Children of the New Forest, The

1 9 5 5 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes

Captain Frederick Marryat’s 1847 classic children’s novel was first produced by the BBC as a six-part series which aired in April and May 1955 and was repeated again in January the following year.

Set during the English Civil War, the series told of the trials and tribulations of the Royalist Beverley family in the days of Oliver Cromwell (played here by Warren Mitchell).

The orphaned Beverley children – Alice (Shirley Cooklin), Edith (Gillian Gale), Humphrey (Anthony Valentine) and Edward (Alan Edwards) – are smuggled away from their home when their father (a Cavalier officer) is killed while fighting for the King’s army and taken to the isolated cottage of Jacob Armitage (Harold Scott) – a royalist forester – and hidden there.

The aristocratic children pose as peasants and learn to survive on their own when Armitage dies, encountering various adventures and becoming involved with the family of Parliament’s new Intendant of the New Forest, Heatherstone (Ralph Nossek).

The BBC made another six-episode series of The Children of the New Forest in 1964.

Alice Beverley
Shirley Cooklin
Edith Beverley
Gillian Gale
Humphrey Beverley
Anthony Valentine
Edward Beverley
Alan Edwards
Oswald
John Abineri
Pablo
Alaric Cotter
Mr Heatherstone
Ralph Nossek
Patience Heatherstone
Shirley Watson
Oliver Cromwell
Warren Mitchell
Colonel Ingram
Colin Douglas
Captain Benfield
Robert Hewitt
Ned Corbould
Clem Lister
Jacob Armitage
Harold Scott
Agatha
Barbara Hicks
Narrator
Lewis Stringer

Episodes

The Flight | A New Life | Alone | Hunted | The Attack | Back to Arnwood