1 9 7 8 (UK)
5 x 30 minute episodes
Teenager Penelope (Sophie Thompson, the younger sister of Emma) lives in the twentieth century but when she goes to live with her Aunt Tissie (Elizabeth Bradley) and Uncle Barnabas (Gerald James) at Thackers, a remote ancient Derbyshire farmhouse, she finds herself travelling back in time to the Elizabethan era.
There she joins the lives of the notorious Babington family and finds herself caught up in treason against Queen Elizabeth I by a Catholic faction supportive of Mary Queen of Scots (Heather Chasen), and plotting her rescue to restore her to the throne.
Most location shooting took place at the Groom family farm in Dethick, Derbyshire. This led to farmer’s son Simon Groom becoming a long-running Blue Peter presenter when he chanced a radio interview with producer Dorothea Brooking, leading him to audition for Biddy Baxter at the BBC.
Penelope Taberner Cameron
Sophie Thompson
Uncle Barnabas
Gerald James
Aunt Tissie/Dame Cicely Taberner
Elizabeth Bradley
Tabitha
Sarah Benfield
Francis Babington
Simon Gipps-Kent
Mistress Babington
Mary Maude
Jude
Louis Hammond
Anthony Babington
Charles Rogers
Mary Queen of Scots
Heather Chasen
Arabella
Michele Copsey
Tom Snowball
Michael Greatorex
Seton
Gillian Maude
Adam Deedick
Graham Rigby
Dick Woodiwiss
Derrick Gilbert
Chideock Tichbourne
Paul Geoffrey
Father Ballard
Seymour Green
Will Jessup
Anthony Lindford
Monsieur Oudry
Gabor Vernon
Episodes
The Door | The Kitchen | The Locket | The Tunnel | The ribbon
