Cold Comfort Farm (BBC-2 1968, Alastair Sim, Fay Compton)

Period drama serial Cold Comfort Farm followed the teenaged Flora Poste (Sarah Badel) who goes to stay with her extremely eccentric relatives in the country. The fabulous Alastair Sim had a rare TV role as patriarch Amos and there were strong roles for Brian Blessed, Freddie Jones and Peter Egan too.

Narrated by Joan Bakewell!

Reviewing the first episode in The Stage (27 June 1968), Angela Moreton felt that writer David Turner had captured the essence of the satirical nature of Stella Gibbons’ novel, she also felt that it is was “one of the most genuinely humorous and memorable pieces I have seen for a long time.”

Cast: Alastair Sim as Amos; Fay Compton as Aunt Ada Doom; Sarah Badel as Flora Poste; Fionnuala Flanagan as Mrs Mary Smiling; Rosalie Crutchley as Judith; Billy Russell as Adam Lambsbreath; Hazel Coppen as Mrs Agony Beetle; Freddie Jones as Urk; Joanna Dickens as Phoebe; Brian Blessed as Reuben; Peter Egan as Seth; Charlotte Howard as Meriam; Sharon Gurney as Elfine; Sheila Grant as Rennett; John Baker as Ezra; Jonathan Bilson as Harkaway; John Golightly as Charles Fairford; Aubrey Morris as Mr Mybug; Stella Long as Ivy; Timothy Carlton as Richard Hawk-Monitor

Writer: David Turner / Script Editor: Lennox Phillips / Novel: Stella Gibbons / Production Design: Raymond Cusick / Producer: David Conroy / Director: Peter Tucker

UK / BBC / 3×45 minute episodes / Broadcast 22 June – 6 July 1968

THE EPISODES

1. FOLK
When Flora Poste finds an orphan at 20 and with only a hundred pounds a year to live on she writes to her various relatives asking for a home, the most intriguing off comes from the Starkadders at Cold Comfort Farm.

2. WOODSHED
Flora has moved into Cold Comfort Farm and has begun the task of civilising her wild earthy doomladen country cousins.

3. DOOM
Flora finally meets the formidable Ada Doom at a gathering of the Starkadders.