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C. S. Lewis passed away on November 22nd, 1963 (coincidentally the same day as President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas). On November 23rd, the longest running science fiction show in the world started broadcasting. The series was Doctor Who, and one of the central tenets to the show which has remained unchanged in forty five years is the main character's transport, a ship known as the TARDIS. While it appears to be nothing more than a London Metropolitan police box, (a wooden cabinet about the size of a large phone booth), it is in fact enormous on the inside, and capable of transporting anyone who enters it to anywhere in time and space... As several commentators have since pointed out, most notably the author Lawrence Miles, had Lewis lived perhaps another 24 hours, he might well have seen the first episode, and thought 'Hang on a minute...'

Like J. R. R. Tolkien, A. A. Milne, Enid Blyton, Lewis' Narnia Chronicles have become imbedded in the public subconscious, and references to them abound. As well as the obvious adaptations to cinema, television, radio and stage, such things slip into mainstream shows and films as well, sometimes directly, sometimes not. The above example is clearly the former, in that it makes no direct reference to the books, yet clearly carries on the same kind of myth, and at many times through the show's history, it has carried similar themes: The fight against oppression and evil, the wonder of discovering a new world, an understanding of the concepts of life and death.

There are also many examples of the latter kind, of course, where shows have directly referenced the Chronicles: An episode of the controversial cartoon South Park, 'Here comes the neighbourhood', features scenes with a pride of lions, the leader of which is called Aslan, and who speaks in a very similar way to the animated version of the book (although /what/ he says is quite different to Lewis' intentions...) Peter Griffin in The Family Guy climbs into a tumble dryer looking for a sock in one episode, and meets a fawn called Mr. Tumnus - Again, not terribly surprising, as that particular show tends to be a montage of cultural references from second to second. Even Chandler in Friends claimed (somewhat sarcastically) that his third nipple, when pressed, opens a door "to the magical land of Narnia".

Lewis' works have had a profound affect on many writers since they were published, and references and legacies abound; if anything, it's only surprising that there aren't more.

Learn more about this author, Dave Simmons.
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