The Owl Service

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.

It's sad and disappointing that some reviews fail utterly to appreciate that this serial was an absolute classic of its time. It was bold in its conception, using real locations instead of studio-based sets which was unusual for its time. Its many years now since I first saw it but I remember it vividly as a very disturbing piece of story-telling thanks to the wonderful writing of the great Alan Garner and the brilliant direction of Peter Plummer.

This is one of the best TV shows ever produced, in the same vein as the "Prisoner". It has an edge that is missing from drama nowadays. The 60's and 70's were a unique time for culture- film, drama and music and this is no exception. Imaginative and eerie at the same time, with solid performances from all the cast- it is well worth buying the DVD. which includes a booklet that gives some insights into the making of the series and the Welsh legend which was the inspiration. A classic and a rare masterpiece of TV.

This is not actually a movie but a TV series adapted from an award winning novel. Although Garner's work was marketed as children's fiction at his best he is multi-layered and this is one of his best. Alison is on holiday with her newly re-married mother, stepfather and stepbrother at a house in a remote Welsh valley. She begins a relationship with Gwyn, the son of the housekeeper, much to the disgust of her mother but soon parental disapproval is the least of their worries when Gwyn finds an owl-patterned dinner service - the Owl Service of the title - hidden away in the loft and releases an ancient magic into the valley. The past is re-enacted in the present, the tragedy of what has happened over and over in the valley is relived with a modern slant. A brief description like this can't do justice to the creeping tension of the story where even the tiniest, seemingly innocuous, event resonates with unfolding significance. I have the series on video,taped on its last TV outing in 1985 so now twenty years old, and it's not going to last for ever.

Since I wrote this post originally in 2005, and after some lobbying of Granada and Network DVD, the series has now been released. If you've never seen it before buy it, you won't be disappointed. If you have seen it before no doubt you will have already bought it as I have.

This is simply one of the finest children's TV series ever made! Yes, I really do mean that. It harks back to a age of nostalgia and lost times. So many wonderful memories of me as a very young child watching this. The vintage age of children's TV was the late 60s too around 1980.oh,and to the reviewers who only gave this one star and complaining about the actors ages and production, it was 1969!and you obviously don't have a clue what you are watching. Some people just like to belittle for the sake of it.