1 9 5 5 – 1 9 5 6 (UK)
13 x 30 minute episodes
Taking its cue from the earlier The Silver Swan, this was an educational journey through the ages as seen through the eyes of one family. The linking device this time was a valuable candlestick with fourteen branches, the symbol of the Gordon family honour.
The original candle had been won by a courtier of King Arthur, having saved the King’s life and another branch had been added to the candlestick every hundred years by the incumbent Gordon generation, providing their honour had not been besmirched by greed or dishonesty.
Throughout time, the Gordon’s had to guard the candlestick against the Fitzwilliams, a jealous family line and each adventure in time would pit another ancestral Gordon against the Fitzwilliams.
The first episode told of how the candlestick was won from King Arthur with subsequent adventures set at the time of King Richard and the Crusades, the invention of the cannon, the genesis of the Spanish Armada, the English Civil War, and the Indian Mutiny.
Lord Freddie Gordon/Sir Rufus/Sir Phineas/Sir Roger
Bruce Gordon
Admiral the Duke of Tyburne/Captain Sir Francis Gordon
Paul Whitsun-Jones
Sir James Fitzwilliam/Sir Guy/Sir Hubert/Colonel Fitzwilliam
Colin Douglas
Ronald Fitzwilliam/Rollo/Sir Malthus/Sir Thomas/Sir Jeremy
Barry Letts
Servant
Peter Diamond
Barney
Dennis Ramsden
Poppy the maid
Sheila Shand Gibbs (1)
Penelope Bartley (2)
Hunk
Nigel Arkwright
Matt
Garth Adams
Night Wolf
Peter Macarte
PC Willis
Robert Perceval
Swift Arrow
Paddy Ward
Chief Sitting Bull
Peter Bull
Gezir Mohammed
Patrick Cargill
Corporal Bramblehead
Christopher Hodge
Rumpunch
Charles Lloyd Pack
Kyle
Redvers Kyle
King Charles I
Derek Waring
Dusty McCool
Shaw Taylor
Earl of Dudgeon
Philip Dale
Prince Salamud
Marne Maitland
King Richard the Lion Heart
Robert Raikes
Princess Zerina
June Rodney
Miss Harding
Christine Russell
Colonel Mainwaring
Campbell Singer
Don Jose
Ewen Solon
King Arthur
Richard Wordsworth
King Henry VI
Michael Allinson
Running Deer
Patrick Carter
White Eagle
John Drake
General Poinceau
Michael Kent
Tim Raffety
Arthur Lowe
MacOstrich
John Rae
Queen Elizabeth I
Peggy Thorpe-Bates
Episodes
King Arthur’s Candlestick | The Crusader’s Candlestick | The Gunpowder Candlestick | The Sea-Captain’s Candlestick | The Cavalier’s Candlestick | The Mutiny Candlestick | The Secret Agent’s Candlestick || The Prisoner’s Candlestick | The Potato Candlestick | The Red Indian Candlestick | The Twins Candlestick | The Wild West Candlestick | The Diving-Bell Candlestick
