After a ruinous run at Tolkien, the streaming platforms are moving on to Narnia — a naff mix of religious allegory, colonial attitudes, and thinly veiled prejudices that is beyond rescuing, writes STEPHEN ARNELL

“If Lucy had really met a faun, that is, a satyr, the result would have been a rape, not a tea party” — Christopher Tolkien on his father’s view of Narnia.
WITH “Barbie/Mumblecore” director/actor Greta Gerwig prepping Netflix’s no doubt eye-wateringly high-budgeted adaptation of CS Lewis’s Narnia novels, now is surely an appropriate time to discuss “the problem with CS Lewis.”
Pop singer Charli XCX is reportedly in line to play White Witch Jadis in Gerwig’s take on the Narnia-verse, which appears to be the first front in the war against the traditional version of CS Lewis’s Christian-proselytising, misogynistic and generally toffee-nosed fantasy legendarium.
Not to knock Ms XCX, but the character of Jadis has been played by thespians in the league of Tilda Swinton, Sheila Hancock, and Barbara Kellerman, so it might prove a stretch for the 32-year-old novice actor to convince as the evil witch, although I could of course be mistaken.



