The Owl Service

This was originally a Sunday evening children's programme. Some people found the plot hard going. However this does not distract from beautifully filmed,mystic quality of the programme. As a video release this would ideal, enabling it to be digested in your own time. Could be Gillian Hills' finest hour?

Supposedly produced for young people, this mini-series has moments of eroticism and sexuality that are too adult for adolescents. The eternally youthful looking Gillian Hills was 24 in 1968 when she starred in this. Gillian, Michael Holden and Francis Wallis form the odd love triangle in an old Welsh country house and are drawn by occult forces to reenact a Welsh myth. They're supposed to be around 15 or 16. There's a weird vibe to the show. There's a modern car and SLR camera in some scenes and the three dress in style contemporary to 1968, especially Gillian who wears the miniskirts of that time. She's petulant and pouty and not really lovingly photographed by the DP and the two guys who vie for her attention are even more pouty and petulant. Yet the rooms in the fetid, worn out house are lit by old-fashioned oil or kerosene lamps making it seem like a house of the 19th century. The audio is in rough condition and with odd dialogue and overwrought acting, the listening is rough going. The Owl Service is not horror, not a soap opera, not a mystery and not a romantic saga but it's a mix of all of them.

An 8-part TV series that includes a supernatural theme based on folklore, murder, (hinted, off-screen) sex, and demonic possession.

So perfect Sunday teatime viewing for all the family in 1970, with the first episodes being shown just before Christmas 1969.

No need to go into the story too much. It is retelling/updating/"inspired by" story based on a tale from the Mabinogion by acclaimed children's author Alan Garner, who was heavily involved in this TV version of his novel (and as a result it is a very faithful version). It features three young people (probably meant to be aged around 15-16) in an emotional triangle (to call it a love triangle would be misleading), living in a Welsh manor house in a valley cut off from the outside world (no electricity, phone, etc. - which was entirely plausible for the late 60s/early 70s).

The discovery of a strange dinner service results takes over the young girl - Alison - (played very well by an actress some 10 years older than the part she is playing) who is compelled to trace the pattern on the plates and make paper owls. And so the story begins.

After this it gets quite complex - to the extent that the summary of the previous episode that starts episodes 2-8 is absolutely required viewing, even if you are binging the entire series (its available on YouTube) because you will have missed something!

The three young actors (though they are significantly older than the parts they play) do a great job holding together a tale that basically only has six parts in it (the others being the father of two of the children, a live-in housekeeper and mother of the third, and a strange and apparently a little mad handyman/gardener.

Spread over 8 25-minute episodes the story will seem a little slow to modern viewers, with not a great deal of action (you can literally count the number of spots of blood that are shown), but what is hinted at and what probably happens off camera is another matter entirely.

Perhaps this is where the family viewing comes in because adult viewers will likely get the hints that children will miss, such as - to take one fairly mild example - why is Alison "ill" and in bed at the start, in her red nightdress, despite actually appearing quite perky? Not that hard for an adult to guess.

Each episode pushes the story forward with the last one being quite strong stuff, with what is essentially a form of demonic possession centre screen. A suspect a few viewers choked on the Sunday tea when this was shown.

But it is not just the story that would raise eyebrows - and actually make this unfilmable today (for children anyway) - it is also the style of filming. There may be little blood, but the camera loves Alison's legs in their 1960s short skirts to an extent that would be very worrying if you did not know that the actress was 25.

Overall this is a dark, complex, difficult but brilliant drama that uses folklore and the supernatural in a way that would be utterly impossible for the target audience today.

I think I'm one of maybe two Americans who have seen this (the other being Steve Puchalski of "Shock Cinema" magazine on whose recommendation I recently bought this DVD, sight unseen, from Amazon UK). This short-lived but fondly remembered British TV series is a very offbeat, supernatural mystery set in the Welsh countryside revolving around a set of dinner plates (that's right--dinner plates) that a step-brother and sister and their housekeeper's son find in the attic of a country cottage. It's a low-budget and (especially by today's standards) low-key affair, but it is nevertheless effective and interesting, at times even unsettling.

You could compare it to the offbeat, unsettling American TV series "Twin Peaks",I guess, but it really has indelible elements of 60's era BBC programming and high-quality children's literature (it was based on a children's book). I personally enjoy all of these things, and being one quarter Welsh, I find Welsh mythology very interesting (although I have to say the Welsh countryside is actually one of the most boring places I've ever visited).

Due to it's roots in children's literature and television, this is obviously not chock-full of sex or violence. But what the mild violence it contains is eerily unsettling, and there is kind of a teen love triangle that is rather perverse in that two of it's members are step-brother and step-sister. Moreover, the step-sister is played by Gillian Hills, a gorgeous 60's-era, Swinging London dolly-bird who is most famous for a pair of three-way sex scenes in two classic movies of that era (with David Hemmings and Jane Birkin in "Blow Up" and with Malcolm McDowell and some other actress in "A Clockwork Orange"). She almost can't help, but bring SOME sex appeal to the proceedings. Still, by modern-day standards this is very tame and rather slow. But I liked it simply because it was offbeat and interesting, and not really like ANYTHING I'd ever seen before.

Having enjoyed Children of the Stones recently I bought this expecting great things of another (supposed) classic of spooky children's (or young adult's) TV drama. I have to report that I was sorely disappointed.

Somehow, despite having a very limited number of locations and cast – or, in fact, anything very much happening for long periods – the story is still extremely difficult to follow. The direction is uneven; plot lines tail off and are never explained or resolved and the acting is often inept sometimes verging on the pantomimic. The decision not to even show one of the main characters (Margaret – I wonder if Mat Lucas and David Walliams were taking notes?) just adds to the general confusion.

This is a real shame because the storyline has great potential and there are odd flashes of brilliance. You just feel the whole thing could have been much more effectively and concisely told in half the time and that the necessity of padding it out over eight episodes left even those involved unsure as to what the hell was going on.

I can only put it down to the inexperience of Peter Plummer and Alan Garner in writing and directing TV drama. Both of them were also probably too close to the material to be able to see what a tangled mess they were creating.

On the plus side, the title sequence is great; Gillian Hills is wonderfully sexy and her relationship with Michael Holden is touching and occasionally quite erotic. Francis Wallis as Roger, on the other hand, is such a moaning prig it's impossible to feel any sympathy for him at all.

View as a weird late '60s TV curio – just don't expect a satisfying dramatic experience.