Brendon Chase

"Brendon Chase" is a children's novel by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writing as "BB". It was published in 1944, but is set in 1922 (this year being revealed by the fact that a letter to the boys' parents was written on a Friday and dated October the 20th). It was later made into a 13-part TV serial (described as being set in 1925), adapted by James Andrew Hall, produced by Southern Television in association with RM Productions and Primetime Television in 1980, and shown on ITV in the United Kingdom from December 31, 1980 to March 25, 1981 (other than in Wales where HTV Wales transmitted it between April and July 1981, after it had been displaced by Welsh-language programmes before the inception of S4C). The series was also shown in many other European countries, including Germany (see this [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Im_Schatten_der_Eule German Wikipedia entry] ), The Netherlands, Sweden and Norway.

Plot summary

Both the novel and the TV series were based around the Hensman brothers, Robin (played in the TV series by Craig McFarlane), John (played by Howard Taylor) and Harold (played by Paul Erangey, who died in 2004 at the age of 37), who spend eight months living as outlaws in the forest of Brendon Chase. As in much British children's literature of the era, their parents are conveniently absent, with their mother having died and their father being away in India (then part of the British Empire), in the book both parents are alive and living in India. During the Easter holidays they are staying with their Aunt Ellen, a strict and somewhat cold spinster (played in the TV series by Rosalie Crutchley). After their behaviour becomes too much for her to cope with, and with Harold ill in bed, Robin and John are severely punished and put in quarantine when they would otherwise have returned to boarding school (described as "Banchester" - the name is similar to Winchester College, but apparently it was inspired more by the author's alma mater of Rugby School). They decide to run away and fend for themselves, taking some food from their aunt's house, and also taking a rifle and ammunition so they can survive in the wild.

Despite continued attempts to catch them (usually involving Police Sergeant Bunting, played in the TV series by Michael Robbins, and the Reverend Whiting, played in the series by Christopher Biggins) the three brothers - Robin and John are later joined by Harold when he recovers from his illness - prove sufficiently quick-witted and ingenious to evade capture for eight months, surviving on what they can kill (the acceptance of which is one of the most interesting aspects of both the book and the TV series today) and on supplies occasionally taken from other sources. A recurring subplot involves the brazenly cynical journalist Monica Hurling (played in the TV series by Liza Goddard) from a fictional newspaper called "The London Planet" (clearly based on the more populist papers of the 1920s, such as the Daily Express), who has written a number of stories stirring up public interest in the Hensman boys, while the paper has offered a £50 reward to whoever can find them. She represents an amoral, sophisticated London, and the conflict between her and the conservative rural community where she is reporting has wider resonance in terms of social history.

In the later part of their time living in the wild, the boys - who by this time have long been wearing rabbit skins after their clothes had worn out - encounter an eccentric elderly charcoal burner called Smokoe Joe (played in the TV series by Paul Curran), who becomes a close friend: they eventually live in his hut after the hole in a tree where they have been living becomes too cold in the autumn and winter. After their father has arrived back in Britain, the boys are finally recaptured when Smokoe Joe becomes seriously ill, and they have to get help to save his life. They finally return to their aunt's house (Smokoe Joe recovers, and receives the £50 for the boys' recapture) with the bear that had escaped in the forest near the end of their adventure settling down to hibernate for the winter in the tree where they had lived.

Background

Behind the book were hidden tragic elements in the author's own life: Robin, like several of his characters, was named after his son who had died at the age of seven, and the camaraderie of the boys was BB's imagination of the friendships he had never had as a child (having been considered too physically weak to mix with others).

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

The TV series was filmed mainly around the New Forest and in Portchester, Hampshire (although the setting of the book was inspired more by the author's native Northamptonshire), and was produced and directed by David Cobham with music by Paul Lewis (flute played by James Galway). It contains much striking and poignant wildlife photography, and arguably sums up Southern Television's entire ethos, which probably could not have survived the 1980s - by the time the series was shown, the company knew it had lost its franchise. Although it was shown more than once in some other countries, it only received one transmission in Britain, mainly because of Southern's franchise loss (although Runaround and Worzel Gummidge were repeated after the company had gone off the air). The series has never received any kind of commercial release, whether on video or DVD.

External links (relating to the TV series)

* [http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/brendon.html Brief review of the series]
* [http://www.memorabletv.com/episodeguides/brendonchase.htm Episode guide] - note that this link contains some inaccuracies: certain events are placed in the wrong episode and the boys' surname has been misremembered.