Happy Days

Children of the Stones (Peter Graham Scott, 1977)

Nostalgia can often blur the fine line between the objective past and our hyper-realistic recollections. Therefore, it's a mixed blessing your host has no memory of Peter Graham Scott's cult children's series, Children of the Stones (1977) and discovering it only recently. Gutted I missed out on it all those decades ago, but enchanted with its discovery so many years later. The series is an absolute gem.

Co-created by writers Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray, Children of the Stones is a fantasy drama which weaves ancient ley stones, celestial bodies, and time loops into a paranormal serial. The end result is a hybrid of The Wicker Man (1973) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) made for kids.

Comprising of seven twenty-five minute episodes, Peter Graham Scott's serial treats its target youth audience like they were members of Mensa. A complex plot dealing with a perpetual time rift and pagan history can be difficult to mentally process at times, even for adults. Imagine what it must have been like for the kids who watched the series back then; it must have been an absolute head scratcher. Add the folk horror tone, accompanied by an eerie, choral theme, and you have some nightmarish teatime television. Refreshing, in all honesty.

Set in the fictional village of Milbury in England, Children of the Stones introduces a father and son departing from the modern day rat race and settling in the idyllic village. Gareth Thomas (better known as Roj Blake in Terry Nation's science-fiction series Blake's 7) is Adam Brake, an astrophysicist investigating the stone circle surrounding the village. His teenage son, Matthew (Peter Demin), is a dab hand in assisting his father's work and smart enough to be able to use the various complex scientific equipment of his dad's. Once arriving in Milbury, Matthew appears to have developed the power of psychometry; the extra sensory perception of able to read an objects history via physical contact. This makes him a "formidable" player to the series' antagonist.

Also recently settled in the quaint village is single mother Margaret (Veronica Strong), the curator at the local museum, devoted to the history and legends of Milbury's ancient past. Her daughter, Sandra (Katherine Levy), is a classmate of Matthew's.

Matthew's admission to the local school is where the Invasion of the Body Snatchers comparisons occur; the majority of the students are quiet, docile and mathematical geniuses; able to solve complex quadratic equations. Not exactly regular teens. Adults also display abnormal behaviour, too. Milbury's residents bizarrely greet one another with the phrase "Happy Day!" and are prone to holding hands in the middle of the night, chanting to the heavens above; worst of all, some of them take part in Morris dancing. One notable exception is the local poacher Dai (Freddie Joanes), an independent, gibbering hermit, who comes across as Mibury's very own Ben Gunn.

Every bucolic retreat requires its very own Lord Summerisle; enter Hendrick (Iain Cuthbertson), the village elder. Cuttbertson is really having a ball with his performance as the show's villain, as there's constant sinister smile upon his face. Hendrick's grand residence just so happens to be where the ley lines intersect. His home has a dedicated dining area, containing an ancient stone table and chairs (hardly Furniture Village), where his guests are tricked into being exposed to a celestial light from above that brainwashes them. Thankfully, they're not sitting long enough on those cold stone slabs to get piles.

Children of the Stones gets the Dada Debaser thumbs up for managing to outdo what so many terrible folk horror themed films get wrong today; be entertaining! Dead ringer for Heather Trott off EastEnders, Ben Wheatley might be influenced from it, but it's hard to believe he learnt anything with his "elevated horror" shite In the Earth (2021), though.

Peter Graham Scott also helmed a children's series that I'm slightly more familiar with; Into the Labyrinth (1981-1982). A trio of children are sent on a series of time travelling adventures at the behest of a sorcerer called Rothgo (Ron Moody) to retrieve a magical item, the Nidius. This is all set beneath spooky underground caverns and a labyrinth which transports the group through various time periods. Elements such as England and Wales' pagan history and cosmic energy really do run rampant in both of Graham Scott's shows, which was, and still is, so charmingly fascinating.