Review for Moondial

‘Moondial’ is a most welcome DVD release for those of us who have a passion for golden era BBC Children’s drama serials. Although this was arguably produced at the tail end of that era it was released in the same year as the brilliant Narnia series and three years prior to the equally brilliant ‘Five Children and It’. Whilst ‘Moondial’ shares something of the atmosphere of these examples, it is somewhat darker than both, perhaps a closer cousin to HTV’s ‘Children of the Stones’ from a decade earlier, or Thames Television’s ‘Chocky’ from 1984. In other words, it’s full of mystery, magic and evil intent.


‘Moondial’ was adapted for the screen by Helen Cresswell from her own novel, Moondial, unsurprising as she had a long history of TV screenplay writing, including adapting her own Lizzie Dripping novels for the small screen. She seemed to have a knack of pitching the books at a level that you could be forgiven for thinking was a little above most children’s easy comprehension and yet clearly wasn’t. ‘Moondial’ is a prime example of a book that is in no way straight-forward and which needs great imagination to enjoy and understand.


Filmed in six half hour segments, it’s a gently paced series that is superbly directed by television drama stalwart, Colin Cant (Grange Hill) who, according to his interview and commentary, enjoyed filming the series almost more than anything else he was ever involved with.

Fourteen-year-old Araminta Caine (or ‘Minty’ played superbly by Siri Neal) has lost her Father and is living at home with her Mother when she is told that she will have to spend the school summer holiday with an old aunt who lives deep in Lincolnshire countryside. When she arrives with her Mother they both sense something magical about the place with her Mother recounting visits she had made there herself as a child. Soon after her Mother leaves news arrives that she has been in a bad car accident and shortly after, that she is in hospital in a deep coma.


Minty begins to lose herself in her surroundings although she is also constantly thinking about her mother, going as far as recording all her thoughts and actions on to a Walkman cassette tape for the hospital to play to her mother as part of her therapy. It’s clearly therapeutically for Minty too as she begins to use the device to voice her own fears and suspicions as mysteries unfold in the village. It’s also a clever dramatic device to allow Minty to articulate parts of linking narrative as she is alone for much of the series.


She starts to explore her surroundings and in particular the grounds of a large country mansion where she happens upon a sun-dial (or more accurately, as we later discover, a ‘moondial’) which has the power to transport he back in time to the mid nineteenth century where she meets an un-well urchin, Tom. He is working as a subservient servant boy in the house and is treated cruelly by the other servants who see him as the end of a long pecking order. Despite that he remains cheery and optimistic and he and Minty soon become friends. It becomes apparent that he too has discovered the power of the moondial and can step forward in time to Minty’s era. Although they see each other, when in a time other than their own, they are invisible to everyone else – a great excuse for some fun visual gags.


Before long they both compare notes and realise that they have both seen a terrified young girl called Sarah who, because she has a striking birth mark on her face, has been dubbed ‘the Devil’s Child’ by her contemporaries and is bullied mercilessly as a result. Minty and Tom decide they have to do something to save her.

When a ‘ghost hunter’ turns up in the village to investigate some strange happenings (Miss Raven played by Jacqueline Pearce, best known as Servalan from Blake’s Seven) Minty realises that she is none other than the evil Victorian governess, Miss Vole, who has been bullying poor Sarah. She also realises that it will be Miss Raven who holds the key to freeing poor Sarah from her torment.


What follows are many scenes that I’m sure some would argue are far too scary for children (ghosts and people dressed in bizarre Halloween masks and so on) as well as almost unbearable tension as Minty becomes potentially trapped in another time.

It’s all great fun and, despite being filmed on video (as was Narnia and Five Children and It) the sheer force of the performances and the imaginative direction mean that it still packs a punch today. Whether a young audience would enjoy it I don’t know but I suspect so. Indeed – I hope so. One thing’s for certain – I certainly did!


The disc comes with a surprising array of extras, principally featuring Siri Neal (who is now, unsurprisingly, all grown up) as well as director Colin Cant who may well be retired by now. They feature in individual interviews as well as audio commentaries on two episodes which are really great fun to watch and listen to and which will be a blast for fans of the show.


Picture quality is fair considering its video source and age and audio perfectly workmanlike.

The haunting synthesizer score (by David Ferguson who also scored Rebus and Cracker) is worthy of mention as it’s utterly evocative of the era. I would love to see a CD release but I imagine it highly unlikely. Poor Ferguson sadly passed away in his early fifties in 2009.

All in all a really welcome release and one which, if you like this sort of thing, you should wholeheartedly support so we get more of this magical unreleased material.