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An
episode guide by Richard Clark.
Children's
TV series set between the world
wars about three teenage
brothers who run away from home
to live in their local
woodlands. Please note: A lot of
the information written here is
conjecture as the series was
shown only once during the early
eighties and the following
episode guide is taken entirely
from memory.
regular
cast
Christopher Biggins as Curate
Whiting / Rosalie Crutchley as
Aunt Ellen / Liza Goddard as
Monica Hurling / Michael Balfour
/ Paul Curran as Smokie / Paul
Erangey as Harold / Dafydd Hywe
as Photographer / Hilary Mason
as Beatrix Holcome / Craig
McFarlane as Robin / Veronica
McNamee as Angela Bowers /
Michael Robbins as Sergeant
Bunting / Howard Taylor as John
production
details
Writer:
James Andrew Hall / Director:
David Cobham
UK
/ 13x30m-e / 1981
Episode
One
Whilst
their father is away on business
in India, Robin, John and Harold
Henchman are spending the summer
holidays with their rich Aunt
Ellen. On a hot sunny day, Aunt
Ellen holds a tea party for her
friends and they play croquette
in the garden. Meanwhile, Robin
and John are cycling along a
lane, towing a kite and Harold
is ill in bed. Harold gets up,
looks out of the window to see
his aunt has invited a boy he
doesn't like. As a result,
Harold sneaks outside, armed
with his catapult. Meanwhile
Robin and John are so busy
concentrating on the kite, they
do not realise which way they
are going… and crash straight
in the middle of the tea party!
At the same time, Harold fires
his catapult causing even more
damage - cups, plates, chairs,
tables and servants are sent
flying! Afterwards, Aunt Ellen
talks to Robin and John inside.
She says that they both require
some discipline and decides to
hire a tutor to teach them over
the summer holidays. Harold will
be joining them when he is
better. Robin is very unhappy
about this and decides to run
away to live in the local
woodland, Brendon Chase. John
was looking forward to going
back to school, however he isn't
happy about some tutor coming to
teach them so he agrees to go
with Robin. During the rest of
the day, the two go around the
house collecting what they need
to survive. The following
morning, before anyone else is
awake, Robin and John leave the
house and break into shed to
steal their Uncle's old rifle
– as Robin says their survival
depends on it. Afterwards they
wander out into the woodlands to
a new life outdoors…..
Episode
Two
Aunt
Ellen realises the boys are
missing. She talks to Harold to
see if he has any idea where
they went but unfortunately he
has none. Meanwhile, after
wandering through the dense
woodlands, John discovers a
hollow tree, with a hole in the
side just big enough to get
through. They decide to make
this their home, and shape a
piece of bark to fit the hole.
They also dig a hole in the
ground, placing some large
stones around it to form a camp
fire. With the piece of bark
plugging the hole in the tree
and the rocks pushed into the
hole covered with soil no one
would know that this was their
home. They also decide that an
owl hoot will be their distress
call, however due to them having
a real owl living in the top of
their tree, they later replace
their distress call with a bird
whistle that is not heard in
this country.
Episode
Three
Aunt
Ellen informs the police about
the missing boys and the local
"bobby" heads out into
the woodland to search with no
success – and has some trouble
with his bike! As Robin and
John's clothes have become torn
to bits in the dense woodland
they start making new clothes
out of rabbit skins.
Episode
Four
Robin
and John return to Aunt Ellen's
mansion during the night for
some supplies. While they are
there, Robin wakes up a fully
recovered Harold and tells him
to come with them. As they take
Harold to the tree, he notices a
familiar looking bird in a nest
high up in a tree and wants to
steal an egg to add to his
collection. John decides to
climb the tree but nearly falls.
Later Robin scolds Harold,
telling him that under their
present circumstances it was
wrong to ask John to go after
birds eggs - John could have
broken his glasses and without
them, he would be unable to
evade capture. During the
evening, the boys have a visitor
– a small terrier, which they
decide to keep.
Episode
Five
Aunt
Ellen puts out a reward for
anyone finding the boys. This
attracts the attention of all
the locals who decide to comb
all the local woodlands, along
with a news reporter and her
photographer, who wish to write
an article on the search for the
missing brothers. After being
chased for miles around the
woodland, John is eventually
caught, but he escapes. The
locals eventually give up, and
as Robin and Harold were seen
over ten miles away from where
John was caught, they are still
no closer to finding out where
they are living. Later John
returns to the tree to find
Robin and Harold sitting around
the camp fire – they believed
John had been caught. Afterwards
they check their supplies to
find them very low. One of them
will have to venture into the
nearby town of Brendon, and
Harold is the only one still
wearing normal clothes. Harold
reluctantly agrees to go.
Episode
Six
Harold
wanders into nearby Brendon,
going under a new identity.
After purchasing a number of
items with the money Robin gave
him, he goes to the local gun
shop for some ammo. In the gun
shop, the owner is reluctant to
give Harold any ammunition due
to his age, but when the local
bobby walks in, Harold scarpers
with the ammo and runs right
into the reporter, who instantly
recognizes him and raises the
alarm. With the police on his
tail, Harold runs into the local
primary school, where a girl who
lives with Aunt Ellen hides him
in the school toilets. After the
police have left the school,
Harold tells all the
schoolchildren how they have
been living in the chase. Later
Harold returns to the chase
hitching a lift with a local
baker, who recognizes him and
tries to turn him in. Harold
pushes the baker off and steals
his horses and cart. Later the
police and the baker find the
cart abandoned up further up the
track. Meanwhile, Harold
approaches the chase, finding
their pet dog waiting for him,
with John and Robin not far
behind.
Episode
Seven
Now
that Harold's clothes have
deteriorated, all three are now
wearing rabbit skins. A pig
wanders into the area and dies.
The brothers decide to cook and
eat it, however the first job is
to skin and gut it, which isn't
a very pleasant job! They also
discover someone is stealing the
"rationed" chocolate.
John gets the blame, but they
eventually discover the culprit
is a field mouse, whom they name
Roundtree. Harold discovers John
has a photo of the girl who
lives with Aunt Ellen and
realises he fancies her, and he
uses this to blackmail John into
keeping quiet to Robin about the
fact that he has been playing
with the rifle and wasting ammo.
Episode
Eight
After
telling Harold not to pollute
the woodland stream that passes
the hollow tree, Robin says that
at the top of every stream,
there is usually a lake,
possibly full of fish. As this
could be a new source of food,
Robin wanders upstream with the
dog to search for it.
Instead,
he discovers a dark area of
woodland, where no birds
whistle, and there is not a
single breeze. He hears a
clanging noise in the distance
and goes to investigate. As he
approaches, he finds the trees
are covered with rabbit skulls,
and at the centre is an old hut
with two lanterns clanging
together just as if someone had
walked past and knocked them. He
goes to look closer at the two
lanterns and a piece of wood
slides down from the roof nearly
hitting him. Robin and the dog
run off in terror! Later Robin
tells John about the haunted hut
and mentions that it could
belong to a strange old hermit
the vicar once told them about,
called Smokoe Joe. The episode
ends with dusk falling on the
old hut, with the lanterns
continuing to clang together.
Episode
Nine
Whilst
out hunting butterflies, the
vicar runs into Robin Henchman,
who tries to persuade him to
turn himself in. During their
conversation, the vicar spots a
rare butterfly and goes after
it, allowing Robin to make a
discreet exit. Later, Aunt Ellen
arranges a birthday party for
the girl lives with her, and the
vicar suggests having a picnic
in the chase – in fact in the
same place where he saw Robin.
The idea is that the boys may
decide to turn themselves in to
them, rather than the police.
Instead the boys steal the
hamper, only to discover a
birthday cake for the girl. John
picks up the cake and runs to
take it back, but Robin trips
him up, telling him that he will
be caught if he does – the
cake ends up all over the soil.
Back at the picnic, they
discover the hamper is missing
and the girl says "I'll
never forgive those Henchman
boys!"
Episode
Ten
Robin
spots a deer in the chase and
decides to shoot it. Just as he
is lining up to shoot, John
sounds the distress call and the
deer runs off. Later, Robin
decides to search the woodland
for the deer, and comes across
another hut, this one has smoke
coming out of the chimney. He
turns round to see a shotgun
pointing at him…
Episode
Eleven
Robin
finds the man with the shotgun
is Smokoe Joe! He is an old man
with a large nose. Smokoe
intends to turn him in to his
Aunt Ellen and claim the reward,
and he also mentions about the
fact that his dog went missing
some time ago. Robin tells him
he found a dog that could be
his. Just then the local bobby
knocks at the door and Smokoe
hides Robin under his bed. The
bobby is trying to find his
missing bike and searches the
hut for it (he doesn't look
under the bed as Smokoe tells
him "It's awfully smelly
under there!". Robin takes
Smokoe to the tree, and it
appears their pet dog does
belong to him. After seeing his
pet, Smokoe has a change of
heart and tells the boys to come
and live with him (winter is
setting in and they will not
survive in the tree during the
cold months). He also makes them
some boots out of rabbit skins.
The boys tell him all that has
happened – it appears the pig
belonged him and the haunted hut
used to be his home! The
reporters and the vicar visit
Aunt Ellen with distressing news
– something very dangerous has
escaped from the zoo and could
be in the area. They ask the
girl if she knows the boys
whereabouts – she tells them
what she knows and the vicar
decides to ask old Smokoe if he
knows of the hollow tree.
Episode
Twelve
Once
again, the villagers comb the
chase. One of the villagers
finds the hollow tree, now empty
apart from the piece of wood
shaped to fit the hole. They
also come across the
"thing" that escaped
from the zoo – it appears to
be a large grizzly bear. The two
reporters arrive at the tree,
take photos of the camp, and
when the photographer says how
did they cook anything, he falls
over the buried camp fire! The
episode ends with the vicar
saying he is going to visit
"Old Smokoe"!
Episode
Thirteen
At
the local railway station, Mr
Henchman arrives back from India
to sort out the trouble his sons
have caused. Meanwhile the
villagers continue to search for
the bear, which finds it's way
to Smokoe's hut. Smokoe fires
his gun at it, but ends up
injured as a result. John
decides to turn himself in to
get help. Meanwhile Robin has
found another deer, he lines the
sights up on it, however cannot
bring himself to kill it.
Arriving at his sister's
mansion, Mr Henchman notices
someone wearing rabbit skins
running down the road towards
him in the pouring rain. He is
quite surprised to find it is
John. John collapses at the gate
from exhaustion. Later a group
of locals journey up to Smokoe's
house with a stretcher and take
Smoko down to the hospital. Back
at Aunt Ellen's mansion, after a
hot bath and a change of
clothes, the Henchman boys walk
into their Aunt's study, where
their father has a serious talk
to them and orders them to
apologise to their Aunt. Robin
apologises and explains that the
reason why they ran away was due
to the trouble they had caused -
they thought it was better if
they were out of the way. Aunt
Ellen accepts their apology.
Harold reaches into his pocket
and takes out their pet mouse
Roundtree, and gives it to the
girl – he tells her it is a
present from John! They are told
that Smokoe is alive and well
and they are looking to fix his
swollen nose! That night, Robin,
John and Harold lie in their
beds, talking about their
adventure. Harold is curious as
to what happened to the bear,
and Robin tells him that it must
have gone into hibernation for
the winter. Robin says it's a
shame it's all over, but John
suggests that maybe next summer
Aunt Ellen would let them camp
in the chase. Robin replies
"It'll never be the same
again though". Meanwhile,
out in the chase, the bear
wanders through the darkness,
climbs through the hole in the
hollow tree and goes to sleep.
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