Children of the Stones

Lore & Background

The series follows astrophysicist Adam Brake and his teenage son Matthew after they arrive in the village of Milbury, built within a megalithic stone circle. Filmed at Avebury, Wiltshire during the hot summer of 1976, with interior scenes at HTV's Bristol studios, the serial features sinister, discordant wailing voices in the incidental music composed by Sidney Sager, who used the Ambrosian Singers to chant in accordance with megalithic rituals. Director Peter Graham Scott was surprised the series was intended for children due to its complex and disturbing plot.

The cast includes Iain Cuthbertson as village leader Hendrick, Gareth Thomas as Adam Brake, Veronica Strong as Margaret Smythe, and child actors Peter Demin and Katharine Levy as Matthew and Sandra. The plot involves a time rift and stones that absorb psychic energy.

Reader's Guide

Children of the Stones is regarded as a landmark in quality children's drama, noted for its sophisticated plot and disturbing themes. The serial was broadcast on ITV at 16:45 on Mondays and repeated in 1978, but has not been broadcast in its entirety on any UK television network since. In the United States, it aired on Nickelodeon in the early 1980s as part of The Third Eye. A novelisation by writers Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray was published in 1977. The serial's use of a time-loop narrative, psychic powers, and folk magic, combined with its eerie score and location filming at Avebury, has contributed to its enduring reputation. The story's ambiguity—whether the time circle will reset again—leaves the conclusion open, as the Brakes depart Milbury with Matthew wondering if the events will repeat.

Production & Creative Vision

Children of the Stones emerged from HTV's production floor in 1976, with Peter Graham Scott steering both the producing and directing reins while Patrick Dromgoole oversaw as executive producer. The writing duo of Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray crafted a narrative so layered and unsettling that Scott himself was taken aback upon reading the script, struggling to reconcile its dark tonal register with the children's slot it was destined for. The exterior photography was captured during the sweltering summer of 1976 at Avebury in Wiltshire, lending the megalithic setting an authentic, sun-bleached quality, while interior sequences were shot at HTV's Bristol studios. The soundscape proved equally distinctive: composer Sidney Sager enlisted the Ambrosian Singers to deliver haunting, discordant chants that mirrored the ancient rituals woven into the story, creating an audio landscape of wailing voices that amplified the serial's underlying dread. This combination of genuine prehistoric locations, choral music, and a plot that treated its young audience with intellectual respect set the production apart from typical fare of the era.

The Time Circle Mechanism

The narrative architecture of Children of the Stones rests on a recursive temporal loop: the village of Milbury, encircled by its megalithic stones, is trapped in a repeating cycle in which the same sequence of events plays out with only minor variations each time. The ultimate goal is to release the circle's accumulated power into the outside world, but any disruption causes the loop to reset. Because real-world time continues to flow, each iteration must shift forward to match the present era while still attempting to replicate the original events. The serial traces four such cycles. The first, set in the megalithic age, involves a Druid priest who, after witnessing a supernova, uses psychic ability and folk magic to channel negative energy through the stones—natural magnets—toward the resulting black hole, draining villagers of anger and fear and rendering them placid. When two travellers break the spell, the beam fires catastrophically, turning the circle's inhabitants to stone. Later cycles echo this pattern through a barber-surgeon in a medieval village and, finally, through the 1970s astronomer Rafael Hendrick, who identifies the black hole in Ursa Major and brainwashes villagers into becoming his 'Happy Ones.'

Cast & Character Interplay

The casting of Children of the Stones wove together professional connections and personal ties that enriched the on-screen dynamics. Iain Cuthbertson, who brought gravitas to the role of Hendrick, had previously shared the screen with Gareth Thomas—cast as astrophysicist Adam Brake—on the legal drama Sutherland's Law, and their evident chemistry carried over into the serial. Adding a layer of behind-the-scenes intimacy, Veronica Strong, who portrayed museum curator Margaret Smythe, was in fact the wife of co-writer Jeremy Burnham, meaning the character who partners with Brake to unravel the mystery was played by the writer's own spouse. The teenage leads were filled by Peter Demin, seventeen at the time of filming, as Matthew Brake, and Katharine Levy as Sandra Smythe, giving the story a youthful perspective against the older, more ominous adult cast. Freddie Jones and John Woodnutt rounded out the ensemble as poacher Dai and butler Link. Notably, Dai's arc—his activities, his death, and the location where he perishes—deliberately mirrors that of the barber-surgeon from an earlier cycle, reinforcing the serial's theme of pattern and repetition across centuries.

Broadcast History & Lasting Legacy

Children of the Stones first reached British audiences on ITV's Monday 16:45 slot across January and February 1977, and it returned for a full repeat run from late July through September 1978 at 16:15. Beyond those two windows, the serial has never again been transmitted in its complete form on any UK television network, making it a notably elusive piece of British broadcasting history. Its reach did extend overseas: in the early 1980s, American viewers encountered the serial on Nickelodeon, where it was packaged as part of a programme called The Third Eye. The story also transcended the screen through a novelisation published in 1977, written by the same team of Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray who had scripted the television version, allowing readers to engage with the time-circle mythology in prose form. Despite its limited broadcast footprint, the serial has since been recognised as a landmark in quality children's drama—a designation that speaks to how its sophisticated plotting, atmospheric production values, and willingness to treat young viewers as capable of handling complex, even disturbing, narrative material placed it well ahead of the genre conventions of its time.

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