Overlooked Cult UK TV - Children Of The Stones

Let’s pick up with another one of these. One thing to point out is that these are shows which I did not watch at the time (largely because I either wasn’t born or was too young) and have not grown up watching on VHS/repeats like Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. I’m coming to these fresh with the eyes of an ostensibly grown man (albeit one who is spending his time watching 1970s children’s television) so there is no nostalgia element for me in any of these.

So What Is It? Children Of The Stones, a seven episode single serial; aired in Jan/Feb 1977

What’s It About? Professor Adam Brake and his son Matthew arrive in the village of Milbury where the inhabitants are behaving strangely and odd things seem to be going on connected to the local stone circle...

Why’s It Good? It genuinely feels like a horror film made for kids. It has almost the same feel to it as something like the Wicker Man and plays with a lot of the tropes of a certain type of British horror - locals behaving strangely, ominous creepy music, etc. It’s pretty surprising that something like this got made for kids at all. One aspect that I enjoyed is that it avoids one of the usual tropes of adults refusing to believe the kids when told that something odd is going on. Professor Brake listens to his son and helps him work out what’s going on - a nice refreshing change. The cast are on good form, in particular Gareth Thomas (Blake of Blake’s 7 fame) as Professor Brake and Iain Cuthbertson clearly enjoying himself as Hendrick. I’m not quite sure that the explanation of what's going on quite added up for me - it felt like there was a bit of a leap made to get there but overall, this was a delightfully creepy 70s show.

70s Tropes:- Dead/Missing Mothers (seriously, was there some sort of epidemic that struck down the mums of 70s TV characters?); Creepy Theme Music (this one’s absolutely terrifying - weird music and creepy shots of megalithic stones - definite nightmare fuel for the littluns)