Wonderful HTV series for children that still sends a shiver up the spine, Children of the Stones is a masterclass in how to create atmosphere on a low budget, although the plot, largely borrowed from Invasion of the Body Snatchers, doesn't make a great deal of sense. The brilliant soundtrack of wordless choral music contributes immensely, while the Avebury setting with its weathered stones is used to excellent effect. Some reviewers have suggested it is like a kids' version of The Wicker Man - not really, this is played very straight and has none of The Wicker Man's comedy or eccentricity. Night of the Demon might be a closer comparison.Iain Cuthbertson puts in a trademark eye-rolling performance, while the parents Gareth Thomas and Veronica Strong are a bit too like the nice teachers at school. The child actors do well, and are less irritating than most. Freddie Jones hams it up like a good 'un, and Ruth Dunning is the housekeeper from hell.The ending is truly awful, sci-fi gobbledegook that merely provides a form of words to allow them all to stop. It is all about atmosphere, leaving logic and coherence behind at the boundary of Milbury.

The music was so corny I almost abandoned the video immediately. It was extremely bad and amateurish. It almost makes the film unwatchable, like something in a high school video project.The video is broken into 10-minute segments, each with opening and closing credits and a recap of the previous segment. This is tedious.The science is pretty shaky, but at one point went completely off the rails. They decide some stones point up permanently aligned with a star in Ursa Major. Vertical stones in England would never align so far north. Further, no English stones would be permanently aligned anywhere because the earth rotates and revolves around the sun.In general, the science is utterly embarrassing. It would be too silly even for an Austin Powers movie.I think the writer went to a math library and grabbed snippets and formulae at random to include in the script. Given that there is so much of this and that it is central to the plot, I think they could have hired a real (or at least student) mathematician to compose some plausible dialogue.The movie is carried by Matthew, a scientist's ten-year-old son. He is unusually intelligent, curious and spunky. He is a considerably better actor than any of the adults in the movie. The acting, in general, has a stagy feel with lots of contrived exposition.They show you something strange, then let you sit with it for a long time before giving their explanation. It does a good job that way of building suspense. The way they build unease is by showing you very ordinary things, but that just should not happen, like a giant stone appearing in a different place. There is almost nothing that would count as a special effect, other than possibly a dissolve.Despite all the negative things I said about the movie, it was engaging. I cared about the characters. It was creepy. The very last reel was high camp. I expected the villain to play Toccata and Fugue on an organ.

This was a movie that US Nickelodeon channel used to show when I was young (and Nickelodeon channel was new). I loved the movie then because it was so unlike any other movies I had seen. Would definitely recommend it (it is now available on DVD but is fairly expensive for US markets).When I had a chance to go to England for school, I actually went to Avebury and saw the stone circle (which is older than Stonehenge). The movie itself is a nice blend of factual history, science, science fiction and eerie music.This is one of those lost gems that might be well worth another look!

(Some spoilers)Children Of The Stones has been called 'the children's Wicker Man' - one indication of the high regard with which this seven-part 1977 British television series is still held. Resemblances between Robin Hardy's 1973 cult classic are certainly strong, notably the pervasive strength of the pagan cult which threatens to overwhelm Adam Brake (Gareth Thomas) and his son Matthew (Peter Denim). Other influences include that of Nigel Kneale, whose work had been so prominent in British TV science fantasy. Thomas had already appeared playing a minor part in Kneale's Quatermass And The Pit (1967). The year after the present series was aired saw a last Quatermass, which concerns an unknown alien force 'harvesting' the youth by leading them to ancient ritual sites. The parallels between the fatal rapture of Ringstone Round, the 'happiness' of Millbury's own initiates, and the ominous role of megaliths in both shows, are striking. Filmed on location at Avebury, Children Of The Stones follows the usual technical format of 1970s' kids shows (video used for internal studio sequences, film for the atmospheric scenes shot outside). Sidney Sager provided an especially effective score, using a mainly wordless chorus for the credits and ghostly female soprano soloist. The series shares some of the weaknesses of the time (somewhat under-directed acting, and ripe performances, notably that of Freddie Jones, who plays Dai, the Welsh inebriate) and strengths, chief of which is a complex storyline, one completely different from the contemporary transatlantic product. Millbury, where the action takes place, is at the apex of numerous lay lines, a hub of psychic activity, a place of power into which it proves much easier to enter than leave. Hendrick's (Iain Cuthbertson) Millbury house is situated at the middle of the ancient stone circle which astrophysicist Brake arrives to study. More than just the defunct 'prehistoric Jodrell Bank' he envisages, this impressive monument marks the coming together of a number of still-active forces and traditions, offering physical and mental challenges to investigators. These combine in the figure of Hendrick, and Hendrick's home, the focus of events. It is here that the transformation of mind occurs, where the villagers chant and dance. "There are more things in heaven and earth than I have philosophised in my dreams," admits Brake to Margaret (Veronica Strong), expressing somewhat awkwardly the confusion he feels. In Millbury as he discovers, pure mathematics and modern science rub shoulders with the mysterious workings of age-old mysticism and rural legend. Balancing everything, creating a coherent world picture, is what gives the plot most of its interest. Brake and his precocious son are both intellectuals, empiricists by instinct, gradually brought round by circumstance to a necessary belief in 'the existence of that which exists'. (The words on the enigmatic picture which originally inspired Matthew's interest in the site.) Former scientist Hendrick, discoverer of the supernova at the heart of the mystery, is one who has already crossed that line. As Brake rightly identifies with some distaste at the end, Hendrick has since moved from professional astronomer to visionary 'magus', exchanging the certainties of science for the excesses of egocentricity. Brake and son have the problem of interpreting and adapting to events, while remaining intellectually independent, something which imminent brainwashing ultimately threatens to destroy. Away from external dangers, at the core of the narrative is the quartet of relationships between the Brakes, Margaret, and Sandra (Katherine Levy). The romantic interest between Adam and the female curator is, understandably muted, although enough feeling remains to ensure that the fate of the mother and daughter has some emotional drama at the climax. Alone out of the 50-odd villagers (the outsider Dai excepted) it is they who stand out in our mind, and exclusively they whom the Brakes struggle to rescue from amidst the doomed chanters. Particularly as played by stodgy Gareth Thomas, Professor Brake proves a dull fellow, whose son is far more interesting. Thomas (whose screen presence sometimes reminds one of the 1950s' British actor John Gregson) often has to work hard to convince us that his character is anything like as intellectually nimble as we might expect. (He later went on to star in another cult TV show, Blake's 7.) By contrast, Matthew Brake is exceptionally bright and much more dynamic, recognised by Hendrick early on as a worthy adversary. It is the son who triggers many of the key discoveries driving the plot. But even the younger Brake is somewhat daunted by the abilities of the happy pupils in the village school, whose mental prowess recalls the alien prodigies in The Village Of The Damned (1960). Iain Cuthbertson, on the other hand, who had earlier worked with Thomas on another UK TV series, Sutherland's Law, acts the genially threatening Hendrick very skilfully, and does a good job. The end of the series has been dismissed as a cop out, and certainly the abrupt interjection of a parallel time, circular chronology universe is unexpected. After the astro-psychic events just witnessed it is, frankly, one twist too far. Admittedly it is difficult to think of another way to end with a point of interest once the circle has been broken, and tension dispelled. Clearly a downbeat ending, such as concluded The Wicker Man, would have been difficult in a children's show, but the result of the Brake's final questioning of all events is to undermine the careful investigations and deductions made before. The miraculous restoration of friends and villagers is reassuring but, although such events may suggest a hallucination, the defusing of earlier tension is a let off. The re-introduction of Hendrick and his butler Link (as a fresh purchaser of the house, and estate agent, respectively) does nothing more than further muddy narrative waters, and the show really demands a more satisfying conclusion. Despite this disappointment, Children Of The Stones continues to hold the attention, primarily because of the audacious plot. If the concepts are far-fetched, they are never less than interesting, and worth revisiting.