“That’s the Great Puzzle: Who Am I?": Jonathan Miller’s Alice in Wonderland (1966)

In November 1966, Mary Jean St Clair, the granddaughter of Alice Liddell, expressed anxiety about Jonathan Miller’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland adaptation for the BBC’s Christmas schedule. The descendant of the girl who inspired Lewis Carroll to write the most influential children’s book in the world was concerned that the film would make her grandmother ‘appear into some sort of strange person’ when ‘[s]he was not’. Miller’s television play was not intended for child viewers. It was shot on 35mm black-and-white film and, contrary to a well-established tradition in pantomime and film, did not use animal costumes for iconic characters such as the White Rabbit and the Caterpillar, nor any special effects.