Product Details

• Actors: Kim Braden, David Garfield (II), Barbara Hamilton, Madge Ryan, Anthony Forrest
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Koch Vision
• DVD Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Run Time: 312 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000FSLMFO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,110 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Anne of Avonlea" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Based on L.M. Montgomery’s classic novels Anne of Avonlea and Anne of the Island, this acclaimed BBC mini-series continues the story of Anne Shirley (Kim Braden), the heroine of Anne of Green Gables as she begins her job as a schoolteacher.

New adventures lie in store for Anne as her life at Green Gables takes unexpected turns with the arrival of two new orphans and the realization that college is no longer a dream. Through marriage proposals from suitors, the sale of her first story and sharing a cottage with her friends, Anne holds on to her memories of Avonlea and discovers life and love on her own terms.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 1975 BBC adapation of L.M. Montgomery's "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island", September 6, 2006

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anne of Avonlea (DVD)

"Anne of Avonlea" is a 6-part BBC mini-series from 1975 that adapts both "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island," the second and third books by Lucy Maud Montgomery in her "Anne of Green Gables" series. The first book had been adapted in a 5-part BBC serial in 1972, and back from that production are Kim Braden as Anne Shirley, Barbara Hamilton as Marilla Cuthbert, Jan Francis as Diana Barry, and Christopher Blake as Gilbert Blythe, along with director Joan Craft, who did "Jane Eyre" and "David Copperfield" in between the two "Anne" productions. Know going in that this is very much a BBC style production, which means it very much has the feel of an elegant soap opera, and that the attempts by the British case to sound Canadian (at least at times) seems rather odd.

The first four episodes adapt the "Anne of Avonlea" novel itself, which follows Anne from age 16 to 18 during the two years that she teaches at the Avonlea School, where she has problems with Anthony Pye. Fortunately she has at least one sharp student with young Paul Irving (Keith Steven) from the United States. Beyond that Anne is involved with Diana, Gilbert, Charlie Sloan (Peter Settelen), Fred Wright (Martin Neil), and their other former schoolmates with the newly formed Avonlea Village Improvement Society. Meanwhile, Marilla has adopted the twins Davy (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Dora Keith (Annabelle Lanyon) when their mother dies. Then there is the trouble with Daisy and Anne's neighbor Mr. Harrison (David Garfield) and the eccentric Miss Lavender Lewis (Kathleen Byron) and her maid Charlotte IV (Claire Lewis). Needless to say, Rachel Lynde (Madge Ryan) is hovering around giving her advice at each and every opportunity.

The final two episodes condense "Anne of the Island" and find Anne attending Redmond College when Rachel moves in with Marilla after Thomas Lynde dies. Anne and her roommates Philippa Gordon (Sabina Franklyn) and Priscilla (Sandy Dickinson), move out of a strict boarding house and into Patty's Place. Anne turns down a pair of proposals, one from Gilbert and the next from a somewhat surprising source, before she starts seeing Roy Gardiner (Anthony Forrest), who seems to be everything Anne has dreamt of in a beau. But then his mother (Betty McDowall) visits Green Gables and tries to find out about Anne's parents, which is where the adaptation written by Elaine Morgan wrongly starts tinkering with the resolution of the story, where "Love Takes Up the Glass of Time."

When Anne goes to visit the place where she is born, she asks Gilbert to accompany her, and later when she opens her mouth to say her fateful "yes" to the marriage proposal she has been dreaming of, it is the flowers sent her by Gilbert that take her out of the moment. Then when she arrives back at Green Gables and learns that Gilbert is dying, Marilla talks her into going over in the middle of the night to see Gilbert and the happy ending comes about pretty quickly. This is something of a disappointment because I always loved the way Montgomery had Anne respond to Gilbert's final proposal: "Still Anne could not speak. But she lifted her eyes, shining with all the love-rapture of countless generations, and looked into his for a moment. He wanted no other answer." That is pretty romantic, and the final line that Morgan comes up with for Anne totally pales compared to when Anne tells Gilbert, "I don't want sunbursts and marble halls. I just want YOU."

Both the old black & white movie with Anne Shirley (nee Dawn O'Day) and the Kevin Sullivan mini-series version of "Anne of Avonlea" with Megan Follows focused more on what ended up being the fourth novel in the series, "Anne of Windy Poplars," where she goes off to teach at a private school for young ladies. So the relative fidelity to the two books is certainly appreciated. I especially liked the inclusion of what happened with Ruby Gillis (Kim Hardy), but the irony of the love between Phil Gordon and Jonas Blake (David Troughton) is sketched out rather than developed. This is not to say that Morgan does not come up with some decent new moments; she uses the character of Mrs. Blythe (Hazel Bainbridge) to nice advantage. As for the performances, I am in the Megan Follows IS Anne camp, and Braden keeps striking me as focusing on Anne's flightiness at the expense of her intelligence and kindness. Hamilton and Ryan as Marilla and Rachel take turns stealing scenes from the young folks, but there is pretty much a generational gap on acting talent here. Anne's fans will want to check this out, but relatively few will find this production to be their favorite L.M. Montgomery adaptation.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Anne of Avonlea, February 11, 2007

By 

R. Hutchinson "Serious Reader" (SF, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anne of Avonlea (DVD)

I loved the stories of Lucy M. Montgomery and was hoping for more from the BBC. I was emotionally disappointed in this version. Kim Braden was an adorable Anne but the screen play lacked emotion and substance where it was important. Anne and Gilbert scenes were short and flipant. You would never have known Gilbert and Anne had any feelings for each other by the scenes. I did like the inclusions of the real story line from Ms. Montgomerys books. They were true to the real story and that pleased me. The whole college years, the group gatherings of all the young people etc made the books come to life but then the rest of the story left you feeling unsatisfied and empty. The ending was the worst. I prefered the longer scene in the book and the other ending in the Megan Fallows version. It said more in silence than any writer could say.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars charming TV version of the literary classic, October 12, 2009

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Anne of Avonlea (DVD)

Condensing down the original LM Montgomery novels "Anne of Avonlea" and "Anne of the Island", the 1975 BBC miniseries of ANNE OF AVONLEA is a very satisfying dramatisation, bound to please the most critical Anne fans.

Kim Braden is Anne Shirley, the effervescent orphan who quickly grows up in this sequel to the 1973 BBC miniseries "Anne of Green Gables". Reprising her performance from the first series, Ms Braden now takes the character of Anne through her days as Avonlea's new schoolteacher, the years of studying at Redmond College, the arrival of two new orphans at Green Gables, the rocky courtship of Gilbert Blythe (Christopher Blake); and finally a firm closure to the cloudy subject of her parentage.

If you come to this version having been mostly familiar with the Kevin Sullivan/Megan Follows "Anne" movies, chances are you'll have quite a hard time settling down with it. The story takes a while to get it's legs, and some of the performances are quite mannered; yet the beautiful portrayals from Kim Braden as Anne and Barbara Hamilton as Marilla will help to sweep you away into the charming world of Green Gables.

Sadly, the original 1973 BBC miniseries of "Anne of Green Gables" no longer exists, one of the unfortunate casualties of the studio's old policy of erasing it's back-catalogue productions to help recycle expensive videotape. Several early episodes from "Dad's Army" are also still missing thanks to this practice. Hopefully the show will surface one day, perhaps in a private collection, but until then we can savour it's sequel, which thankfully came along shortly after the "erase policy" had been fazed out.

The perfect recipe for a rainy afternoon! Now, where is the BBC's 1973 "Pollyanna" with Elaine Stritch and Elizabeth Archard?...