| King of the Castle | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Fantasy Drama Children's |
| Written by | Bob Baker Dave Martin |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 7 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company | HTV West |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 8 May – 19 June 1977 |
King of the Castle is a British children's television fantasy drama serial made by HTV for ITV in 1977. [1] [2]
Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, the series is a surreal tale centred on a lonely young boy, Roland Wright, who lives unhappily in a council flat with his father Ron and stepmother June. Escaping from a gang of local bullies in a malfunctioning lift, Roland finds himself transported to a strange fantasy environment where people and places are twisted variations of those he sees in his real life. [1]
King of the Castle was one of HTV's most ambitious productions. HTV spent £300,000 on production (a large sum for a children's programme) and the producers spent nine months auditioning 200 actors to play the part of Roland. [1]
Originally, King of the Castle had been intended to air in the children's television slot. However, ITV's Network Planning Committee deemed the programme "too scary" for children to watch alone. King of the Castle was delayed for four months. It was eventually broadcast in the "Sunday teatime slot", for programmes for parents and children to watch together. [1]
Philip Da Costa starred as Roland, while other prominent roles were played by Talfryn Thomas, Fulton Mackay, Milton Johns and Angela Richards. [1]
The Guinness Book of Classic British TV noted that King of the Castle was one of several prominent ITV telefantasy series for younger viewers in this period (along with The Ghosts of Motley Hall , Sky , Children of the Stones and Raven ). [2] The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama said about King of the Castle: "it is clearly a highly intelligent and particularly sinister story...King of the Castle is a one of a kind and children's television hasn't seen the like of it since." [1]
In 2016, Bob Baker wrote an novelisation of King of the Castle, which was published by Fantom Publishing.
Carlton Television was the ITV franchise holder for London and the surrounding counties from 9.25am every Monday to 5.15pm every Friday. The company is now managed with London Weekend Television as a single entity, but the two companies are still separately licensed. The station is owned and operated by ITV plc under the licensee of "ITV Broadcasting Limited". Carlton has been branded on air as "ITV1" since 28 October 2002. Carlton Television Ltd, the original holder of the licence, has since been dissolved. Carlton UK Television Limited however is now known as ITV Consumer Limited and legally operates ITV plc's websites. As Carlton's name has no relation to its region, its on-screen identity has been completely removed. Other regions have kept their original company name as a region name and in their local news name.
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Children of the Stones is a British television fantasy drama serial for children, produced by HTV in 1976 and broadcast on the United Kingdom's ITV network in January and February 1977. The serial was produced by Peter Graham Scott, with Patrick Dromgoole as executive producer. A novelisation by the serial's writers, Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray, also appeared in 1977. In the United States, it was broadcast on the Nickelodeon television channel in the early 1980s as part of the series The Third Eye.
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration. A handful of these plays, including Rumpole of the Bailey, subsequently became television series in their own right.
A Country Practice is an Australian television soap opera/serial which was broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 22 November 1993, and subsequently on Network Ten from 13 April 1994 to 5 November 1994. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,088 episodes were produced.
Iain Cuthbertson was a Scottish character actor and theatre director. He was known for his tall imposing build and also his distinctive gravelly, heavily accented voice. He had lead roles in The Borderers (1968–70),Tom Brown's Schooldays (1971), Budgie (1971–72), its spinoff Charles Endell Esquire (1979–80), Danger UXB (1979) and Sutherland's Law (1973–76), as well as the films The Railway Children (1970), and Gorillas in the Mist (1988). He guest starred in many prominent British shows including The Avengers, Dr. Finlay's Casebook, The Onedin Line, Survivors, Ripping Yarns, Doctor Who, Z-Cars, Juliet Bravo, Rab C. Nesbitt, Minder, Inspector Morse and Agatha Christie's Poirot.
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John Michael Frederick Castle is an English actor. He is best known for his film and television work, most notably playing Bill in Michelangelo Antonioni's Blowup (1966) and Geoffrey in The Lion in Winter (1968). Other significant credits include Man of La Mancha (1972), I, Claudius (1976) and RoboCop 3 (1993).
Night Network, Night Time and Night Shift were names given to the overnight schedule of the ITV network in the United Kingdom. The first ITV company began 24-hour broadcasting in 1986, with all of the companies broadcasting through the night by the end of 1988. At first, individual companies created their own services; however, before too long, many of the smaller ITV stations began simulcasting or networking services from others.
ITV Wales and West, previously known as Harlech Television (HTV), was an ITV franchise area in the United Kingdom until 31 December 2013, licensed to a broadcaster by the regulator Ofcom.
This is a list of British television related events from 1977.
This is a list of British television related events from 1970.
The Famous Five is a British television series based on the children's book series of the same name by Enid Blyton. It was first broadcast on Tyne Tees and Harlech Television (HTV) from 10 September 1995 onwards, and on CITV from 1 July 1996 onwards; there were two series between 1995 and 1997, produced by Zenith North and Tyne Tees in 26 twenty-five-minute episodes.
A few months after the 1969 premiere of the children's television program Sesame Street in the U.S., talks began in the United Kingdom to broadcast the programme or develop a co-production on British television. The idea was controversial at the time; the BBC was opposed to it, and ITV was reluctant. Response from parents, educators, and television officials to the show was varied, ranging from distaste to acceptance. After much public debate, the BBC chose not to air Sesame Street for several reasons, including the show's educational methods, its creation for American audiences, and the UK's long history of quality educational television programmes for young children. ITV, after much research, including a report entitled Reactions to Sesame Street in Britain, 1971, chose to air Sesame Street on a limited basis. It then switched to Channel 4 in the 1980s and aired there until 2001, when it was pulled from its regular schedule, replaced by The Hoobs.
King and Castle is a British television crime drama series, made by Thames Television and screened on ITV, that first broadcast on 20 August 1985. The series stars Derek Martin as Ronald King, a Detective Sergeant with the Metropolitan Police, who is obliged to leave the force when he is investigated by the anti-corruption squad. His first venture outside of the police involves setting up his own Debt Collection Agency, known as 'The Manor', where he partners with mild-mannered martial arts expert David Castle.
Gems is a British television soap opera produced for the ITV by Thames Television. Three seasons of the programme were transmitted between 1985 and 1988.
This is a timeline of children's programming on the British ITV network and ITV Digital Channels. The timeline starts in 1980 when ITV launched its first branding for children's programming, although programmes for children had been broadcast on ITV from the earliest years of the network.
