Barnstormers, The

1 9 6 4 (UK)
11 x 30 minute episodes

This children’s series from Rediffusion featured five teenagers (four boys and a girl) who become bored during their school holidays and decide to form their own theatre group – The Tudor Players.

The kids set off in search of a suitable venue in which they can perform their play and happen across a deserted 18th-century watermill which stands by a stream near their village.

The mill is ideal; Reasonably easy to convert into a basic theatre set and large enough to house an audience. There is also nobody close enough to worry about any noise they might make.

As the plans for the first production of their play take shape, the children start uncovering fascinating aspects of the old mill’s history.

It is rumoured to have been the former home of an old pirate who – it is said – may have hidden his treasure within its walls.

The children begin to explore and discover that the mill is full of secret passages and carefully concealed trap doors. But time is against them because a local property developer – the villain of the piece – has also heard the stories of hidden treasures and is determined to buy the mill.

The series was adapted by Henry Soskin from a play by Joy Thwaytes and was directed by Marc Miller. Future Sweeney and Minder star Dennis Waterman co-starred as Mike.

Mike
Dennis Waterman
Philip
Peter Hempson
Rusty
Gerald Rowland
Sarah
Patricia Wilson
Alan
John Pike
Miranda 
Tina Martin
Elizabeth 
Susan Purdie
Peter
Jeff Shankley
Eddie
Bernard Lloyd

Episodes

Mystery at the Mill | Philip | The Lost Treasure | Enter a Stranger | The Trap | Camberley’s Quest | The Spanish Casket | A Door to Nowhere | Rusty in Danger | Old Alexander’s Secret | Play Making with the Barnstormers