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Children of the Stones (ITV, 1977) borrows plot strands and styles popular in
1960s and '70s British horror cinema, mixing them into a satisfying serial that
appeared fresh and new to children. The sinister air of a relentlessly happy,
sunny English village echoes the film Village of the Damned (d. Wolf Rilla,
1960), while Professor Brake's scientific detachment in the face of seemingly
supernatural Pagan or alien forces recalls Nigel Kneale's works Quatermass and
the Pit (BBC, 1958) and The Stone Tape (BBC, tx. 25/12/1972).
Brake can plausibly hold forth on topics such as psychic ability, the power
of ley lines, the energy of the stones, black holes, supernovas, psychokinesis
and atomic clocks to happily fulfil an educational remit. This factual basis
helps to create a horror fantasy grounded in some scientific, rational reality,
making events seem even more frightening.
Director Peter Graham Scott remarked on seeing the script of Episode One,
"And this is for children?" Not only is it genuinely frightening, thanks in no
small part to Sidney Sager's unsettling pseudo-Neolithic vocal score, but the
script is unpatronisingly complex. The ending - which sees Hendrick seemingly
absorbed by an alien force focused on the ring of stones and events then jumping
back to the beginning of the serial on an alternate 'time plane' - was perhaps
slightly too complex for younger viewers.
A product of ITV's regional structure of the 1970s, both storyline and
location filming are centred in the West Country. The stone circle that rings
the village of Avebury in Wiltshire provides the basis of the script and doubles
up as Milbury for filming. Production company HTV also dabbled in Arthurian and
Pagan myth with Sky (ITV, 1975) and Robin of Sherwood (ITV, 1984-86). Writers
Burnham and Ray next wrote Raven (ITV, 1977), a fantasy serial based on the legends of King Arthur.
Alistair McGown
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1. Titles and opening (2:34)
