Children of the Stones

I was 5 when I saw this, far too young and It certainly scared me.

Watching 30 years later, I could remember many of the scenes. This is quite a disturbing piece of childrens TV.

This TV serial aired thirty three years ago and brought back a lot of memories of the originality of UK children's TV in those days. It is probably a little too "talky" for today's audiences and it does require one's whole attention. Back then, there were many TV serials, books and films dealing with the occult or prechristian pagan themes, and like murder mysteries, they were invariably set in picture postcard English villages, where everyone seems to be addicted to afternoon tea with cakes, and which makes one wonder just WHAT is going on in those little villages. Many, if not all, villages date from ancient times, especially if they are near a river or water source, and thanks to the laws which prevented people moving away from the parish or estate that they were tied to, the villagers' ancestry goes back as far as the village. Old customs and practices linger on, which adds to the mystery and folk lore.

Unless you have visited Avebury and the general area, you can have no conception of how huge these monuments are, and how many circles and long barrows (neolithic burial chambers) there are. We know next to nothing about their builders and for what purpose they were built, which leaves room for fanciful imagination. We do know that what remains today is but a fraction of what once stood. Even the Avebury Circle and Stonehenge are mere fragments of what used to be.

As I grew up listening to Journey Into Space and the Quatermass Experiment on radio, the time warp and parallel universe themes were no surprise. Throw in a bit of pagan witchcraft and I was on familiar ground. Without giving away any of the plot (everyone else has done that for me) I cannot help wondering whether the creators of LOST watched this show in their youth, as there are many similarities. So many in fact that I would go so far as to say that the finale of LOST will show that the island was on a circular parallel time where events kept repeating themselves.

I would have given this show a rating of 10 for sheer originality, but the lack of close captions hampered me, being age related hearing impaired, and I could not follow the plot at all. Had it not been for reviews on the Internet I would not have had a clue what was going on. I am surprised how many viewers found it scary, as I did not find it so, but that is perhaps because I could not hear the actors very clearly.

If you haven't seen Children of the Stones yet, I strongly suggest you do. It is appropriate for all age levels and is an extremely well written and well preformed miniseries. As was the case with the BBC and other british TV production houses in the '70's, they operated on a shoestring budget. While this limited any serious use of special effects, it allowed for great script writing with a well thought out storyline. Children of the Stones will draw you into an odd, sometimes surreal, story about a small country town with a strange history centering around the ancient standing stones in and around the town. What begins as a simple scientific survey of the stones by an "outsider" and his teenage son soon becomes an investigation of a number of oddities with the townfolk and the strange history of the area. The local museum curator, another "outsider", joins in experience. The past and present mingle. The town and it's people have a tale to tell. Spellbinding and sometimes spooky, Children of the Stones will draw you in and keep you riveted, wanting for more! The plot is not as thin as one might think when beginning the journey. What is the secret of the town? Why are the people wary of visitors, but at the same time try to entice strangers to stay and live there? What happens to a person for them to suddenly change their minds and make them decide to become a permanent resident? How are the ancient standing stones connected with it all? If you appreciate a great plot, this miniseries is a must-see.

I remember watching this series when it was first aired many years ago - In fact while I was still at school! I find it hard to believe its for kids, as the plot is a complex one that most young kids probably would not follow. The story is father & son visit milbury, (actually its Avebury, Wilts - Not far from Stonehedge), a village surrounded by a circle of stones. Once people enter the village they cant leave! Adam brake is the scientist who saves the day.

The series was run mid 90's several times on the Childrens Channel. I managed to pick the entire series up on video a few years ago, now I want the DVD versions (somehow i dont think this will happen!!)

Catch it if you can!

Many years ago, when ITV in the UK was an amalgamation of separate TV companies (like HTV, the makers of this show along with many other great series, serving the west of England and Wales), which used to make their own shows for local consumption, before submitting them to the network for a national screening, they used to come up with gems like this.

It's a bizarre story of a kid and his dad entering a strange place in the west of england (the Dad is a Historian on a research trip, but his son finds out more than his Dad was expecting), only to find that everything is not as it seems. The locals are being drawn into a strange cult which revolves around an ancient stone monument in the locality (actually the ancient monument which still stands in Avebury, Wiltshire, UK)...

I really couldn't tell you any more without spoiling things, but my description of this series would be: If that great cult movie "The Wicker Man" had been made as a children's programme, it might have looked something like this. It's a true hidden gem, which caught the imagination of kids across the UK upon its original transmission in the UK in early 1977.

If any overseas viewers (who like something a bit out of the ordinary) want to check it out, then I certainly wouldn't hesitate to recommend the UK DVD release by "Second Sight" - and if you ever find yourself in the UK, take the time out to visit the location used in the series... It's a truly mystical place, with a truly strange atmosphere which will stick in your mind long after your trip...

ITV in the UK these days is a very different operation, and they just don't make shows like this anymore. If ITV made a show called "Children Of The Stones" today, it would probably be a reality show starring Jade Jagger and Theodora Richards....

Watch and enjoy what once was, in the days when we Brits were truly proud of the programming we produced, as opposed to these days, when we are frankly embarrassed by 95% of it... :-(