blyton classic adds Ed Speleers and Nora Arnezeder. 

One of the unalloyed delights of last Christmas 2023’s television viewing was the reinvention of The Famous Five.

Created by Nicolas Winding Refn (Bronson, Drive) and Matthew Read (Peaky Blinders), the first outing was genuine family viewing. Giving the setup a fresh twist, this modern iteration also kept faith with the spirit of the source material.

We knew at the time that ‘The Curse of Kirrin Island’ was the first of three adventures for the Five. Now, the BBC have confirmed that the second, ‘Peril On the Night Trail’ will air this Easter.

Peril On The Night Train

The story is described as “a cross-country thriller involving Quentin’s invention of a state-of-the-art proto-computer dubbed ‘the Algebra Engine’. With war on the horizon, the contraption is critical for the country’s counter intelligence efforts and it’s a race against time to prevent the machine falling into enemy hands.”

Naturally, The Famous Five themselves all return – that’s Julian (Elliott Rose), George (Diaana Babnicova), Anne (Flora Jacoby Richardson), Dick (Kit Rakusen) and Timmy the dog (Kip, the Bearded Collie Cross). As do, Aunt Fanny and Uncle Quentin, played by are Ann Akinjirin (Moon Knight) and James Lance (Ted Lasso).

Joining them are Ed Speleers (Picard, Downton Abbey) as Mr Roland and Nora Arnezeder (Army of the Dead) as Sabrina Grover.

‘Peril On The Night Train’ comes from writer Priya Dosanjh and director Asim Abbasi.

Episode Three: Eye of the Sunrise

We also know a few details about episode three which airs sometime later in 2024. ‘Eye of the Sunrise’ guest stars Jason Flemyng as circus magician the Great Supremo and Art Malik as Sir Lincoln Aubrey.

The Famous Five is a BBC commission in co-production with Germany’s ZDF and in association with The Mediapro Studio for Spain, Portugal and Latin America. The producers are Moonage Pictures and byNWR Originals.

The show has found international homes in Africa (M-NET and ShowMax), Australia (Stan), France (TF1), Greece (COSMOTE TV), Korea (KT) and New Zealand (Warner Bros Discovery ANZ, Three Now). It’s also been acquired by BBC First for the Netherlands and Belgium.

You can catch Episode One ‘The Curse of Kirrin Island’ on BBC iPlayer. We’ll keep you posted on the later episodes.