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A Family at War

British television period drama series (1970–1972)

Summary

British television period drama series (1970–1972)

Field	Value
image	A_Family_at_War.jpg
caption	Opening title
genre	Drama
creator	John Finch
developer	Granada Television
starring	Colin Douglas
Barbara Flynn
Leslie Nunnerley
Coral Atkins
theme_music_composer	Ralph Vaughan Williams
country	United Kingdom
language	English
num_series	3
num_episodes	52
runtime	60 minutes
network	ITV
first_aired
last_aired

Barbara Flynn Leslie Nunnerley Coral Atkins

A Family at War is a British drama series that aired on ITV from 14 April 1970 to 16 February 1972. It was created by John Finch and made by Granada Television for ITV. The original producer was Richard Doubleday, and with 13 directors during the series. The series examined the lives of the lower middle-class Ashton family of the city of Liverpool and their experiences from 1938 and throughout the Second World War.

Fifty-two episodes were produced, all but eight of them in colour. Episodes numbers 25 to 32 were recorded in black and white because of the ITV Colour Strike. The theme music is from the end of the First Movement (Allegro) of Vaughan Williams's Sixth Symphony. The programme opening titles show a scene of a beach with a child's sand castle, with Union Flag flying, slowly being approached by the encroaching tide, symbolic of a beleaguered Britain standing alone in 1940–1941.

Plot summary

The families Ashton, Briggs, and Porter live in Liverpool in 1938 and later. Edwin Ashton, the son of a mineworker, has moved up to the middle class by working for a printing company and by marrying Jean, the sister of company owner Sefton Briggs. The latter is a hard businessman who appoints his son Tony as the new manager of the workplace, rather than the experienced Edwin.

Edwin and Jean have five children: Philip, David, Robert, Margaret, and Freda. Philip is a leftist who fought as a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War. David joins the RAF because he cannot find another job. He is married to Sheila, but he impregnates Peggy. Robert, the youngest son, wants to join the Navy. Margaret, the eldest Ashton daughter, marries John Porter, but she has a troubled relationship with her mother-in-law Celia. All these events take place against the backdrop of the political conflict leading to the Second World War, which will have a major impact on their lives.

Cast

Colin Douglas as Edwin Ashton
Shelagh Fraser as Jean Ashton
Colin Campbell as David Ashton
Barbara Flynn as Freda Ashton
Keith Drinkel as Philip Ashton
David Dixon as Robert Ashton
Lesley Nunnerley as Margaret Porter
Coral Atkins as Sheila Ashton
John McKelvey as Sefton Briggs
T.R. Bowen as Tony Briggs
Ian Thompson as John Porter
Diana Davies as Doris Jackson
John Nettles as Ian Mackenzie
Mark Jones as Michael Armstrong
Margery Mason as Celia Porter
Patrick Troughton as Harry Porter
Brett Usher as Ken Beaumont
Mark Edwards
Bryan Marshall as Stashek

DVD release

All episodes of A Family at War are available on DVD in the UK, distributed by Acorn Media UK, but with several of the episodes edited from their original running times. For example, in episode three, Margery Mason and Patrick Troughton are credited, but do not appear.

The series was released in the Netherlands in 2015 by Just Entertainment. Several brief scenes cut from the Acorn set do appear in the Netherlands set, such as the scene referenced above.

The series is rated PG in New Zealand for violence, sex scenes and sexual references.

References

Cooke, Lez. (2005). "Regional British television drama in the 1960s and 1970s". Journal of Media Practice.
Heffer, Simon. (12 March 2022). "Hinterland". Daily Telegraph.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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