Just when you think that the 60s TV archives have been completely plundered, Network finds another lost gem - The Owl Service - which is getting a release on 28th April 2008.The Owl Service was the first programme made in colour by Granada and it’’s still intact - all eight episodes will be available complete and uncut in this two-disc set. Shot in the Welsh valleys in the summer of 1969, The Owl Service is a teen drama, mixing history, myth, mystery and adventure, as well as the supernatural and class division. To quote the press release:

Alison (Gillian Williams) and her brother Roger (Francis Williams) spend the family summer holiday in a remote cottage in the Welsh countryside. After hearing a scratching noise in the attic, Alison discovers some old dinner plates which have a strange floral pattern on them. When she traces the design onto paper, the flowers turn into owls. What is the connection between the plates, the gardener, the angry housekeeper and the legend of a village magician? Discover the weird power of the valley as the legend begins to unfold…

Extras include an image gallery, an introduction written by KimNewman with additional contributions from Chris Lynch and an archiveinterview with Alan Garner from Celebration. Hopefully we”ll have areview before release date.

Source

The Owl Service is a novel by Alan Garner first published in 1967. It is a contemporary interpretation, which Garner described as an “expression of the myth“, of the story of the mythical Welsh figure of Blodeuwedd, whose story is told in the Fourth Branch of the Mabinogi.The legend concerns a woman created from flowers by a Welsh wizard. She betrays her husband, Lleu, in favour of another, Gronw or Goronwy, and is turned into an owl as punishment for inducing Gronw to kill Lleu.

Various kinds of discrimination and prejudice pervade the plot. There is the condescending English view of the Welsh and its corollary in the Welsh resentment of English money. There is the class divide,not only between a working class boy and richer children, but between aland-owning family and a businessman’s family. There is the divide between urban Welsh and the Welsh-speaking country people. The boy Gwyn speaks Welsh to the locals to practise for his examinations at school, but his mother does not want him “speaking like a labourer”. Speaking English, Gwyn’s Welsh accent marks him as inferior in English eyes as well. These innate conflicts are part of the author’s device to create a conflict, not out of malice on anyone’s part, but out of the bringing together of mismatched outlooks.

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