The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1988)

Episode 1 (1x1)

Air date: Nov 13, 1988

Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are evacuated from London in 1940 because of World War II. They go and live with Professor Digory Kirke at his large house in the countryside. The professor lives with his housekeeper Mrs. Macready as well as three other servants whose names are not mentioned in the programme, though in the book they are Ivy, Margaret and Betty. Soon after their arrival, the four children are exploring the house when Lucy looks into a wardrobe and finds a snowy wood with a lamppost. She meets a faun called Mr. Tumnus and he invites her back to his cave for tea. He lulls her to sleep with his flute and when Lucy awakes Mr. Tumnus is in tears. He admits that he is working for the White Witch who rules over Narnia and makes it "always winter and never Christmas". She ordered that if he ever saw a Son of Adam or Daughter of Eve (human) in the forest, he was to take them to her. Mr. Tumnus feared that if he disobeyed the Witch, she'd find out and have him turned to stone. In the end he cannot bring himself to give Lucy up to the Witch, so he guides her back to the lamppost. When Lucy returns to her siblings, they don't believe her story about the country in the wardrobe and Edmund is especially nasty to her about it. A few days later, the children are playing hide and seek when Edmund follows Lucy into the wardrobe. He gets into Narnia but can't find Lucy anywhere. He then hears a jingling of bells in the distance and a horse-drawn sleigh comes into sight, with a dwarf driving it and a woman sitting on the back seat.