Tom's Midnight Garden is a 1999 family fantasy film directed by Willard Carroll and starring Nigel Le Vaillant, Marlene Sidaway and Serena Gordon. [1] The screenplay (by Willard Carroll) concerns a boy who discovers a secret garden. The film was based on the novel Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, and filmed at Chenies Manor House in Buckinghamshire. The film was produced by Hyperion Pictures.
After going to stay with his uncle a boy is disappointed that he doesn't have a garden he can play in. However, he discovers a secret garden that only appears in the middle of the night.
When Tom Long's brother Peter gets measles he is sent to stay with his Uncle Alan and Aunt Gwen in a flat with no garden. An elderly and reclusive landlady, Mrs Bartholomew, lives upstairs. Because he may be infectious he is not allowed out to play, and feels lonely. Without exercise he is less sleepy at night and when he hears the communal grandfather clock strangely strike 13, he investigates and finds the small back yard is now a large sunlit garden. Here he meets another lonely child called Hatty, who seems to be the only one who can see him. They have adventures which he gradually realises are taking place in the 19th century. Each night when Tom visits, Hatty is slightly older and Tom begins to wonder about the nature of time and reality. In an attempt to discover what's going on Tom asks Hattie to leave her skates in a hidden place. When he goes back into the future he manages to find them. One night Hatty and Tom go out skating however Hatty begins to fall in love with a boy from her own time named Barty and Tom finds he is invisible to her. The next night Tom is unable to find the garden, running into rubbish bins from the modern day instead. Just before Tom returns home he meets Mrs Bartholomew, who is revealed to be the elderly Hatty.
The Borrowers is a children's fantasy novel by the English author Mary Norton, published by Dent in 1952. It features a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of an English house and "borrow" from the big people in order to survive. The Borrowers also refers to the series of five novels including The Borrowers and four sequels that feature the same family after they leave "their" house.
Frederick Cecil Bartholomew, known for his acting work as Freddie Bartholomew, was an English-American child actor. One of the most famous child actors of all time, he became very popular in 1930s Hollywood films. His most famous starring roles are in Captains Courageous (1937) and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1936).
The Secret Garden is a 1993 fantasy drama film directed by Agnieszka Holland, executive-produced by Francis Ford Coppola and distributed by Warner Bros. under their Family Entertainment imprint. Starring Kate Maberly, Heydon Prowse, Andrew Knott, John Lynch and Maggie Smith, the film's screenplay was written by Caroline Thompson, based on the 1911 novel of the same name by Frances Hodgson Burnett. The novel was previously adapted in 1919 and 1949.
Hammer House of Horror is a British horror anthology television series made in 1980. Created by Hammer Films in association with Cinema Arts International and ITC Entertainment, it consists of 13 hour-long episodes, originally broadcast on ITV.
Tom's Midnight Garden is a children's fantasy novel by Philippa Pearce. It was first published in 1958 by Oxford University Press with illustrations by Susan Einzig. It has been reissued in print many times and also adapted for radio, television, the cinema, and the stage. Pearce won the annual Carnegie Medal from the Library Association, recognising the year's outstanding children's book by a British subject. In 2007, for a celebration of the Carnegie Medal's 70th anniversary, a panel named Tom's Midnight Garden one of the top ten Medal-winning works and the British public elected it the nation's second-favourite.
Lying Lips is a 1939 American melodrama race film written and directed by Oscar Micheaux who co-produced the film with aviator Hubert Fauntlenroy Julian, starring Edna Mae Harris, and Robert Earl Jones. Lying Lips was the thirty-seventh film of Micheaux. The film was shot at the Biograph Studios in New York City.
The Witches, released in the United States as The Devil's Own, is a 1966 British horror film directed by Cyril Frankel and starring Joan Fontaine, Alec McCowen, Kay Walsh, Ann Bell, Ingrid Boulting and Gwen Ffrangcon-Davies. Made by Hammer Films, it was adapted by Nigel Kneale from the 1960 novel The Devil's Own by Norah Lofts, published under the pseudonym Peter Curtis.
The Ghosts is a children's fantasy novel written by Antonia Barber in 1969. It was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal. It was filmed twice, first in 1972 as The Amazing Mr. Blunden, with a second adaptation produced in 2021. After being out of print for over three decades, a new edition of the book is scheduled for release in December 2021 by Virago Books under the title The Amazing Mr. Blunden.
Margaret Seddon was an American stage and film actress.
Goodnight Mister Tom is a 1998 film adaptation by Carlton Television of the novel of the same name by Michelle Magorian. The film was directed by Jack Gold, in his final film. The cast featured well-known British actors, including veteran actor John Thaw.
Ethel Griffies was an English actress of stage, screen, and television. She is remembered for portraying the ornithologist Mrs. Bundy in Alfred Hitchcock's classic The Birds (1963). She appeared in stage roles in her native England and in the United States, and had featured roles in around 100 motion pictures. Griffies was one of the oldest working actors in the English-speaking theatre at the time of her death at 97 years old. She acted alongside such stars as May Whitty, Ellen Terry, and Anna Neagle.
Marlene Sidaway is a British television, film and theatre actress best known for playing Brenda Taylor in the long-running soap opera Coronation Street.
Urge to Kill is a 1960 British B-movie serial killer film directed by Vernon Sewell and starring Patrick Barr, Ruth Dunning and Terence Knapp. The film is based on the 1942 novel Hughie Roddis and 1944 play Hand in Glove, both by Gerald Savory. It is regarded as a minor cult film thanks to its unrelenting shabby grimness and some dated dialogue – an intellectually disabled suspect is repeatedly referred to as "a mental case", whilst another character, trying to work out why one hapless victim was selected for her grisly fate, speculates "perhaps she was a Jezebel."
My Dog Shep is a 1946 American drama film directed by Ford Beebe.
The Secret Garden is a 1975 British television adaptation of Frances Hodgson Burnett's 1911 novel of the same name. Adapted, produced and directed by Dorothea Brooking, it was first broadcast on BBC 1 in seven 30-minute episodes. This is the only BBC adaptation of the novel known to exist in its entirety. The 1952 adaptation is missing all eight episodes and the 1960 adaptation is missing three of its eight episodes.
Madeline is a 1998 family comedy film adaptation of the children's book series and animated television series of the same name. The film starred newcomer Hatty Jones as the titular character with Frances McDormand and Nigel Hawthorne in supporting roles as Miss Clavel and Lord Covington respectively. The film encompasses the plots of four Madeline books. It was released on July 10, 1998 by TriStar Pictures.
Nigel Le Vaillant is a British former actor, who worked in television in the United Kingdom during the 1990s.
Fearsome Tales for Fiendish Kids is a 1996 children's black comedy horror book written by British author Jamie Rix. It is the third book in the Grizzly Tales for Gruesome Kids series. It was published by Hodder Children's Books and was the last in the series to be published before the CITV cartoon adaptation, containing 16 short stories—one story more than the previous two books.