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Mystery TV Programmes Of The Seventies

Spookdaddy

Spookdaddy

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70's childrens TV drama?

I was trying to recall the TV programmes I watched as a wee’un in the seventies that might have inspired a taste for the Fortean. Children of the Stones and The Owl Service come straight to mind but there is one I absolutely loved and can now remember nothing about. It was based around a couple of children (brother and sister, I think) who found and took home a Bronze-Age torque from a burial mound and were thereafter visited by lots of sinister stuff. Anyone remember what it was called or anything else about it.
 
Can't help you on that, but I can add one to the list: Sapphire and Steel (David McCallum & Joanna Lumley). One story thread in particular - set on a railway station,with a WW1 ghost of a soldier - is memorable.
 
Yeah. I think I remember the last episode of Sapphire and Steel really freaked me out because they just disappeared into a void - no happy ending, no closure, no explanations. Ooh er!
 
There was a lot of weird TV in the 70s and early 80s and children's TV was no exception. Here are a few of my own personal favourites.

Jamie and the Magic torch (magic mushrooms or an early masturbation fantasy)

Mr Ben (Quantum Leap without the budget)

The Tommorrow People (the story of the next pahse of human evolution, the adventures of a group of super-children with psychic powers - sound familiar?)

The Adventure Game (watching minor celebs geting vaporised by an invisible vortex - they just don't make em like that anymore)

And here's one I don't quite remember. Anyone else remember a series of horror stories on the BBC in the late 70's I think. The programe came on towards the end of the days children's programming and took the form of naration by an off screen story teller with static illustraions. It was incredibley creepy but the thing I remember most clearly was that my dad used to come home from work just before it finished and he would creep into the room, stand behind my brothers and I and wait for a
realy creepy bit whereupon he would make loud 'Bwahahaha!!' noises and scare the crap out of us.:eek!!!!:

Come to think of it I blame him for my current Fortean obsessions.:rolleyes:

Cujo
 
This sounds a bit like 'Red Shift' by Alan Garner (the Owl service), but I'm not sure that it was ever filmed. It could also be 'The Moon Stallion', which had a lot of pagan stuff going on and various spooky gubbins.

The 'stories with line drawings' sounds like Jackanory Spinechillers, which usually aired round Christmas time.
 
Nope. Definitely not Red Shift. Read all Alan Garners stuff back then. Did anyone ever watch The Owl Service - Alan Garner had a breakdown during the filming and I wonder if that had some effect on what was a very dark bit of childrens TV. Thanks for reminding me of The Moon Stallion - that was the one that kept showing the Uffington white horse in the background wasn't it? I seem to remember references to toadmen, horse-whisperers and the horse goddess Epona now that you mention it. Incidentally there is a collection of essays by Alan Garner which I can't remember the title of just now which might be of interest to any forteans into folklore or storytelling.
 
DanHigginbottom said:
This sounds a bit like 'Red Shift' by Alan Garner (the Owl service), but I'm not sure that it was ever filmed. It could also be 'The Moon Stallion', which had a lot of pagan stuff going on and various spooky gubbins.

The 'stories with line drawings' sounds like Jackanory Spinechillers, which usually aired round Christmas time.
Click to expand...

Spinechillers! I think that's the one. Thanks

Cujo
 
Cujo said:
There was a lot of weird TV in the 70s and early 80s and children's TV was no exception. Here are a few of my own personal favourites.

Jamie and the Magic torch (magic mushrooms or an early masturbation fantasy)

Mr Ben (Quantum Leap without the budget)


Cujo
Click to expand...


They seemed to get away with all kinds of stuff in the 70s. Blame it on the minds of a more aware and liberal (or perverted) generation (for thinking of such), but there was definitely something dodgy about Captain Pugwash and his shipmates' names (Master Bates, Seaman Staines, etc) - which no-one cottoned onto for years.
I never reflected very much on children's tv of back then, but I remember some commentary regarding Mr Benn's unquestioned habits and fetishes regarding dressing up in all kinds of strange garb. Now I think of it, we never saw his wife or girlfriend, did we?
 
Hermes said:
They seemed to get away with all kinds of stuff in the 70s. Blame it on the minds of a more aware and liberal (or perverted) generation (for thinking of such), but there was definitely something dodgy about Captain Pugwash and his shipmates' names (Master Bates, Seaman Staines, etc) - which no-one cottoned onto for years.
I never reflected very much on children's tv of back then, but I remember some commentary regarding Mr Benn's unquestioned habits and fetishes regarding dressing up in all kinds of strange garb. Now I think of it, we never saw his wife or girlfriend, did we?
Click to expand...

The Captain Pugwash thing is an Urban Myth. It was master Mates.

Cujo
 
pugwash names

Urban myth, I'm afraid. Even the Guardian couldn't pass this off as a typographical error and had to print an apology after an article on the supposed subliminal rudeness of old kids' tv.

Never read or saw 'The Owl Service', though I heard an entertaining radio adaptation which prompted me to dust off that unread copy of the Mabinogion and discover a shamefully overlooked mythos.
 
Re: 70's childrens TV drama?

Spook said:
It was based around a couple of children (brother and sister, I think) who found and took home a Bronze-Age torque from a burial mound and were thereafter visited by lots of sinister stuff. Anyone remember what it was called or anything else about it.
Click to expand...

This is a shot in the dark, but I vaguely recollect something similar called THE KING'S DRAGON (because the arm band in question was a dragon torc) - which was screened in snippets of ten minutes-or-so...maybe even within an educational programme. The creepy stuff that befell them all turned out to be of mundane origin, chiefly caused by some criminals keen to get their hands on the object...

...erm...

...I think!
 
regarding Mr Benn's unquestioned habits and fetishes regarding dressing up in all kinds of strange garb. Now I think of it, we never saw his wife or girlfriend, did we?

i think he lived with his dear old mum who had died years before but was perfectly preserved with the aid of a layer of lemon curd tightly covered with cling film ??. this idea is reinforced by the fact that our little friend didn't work and lived off the late mrs. benns pension, i rest my case?:hmph:
 
The Guardian had to pay damages for talk of Seaman Stains
etc as the makers regarded the accusation as potentially causing
them loss of future commissions - I nearly wrote emissions. :p
 
Further Fortean Owl Service strangeness - am I correct in recalling that the original main three cast members all underwent major lifestyle changes, that were oddly rather in line with the 'mythical' fates of the characters they played? I really can't remember the details of this; it may even have been Garner himself who pointed this out. I'm fairly certain that one of them died tragically but detail escapes me for the moment.

Anyone remember? Oh, and the King's Dragon was a segment of Look and Read in the '80s. Boy from Space, anyone?
 
DanHigginbottom said:
Further Fortean Owl Service strangeness - am I correct in recalling that the original main three cast members all underwent major lifestyle changes
Click to expand...

I think you are and I've just found Alan Garners book - The Voice That Thunders where I am sure there is an essay describing his breakdown during the filming of The Owl Service. Will read it over the weekend and get back to you.
 
Spook said:
Did anyone ever watch The Owl Service - Alan Garner had a breakdown during the filming and I wonder if that had some effect on what was a very dark bit of childrens TV.
Click to expand...

I have a book somewhere around telling of all sorts of odd things that happened during the making of this series. Of course, the gremilns that live in my house have appropriated it for their own nefarious purposes . . .

Another one I liked was 'The Haunting of Cassie Palmer'.

Carole
 
Mystery TV Programmes of the seventies...

I noticed there's been a few of these on the forum over the last few days and everybody seems to crawl out of the woodwork to try and find answers to them...

Here's mine - your help much appreciated.

There was a children's BBC drama series around the early to mid seventies and an integral part of this (or at least the part that sticks in my mind) was to do with electricity pylons creating some malignant force field or inflicting suffering of some degree. I also remember there was an air of desolation portrayed (I was very young at the time, so all this is a bit vague).

Anybody know what this series was? It was pretty powerful, even scary stuff for a five year old!
 
I remeber that!.. it was all technology that caused a sort of dred sudenly for some reason, so that people would go a long way to get past electricity pylons etc. Every bit of technology was unusable. That and "the Children Of The Stones" (filmed in Avebury..... and that one with the light house and the rocks with eyes, things apearing in dreams that a girl drew in her scrap book....... seems the 70's were a hive of Fortean childrens shows!
 
Showing my age again here! The program was "The Changes".

More info

Bizzarely, the above link contains a very big link to bilderberg.org. It's a conspiracy, I tell you.

Jane.
 
sidecar_jon said:
I remeber that!.. it was all technology that caused a sort of dred sudenly for some reason, so that people would go a long way to get past electricity pylons etc. Every bit of technology was unusable. That and "the Children Of The Stones" (filmed in Avebury..... and that one with the light house and the rocks with eyes, things apearing in dreams that a girl drew in her scrap book....... seems the 70's were a hive of Fortean childrens shows!
Click to expand...

Tomorrow People (not to be confused with crapola 90's remake), Tarot, Ace of Wands (well spooky): the one I can't remember the name of was a kids' drama set in the Aztec Empire, and featured Diane Keen as a princess: was on ITV mid seventies: someone put me out of my misery! Even TV Cream doesn't mention it...
 
Nooo, it wasn't any of those things. I read the books. I'll ask my friend and get back to you.
 
I remember The Changes very well: esp the train suddenly stopping in the title sequence: just mentioned the others in a fit of nostalgia.

What was the Aztec one called??
 
That's it! Or was it The Feathered Serpent? Whatever!!

Aww, thanks Auntie!

I can sleep again now (been trying to remember that for months!)
 
Excellent!!

Thank you all so much for your input - and I can't believe that a webpage exists for the series. I vaguely remember the train bit.

And I was spot on - I was 5 when it was on telly!

I had a feeling that it could have been Children of the Stones but definitely knew it wasn't the Tomorrow People.

And that TV Cream website is a gem!

Thaks again - no more sleepless nights (well, maybe after I've seen it again... :D )
 
Stu Neville said:
That's it! Or was it The Feathered Serpent? Whatever!!

Aww, thanks Auntie!

I can sleep again now (been trying to remember that for months!)
Click to expand...

Featherd Serpent was a very odd program... lean priest was played by ex doc Who Patrick Troughton and all the sets were stylish hard board painted but somehow very well done.. and when he cut out that heart and put it in a dish uuuch!...

i think the make of that film (what was that called now?) about plumed serpent in New York must have seen it.. was it the "quezelotal, the plumed surpent"? NY sudenly becomes infested with Aztec god flying thing that nests on to of Office blocks all very very odd.
 
Q, the Winged Serpent - stars David Carradine.

Quite funny in places, but has a few shocks, too.
 
"Q - The Winged Serpent" was the title of the film. I remember because the plot wouldn't have been out of place in an episode of "Kolchak - The Night Stalker", my all time favourite ever series.

Carl Kolchak/Darren McGavin is a god.

X-Files...Pah! Subpar rip off!:blah:
 
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