The Flaxton Boys

Plot, cast and episodes

The action of The Flaxton Boys unfolds at Flaxton Hall, a crumbling, ivy-draped manor with battlements, located near the made-up Yorkshire village of Carliston. The show jumps across time, with each of its four series centering on a different set of boys from the Flaxton family line. The time periods covered are 1854, 1890, 1928, and the span from 1945 to 1946. In every series, the main characters are a young Flaxton heir and his best friend, both typically around twelve or thirteen years old.

The plots rely on classic Boys' Adventure ingredients: hidden riches, puzzles and secret messages, ghostly sightings, nasty and dishonest villains, and wartime spies. Each series has its own complete cast and characters, with two exceptions among the actors. Victor Winding shows up as Barnaby Sweet in the second series and later plays Barnaby’s son, Benjamin, in series three and four. Richard Gale takes on three roles: Sir Peregrine Stilgoe in the first series, his son Sir Tarquin in the second, and Miles Osborne in the third.

A steady presence throughout all four seasons is the narrator, Gerry Cowan, who also appears on screen as Slight in series one, Jacklin Flaxton in series two, and Roger Grafton in series three.

The first series begins in 1854. Captain Andrew Flaxton has been reported missing while fighting in the Crimean War. His wife Lucy and their son Jonathan inherit Flaxton Hall, which is in rough shape. Jonathan quickly becomes friends with a local boy named Archie Weekes, and the two spend their time roaming the property and the surrounding area.

A persistent local rumor claims that a huge treasure is hidden somewhere inside the hall or on its grounds. This rumor catches the greedy and ruthless eye of Sir Peregrine Stilgoe, who hires three convicts to help him find the loot. Jonathan and Archie are constantly in peril but always manage to stay one step ahead of Sir Peregrine’s schemes. A secondary storyline involves a mysterious ghostly woman said to haunt the nearby churchyard.

The series wraps up when Andrew Flaxton returns safely from the Crimea. He quickly stops Sir Peregrine’s criminal plans and discovers the treasure himself, securing a stable future for the family.

Additional information

The Flaxton Boys was shot on location at Ripley Castle, located four miles north of Harrogate. Sir Thomas Ingilby, who owned the castle, said the show caused a big jump in visitor numbers, changing the site from a local spot to a regional draw. The series used a piece of Sergei Prokofiev's Classical Symphony as its theme tune. It first aired early on Sunday evenings, a time slot in the UK that was then the traditional family hour for historical dramas aimed at children but also enjoyed by adults, like The Adventures of Black Beauty.

Comic strip adaptations of the third and fourth series appeared in Look-in in 1971 and in TV Comic from July 1973 to June 1974. The show was repeated on various networks in the UK and abroad into the early 1990s. Unlike most shows of its time, it recorded location footage on videotape instead of film, though the last series used some film. The entire series has always survived in the Yorkshire Television archives, but before 2015 only the first episodes of the first two series were sold commercially, as part of the Look-Back on 70s Telly series.

Network released the complete first series on DVD in July 2015, though some recordings had deteriorated, a known issue with videotaped children's shows in the Yorkshire TV archive. The second, third, and fourth series followed in 2017.