Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited: An Overview

Now that I've completed the main body of work for my "Farthing Wood Deaths Revisited" retrospective, I thought that it might be interesting to survey the results and produce a list of the ten deaths which, as per the (admittedly quite chaotic) ratings system I've applied, rank as the most memorable and powerful of the series.  They are as follows:

1) Bold - Series 2 (30)
2) The Hedgehogs - Series 1 (29)
3) Badger - Series 2 (25)
4) Mole  - Series 2 (25)
5) Baby Rabbit - Series 1 (21)
6) Mrs. Pheasant - Series 1 (21)
7) Scarface - Series 2 (21)
8) Baby Field-Mice x3 - Series 1 (20)
9) Dreamer - Series 2 (19)
10) Mrs. Hare - Series 2 (18)

As brutal as so much of The Animals of Farthing Wood might have been, it had plenty to teach its viewers about the vulnerability of life, the harshness of nature, the impact of human activity upon the animal kingdom and the continuous cycle of birth, death and renewal.  Once Series 2 had come and gone, there was certainly never a children’s show quite like it ever again, at least not for as long as I continued to keep tabs on children’s TV schedules.  Series 3 wasn't far behind, but as I’ve clearly established by now, I didn't care for it at all.  A few years later, there was Noah’s Island, a sort of spiritual successor to The Animals of Farthing Wood, also commissioned by the European Broadcasting Union and also focusing upon an unlikely brand of inter-species unity, but with a much more exotic cast of animals this time around.  Unfortunately, the tone felt more akin to Series 3 of Farthing Wood than to the two series prior, and I was never quite able to get into it.  Later, there was the 1999 TV adaptation of Watership Down on CITV, which I had high hopes for at the time, but which disappointed many.  Among other problems, and unlike Farthing Wood, Water[ed]-ship Down: The TV Series was extremely cautious when it came to subject of death, to the point where it ultimately couldn’t commit to the killing off of a major character - Campion died at the end of Series 2, only to be brought back to life via bullshit means in the subsequent series.  In Farthing Wood, whenever a character was killed off, they actually stayed dead (the occasional animation error notwithstanding).  Like it or lump it, it seems that every so many years we're destined to get a new adaptation of Watership Down, and only time will tell what kind of stance the upcoming BBC/Netflix will take on the issue.

For now, I’ll wrap up things up with a quote from Speedy, which contains probably the wisest possible lesson to be taken from all of this: "Makes you think, doesn't it?  One minute you're here, the next you're not.  Far better enjoy life while you can.  That's what I say."