Look and Read: Dark Towers

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companyBBC
started22nd Sep 1981
ended1st Dec 1981
last rpt26th Jan 2007
26 school years
episodes10
duration20 mins
subject 📚EnglishLanguage & Reading
age rangeAge 7-9
languageenIn English
Look and ReadHierarchyPrevious.gifPrevious story: The Boy From Space (1980)Next story: Fair Ground!HierarchyNext.gif

Dark Towers is a unit of the BBC schools TV series Look and Read from the 1980s, covering Language and Reading for primary school pupils.

Lookandread-myby-Bannerhead.gif
This page about the Look and Read story Dark Towers is not yet finished.
But you can still read my old web pages about the story at the Internet Archive Wayback Machine on this link:
Look and Read.myby.co.uk - Dark Towers

An excellent and much-loved programme with a story that's comic, atmospheric and occasionally very scary ("Who comes to the Tall Knight's folly?") involving a young girl called Tracy who chases her dog into the gardens of a strange old house, Dark Towers. She meets the residents, Lord Dark and his son Edward, and becomes involved in a race to find the hidden treasure of Dark Towers. This race also involves three self-styled antique experts who're really searching for the treasure, and the house's two ghosts - the recently deceased Friendly Ghost and the more scary Tall Knight.

Wordy did the in-between bits from a children's library with the help of the librarian, Jenny Jackson, and many of the educational songs involved three more ghosts: Ghostly, Ghastly and Ghoulish.

Episodes

Quick episode list

# Title Broadcast
1. Dark Towers in Danger! 22 Sep 1981
2. The Man in the Picture 29 Sep 1981
3. The Old Legend 6 Oct 1981
4. The Clue in the Book 13 Oct 1981
5. The Old Coach House 20 Oct 1981
6. The Tall Knight's Folly 3 Nov 1981
7. The Dark Tree 10 Nov 1981
8. Beware of the Bird! 17 Nov 1981
9. Who Can Help? 24 Nov 1981
10. The Last Laugh 1 Dec 1981

Episode descriptions from the Radio Times.


Num Title Broadcast
1. Dark Towers in Danger! 22 Sep 1981
  Tracy and her dog Towser meet the owners of Dark Towers, a strange old house, and receive a mysterious, ghostly message.
2. The Man in the Picture 29 Sep 1981
  Is there something suspicious about the two 'experts' looking over the contents of Dark Towers? Then Tracy and Edward meet a friendly ghost!
3. The Old Legend 6 Oct 1981
  The Friendly Ghost gives a warning and tells of the legend of Dark Towers. He gives the first clue to the whereabouts of the Tall Knight's treasure.
4. The Clue in the Book 13 Oct 1981
  The first clue on the trail of the Golden Book of the Tall Knight leads to a worm-eaten rhyme and a hunt for old wheels.
5. The Old Coach House 20 Oct 1981
  Tracy solves the clue, but finds out that Benger and Bunce are crooks and overhears their plans.
6. The Tall Knight's Folly 3 Nov 1981
  Tracy is 'framed' by Benger and Bunce. Edward enlists the help of the Friendly Ghost and finally meets Tall Knight.
7. The Dark Tree 10 Nov 1981
 
8. Beware of the Bird! 17 Nov 1981
  The studded chest is found... but where is the treasure? Benger and Bunce turn nasty but the Tall Knight comes to Tracy's rescue.
9. Who Can Help? 24 Nov 1981
  The secret hiding place of the Golden Book is discovered - by the three villains - so the Friendly Ghost decides to summon up the Tall Knight.
10. The Last Laugh 1 Dec 1981
  Will the Tall knight arrive in time to save his treasure and the house? Who will have the last laugh?

Credits

Narrated by Sean Barrett
Starring David Collings as Lord Dark and the Friendly Ghost

Juliet Waley as Tracy Brown
Gary Russell as Lord Edward Dark
Christopher Biggins as Mr Benger
Harry Jones as Mr Bunce
Juliet Hammond Hill as Miss Hawk
Peter Mayhew as the Tall Knight
Denise Coffey as Jenny Jackson
Charles Collingwood as Wordy
Katie Hebb as puppeteer
Susan Kodicek as the Little Ghost (Black Theatre of London)
and Flak as Towser

Singers Derek Griffiths
Julie Stevens
Written by Andrew Davies
Producer Sue Weeks

Juliet Waley was accidentally credited as "Juliet Way" in the credits to episode 4. Nobody knows why this little mistake was made (I have asked!). Normally the exact same credits roller would be re-filmed from one episode to another, unless they needed to make (manual) changes to it. Presumably in this case somebody got a bit distracted while they were doing the letraset and then never noticed the error.

Who was in which episodes:

C A S T   D E T A I L S

starring                     EPISODES
----------------------
SEAN BARRETT          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CHRISTOPHER BIGGINS     2 3   5 6 7 8 9 10
HARRY JONES             2 3   5 6 7 8 9 10
DAVID COLLINGS        1 2 3 4   6   8 9 10
JULIET HAMMOND HILL       3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
PETER MAYHEW                    6 7 8   10
GARY RUSSELL          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
SUSAN KODICEK                       8 9 10
JULIET WALEY          1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DENISE COFFEY         1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
CHARLES COLLINGWOOD   1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
KATIE HEBB            1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
DEREK GRIFFITHS       1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
and Flak              1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Broadcasts

Here is a list of all of the broadcasts of this story on the BBC. Unless your teachers managed to get the video recorder to work, this is when you would have seen it in school. See the Schedules section for precise dates and times.


Links


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