Tottie or The Story of a Doll's House

TOTTIE OR THE STORY OF A DOLL'S HOUSE
Made by: Smallfilms
Shown on: BBC
Years shown: 1984-6

Based on books by Rumer Godden, this weighty and sometimes sombre stop-motion animation focused on the toy dolls belonging to sisters Emily and Charlotte Dane. The girls had an ornate doll’s house, whose inhabitants were happy and carefree: there was Mr Plantaganet, his cheerful and dreamy wife, Birdie, and their sweet little son, Apple. Also living with them was Tottie, a wooden, painted doll, who was thoughtful and sensible and, despite being the daughter-figure, really kept the house together. In spite of the contented existence that the dolls had, there was always a feeling of foreboding, because the dolls were never in control of their own destiny - they had to wish very hard and hope that good things would happen. Sadly, they didn’t. The Dane girls were given an antique porcelain doll called Marchpane, who they place in the house with the Plantaganets, and she was an evil cuckoo in the nest from day one. She openly schemed to become foremost in Emily and Charlotte’s affections, loathed Birdie’s open and trusting nature, detested Mr Plantaganet’s feebleness, and did her very best to lead Apple astray and turn him against his mother. Having gained the measure of her house-mates, Marchpane used the dolls’ house lights, which contain real paraffin, to start a fire, and trap Apple. She guessed that Birdie would try to save her little boy, and knew that Birdie was made of cellulose and would burn very quickly and easily - and that was exactly what happens. Birdie saved Apple, but became a martyr in doing so, meaning that Tottie becomes perhaps the first programme aimed at small children to contain a murder. Tottie was a beautifully filmed, thoughtfully made series, but it was terribly, terribly upsetting, and made you realise just how helpless dolls would be if they were really alive, and how reliant on a ‘higher power’, in this case the fickleness of two little girls. There is something very Ibsen-esque about Tottie (Henrik Ibsen wrote a play called The Dolls’ House, of course), and its vision of fate and predestination; and Marchpane is like Hedda Gabler - vain, controlling and destructive. Heavy stuff. You should never have watched this without a) your mother present or b) valium handy.

SQUARE EYES RATING: 6/10

(Thanks to www.smallfilms.co.uk for the borrowed pic)