Flambards (TV series)
{{Short description|British television series}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox television
| image = Flambards-DVD.jpg
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| caption = Flambards the complete collection DVD cover
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| genre = Period Drama{{Cite web|url=http://flambards.flyingdreams.org/|title="Flying Dreams" Linda's Flambards Page|website=flambards.flyingdreams.org|access-date=2019-10-03}}{{Cite web|url=https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1970s/flambards/|title=Flambards {{!}} Nostalgia Central|last=Webmaster|language=en-US|access-date=2019-10-03}}
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| country = United Kingdom
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| num_episodes = 13
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| company = Yorkshire Television{{Cite web|url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/columnists/sarah-todd-horsey-tales-brought-to-mind-by-end-of-a-sunday-tv-institution-1-2594231|title=Sarah Todd: Horsey tales brought to mind by end of a Sunday TV institution|website=www.yorkshirepost.co.uk|language=en|access-date=2019-10-03}}{{Citation|last=Ferguson|first=Michael|title=Flambards: The Complete Series|date=2006-07-31|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flambards-Complete-DVD-Christine-McKenna/dp/B000FTWUAY|publisher=Network|language=English|access-date=2019-10-03|last2=Clark|first2=Lawrence Gordon|last3=Lewis|first3=Leonard|last4=Duffell|first4=Peter}}
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| network = ITV
| first_aired = {{Start date|1979|01|25|df=y}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1979|04|19|df=y}}
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Flambards is a television series of 13 episodes which was broadcast in the United Kingdom in 1979 on ITV{{Cite web|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/473028/credits.html|title=BFI Screenonline: Plater, Alan (1935-2010) Credits|website=www.screenonline.org.uk|access-date=2019-10-03}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.itvstudios.com/catalogue/1408|website=www.itvstudios.com|title=Flambards|access-date=2019-10-03}} and in the United States in 1980. The series was based on the three Flambards novels of English author K. M. Peyton.
The series is set from 1909 to 1918 (World War I is still being fought at the end) and tells how the teenage heroine, the orphaned heiress Christina Parsons (Christine McKenna), comes to live at Flambards, the impoverished Essex estate owned by her crippled and tyrannical uncle, William Russell (Edward Judd), and his two sons, Mark (Steven Grives) and Will Russell (Alan Parnaby). Other cast members included Sebastian Abineri as Dick Wright, Anton Diffring as Mr Dermott, Rosalie Williams as Mary and Frank Mills as Fowler.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077010/combined|work= Internet Movie Database |title="Flambards" (1979) |accessdate=2010-07-26 }}
Four episodes were directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark,{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0164196/ |title=Lawrence Gordon Clark|work= Internet Movie Database |accessdate=2010-07-26 }} and four others by Michael Ferguson.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0272547/ |title=Michael Ferguson (I) |work= Internet Movie Database|accessdate=2010-07-26 }}
In 1980 Flambards was broadcast on American television by PBS who cut the series from 13 episodes to 12 by combining the first two episodes into one. PBS also added narration to the end and beginnings of episodes informing viewers of the events which had been affected by the cuts. In the late 1980s Flambards was shown on the A&E cable network in its full 13 episodes, but heavily commercial-edited.{{cite web |url=http://flambards.flyingdreams.org/ |title="Flying Dreams" Linda's Flambards Page |publisher=flambards.flyingdreams.org |accessdate=2010-07-26 }}
Synopsis
The story revolves around Christina Parsons, coming of age in a tumultuous era, of old and new, of horses and aeroplanes, of foxhunts, class, suffragettes, death, war, love, loss, and rebuilding new lives out of the ashes of old ones. Christina, an orphan who has been shunted from one relative to the next since the age of 5, comes to live with her cousins and uncle at an estate in Essex called Flambards in 1909 at the age of 16. Her crippled uncle (her mother's half-brother) William Russell is almost never referred to by his first name; she calls him Uncle Russell, perhaps to avoid confusion with her cousin, also named William Russell. Her cousin William speculates that Russell plans for Christina to marry his son Mark in order to restore Flambards to its former glory using the money that she will inherit on her twenty-first birthday. Mark is as brutish as his father, with a great love for hunting, whereas the younger son William is terrified of horses after a hunting accident and aspires to be an early-era aviator. Christina soon develops a love for horses and hunting. She also finds friendship with William, who challenges her ideas on class boundaries, and with the stablehand Dick, who teaches her how to ride. William and Christina eventually fall in love and run away to London from the hunt ball. Later developments lead Christina to return to Flambards during the First World War, where she takes over management of the estate and restores the farm to working order.
Cast
- Christine McKenna as Christina Parsons
- Steven Grives as Mark Russell
- Alan Parnaby as William Russell
- Edward Judd as Uncle Russell
- Sebastian Abineri as Dick Wright
- Frank Mills as Fowler
- Carol Leader as Dorothy
- Rosalie Williams as Mary
- Anton Diffring as Mr. Dermot
Musical score
The series's memorable score was composed by David Fanshawe, who is most famous for his 1972 composition African Sanctus. Of his score for Flambards Fanshawe later wrote,
{{Blockquote|
"On April 5th, 1977, I was on my way to give a talk about my travels in Africa to the Oxfam Annual Staff Conference in Abingdon when, quite by accident, I whistled something, whistled it again, drew five lines and wrote it down. On arrival, I sought out the nearest piano, played the chord of 'A' seventh and whistled again. Just before going on stage, I completed the first phrase by writing it out backwards and indeed whistled it backwards: and that was the beginning of the music for Flambards.
A week earlier, producer Leonard Lewis had phoned me, asking if I would like to compose a score for a 13-part series he was producing for Yorkshire Television. He sent me the books of Flambards by K.M. Peyton, together with the first part adapted for television by Alan Plater. On meeting the star of Flambards, Christine McKenna, who plays Christina in the series, I was convinced that the whistle was right for the signature tune. Keith Morgan, then Head of Music at Yorkshire Television, got the message and even whistled it back. So, that was how I came to compose five hours of music based on a 3½ bar whistle!"Sleeve notes for the 2001 CD re-release of David Fanshawe's music for Flambards
}}
Flying scenes
For the aerial scenes radio controlled model period aircraft were used, the shots framed so that the small size of the aircraft was concealed.
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|id=0077010|title=Flambards}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flambards}}
Category:1979 British television series debuts
Category:1979 British television series endings
Category:1970s British drama television series
Category:1970s British television miniseries
Category:British English-language television shows
Category:ITV television dramas
Category:Television series by ITV Studios