THE LEGEND UNRAVELLED

by Stephen McKay
with thanks to Alan Garner and Peter Plummer

Alan Garner (second right) talks with Michael Holden, Dorothy Edwards, Edwin Richfield and  Francis Wallis,  about the THE OWL SERVICE during filming at Poulton Hall, 11th April 1969

 Recently viewers to Channel Four were treated to a repeat screening of Granada Television's minor telefantasy masterpiece, THE OWL SERVICE, adapted from his book of the same name by Alan Garner. This tense psychological drama revolves around three teenagers, forced together by fate during a family holiday in Wales, who are torn apart by ghosts of love, jealousy and ancient betrayal. In this article we will examine the story of the production of this 1969 serial, from the inspiration behind the original novel to its first screening as Granada intended in 1978.

In 1960 a young researcher working at Granada Television was sent to interview a local author who had written a book featuring Alderley Edge, a Cheshire beauty spot. The book was called 'The Weirdstone of Brisingamen', its author, Alan Garner and the young reporter, Peter Plummer. This first meeting was the start of a close association between the two as they frequently worked together on magazine items for Granada, and in 1969 they were to be the creative force behind Granada's first major all-film, all-location, all-colour fully-scripted drama serial; THE OWL SERVICE.

Celtic legend had fascinated Alan Garner for many years and one story in particular, from the collection of Welsh legends known as the 'Mabinogion', had been niggling away at his mind; that of Math, son of Mathonwy. In this tale, the mother of Lleu Llaw Gyffes swore that her son would never marry a human. The wizard, Gwydion, accordingly created a woman for him out of flowers: Blodeuwdd.

"They took the flowers of the oak, and the flowers of the broom, and the flowers of the meadowsweet, and from those they called forth the very fairest and best endowed maiden that mortal ever saw." -The Mabinogion

Forced to become Lleu's wife, she reacted by falling in love with another man, Gronw Pebyer Lord of Penllyn, and together they plotted to slay Lleu.

"It is bitter twisting to be shut up with a person you are not liking very much. I think she is often longing for the time when she was flowers on the mountain, and it is making her cruel, as the rose is growing thorns." - Huw.

However, Lleu was not killed but turned into an eagle, and the wizard magically restored him to human form. Seeking vengeance, he confronts his two assassins at which point Gronw Pebyer pleads for mercy:

"I beg thee in God's name, a stone I see on the river bank, let me set that between me and the blow.' 'Faith,' said Lleu, 'I will not refuse thee that.' 'Why,' said he, 'God repay thee.' And then Gronw took the stone and set it between him and the blow. And then Lleu took aim at him with the spear, and it pitched through the stone and through him too, so that his back was broken."-The Mabinogion

Blodeuwedd, for her part in the murder, was turned, by Gwydion, into an owl.

"'Go in the form of a bird. And because of the dishonour thou hast done to Lleu Llaw Gyffes thou shalt be for ever called Blodeuwedd (flower face).' Blodeuwedd is 'owl' in the language of this present day. And for that reason all other birds are hostile to the owl."-The Mabinogion

Alison  (Gillian  Hills)  begins  tracing  out  the  design  on  an  old plate  in  order  to  make  paper  owls during Episode One

It was only when Alan came upon an old dinner service owned by his future mother-in-law, the design of which could be seen as either flowers or owls, that the thought of turning the legend of the three tragic characters into a novel occurred to him. He wanted to explore the possibilities of three dramatically contrasting characters forced together, and drawn into retracing the steps laid down by Lleu, Gronw and Blodeuedd. Having sketched the outline of his story, all he needed was a theatre in which his characters could play out their allotted destinies. Fortunately Alan found his location three years later, whilst holidaying in North Wales; he had rented Bryn Hall near Dinas Mawaddy. The old house set in a remote valley straight from the "Mabinogion" was to act as the catalyst that turned Alan's ideas into the weeks of furious writing and eventually a children's best seller. Peter Plummer, who was to visit Alan during this period and watch the book's creation, was later to describe Bryn Hall as; "A house among dark trees, a house without electricty, but a house with more electricity than most people found comfortable". Indeed the house is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of a child cruely slain by its mother.

The book, told the tale of Alison and her step-brother Roger, who whilst holidaying with their recently married parents in Wales, are immersed in the supernatural forces that fill the remote valley in which they are staying. Published in 1967, it went on to win the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian award for children's literature, and as such was a prime candidate for either cinema or television adaptation. At least three companies bid for screening rights, but it was in the summer of 1968 that Granada Television succeeded in pursuading Alan to let them turn 'THE OWL SERVICE' into a television drama production. Indeed they asked the author himself, to produce the scripts for what was going to be a seven part serial.

It had been decided from the beginning to film the story with newly introduced colour equipment; this was to be Granada's second colour production, the first being THE FLOWER OF GLOSTER, an improvised serial about a trip by barge. As the production team would still be finding their feet in the new medium, the person in charge of the production would need to know what he was doing. The obvious choice for both the jobs of director and producer, because of his long involvement with Alan Garner and book, was Peter Plummer.

As THE OWL SERVICE had been written around actual places, finding locations for filming the story was thought not to be a problem. So whilst Alan produced the scripts at the rate of one every two weeks, Peter visited Wales to map out his locations. It wasn't until just into the new year of 1969, when Alan had just completed his fourth script, that the owners of Bryn Hall refused permission for Granada to film there. Having lost a location, both Peter and Alan set about looking for a suitable alternative, which they found, in the shape of Poulton Hall, Liverpool. This large private house in the Wirral was owned by an author friend of Alan's, and due to its large spacious grounds could easily pass for the remote Welsh pile, especially if filmed from the right angle. It even boasted a play house, built by the owner for his children, that could substitute for the hen house in which Alison and Gwyn spend the night.

Thus with the production planned, all that was needed was to put together a cast which would bring the characters in Alan's scripts to life. As Alan had based many of his characters on real people known to both men, he was able to give Peter a very good idea of the personalities required in his players. The three main characters were meant to be roughly seventeen, which required the casting of young, sometimes inexperienced actors. Alison was the character around which the story was built, as the production examined the relationships between her and both her step-brother, Roger, and the rebellious Gwyn, and the animosity between her two suitors. Plummer had seen a young girl called Gillian Hills in an episode of MAIGRET and chose her for the part. Even then she was an experienced actress, having appeared in a French film by Roger Vadim at the age of fourteen. She had also the dubious honour of appearing in Britain's first uncenscored, 'full frontal' nude scene in Antonioni's BLOW UP.

Michael Holden played Gwyn, drawn to the valley from the coal fields of Aberystwyth by his mother's tales about when she worked as a maid at the old house when she was his age. Michael was taken straight from drama school in London as Granada were not able to find a suitable Welsh speaking actor in Wales.

The last member of the trio, and probably the hardest to cast, was Roger, the loner. His mother having run off with another man, and totally failing to relate to his new family, he seems always to run along a knife edge between agression and despair. Francis Wallis, another face fresh from drama school, tried his best to tackle this unsympathetic character. Unfortunately, he succeeded in turning Roger into a spoilt brat and the most unpopular character in the teleplay.

One of the first actors to be cast was Raymond Llewellyn, the only member of the team that Peter had worked with previously. He was to play Huw Halfbacon, the half demented gardener haunted by the memories of his youth, and guardian of the valley. Alan had based his character on Dafydd Rees who had worked at Bryn House since 1898. He wanted his Huw to be Dafydd as he imagined him at forty. Alan allowed Huw full rein, even writing extra scenes for him such as the exchange with Clive over the virtues of his ''bonnyfire''.

The role of Alison's mother, Margaret, was never cast, as this character, although referred to in both the book and teleplay, never appears. As Alan Garner told me; "I was well into the book before I realised that Margaret had not appeared directly in the action. She remained, quite naturally, as an off-stage menace. In the film there is one scene where she is in the room; but she does not appear on camera, nor does she speak, although she is heard playing the piano. She is, along with Nancy, an aspect of the destructive mother-figure in the Mabinogion." This was certainly a novel concept and added greatly to the unnatural atmosphere between the members of the new family.

Nancy (Dorothy Edwards) watches from the house as Clive (Edwin Richfield) talks to his son Roger (Francis Wallis)

Clive was played by Edwin Richfield, former star of THE MAN FROM INTERPOL. Again Peter Plummer matched his actor to a real aquaintance and Edwin Richfield got the part as closest match. Clive never seems to know what is going on, and plays no part in the drama that unfolds between the other characters. He acts as a casual bystander taking only a passing interest in his children's activities when forced to act to pacify his new wife. Indeed he does not appear in the last episode having joined his wife in some form of celluloid limbo.

Dorothy Edwards was chosen to play Nancy, Gwyn's mother, after being spotted in Dylan's 'Under Milkwood' in Chester. Her harsh features were applied with layers of make up, turning her from an fresh-faced woman into the unreasonable harridan who makes her son's life a living nightmare.

The cast was assembled for the first time on Thursday 10th April 1969 at Granada Television Centre in Manchester. The day started after lunch with the actors finallising make-up and costume; this was followed by a trip to Liverpool to be shown around the Poulton Hall locations ending in dinner with the Lancelyn-Greens. The production team did all they could to keep on good terms with the family having put them to so much trouble by moving en masse into their home. Friday was taken up with general rehearsals at the Hall, for the Poulton scenes. Stewart Darby, the unit photographer was also on hand to take publicity stills. The day ended at 9pm with a final readthrough of the following day's scenes.

Preparations for filming THE OWL SERVICE began on Saturday morning, with the rehearsal of all the scenes in Alison's bedroom. This in fact belonged to the son of the Lancelyn-Greens, who had moved, with his parents into one of the self-contained flatlets which made up part of the Hall. Alan Garner, who was to be present for all but a few days of the actual shooting, also moved into one of these flats, with his family, for a week, once recording started.

With the weekend devoted to rehearsals, Monday saw the entire cast move down to Wales to join Alan Garner, and his family, for an introductory tour of the locations around Dinas Mawddwy and Bryn Hall. This also gave the photographer opportunity to take the 'bike' and 'spear' photos which would later appear from Roger's darkroom. Over the next two days various members of the cast were dragged across fields and up mountains by Peter and Alan. The object of this exercise was to enable Peter Plummer to abandon some of the more remote locations and to finalise the sites for others, such as the positioning of the monolyth which Gronw hid behind.

On the 17th, they arrived back in Liverpool to begin rehearsals in earnest, as they covered every key scene, on location, before the actual shooting started. Eleven o'clock on Monday 21st saw the first footage being shot; this was the scene between Clive and Hew outside the house, seen in episode one. Peter Plummer's blue Rover 2000, registration KND 686F, was brought into service as Clive's car, which almost runs Hew down in episode two. Peter was not the only one to provide personal items for use in the production; Alan Garner provided a plethora of articles including owl pellets, Roger's camera and the slate owl pendant. The rest of the props that figured in the story were mostly found at the Hall by Alan: the rattrap, African spears, etc. and written into the script. A set of plates featuring the 'Owl Service' design were produced by Granada's Design Department using a tracing from Alan Garner's original plate. A national search for plates of the same design, which were found to originate in Wales, was run by 'TV Times' during transmission of the serial, but they only managed to turn up three.

Unfortunately the Hall did not possess a billiard table, thus Granada had to install a table into Poulton's wood-panelled conservatory. The only structures not available at the Hall, and required for the story, were a loft and a darkroom. A suitable loft was found in the Buckley Arms Hotel in Wales; all that was needed to link this with scenes shot at Poulton was a false ceiling built into a room adjacent to Alison's bedroom into which trap-door was set. Roger's dark room was one of the few sets actually built for the production and was filmed during the afternoon of 3rd July, in studio 12, Granada studios.

It was decided that filming in the kitchen of Poulton would cause far too much disruption to the normal running of the house, especially as all electrical appliances had to be removed or diguised; a major feature of the set dressing of the Hall was taping over all light switches and sockets. Peter Caldwell, the designer, suggested that the vegetable preparation room at Marford's Remand Home, Bromborough, would make a more than an adequate alternative, as it had very little in the way of modern utilities to hide to start of with. In the end all that was required was for the refrigerators to be hidden behind a partition; this was actually constructed from the remains of the false ceiling from Poulton, which had already been brought into service as a fence to hide a bed of daffodils at the Hall. The story being set in high summer, spring flowers and naked trees were hidden; at one point Alan's children had to strip the garden of daff's. The young Garners were also commissioned to produce the pictures that decorated Alison's play house.

The Lancelyn-Greens left for their holidays in the middle of filming, so the production concentrated on the external locations. The final scene, which was set in the kitchen in the book, was relocated to Hew's hut, which was in fact Poulton's summerhouse. This featured one of the few uses of special effects during the production; as Alison lay on the bed awaiting the coming of Blodeuwedd, a locked-off camera was used to film the gradual application of make-up to her cheek that produced the psychosomatic claw marks. A similar effect was used at the end of episode one, when time-lapse photography using the locked-off camera was used to make the scratches on Roger's face appear to bleed simply by adding make-up progressively. The last footage to be shot at Poulton was the wind and rain scenes from episode eight, with the local fire brigade providing the downpour, courtesy of the garden pond. The Liverpool shoot gradually wound to, a close during the fifth week, on 23rd May Poulton Hall was de-rigged, and the cast and crew prepared to travel on to the Welsh locations.

Edward Rowlands' stone of Gronw sits beside the river Dovey with the hole made by Lleu's spear clearly visible

The Granada team arrived at the village of Dinas Mawddwy on the morning of Tuesday 27th and set to work almost immediately, the first footage shot being that of Huw in Dinas graveyard. Since their last visit, the specially commissioned stone of Gronw had been erected on the bank of the river Dovey. This had been sculptured by Aberangell mason, Edward Rowlands, and featured in the first two days shooting of the three weeks the crew spent in Wales. It was in this river that Roger enjoyed his frequent swims, although the water wasn't much more than a foot deep and was bitterly cold, as was the weather at this time. It was little wonder that Roger looked so miserable, being exposed to the elements in only his green swimming trunks

It was no coincidence that most of Roger's seventeen costumes in the story featured the colour green to varying degrees. It was decided at an early stage that each character should have their own dominant colour and, either by design or chance, that the three main characters should adopt the colours of the then international wiring colour code; red for Alison, black for Gwyn and green for Roger. It is only with this knowledge that one could possibly understand the reasoning behind Alison's choice of underwear! These colours were meant to appear throughout the story as an underlying theme as was dramatically highlighted in episode two when the wall of the billiard room split upon the meeting of red, green and black on the billiard table. Clive was the only other character assigned a definite colour; this was brown but was not used to the same degree as with the younger characters. The intention was that these colours would be equally effective as tones for viewers with black and white television sets, who easily outnumbered those with colour sets at the time.

Each day the crew would travel from their base in the Wynnstay Hotel in Machynlleth to the location for filming, which would start at 9.15. The cast and crew would break for lunch at the Buckley Arms Hotel at 1.00, and ,after only an hour, return to filming until work stopped in time to get back to base for 6.30pm. For some scenes the cast didn't have to travel quite as far as others as the Buckley Arms itself featured in the filming. Both Nancy's room and the larder were created from rooms in the hotel and the hotel's stable had been spotted during the search for replacements for those at Bryn House. The building was split into two sections, the first fitting the requirements for a gothic pile with a suspicious door that could be padlocked shut. The second, which had suffered severe fire damage, was written into the script by adding the tale of Bertram's stockpile of black market petrol destroyed by Huw. It was in these stables that one of the few teething problems of planning a long period of location shooting reared its head. David Woods, the principal cameraman, had already booked his vacation before the filming schedule had been announced and had to be replaced by Ray Goode for this period, meaning that the scene begun by Woods on Friday afternoon was completed by Goode on the following Monday morning. The end result was a noticable discrepancy between lighting styles from shot to shot. This was later to be described by Peter Plummer as "a famous disaster". The vintage motor bike that Roger descovers in the stable, had been borrowed from Bryn Hall specially for the day's shooting.

Coincidences seemed to dog the filming of THE OWL SERVICE; Peter Plummer had desperately needed some footage of an owl blinking at night but had been unable to find any suitable colour material in Granada's film library and he was considering a costly visit to a zoo to film what he needed. Then one evening when walking from the Stone he noticed a commotion centred on Alan Kennedy, the props manager. In the back of his car, sitting in a tea chest was a large owl; Alan had rescued it from a mob of angry birds. David Wood and Peter were spurred into action by serendipitous occurrence; lights were rigged and a camera set up, the bird was lifted out of its box sat on Alan's arm. Peter shouted "Action" and the owl blinked. It was only later when Peter asked where Alan had found the owl originally, that he was told that it had been sheltering in the 'owl room' in the stables!

Indeed, owls seemed to be popping up all over the place; a brass knocker in the form of an owl was found on the inside of the door to the room which had the false ceiling fitted. One night during the Poulton shoot, Peter Plummer was disturbed by a strange tapping noise inside his hotel bedroom. On investigation, he found it to be eminating from a small metal figure rocking in the draught: the figure of an owl. Peter Plummer asked if he could keep it, and it became his lucky mascot throughout the production. It was Peter who also spotted carved into the roof of Huw's hut, the name 'Nancy'. Alan Garner, ever the realist, put all these happenings down to 'selective perception'.

One  of  the  photos  Roger  took  through  the  hole  in  the stone,  which  shows  a  mysterious  figure  standing  by  the  Bryn

During Roger, Alison and Gwyn's travels, they would use several locations in the vicinity of Bryn house including Troed-y-Foel Bridge, Cwm Cowarch, and the Bryn itself: a small tree-covered hill overlooking the house from which Lleu reputedly through his spear. The only part of the house itself to be seen in the production were the gates. A major feature of the shoot, which required a great deal of logistical thought, were Gwyn and Alison's scenes atop the mountain. The only vehicle that was capable of making the trip was a tractor borrowed from Troed-y-Foel farm, an army landrover having previously failed to make the ascent. All the equipment needed, together with food (and three bottles of champagne!), were thus loaded on to the tractor which set off up the hill with the cast and crew following on foot. To save unnecessary suffering the crew was limited in number to ten with Michael Holden carrying the only prop, Alison's mother's wrist-watch.

The other Welsh locations to be used were mainly seen in the final episode. These were: the Packhorse Bridge at Dinas, where Alison met Huw whilst searching for Gwyn in the rain; the Blean Pennant Hairpin bend and Bwlch-y-Groes where Gwyn was deserted by his mother; and Dinas Mawddwy's main street. For all the scenes shot at these locations the fire brigade was again called in to provide heavy rain. Unfortunately it was during this week that the weather decided to take a turn for the better, and after two weeks of bitter cold, the valley was subject to a minor heatwave. The result being that by the time the fire brigade had sprayed an area with enough water to simulate the effect of the storm required, and had turned their nozzles heavenwards to create a downpour for filming, the groundwater was already heading in a similar direction in the form of a cloud of steam. During the filming at Bwlch, the fire brigade lost their battle with the hot sun and ran out of water, so the action had to be shot in close-up with a stirrup pump spraying the actors from just out of shot.

The filming in Dinas required the cooperation of the local population who were roped in to act as extras. The first scene to be shot was from the second episode where Roger and Gwyn go to buy flour from Jones's Shop, then the whole area was sprayed down for the final episode where Nancy is taunted by the rest of the village. It was during this shoot that both Alan Garner and Dafydd Rees made cameo appearances as the strange pair sheltering in the phone box when Nancy tries to phone for a taxi; Garner had to play his scenes with a stoop as he towered above the other villagers! These were not the only cameo appearances in the show, as the photo of the ill fated Bertram was actually a portrait of Peter Plummer, who had 'amused himself' by playing Nancy's unfortunate lover, with hair greased back à la Bertie Wooster!

It is interesting to note that although Nancy failed to get her cab, a taxi driver had been featured in the original script; his taxi was to be the designer's 1960 Hillman, suitably decked out with a meter, a 'taxi' sign, and little white plastic skeleton swinging in the back window. As Peter explains, "We had been trying to shoot as tightly as possible. Alan felt that the taxi was a mistake in that it implied some possibility of an 'alternative' get-out for Nancy, when the whole drive of the story was that she had none."

The only other actors to be credited appeared as villagers in the last episode: Cheerful Man, Gloomy Man, Stupid Woman and Foxy man. This last character was originaly called 'Rat-Faced Man', but one can imagine the reaction of the actor given such an appellation. The story ended with what was referred to as the 'next generation' sequence, in which three young local children deck out the Stone of Gronw with flowers; this was added by Alan Garner to add to the theme of continuity.

After the actual story had been filmed, the last few days in Wales were spent shooting a series of promotional trailers for the serial: lasting three minutes, two minutes, one minute, thirty seconds and fifteen seconds. These featured the main members of the cast talking to camera introducing clips from episodes. For example, after a shot of Nancy shouting at Gwyn, Francis Wallis as Roger says, "Is your mother like that!", to be followed by a similar shot with Gwyn getting the upper hand, and Edwin Richfield as Clive exclaiming "Or is your son like that!". The viewer was then encouraged to watch THE OWL SERVICE the following Sunday. A similar trailer featured Clive telling Alison that "All we want you to be is happy". Only a few of these were shown in conjunction with the original transmission, mainly on Granada.

The cast and production team left Wales on Friday June the twentieth, 1969, the filming now being completed, apart from a few shots which were to be filmed at Granada studios over the next two weeks. Post-production began in earnest on Thursday the third of July when film editor, Don Kelly, started to piece together the seven hundred and forty-three different shots which were to become THE OWL SERVICE. After the first week's editing, it was decided that the footage be edited into eight episodes rather than the seven originally concieved, an idea that had taken form during the final stage of filming. The shoot had come in on schedule and almost exactly within its set budget which was a major factor in encouraging Granada in its film drama productions such as BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and JEWEL IN THE CROWN etc.

The opening title sequence was the creation of the programme's graphic designer, Bridget Appleby. Using a series of photographs as reference material, she produced animated sequences such as the guttering candle flame and the 'hand-shadow' bird fluttering, which when put together with the theme music, the Welsh folk tune, Ton Alarch, played by the harpist Jean Bell, and an assortment of sound effects, including a motor-bike revving and a bath in the Wynnstay Hotel emptying, attempted to highlight the disturbimg nature of the serial. The remaining incidental music was effectively chosen from a variety of stock sources, such as "Drumnastics".

A sepia-toned reprise of scenes from the previous episodes, with a voice-over, courtesy of Granada's Presentation Department, giving an explanation of the story so far, was a feature of the beginning of each episode from the second onwards. This often included information not yet revealed by the previous episode. Granada went to a lot of trouble in making sure the viewers at home knew what was going on; they went as far as showing rushes of the first episode to an audience of school children, and setting a questionnaire afterwards to gauge their understanding of the various relationships.

Several changes were made to the originally planned serial to change it from seven episodes into eight, and generally involve a lengthening of the material in the middle episodes. Episode One, as finished, is very much as envisaged. Episode Two was originally meant to run longer and embrace the material with Roger and Huw by the stone, which in the finished version appears in Episode Three. Episode Three was to end with scenes of Alison, Roger and Gwyn outside Alison's Hut, after the sequence of Alison watching Clive wash his car. By Episode Four, the episodes were over-running considerably. Thus the climax occurs 18 minutes into the finished Episode Five with Clive saying "Hang on, old stick," to Alison, just prior to the caption reading "FOUR DAYS LATER". This caption would have started Episode Five.

A scene showing Roger and Clive swimming was planned but unused, it was to be just before the scene where they find Alison at the barn. Episode Five was due to finish with Gwyn scrambling up the hillside, and indeed Episode Six does. Thus the final two episodes were more-or-less as planned, but Episode Six was to end with Nancy smashing the glass case in the stable, and Episode Seven starting with their chase through the rain.

Gwyn (Michael Holden) and Roger (Francis Wallis) watch as Clive (Edwin Richfield) tries to reason with Alison  (Gillian  Hills)

The serial was broadcast for the first time on December 28th 1969, spilling over into the first two months of 1970. Unfortunately, there had been union disagreements about the switch from black and white to colour which resulted in all the episodes being transmitted in black and white, not colour as billed in television guides. Although the serial came in for a lot of praise by most critics, some considered it 'too adult' for younger viewers. The ITV companies nominated the Granada production as the British entry for the Prix Jeunesse in 1970, the leading international award for young people's films. However, as Peter Plummer himself explained, "the jury in Munich found it 'deeply disturbing' and questioned whether it was not indeed reprenhensible to offer such material to young people. Today, ironically, the same countries that through up their hands in horror in 1970 are now bying THE OWL SERVICE for their state channels! I hear that Spain has just bought it, for example."

The serial was to receive its first colour transmission in the summer of 1978, when it was shown as a tribute to the programme's lighting cameraman, David Wood, who had died that year. A new set of prints were struck for this occasion and great care had to be taken to preserve the original colours as Eastmancolour had changed the colour standard of their original sixteen millimetre film. The final caption card seen at the end of the recent repeats reading "A Granada Colour Production" was added at this time.

Even after eighteen years, the quality of this production still shines through. Colour television production was in it's infancy, yet Peter Plummer aided by David Wood were willing still willing to take risks, and experiment with the new media of colour film. Some of David's extraordinary camera angles in the early episodes certainly added to the air of mystery, and one can not help notice his use of mirrors, such as the scene where both Roger and Gwyn are seen reflected in different lenses of Alison's sun glasses. The serial has stood the passage of time far better than simmilar productions of the early Seventies when the vagueries of kipper ties and flairs took over. The only fault that the serial possessed was a certain lack of pace in the middle episodes; perhaps the story could have been confined to seven episodes as originally intended. Indeed with the average episode lasting twenty-four minutes in total, with two of those being take up with credits, the story seemed unnecessarily stretched to make the eight 'half-hours' required.

On the whole THE OWL SERVICE is one of the landmarks of British Telefantasy, and young people's drama in general; it stands out as an exceptional film series, and certainly paved the way for Granada's more prestigious productions. It was the result of many weeks of hard work by a cast and crew that exhibited a lot of personal commitment to the filming, and indeed, they would appear to have realised they were creating something rather special and enjoyed every minute of it. As James Green, the Chargehand Electrician was to say to Peter Plummer; "I never thought I would say this, but I've really come to look forward to Monday mornings."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

'FILMING THE OWL SERVICE - A Children's Diary', by Ellen, Adam and Katherine Garner with contributions from Alan Garner and Peter Plummer, 1970, William Collins & Co. Ltd..

'I'VE SEEN A GHOST', Richard Davis, 1979, Hutchinson.

'THE MABINOGION', translated by Gwyn Jones and Thomas Jones, 1949, J.M.Dent & Sons.

'THE OWL SERVICE', Alan Garner, 1967, William Collins & Co. Ltd..

to THE OWL SERVICE EPISODE GUIDE