Blue Remembered Hills (BBC Play for Today)
Date: 1979
Director: Brian Gibson
Production Company: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
Stars: Colin Welland, Michael Elphick, Robin Ellis, John Bird, Helen Mirren, Janine Duvitski, Colin Jeavons
Location(s): Wiltshire
Region(s): South West
Storyline:
For seven West Country children playing in the Forest of Dean during the Second World War, a “golden day” turns to tragedy.
Additional Information:
Page compiled by Phil Wilkinson
An episode from the 9th series of BBC TVs ‘Play for Today’
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- Capture 1
- 'Now' required
On a sunny, summer afternoon in the bucolic England of 1943, Willie (Colin Welland) makes his way across a West Country field. Alan Bourke found that on his website, Robin Ellis, who played the part of John, recalls that the cast and crew decamped to Mere in Wiltshire, which took the place of the Forest of Dean.
- Capture 2
- 'Now' required
Flying like a Spitfire through the woods, Willie finds his friend Peter (Michael Elphick).
- Capture 3
- 'Now' required
Inside a barn at the edge of the field, Donald (Colin Jeavons) plays house with Audrey (Janine Duvitski) and Angela (Helen Mirren) before the domestic situation deteriorates when the girls tease him by calling him "Donald Duck".
- Capture 4
- 'Now' required
John (Robin Ellis), Willie, Raymond (John Bird) and Peter hold a dead squirrel aloft after knocking the animal out of a tree and killing it.
- Capture 5
- 'Now' required
Leaving Donald on his own in the barn, the Girls meet with the Boys and discuss building a cabin before a fight breaks out between John and Peter.
- Capture 6
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Returning to look for his pals after the fight, Peter finds Raymond, Audrey, John, Willie and Angela sheltering when the siren sounds at the nearby prisoner of war camp.
- Capture 7
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Panic sets in when the Youngsters discover that Donald is trapped inside the blazing barn after setting fire to it while playing with matches.
- Capture 8
- 'Now' required
As the the roof of the burning barn collapses, Dennis Potter narrates A. E. Housman "Into my heart an air that kills From yon far country blows: What are those blue remembered hills, What spires, what farms are those? That is the land of lost content, I see it shining plain, The happy highways where I went And cannot come again."