Just going through the haunted wing of my computer-account & came upon this
impassioned plea to 'Television Heaven' who totally ignored my plea. Can anyone
on the list help??
Hi,
I'm a boat enthusiast who has been trying to track down the following programme
for years. Someone in the canal chatroom has come up with the goods [see below]
but can I get the series on DVD?
Please help
Regards,
Barry Holland.
The first drama series to be filmed in colour by Granada Television (two years
before ITV's regular colour service began), The Flower Of Gloster was about
four youngsters who crew a narrow-boat from North Wales to London and their
adventures on Britain's inland waterways.
In fact, the series was largely experimental in more ways than one, the tales
being a mixture of plotted storylines, natural history and improvisation. The
lead characters played themselves (all the character first names were the names
of the actors) and any chance to take in a place of historical interest on
their journey (Woburn Abbey, Stoeke Bruene Museum - which portrays the heritage
of 200 years of inland waterways) was taken up by the series producer Bill
Grundy. This all mixed in rather oddly with the fictional tales of haunted
forests and bovver boys.
The plot involved Richard Doherty (Richard O'Callaghan), eldest son of Jim (Jim
Doherty), a boatyard owner from Wales who is unable to deliver a new barge to
London when he breaks his leg in an accident. So Richard takes the helm and is
accompanied by his sister Elizabeth (Elizabeth Doherty) and they are soon
joined by their young brother Mike (Mike Doherty) and their friend Annette
(Annette Roberston), and for 13 weeks they traverse the waterways of west
England passing towns, cities and villages.
Chris McMaster, who the following year would bring a different type of
children's action/adventure series to the screen when he devised Freewheelers,
wrote the series. The name of the boat and series title was inspired by Ernest
Temple Thurston's evocative account of a springtime journey by barge around the
canals of Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Gloucestershire, 'The Flower of
Gloster' first published in 1911. Producer Bill Grundy went on to television
notoriety when he interviewed the Sex Pistols on live television, inadvertently
kicking off the whole punk rock era, and ending his own TV career.
13 episodes of 30 minute duration. Granada Television 1967.
Barry
Nb notholdingmybreath
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