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Children of the Stones   Children's TV series (1977)     Children of the Stones is a seven-part, children's TV series. It was produced by HTV and broadcast on the various ITV channels in early 1977. The two main characters are the father and son team of, astrophysicist, Adam Brake and his young son Matthew.   At the beginning of the first episode Matthew and his father are travelling, by car, to the village of Milbury. They are going to Milbury to study the ancient stone circle that surrounds it. They have almost reached their destination when something strange happens: a large stone appears in the middle of the road. Adam slams on the brakes to avoid hitting crashing into the stone, but as he does so - blink and you'll miss it - the stone is replaced by Mrs Crabtree, who is the housekeeper from the cottage where they will be staying, and has been sent to meet them by Rafael Kendrick who is the main-man in the village.   Everyone is the village appears to be very friendly, but it doesn't take  long before the Brakes realise that there is something not quite right about Milbury and its inhabitants. For one thing, the village seems to be divided in two, with the majority of the population being 'Happy Ones,' who seem to be very intelligent, very happy and very strange. They smile all of the time and greet each other with the phrase: "Happy day!"   The only people in the village that are not Happy Ones are, like the Brakes, newcomers to the village. And there are not many of those. At school the non-happy children segregate themselves from their 'happy' classmates and know instinctively that something is wrong. "We've got to stick together," Sandra Smythe tells Matthew. "Just checking that you're human," says another another classmate, after picking a fight with him.   The ranks of the non-happy ones soon start to diminish, however, as more and more people suddenly get with the programme and get happy.   Children of the Stones is a very atmospheric series and I am sure that the haunting theme and backing music help make this so. The series also contains some quite difficult concepts for a children's TV series: time circles and psychic bubbles. Even without fully understanding such things, though, the programme is extremely entertaining. What can I say? It's just such a well written, well cast and. well, damn good programme, that it would be impossible not to be entertained by it.   The series comes on a single disc and there are some special features included:   Interview with Gareth Thomas  (who played Adam Brake, but who a lot of people might remember as being Blake from Blake's 7)   Interview with Peter Graham Scott   Trivia   Filmographies   Producton Overview Photo Gallery                                    CAST             Hendrick          ...        Iain Cuthbertson           Adam               ...       Gareth Thomas           Dai                   ...       Freddie Jones           Link                 ...       John Woodnutt           Margaret           ...       Veronica Strong            Mrs Crabtree     ...       Ruth Dunning           Matthew           ...       Peter Demin           Sandra              ...       Katharine Levy           Kevin               ...       Darren Hatch           Jimmo              ...       Gary Lock           Dr Lyle             ...       Richard Matthews           Miss Clegg        ...       June Barrie           Browning          ...      Hubert Tucker     Soundtrack:          mono. Picture:                4:3 Subtitles:              none. Running time:       3 hours  7 minutes Certificate (UK):   PG HOME