From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For the North Yorkshire village, see
Follifoot.
Follyfoot was a children's television
series co-produced by the British television company Yorkshire
Television (for transmission on ITV) and the independent West German company TV Munich. It
aired in the United Kingdom between 1971 and 1973,
repeated for two years after that and again in the late 1980s.
It was originally inspired by Monica Dickens' 1963 novel "Cobbler's
Dream" (republished in 1995 as "New Arrival at Follyfoot"); she
later wrote four further books in conjunction with the series -
"Follyfoot" in 1971, "Dora at Follyfoot" in 1972, "The Horses of
Follyfoot" in 1975 and "Stranger at Follyfoot" in 1976. [1]
Background and
production
The series, which was filmed on the Harewood family estate, was set at a
home of rest for horses. What on the surface might have appeared to
be a series with limited interest to young girls with an equine
interest was actually aimed squarely at the teenage market (making
Follyfoot the first show of its kind), and often had challenging
things to say about the treatment of horses and animals generally
in British society. The ethos of Follyfoot generally was to give
another chance to both horses and people who had been rejected by
the rest of society: the stance of the series was recognisably
pro-animal, and characters who resembled the archetypes of the Pullein-Thompson sisters et
al. were overwhelmingly shown in a negative light. Continuity in
the series was assured by the use of mostly one writer, Tony Essex
(writing under the pen name Francis Stevens), but there were also
contributions from Rosemary Anne Sisson.
The series' theme song, "The Lightning Tree", written by Steven
Francis (pen name of Francis Essex, the brother of Tony Essex) and
sung by The Settlers, is well-remembered,
sometimes more so than the series itself. The song reached No.36 in
the UK Charts.[2] An
album featuring music from the series was also released.
The main actors were Gillian Blake as Dora, Steve Hodson as
Steve, Christian Rodska as Ron Stryker, Desmond
Llewelyn as the Colonel and Arthur English as Slugger.
Several other famous people had minor roles, one being Pam St Clement, the others being Gretchen
Franklin as the Colonel's housekeeper and Kathy Staff in two
separate bit parts. But what really characterised the series was
its rotation of directors, many of whom have since become revered
figures in the UK film industry, including Stephen Frears,
Michael Apted
and even Jack
Cardiff who took time out from working overseas with Kirk Douglas to
direct two episodes of the series. Also, in the third series, most
notably, David
Hemmings took the time to appear in one episode, 'Uncle Joe'
and also to direct two other episodes which took place before and
after that episode: 'The Bridge Builder' and the final episode,
'Walk In The Wood'.
The series proved to be very popular and was sold to many
countries at the time of the original UK transmission. The first
series won the Harlequin award for best production at the
1972 BAFTA Awards, while the second series
episode, "The Debt" reached No.19 in the weekly television ratings
- a rarity for an afternoon-timeslot show.[3] During
production for the third series, it was intended that this would be
the last, but a film version of Follyfoot was planned, but
the idea was ultimately shelved.[4] The
Children's magazine, Look-in featured a picture-strip of the
series each week as well as regular features, while five annuals
were released in association with Yorkshire Television. These ran
until 1976 - long after the series had finished.[5]
Follifoot (note the
slightly different spelling), is a small village just 3 miles from
Harrogate, not far from
the Yorkshire Television studios in Leeds.
Characters
Main
Characters
- Dora Maddocks (Gillian Blake) - the series' central
character and niece of The Colonel. The daughter of a bigwig
ambassador, she has spent a miserable childhood because her parents
have never understood her and being showered with material
possessions was no compensation. In Series 2 ep 4, she recalls the
pain of her 10th birthday where, instead of getting the pony she
wanted, she instead got the most expensive dresses available. The
story begins when Dora is sent to live with the Colonel when her
parents leave for a government commission in South America - when
she discovers Follyfoot farm, Dora finds her idyll. Dora is an
idealist and a dreamer; she cannot cope with change and tries to
shut out the fact the world is full of bad people. When the Colonel
signs Follyfoot over to her, Dora desperately tries to keep the
farm running as it always has done, despite this becoming
increasingly impractical and the resulting tension with her love
interest, Steve. Her disillusionment with the elite world she was
brought up in is redolent of Monica Dickens's own feelings in the
1930s (she had been a debutante, but abandoned that privileged life
to go into domestic service).
- Steve Ross (Steve Hodson) - Miner's son and former
reform school pupil who served time in prison for lashing out at a
man he found whipping a horse. A very competent horseman, he comes
to work at Follyfoot after his previous employer, the Squire,
refuses to believe he wasn't involved in an attack on his horses.
Steve believes in the same values as Dora but through life
experiences has a more realistic view of the world and this causes
increasing tension with Dora throughout the second and especially
the third series. He has an emotional attachment with Dora and
wishes he could be more idealist like her.
- Ron Stryker (Christian Rodska) - the third of the
trio of young workers at Follyfoot but also the shadiest. He is
known to the police and one of his friends is Lewis Hammond, member
of local miscreant gang the Night Riders. His father persuaded the
Colonel to give him a job at Follyfoot to help keep him out of
trouble, yet Ron is workshy and ignores constant warnings not to
burst through the main gate at Follyfoot with his distinctive Triumph Tiger motorbike.
Despite the rough exterior, Ron is essentially warm-hearted and
loves the horses as much as everyone else. Ron is already working
at Follyfoot when Dora, then Steve, arrive.
- Slugger Jones (Arthur English) - ex-boxer and
"housekeeper" at Follyfoot Farm who has been working for the
Colonel for over 20 years. He proves to be an emotional rock for
Dora but will readily tell her to "snap out of it" where necessary.
Slugger is gruff yet cuddly at the same time and is rather fond of
Ron despite their love-hate facade. His cookery is notorious for
its lack of variety - bacon and eggs or stew!
- Colonel Geoffrey Maddocks (Desmond
Llewelyn) - Dora's uncle and the original owner of Follyfoot
farm. He started Follyfoot years ago as his response to all the
cruelty in the world and his attempt to do something about it. The
Colonel has a reputation as a kindly eccentric and is the first
person most people call on when they've got a horse in need of
rehoming. He thinks the world of Dora and proves to be more of a
father to her than her actual father, but an illness weakens him in
Series 2 and when he signs Follyfoot over to Dora, she must
increasingly have to manage under her own steam. He comes over,
broadly, as a One Nation
Tory, very much of the centre ground.
Minor
Characters
- Lewis Hammond (Paul Guess) - known locally as
"The Louse", Ron's friend and leader of motorcycle thugs the Night
Riders. He is complicit in the death of two of the Squire's horses
which leads to Steve being wrongly implicated and sacked.
- Callie Holmes (Gillian Bailey) - teenage schoolgirl who
occasionally helps out at Follyfoot. In the episode
Moonstone, Callie coerces Steve into helping her hide a
horse she's stolen from the circus, believing the animal to be
unhappy. Steve is naturally twitchy because of his criminal past.
Callie has a crush on Steve.
- Gip Willens (Bryan Sweeney) - young boy who
loves horses but has little idea how to look after them. After Ron
spins him a line about Follyfoot being a place where horses are
tortured, Steve has his work cut out trying to convince him
otherwise and it takes the near-death of Gip's horse to win him
round.
- Wendy Bendiger (Elaine Donnelly) - a brief
love-interest for Steve, which causes much upset for Dora. She
eventually breaks up with him, which Steve puts down to their class
difference.
- Sam Lockwood (Frederick Treves) -
unscrupulous horse trader who's in it only for the money and
doesn't care whether his animals are going to good homes. He proves
the main series villain in Series 3, with Follyfoot having to take
in two of his animals. His son Chip (Nigel Crewe) briefly dates
Dora but he's too loyal to his father for the relationship to
progress.
- Hazel Donnelly (Veronica Quilligan) - 14-year
old reform school delinquent sent to Follyfoot by the probation
service. Dora takes an initial dislike to her, especially when she
almost attacks her favourite horse Copper and forms a bond with
Steve, but Hazel is essentially a younger version of Dora with the
same background and strained relationship with her parents. After a
volatile start she takes to working at Follyfoot and it is widely
thought among the show's fans Hazel would have become a regular
character had the series continued.
- Another recurring (but very minor) character is the
Vet (unnamed), played by Geoffrey Morris, who
appears in several episodes during series 2 and 3. A second vet,
played by Colin Rix, appeared in the first and last episodes of
series 1 and in both cases was seen putting a sick horse out of its
misery.
Episodes
- See List of Follyfoot
episodes
VHS/DVD
releases
The first three episodes were released on video in 1995. No
further releases ever came to light, and this video has long been
deleted.
However, on DVD, Series 1 (episodes 1 to 13) was released in
2007. Series 2 was released on DVD in April 2008, with Series 3
following in October 2008.[6] The
DVDs are Region 2 encoded, and in PAL format. All complete boxset
of the series had been released in late 2008.
References
External
links
| Films directed by Michael Apted |
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| 1970s |
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| 1980s |
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| 1990s |
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| 2000s |
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| 2010s |
The Chronicles of Narnia: The
Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
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