MY STROKE PUT ME ON THE WRITE TRACK

Known to millions as Famous Five member Julian in the TV adaptation of Enid Blyton's books, actor Marcus Harris fell on hard times in the Nineties. But following a close brush with death, he's started a new adventure...as an author

-  Karen Rockett

WHO can forget those endless summers of outdoor adventures, picnics, country rambles and mystery solving, all washed down with lashings of ginger beer? For everyone of a certain age, Enid Blyton's Famous Five books were compulsive childhood reading... then the arrival of the hugely popular TV series in the late Seventies gave fans another excuse to enjoy those spiffing tales all over again.

For Marcus Harris, the stories of adventure and derring-do hold an even more significant presence in his childhood. That's because aged 13 he beat thousands of other boys to play the role of the leader of the group, Julian, in the legendary children's ITV series.

"I had read all of the books, so when I got that call I was really excited," he says. "I went up to the auditions and there were 5,000 kids going. It was absolutely mad. To be successful through that process, to then have been in the Famous Five, to have recorded that and to have lived the life with Gary (Russell), who played Dick, Jennifer (Thanisch) who played Anne and Michele (Gallagher) who played George, was just absolutely phenomenal."

The adaptation of Blyton's celebrated stories, first published in 1942 with Five on Treasure Island, was filmed in the New Forest and Dorset.

"The day we finished was absolutely devastating," says Marcus of his time in the two series. "Those two years are like a sixth of your life at that age.

"Living with a new family and in this exciting amazing environment, where they built you cabins, roomscapes, cellars and caves and put you in rowing boats - you can't believe how lucky you are to live like that. And then suddenly it all stopped and they gave us our bikes and packed us off.

"I remember my dad came to collect me from the set on that particular day and he took me off to camp, just me and him, because he knew I would need to decompress and work out what was going on."