Emlyn's Moon was the second in The Snow Spider Trilogy written by a great children's author Jenny Nimmo. It was often suggested (unfairly in my opinion) that the books were difficult to get into because of the complicated subject of child loss (for more information see the Snow Spider pages on Little Gems). However the books always gives more detail than can be adapted for television (even though Julia Jones did a superb job). Emlyn's Moon continues the saga of Gwyn Griffiths who is a magician, a fact which Gwyn does not really believe until he starts to develop powers of his own. Throughout the trilogy Arianwen, his silver spider plays an integral role in helping Gwyn deal with the events that unfold. The first part of the trilogy, The Snow Spider dealt with the issue of a family child member vanishing without trace on a cold mountain. Gwyn's father blames him for this loss since he asked his sister Bethan (she was older than Gwyn) to go and find his black ewe which was lost. Bethan never returned and Gwyn's father always blamed him for that. As these events unfolded in the first series, a strange girl arrives at the school bearing an uncanny resemblance to Bethan. The Griffiths family instantly take to her. Her name is Eirlys and she appears in name only during the second series Emlyn's Moon. During this story we come to learn that Eirlys is in fact something more sinister in nature and tries to allure lonely children away in a similar manner to the way in which Bethan vanished.

 

Never commercially released, transferred from VHS to DVD

Very good quality 8 / 10 - Excellent production