The classic TV series Children of the Stones offered grownup scares for 1970s kids, as Brian J. Robb recalls…

Gareth Thomas and Peter Demin in Children of the Stones (1977)

Just before he became freedom fighter Roj Blake in Terry Nation’s camp space opera Blake’s 7, Gareth Thomas was a different kind of children’s hero. As academic Adam Brake, he and his teenage son Matthew (Peter Demin) got caught up in the mystery of the ancient Milbury stone circle, which seems to be having a malign effect on the village residents. Throw in a mysterious painting, occult practices, and even black holes, and you’ve got ITV’s Children of the Stones (1977), hailed as ‘the scariest programme ever made for children’ in a Radio 4 retrospective.

The show originated with writers Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray. Both had form. Burnham had begun life as an actor in such 1960s staples as The Avengers and Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) before turning to writing, scripting Hammer’s 1970 outing The Horror of Frankenstein.

Similarly, Ray had moved from in front to behind the camera, writing and script editing on series such as Paul Temple (1969) and Doctor Who (including uncredited contributions to the Jon Pertwee serial The Ambassadors of Death, 1970).

In 1976, Burnham and Ray teamed up. ‘Trevor and I used to live not far from each other in North London,’ Burnham told web site Celluloid Wicker Man, ‘and we sometimes met for coffee to throw ideas around. We knew each other because he was the script editor for Paul Temple, and I had contributed several episodes.’ They hammered out the core idea for what would become Children of the Stones, even taking the time to go on a research trip to the famous Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire.

Milbury new arrivals astrophysicist Adam Brake and his son Matthew are engaged on a three month summer project measuring the magnetic properties of the standing stones in the isolated village. They quickly make the acquaintance of Margaret Smythe (Veronica Strong, married to writer Jeremy Burnham), who runs the local museum, and her daughter Sandra (Katharine Levy), both not long arrived themselves. Comparing notes on the oddball villagers, who have an unnerving habit of wishing everyone ‘Happy Day!’, they begin to feel all is not right in Milbury. Local misfit and poacher Dai (Freddie Jones) adds to the mystery, offering warnings about the future and the past, as oneby-one their friends and acquaintances succumb to occult forces and unthinking conformity.