There Be Dragons: Behind Great Western Railway's Famous Five Adventures

The latest chapter in Great Western Railway’s (GWR) visually rich Famous Five series — ‘Five and The Dragon Quest’ — has unexpectedly been years in the making, reveals sales and marketing director Amanda Burns. The spark came during her first stint at GWR, when a throwaway remark about featuring Cardiff Castle and a dragon featured in an ad lodged in her mind during a team visit to the historic Welsh landmark, before her spell as CEO of Visit Jersey. She returned to GWR in January 2023.

Burns admits, however, that the idea likely wasn’t hers alone — it probably emerged from an early brainstorming session with long‑time agency partner adam&eve\TBWA as they explored potential new adventures for their brand ambassadors, The Famous Five.

The fifth and latest animated leisure tourism campaign to feature Enid Blyton's iconic team draws inspiration from GWR’s 1920s publicity campaigns, when the company first used myths and legends to promote travel to an emerging tourism market. For both Burns and the agency, that link to the past of the Legend Land books — produced over a century ago — was too good to not return to.

“I think there’s a genuine, nationwide interest in myths and legends. Even among Gen Z and millennials, there’s been a notable rise in searches for mythology and folklore. It feels like a brilliant moment to tap into that,” explains Burns.

GWR’s Famous Adventures

GWR initially launched its ‘Adventure Starts Here’ platform and the association with Blyton’s creations — Julian, Dick, Anne, George, and their dog Timmy — in 2017. Featuring vibrant imagery that harkens back to the cover illustrations by Eileen Soper from the many books, the animated ads have now reached their fifth instalment, and the first in nearly three years.

“We are incredibly commercial in our approach, so I do believe that we've got a really strong, unique, creative vehicle” says Burns, who explains the original brief nine years ago was to be as distinctive and appealing as possible.

“I’ve always said, ‘I don't want to be the best in the rail industry. I want to be the best in travel category’. At the time, there was a lot of very similar rail type travel advertising, and I strongly believe you've got to have something that stands out from the crowd. It’s distinctive. It's got to be effective, of course. But when the Famous Five were presented to me as a concept, I just knew instinctively that this was right.”

She saw a connection with the traditional heritage brand that has been operating for nearly two centuries and a much-loved children’s favourite series of stories that have been around for decades in various forms. She says: “It was synonymous with adventure. So, they were perfect to come on board and promote our destinations and on our network. There's that strong association there. It just felt like the natural fit for GWR.”

Burns continues: “When it was presented to me — there were people of different ages there as well — we all got it, although we weren't talking about children here [the target audience is aged 45+] we did a lot of creative testing and a lot of research, It's really important to make sure that what we're putting out is representative for our customer base.”

Describing developing and maintaining the eye-catching look of the series, as “a balancing act,” adam&eve\TBWA’s group ECD, Ben Tollett says that the hand-drawn illustrations from the original stories remain key, while aiming to make them as appealing as possible to modern audiences.

“We use a ‘floating timeline’ to ensure the children never age and are forever stuck in a time warp of knitted tank tops, neckerchiefs and swing skirts, while the world around them is bang up to date with super-fast trains, smartphones and tablets,” he continues of the strategy to engage modern viewers.

The animation world blends 2D and 3D animation alongside hand-drawn and CG artwork to ensure that every story feels as vivid, dynamic and exhilarating.

Burns reveals that she has been using AI to help “remove some of the friction in some areas” however she firmly believes it will not replace creativity and that the craft of the campaign remains firmly with the people involved, including Oscar-and BAFTA-winning director and animator Peter Baynton.

"It's something that I'm probably most proud of in terms of the quality of the output and the production, and I think audiences recognise that. We all use AI in our day-to-day lives, but there is the risk that it can accelerate sort of sameness. That human element is so important,” she says.

There Be Dragons

The approach to storytelling is the most important element of the whole series – offering thrills and excitement to relay the potential adventures of travelling along GWR’s network. This latest adventure sees the Famous Five attempt to solve the mystery of a dragon which has been spotted flying in the skies across the region. They take the quickest mode of transport available to them — the train — to follow the flying beast to Cardiff and discover its secret.

The campaign also features a return of Academy Award-winning actor Richard E Grant for his second appearance as Uncle Quentin and ends with the tagline: ‘Great Western Railway – legendary adventures start here.’ Other voice talent includes: Ambika Mod, Andi Osho, and Jan Francis.

“South western Wales is so rich in terms of folklore and our landscapes, the myths and legends, so it just seemed to naturally come together,” says Burns.

The campaign also features a wider variety of activations. While the 60-second hero film will run across cinema, TV, and VOD to deliver scale and emotional impact, its radio executions aim to delve deeper into regional folklore, bringing local legends to life in the listener’s imagination.

The new social strategy starts with a ‘newflash’ on the official GWR Instagram account featuring the dragon at the castle. Further adventures are also planned for social channels including the Cornish legend of The Mermaid of Zennor, reveals Burns.

“What I'm excited about with the campaign is that we're really building the storytelling across channels” she explains.

An integrated approach is key for Burns who also alludes to a new influencer strategy being developed to promote the various stops along the GWR network. 

“What I'm excited about with the campaign is that we're really building on it and using the storytelling,” she explains.

An integrated approach is key for Burns who also alludes to a new influencer strategy being developed to promote the various stops along the GWR network. The media strategy was handled by WPP Media’s Mindshare, which won the account last Autumn.

An effective approach

Known for its long-term brand partnerships, adam&eve\TBWA is also a standard bearer when it comes to creative effectiveness. So successful has that approach proven for the campaign that it recently won an award for Long Term Thinking from APG and was a finalist in the Sustained Success category at the 2025 Effie UK Awards.

“We have learnt many lessons about the ingredients for effective communication over the past decade. But perhaps one of the most important is the learning that consistent brands are stronger brands. Advertising wear-out is largely a myth. Wear-in is what we should be aiming for,” explains global planning partner Sarah Carter. “The campaign has steadily built awareness and distinctiveness, while driving leisure demand across the GWR network.”

Despite her extensive experience of working in tourism, Burns says that she has never worked anywhere with a legacy of insight and data as she has available to her at GWR to help devise brand communications. That includes using tracking spontaneous and prompted awareness and driving revenue performance which she says is attracting new audiences and growing traveller frequency. The marketing and comms teams also run post campaign analysis to further improve for future campaign development.

“I don't think there are many brands that have got campaigns that have been running for nine years. It's proving it works for us. Our brand strength and our campaign awareness just grows and grows as does our return on investment,” Burns reveals.

Even if the 'Adventure Starts Here' platform doesn’t result in campaigns that exceed the 21 original Famous Five books created by Blyton, its association with GWR means the gang looks set to have plenty more adventures ahead of them.