1 9 7 7 (UK)
4 x 55 minute episodes
Premiering on 16 October 1977, this four-part BBC1 Sunday teatime series – set in the 18th century and based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson – starred Ashley Knight (who played the young Claudius in I, Claudius) as young Jim Hawkins, who becomes involved with buccaneers during his quest to find pirate treasure buried on a secret island.
No sooner does Jim arrive on the Bristol docks than Captain Smollett (Richard Beale) and Squire Trelawney (Thorley Walters) welcome him aboard the schooner Hispaniola as a cabin boy.
Jim is in possession of a map once belonging to the notorious pirate Captain Flint that tells of a treasure chest buried in the forests of the legendary pirate haunt, Skeleton Island.
The young lad comes of age on board the Hispaniola as he successfully steers to reach Treasure Island.
Finding a confidante in the shady smooth-tongued one-legged villain Long John Silver (former Public Eye star Alfred Burke), Jim embarks on a life-changing adventure that is ripe with adjusting loyalties and life-threatening betrayals and displays the persistence of human courage.
Other notables in the cast included the ubiquitous Patrick Troughton as Israel Hands, David Collings as Blind Pew and Jack Watson – who looked like a man born to play pirates – as Billy Bones.
Much of the series was filmed in Corsica.
Long John Silver
Alfred Burke
Jim Hawkins
Ashley Knight
Dr Livesey
Anthony Bate
Israel Hands
Patrick Troughton
Job Anderson
Stephen Greif
Tom Morgan
Talfryn Thomas
George Merry
Roy Boyd
O’Brian
Tim Condren
Captain Smollett
Richard Beale
Joyce
Roy Evans
Hunter
Brian Croucher
Abraham Gray
Edward Peel
Billy Bones
Jack Watson
Sarah Hawkins
Jo Kendall
Blind Pew
David Collings
Squire Trelawney
Thorley Walters
Black Dog
Christopher Burgess
Ben Gunn
Paul Copley
Louisa Silver
Ena Cabayo
Dick
Stephen Boswell
Mr Blandly
John Baskcomb
John
Keith Bartlett
Joshua Arrow
Linal Haft
Sgt. Dance
Max Faulkner
Bill
Henry Knowles
Tom
Derrick Slater
Tom Redruth
Royston Tickner
Dirk
Clive Wood
Daniel Hawkins
Terry Scully
Patmore
Alec Wallis
Captain Doakes
William Abney
Jeb
John Dearth
Bosun
Tim Pearce