Great British TV

Alan Garner’s The Owl Service on TV As a child I loved Alan Garner’s books – The Weirdstone of Brisingamen and The Moon of Gomrath made a lasting impression on me. Yet somehow I never encountered his prize-winning story The Owl Service until, decades later, I chanced upon the television adaptation. I was hooked by this compelling – and sometimes unsettling – tale of three teenagers who are possessed by the power of a legend that reawakens in a Welsh valley. Garner was interviewed by the Observer Magazine (25 January 1970, with a photograph by the peerless Jane Bown, see below) about The Owl Service and his other works. He expounded on his writing philosophy: “Fantasy taken out of context of the known and mundane becomes a gratuitous form of escapism. Whereas fantasy used properly is a clarification of reality, not an escape from it.” The man who created 'The Owl Service': Alan Garner interviewed in the Observer Magazine (25 January 1970). The Observer Magazine piece deta...

You and the World: ITV Schools series Educational programmes for children were broadcast on ITV in Britain between 1957-1987. Typically these would be shown on weekday mornings or early afternoons during term time. One such programme was You and the World which aired between 1964-1976. The series was aimed at 13-16 year olds; in the rather blunt language of the time it was described as "social drama for less able pupils" and for "children in remedial classes". You and the World was produced by Associated-Rediffusion Television (later Thames). The series aimed to provide citizenship lessons, dramatising problems faced by school leavers in adjusting to the world of work and adult responsibilities. It is feared that many of the  You and the World episodes have been lost. There are hopes that rescue efforts such as the IBA Education Archive may uncover some recordings. But perhaps the twenty minute episodes live on only in the memories of 60s/70s teenagers... Series...