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One of the great things about ITV during the 1960s and 1970s was that the smaller regions had a chance to shine, and children's television in particular gave the likes of HTV and Southern an opportunity for a rare network slot (although the latter's relatively poor network performance could in part have contributed to their downfall). HTV was well suited by its location when it came to producing fantasy-based series. On one side of the Severn Bridge, it had Wales, and on the other, Arthurian legends, Glastonbury and the stone circles of Stonehenge and Avebury. And it's the latter that was the location for CHILDREN OF THE STONES, a seven-part series first shown in early 1977. It, and nearby Silbury Hill, act as the village of Milbury, where the handful of newcomers stand out a mile from the rest of the inhabitants. Into this setting arrive Adam Brake (Thomas) and his son Matthew (Peter Demin), for a three-month stay in which Adam plans to research the village's stone circle (the real-life Avebury has the largest stone circle in the world). Matthew enrols at the local school, where the class - like the rest of the village - is divided into two groups - the "happy" locals and newcomers like Matthew and Sandra (Katharine Levy), whose mother Margaret (Veronica Strong) runs the village's museum. The villagers all greet each other with a trancelike "happy day", although they don't appear to be particularly happy, and the "happy" kids are geniuses at maths, more so even than Matthew. Right from the start something strange seems to be happening, with a vision of a stone in the middle of the road as the Brakes arrive, and warnings from the local poacher, Dai (Jones), who warns that there's no escape from the stones. Families in the village all appear to be same sex where the parent has been either widowed or divorced, and slowly the newcomers are absorbed into the village, until Adam and Matthew and Margaret and Sandra remain. Then Margaret gets a dinner invitation from Hendrick (Cuthbertson), the Lord of the Manor, who the whole village looks up to... The Avebury setting works especially well (the series is the usual 1970s mix of video in the studio and film for exterior locations), and the story is both suspenseful and intelligent, never talking down to its audience. Unsurprisingly for a children's series produced by a regional ITV company, the production isn't effects heavy, concentrating instead on plot and acting. Many adult series would kill for a leading trio like Cuthbertson, Jones and Thomas, and all three put in strong performances, as do the child actors. The cover promises us that the episodes have been "newly restored and unedited". The latter claim is definitely true, with the HTV West frontcaps and the ad break caps in tact (although it would be difficult to remove many of these). The quality of the picture and sound is about as good as can be expected from a series of this vintage, although there is an annoying layer change in episode five. Since there's a fade to black for the ad breaks, surely this could have been better placed? Each episode is split into half a dozen chapters, which is fine for 25-minute episodes. However, selecting an episode involves bringing up the chapters for each episode first, which is not only annoying but also gives away spoilers. In the end I simply advanced by chapter towards the end of each episode to avoid this, but better disc design would have avoided this. The disc isn't packed with extras, but this isn't that surprising for a 1970s children's series. However, there are some decent production notes, an interesting (if brief) photo gallery, cast bios and interviews with Gareth Thomas and producer/director Peter Graham Scott. CHILDREN OF THE STONES has aged well, and despite one or two little niggles, this is a well packaged disc that is well worth a place in any sci-fi/fantasy TV fan's library. BACK TO THE TOP |
CHILDREN OF THE
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