Flambards (1979)

Based on K.M. Peyton's Award Winning Trilogy of Novels
England in the early 1900s. The story begins as Christina (Christine McKenna) is sent to live with her domineering, crippled Uncle Russell (Edward Judd - The Hound of the Baskervilles) and her cousins Mark (Steven Grives - The Sandbaggers) and William (Alan Parnaby - The Pickwick Papers) at Flambards, a rambling, decaying mansion. Life at Flambards is a conflict of cultures, with Mark and his father clinging to a traditionalist obsession for horses, whilst William, clever and sensitive, dreams of a career in the new technology of aviation. It is into this class-conscious, male-dominated household, fraught with family friction, that Christina arrives - and her presence generates a changing pattern of events and relationships.

Season 1, Episode 1 - Aired: 2/2/1979
Christina/Blooding (Double episode)
1909: Christina arrives at Flambards and learns, painfully, the art of living in an all-male household. Uncle Russell and Cousin Mark drink too much, and even Cousin William, the quiet one has secrets. The second half of this double episode is set in 1909/10. Christina is plunged into a life that revolves around the stable yard but finds, to her dismay, that even horses can break hearts. William's views on social reform begin to spoil Christina's new found happiness.

Season 1, Episode 2 - Aired: 2/9/1979
Entry to a new world
Seeking escape from the Old World, Christina finds a welcome in a New World of oil, aeroplanes and engineers. But the Old World retains its power of revenge.

Season 1, Episode 4 - Aired: 2/23/1979
Lady Bountiful
It is summer 1911. Christina is spending her days with William, at Mr Dermot's getting Emma, the flying machine ready to fly. Mark is at home, bored, wating for the hunting season to start again in November. Christina goes to visit Dick at his house and meets his sick Mother. She decides to help them - hence the episode title, Lady Bountiful - but her help is not welcome. Dick leaves to join the army, and Violet is sacked, and paid off, after she becomes pregnant with Mark's baby. The family then disappear. However Dick comes back to exact revenge on Mark. The village celebrate the Coronation of King George V, June 22nd 1911, with maypole dancing and a beauty pageant.

Season 1, Episode 5 - Aired: 3/2/1979
Point to Point
It's the Point-to-Point meeting, and Mark is competing on Golden Willow. All the locals have turned out for a day of fun, with coconut shies, roundabouts and fortune tellers. Even Uncle Russell has been brought by Mr Thornton in his motor car. William is out flying Emma and decides to watch too. He scares the horses and crashes into a tree. Uncle Russell is furious and decides to send William to Canada. William however disappears. Just a week later it is the Hunt Ball. William has promised to come back and take Christina. He is good to his word and at the Ball proposes to her. They leave the Ball and elope to London.

Season 1, Episode 6 - Aired: 3/9/1979
The Cold Light of Day
William and Christina arrive in London. Aunt Grace is shocked, but accepts Christina back and William goes off to find work. He finds it more difficult than expected, but finally finds work at Elm Park as a plane mechanic. Christina comes to visit and they makes friends with Dorothy and Sandy, the pilot. Christina gets work in Dorothy's father's hotel. They go to London to see a specialist about William's leg, and in the paper read that Mr Dermot has died taking the repaired Emma up on her test flight. William had been due to do this, except for the London appointment.

Season 1, Episode 7 - Aired: 3/16/1979
Edge of the Cloud
William goes to Mr Dermot's funeral and visits Flambards afterwards. His father refuses to acknowledge him, but Mark is discreetly pleased to see him. Mr Dermot has left Emma to William and he flies it back to Elm Park, where Sandy and Christina were waiting for him. He and Christina spend the night mending the Bleriot. Christina becomes head receptionist at the hotel and receives a visit from Mark. William finally has his operation, which is a complete success - so he is able to fly the Bleriot. He and Christina take on a job for Mr Adams; flying the Bleriot back to France and picking up a new one. It is an exciting adventure for them both, and William proposes in writing, receiving a YES! in reply.

Season 1, Episode 8 - Aired: 3/23/1979
Flying High
William and Christina are back from France. Sandy and William discuss the possibility of looping the loop. William makes some adjustments to the Bleriot and succeeds, Sandy follows suit soon afterwards. Mark comes to the hotel, in his army uniform, and finds Christina, William, Dorothy and Sandy having a flat-warming party. He tells them that Russell senior has died. William refuses to be interested, but Christina attends the funeral. Here the Aunts discuss William's absence with disdain, but Mark stands up for him and reveals that Flambards has been left in its entirety to him. William is to inherit nothing. William visits Aunt Grace, now Christina's legal guardian, who agrees that they may marry, providing William gets a good job. She also gives him Christina's mother's engagement ring, for Christina. The Dermot, the plane William has designed and built is finally ready for a test flight. He invites the man from Brooklands, who had wanted to see a flying design before he would offer him a job. The test flight goes well, and William gets his job. But then tragedy strikes; on a flight of the Bleriot there is a problem. The plane explodes and the pilot is flung out and dies. It is ... Sandy.

Season 1, Episode 9 - Aired: 3/30/1979
Sing No Sad Songs
Sandy has died and the friends are so stunned they don't know how to react. The funeral brings home the finality of it all. William and Christina get married and Mark gives her away, looking very smart in his uniform. Lots of photos are taken, much to William's annoyance at being a model for the day! We then see them at a rented cottage, William in Flying Corps uniform and sporting a small moustache. They have been married 2 years and 8 months, but only spent a couple of months together. Just the night before Christina finally arranged the wedding photos in an album. She has received a telegram that Mark is 'missing in action, presumed dead'. At the end of his leave, William returns to duty and Christina returns to the hotel. Soon afterwards she receives a telegram ' Regret to inform that Captain William Russell...' He has died. Christina is unable to cry and will remember only the 93 days spent together. She and Dorothy ride out to Elm Park and remember the old days. Christina decides to return to Flambards. At Flambards, the house is even more decayed, but she has receives a warm welcome from Mary and Fowler. Christina has decided that her inheritance will be spent restoring Flambards. She goes into William's room and finally breaks down and cries. She is taken ill, and Dr Porter is called. The news is ... Christina is expecting William's child.

Season 1, Episode 10 - Aired: 4/6/1979
New Blood
Christina has decided to restore Flambards to its former glory, much to the exhaustion of Mary and Fowler. She is forced to rest by the doctor, as she is endangering the baby. But her plans include starting to farm again as well, so Fowler finds a couple of simple lads from the village to help. They seem to spend most of their time skiving. Christina, keen to populate the house, suddenly remembers Violet had Mark's child and sets off to London to find them. The child was a boy, Thomas, but called Tizzy. He loves horses and Christina offers to take him to live at Flambards, in exchange for £200. Violet accepts and Tizzy starts his new life. The first night he misses his sisters, but soon gets into helping with the horses, and even wins over Mary.

Season 1, Episode 11 - Aired: 4/15/1979
Prisoners of War
Christina continues with her plans for Flambards, but as her pregnancy progresses she has to take thing a bit easier. After a conversation with young Tizzy she determines to go to London to find Dick, the old stable boy. After a bit of detective work, she tracks him down. She offers him the job of running Flambards, but he doesn't want to go back to the old world. Her plans carry on regardless, and they get a German prisoner of war (POW) to help. He speaks no English but is a hard worker. He is set up for a theft, but at that moment Dick arrives to take up Christina's offer. He speaks fluent German and soon sorts out the problem. Christina is delighted The added bonus is that Willhelm, the POW, is a farmer himself, and they set about ploughing and have a herd of cattle. The Lucas's invite Christina to drinks and she takes Dick, whom she forces to stay and be accepted by the others. Willhelm has to act as midwife when Christina goes into labour, and he delivers her baby daughter, whilst Dick and Fowler stand in the kitchen worrying!

Season 1, Episode 12 - Aired: 4/22/1979
What Are Servants For?
The farm is running well under Dick\\\'s control. There is a crop of potatoes and turnips. At the supper to celebrate they all sing and joke together when there is a ring at the bell. Dick goes to answer the door - it is Mark! Mark is amazed at all the changes, but furious at Dick being there. He says he can only stay on one condition - that Christina marries Mark. She is unable to accept, if for no reason other than the fact that she doesn\\\'t love him. They eat dinner in silence and then Christina runs off as she is concerned that Dick will leave again. He is planning to go, but seeing how Christina feels, they kiss. Christina returns to Flambards to see a postman leaving. It is a telegram for her, which she cannot face opening. Turns out that Dorothy is paying a visit, and in fact she is there already!

Season 1, Episode 13 - Aired: 4/29/1979
The Inheritance
Mark will not have Dick running his farm, so Christina decides that she too will leave with Tizzy and Isabelle (William's baby) and start again. Mark calls his lawyer so that he can make restitution for her expenditure on Flambards. In fact the lawyer suggests that Mark's only solution is to sell and Christina offers to buy. So now Flambards is in Christina's hands and Dick need not leave. Mark gets called back to the army, and spends time with Dorothy. They all call the staff into the dining room and make the announcement about Flambards, about Mark and his engagement to Dorothy and finally that Dick and Christina are to be married. Mark even gets to like Dick and will be running a hotel with Dorothy in Northamptonshire - where the hunting is very, very good. Thus Christina gets Flambards and Dick.

Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, Michael Ferguson, Leonard Lewis
Written by K.M. Peyton, Alex Glasgow, William Humble, Alan Plater
Produced by Leonard Lewis
Executive Produced by David Cunliffe
Original Music by David Fanshawe
Cinematography by Peter Jackson
Film Editing by Tudor Lloyd, Graham Shrimpton
Costume Design by Christine Robinson, Gillian Grimes