Great Ghost Stories on Children's TV in the 80's

The one thing I loved as a child was ghost stories. The first time I heard War of the Worlds at school I went home, nicked my brother's tape recorder, locked myself in the bedroom in the dark and created my own haunted house story complete with creepy sound effects. Fast forward a couple of years and I was excited to get home from school to watch The Children of Green Knowe. 
It was a guilty secret because I was in high school at this point, but I was still a kid, right?

In a boarding school somewhere in post-war Britain, Toseland (Alec Christie) or, as he preferred to be known as Tolly receives word from his Father that he will be spending Christmas with his maternal Great Grandmother known as Mrs Oldknow (Daphne Oxenford). Tolly's festive home will be the ancient Oldknow family home of Green Knowe. Within the confines of Green Knowe, Mrs Oldknow regales Tolly with the stories of years past. Tolly plays hide-and-seek with ghostly children who perished in the Great Plague and it turns out these children are dead rellies somehow (Not sure because a whole generation seemingly was wiped out, but hey, I was 13 so I didn't ask such questions back then. 






The spooky kids were Toby (Graham McGrath), Alexander (James Trevelyan) and Linnet (Polly Maberly). It's not all fun and games, though, as the ancient tree-spirit Green Noah is intent on getting his branches on Tolly.
Again not sure why and there was something to do with St Christopher the saint of travellers walking through a stream in the dark! To be fair I do need to watch this series again and lucky for me it's on You Tube! 

Based on the Green Knowe series of books by Lucy M Boston, The Children of Green Knowe was dramatised by John Stadelman for BBC1 in 1986. 
The Children of Green Knowe is in the same vein as other BBC telefantasies The Box of Delights and The Chronicles of Narnia, so you know what to expect - well spoken children, a bit of magic, some horror and a wonderful soundtrack. 

 The BBC always do a great job with period dramas and The Children of Green Knowe is no exception. It conjures up a show which is watchable, cosy and just perfect for a quick spot of festive viewing. 

Moondial is a childrens ghost/fantasy drama made by the BBC and transmitted in 1988.The story is about a young girl, Minty (Siri Neal), who is staying with her aunt after her mother is injured in a car accident. Minty spends much of her time wandering around the grounds of a nearby mansion, and is drawn to a moondial that enables her to travel back in time, where she becomes involved with two children, Tom (Tony Sands), who lives in the Victorian era, and Sarah (Helena Avellano), who seems to live further back in time.

Jacqueline Pearce, who played Servelan in Blakes 7, plays the dual role of the vicious Miss Vole (who seems to have lived in the 18th Century) and the present-day ghost hunter Miss Raven. And she still creeps me out. She plays great characters. I also loved this series because the thought of being able to wonder around a huge mansion whilst being completely invisible to the other people (except the children) appealed to my weirdness.

My Fantasy Sci-fi Books on Amazon/Kindle

My Writing and Books Website

RentaGhost

“If your mansion house needs haunting just call Rentaghost,

We’ve got spooks, and ghouls, and freaks, and fools, at Rentaghost,

Hear the Phantom of the Opera, sing a haunting melody,

Remember what you see, is not a mystery, but Rentaghost.”

Rentaghost was a British children's television comedy show, broadcast by the BBC between 6 January 1976 and 6 November 1984. The show's plot centred on the antics of a number of ghosts who worked for a firm called Rentaghost, which rented out the spirits for various tasks. The company, located in South Ealing, is run by Fred Mumford, a recently deceased loser who feels he can find work for ghosts whose lives were as unsuccessful as his. 
I loved this series and even pretended my bedroom was haunted, drawing lots of ghosts like the rentaghost below and sticking them around my room. I then told a girl on my street my room was haunted and when she saw the paper ghost, she ran away screaming!!!

His first (and only) recruits are Timothy Claypole, a mischievous jester with a comical lack of knowledge about modern technology; and Hubert Davenport, a delicate Victorian-era gentleman who is morally shocked by the modern world. The ghosts work from an office, which they rent from Harold Meaker, who discovers the truth about them in the third episode. Over the course of several series, other characters were added: Hazel the McWitch, a Scottish witch; Nadia Popov, a Dutch ghost who suffers from hay fever and teleports away when she sneezes; and the pantomime horse Dobbin, and is brought to life by Claypole.

When actor Michael Darbyshire(who played the role of Davenport) died in 1979, Anthony Jackson (Mumford) declined to appear in the next series, leaving Michael Staniforth's Claypole the sole original ghost; Davenport and Mumford's absences were explained at the start of the series by the pair having gone on an extended tour of stately home hauntings. After Mumford's departure, the business was taken over by Harold Meaker and his wife Ethel, who suffered from the various problems the ghosts brought to their lives.

The long-suffering neighbours of Rentaghost are the Perkins, who appear from Series 4 onwards, and think the Meakers are mad. I do actually remember the original series and cast, even though I was very young back then. Just goes to show how fascinated I was with the supernatural even at a very young age.