1 9 6 8 – 1 9 7 0 (UK)
26 x 30 minute episodes
From the golden age of children’s television drama, Tom Grattan’s War was a period piece, set at the time of the First World War and told the tale of a 16-year-old London lad (Michael Howe) who is too young to help his country in the far off fields of Flanders, so is therefore set to work on a farm to help with the nation’s food production.
While Tom’s father is fighting in Europe his mother is helping the war effort by working in a London munitions factory. For his part, Tom is sent on a long journey to stay with relatives in rural Yorkshire for the duration of the war
Once at the Kirkby’s moorland farm, he is set to work in the fields, making his own quiet contribution to the war effort.
But Tom is introduced to much more than unfamiliar country ways. Along with the Kirkby’s daughter, Julie, he encounters espionage, kidnapping, robbery and sabotage, and also faces more complex dilemmas – not least when German prisoners of war working at the nearby quarry become the target for angry attacks by local people who have lost loved ones at the front.
Whilst the war is fought on the remote battlefields of Europe, its consequences are all too real for Tom and his new friends.
Dramatic and often spectacular storylines combined with themes of duty and moral conflict in this acclaimed adventure series from Yorkshire Television.
The narrator (Richard Warner) appeared at the start of each episode and provided an occasional voice-over during each story.
The show aired on Saturdays at 5:20 PM between August 1968 and 1970.
The production team of the second series of Tom Grattan’s War went on to make the horse sanctuary drama Follyfoot, which repeated many of the essential features of its predecessor; a rural setting, shot entirely on film and on location and featuring young adult, rather than child, lead characters.
Tom Grattan
Michael Howe
Julie Kirkby
Sally Adcock
Mrs Kirkby
Connie Merigold
Stan Hobbs
George Malpas
Narrator
Richard Warner
Episodes
The Watcher | The Night Intruder | Menace at the Mine | Monster of Steel | The Prisoner | The Secret Boat | The Fire Raisers | The Terrible Townsends | Robbery with Violence | Battle at Weaver’s Lock | The Hero | The Mysterious Lighthouse | The Wreckers
The Walking Bomb | Blind Man’s Bluff | Bridge of Death | The Coward | Badge of Fear | Eye for an Eye | Five Minute Fuse | Soldier from Margham | Peddlar’s Ransom | Ghost of Hookey Vale | The Inventor | Castle of Terror | Sky Patrol
