8.4 /10 1 Votes
First episode date 28 January 1974 Language English | 8.4/10 IMDb Network BBC One | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genres Drama, Children's television series Cast Avril Elgar, Aubrey Richards, Matthew Guinness, Rosalie Crutchley, Patsy Smart | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Carrie's War was an adaptation of Nina Bawden's book Carrie's War, broadcast from 28 January 1974 to 25 February 1974 on BBC1 in five, 30-minute episodes.
Contents
Plot
Set in Britain during World War Two, the story revolves around a girl, Carrie Willow, approximately ten years of age, and her slightly younger brother Nick who are sent to live in Wales from London during the Battle of Britain to live on a farm. They stay with a rural shopkeeper Mr Evans, a harsh taskmaster, and his timid sister, Auntie Lou. Another evacuee child, Albert, lives at a nearby farm called Druid's Bottom run by another Evans sister, Mrs. Gotobed, estranged from Mr Evans and terminally ill, along with her mentally disabled adult cousin Mr Johnny and housekeeper, Hepzibah Green. All the inhabitants of Druid's Bottom befriend Carrie and Nick.
Unlike an earlier British TV series, Tom Grattan's War, which also featured a child war evacuee, Carrie and her brother do not have any adventures with German spies or deserters and there is no violence. Instead Carrie's War is a quiet, intimate story about the relationships between the characters and how they change over time. There is a vaguely supernatural theme as well as Hepzibah is reputed to be wise-woman and there rumored to be a curse on the Druid's Bottom.
During the course of the series Auntie Lou weds an American soldier and leaves the farm over Mr Evan's bitter objections. Mrs Gotobed dies and Mr Evans tries to claim her farm and evict Hepzibah and Mr Johnny after her will disappears. Carrie and Nick are convinced that Mr Evans has stolen the will and she retaliates by stealing an old skull which is believed to control a curse on Druid's Bottom which then burns down causing guilt to Carrie who has by then discovered that Mr Evans was in fact innocent. The Willow children are then sent away to live with family in Glasgow. There is an epilogue in which thirty years later the adult Carrie returns to the area with her children to discover that Hepzibah and Mr Johnny are still living at a rebuilt Druid's Bottom while Mr Evans has died alone years before, alone and unhappy.
Production
Shot by the BBC, the show was filmed on location in Blaengarw in rural Wales. However there is no Welsh spoken during the show. There were five half-hour episodes which were aired in January 1974. The cast of child actors would have few other credits. The series has been made available on DVD in the past but is currently out of print. It is referenced in the BBC documentary From Andy Pandy To Zebedee in 2015.