239 Kizzy

First  watched : 21  January  1976

I  still  remembered   individual  scenes  from this  punchy  little  six-part  childrens'  serial  on  a  Wednesday, adapted  from  the  Whitbread  Prize-winning  novel  The  Diddakoi  by  Rumer  Godden. Kizzy  ( Vanessa  Furst )  is  a  an  orphaned  gypsy girl  who  has  to  adapt  to  life  in  a small  village  when  her  grandmother  becomes  too  old  to  move  on  and  then  dies. Predictably  enough  the  village  girls  led  by  the  ghastly  Prue  ( Melissa  Docker  )  don't  make  life  easy  for  her  at  school  and  neither  the  authorities  nor  the  other  gypsy  families  are  particularly  sympathetic  in  their  handling  of  her.

Watching  Kizzy  again  on  YouTube,  it  is  a  bit  ponderous  at  times  and  the  childrens'  acting  leaves  a lot  to  be  desired  but  it  has  a  gentle  charm and  it's  particularly  nice  to  watch  the  episode  where  Kizzy  is  nursed  back  from pneumonia  by  the  all-male  household  of  Admiral  Twiss ( John  Welsh  ) without  any  sinister  subtext. As  an  introduction  to  themes  of  intolerance,   bereavement   and  resilience  it  could  still  be  recommended.

Vanessa  Furst  was  the  daughter  of  Batman  set  designer Anton  Furst  and  did  not  pursue  a  career  in  acting. She  was  last  heard  of  studying  to  be  a  doctor  in  microbiology  and  genetics.