One thing that characterises the greatest British children’s television dramas of the 1980s is fear.
Without ever crossing the line into the kind of adult shockers that were popular in the cinema at the time, programme makers knew the best way to engross young audiences was to scare the shit out of them – not with the urban grittiness of peak period Grange Hill (good though it was) but with the kind of supernatural chills that left viewers afraid to turn the lights out at bedtime.
The Children of Green Knowe, with its family of youthful phantoms, evil Demon Tree and giant stone St Christopher statue (ostensibly a good guy but ultimately even more terrifying than its arboreal adversary), was fill-your-pants frightening; The Box of Delights had its share of spooky shocks; there was even an episode of Dramarama that still haunts this writer 30 years later.
The details are now hazy, but one scene remains horribly memorable three decades on: a young girl descending a staircase, gesturing across the balustrade at a framed portrait hanging above the lower flight. As she points, the picture falls and shatters on the stairs. Shudder.
Which brings us to Moondial, which has shudders in abundance.
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There are jump-out-of-your-seat frights, but the real tension comes from the dreamlike sense of unease that permeates every second. It’s like the moments in a nightmare just before something bad happens replayed over and over again. Add in the insidious eeriness of old houses and graveyards and the result is relentless menace. This is a ghost story where the only phantoms are the century-jumping main characters.
After all, what else is a ghost but a traveller from a different time?
What’s it about?
In the present day (which for Moondial was 1988), Araminta ‘Minty’ Cane is staying with her Aunt Mary when her mum is involved in a serious car accident. While Kate Cane lies in a coma, her supernaturally-sensitive daughter discovers an old sundial in the gardens of nearby stately home Belton House which has the power to transport people through time.
In the 19th century, Minty meets Teddy ‘Tom’ Luskin, a potboy suffering pangs of consumption and a deep longing for his missing sister. In the 18th century, these two unlikely companions meet Sarah, a young girl with severe facial scarring who is tormented by the local children and her governess, the mysterious Miss Vole.
Minty and Tom face down Sarah’s persecutors on Halloween and show her that she is beautiful in spite of her disfigurement.
Who was in it?
Jacqueline Pearce – best known as Servalan in Blake’s 7 – vamps and camps it up in the dual roles of Miss Vole and Miss Raven, all but stealing the show in the process. The younger actors mostly acquit themselves with a little more subtlety – particularly the excellent Siri Neal as Minty, although she suffers from a forgivable touch of overacting in the more emotional scenes.
Doctor Who fans with long memories may recognise Arthur Hewlett as ‘Old’ World. In 1980, he played Kalmar in ‘State of Decay’,
Best moments?
The distinctive visuals, filmed during the day but altered to look like darkness, enhance the air of strangeness in a way that simple night photography could not conjure. The music – noted TV composer David Ferguson’s first major screen credit – is satisfyingly creepy and the combined effect is an atmosphere of unworldliness: a sense that something’s wrong, something’s not quite right.
The TARDIS-like sun/moondial is the epicentre of this peculiarity and the time travel sequences, with the camera whirling around the plinth like a merry-go-round turned inside out, are particularly effective.
Yet the most unsettling – and therefore best – moment of all comes in episode six, where Sarah is surrounded by frankly terrifying children in hoods and animal masks, carrying lit pumpkin torches, announcing the coming of the Devil. The lines between satanic and anti-satanic blur and it’s a relief when Minty and Tom come to Sarah’s aid.
The dark elements of Moondial are light years away from modern children’s television – and also what sets it apart from its contemporaries. Not even The Children of Green Knowe was as freaky as this.
Last seen?
Moondial was originally transmitted in February and March 1988, with a repeat showing in 1990.
An edited BBC Video version came out the same year and a DVD (also abridged) was released in 2000. Both are long-since deleted, but a new, unexpurgated version is released on DVD on Monday 4 May.
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What are your memories of Moondial? Let us know below…