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Moondial (Faber Children's Classics)

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Built between 1685 and 1688 by John Brownlow (1659-97), along with the ponds and gardens, Belton House sits in the parish of Belton and Manthorpe not far from Grantham, Lincolnshire. Situated on the axial pathway is a figure of Time made from Portland stone, seated on a globe and supporting a baluster column with the assistance of a cherub. Atop this statue is a brass sundial inscribed by Thomas Wright and dating to 1725. [3] Moondial was very much the final flurry of a very particularly and beloved strain of British children’s television that had mainly flourished in the seventies. There were attempts to revive it, some successful (Tom’s Midnight Garden and a couple of the Nesbit Five Children adaptations), some not (Archer’s Goon) and Century Falls (which as a child I recognised immediately as a cynical attempt to emulate this era and hated with a passion. But Moondial was the final masterpiece: strange, eerie, unsettling and genuinely spooky - and strangely far more so than the book that it was adapted from I recognised Helen Cresswell's name as writing the screenwriter for the excellent BBC adaptation of The Demon Headmaster so was interested to find out she had written some fiction for children. Ariminta (Minty) Cane, reluctantly separated from her mother, stays with her Aunt Mary (Valerie Lush) in Belton, Lincolnshire and it isn’t long before the curiosity of the nearby Belton House and its mysterious Sundial leads her to cross the threshold of time and encounters ghostly presences who appear to be caught in the trappings of life as much as she is.

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This article is about the timepiece. For the TV series, see Moondial (television). Moondial at Queens' College, Cambridge, showing the table of corrections for the phase of the moon The children’s department had a pool of incredible talent to draw upon on, with names like Christine Secombe, Paul Stone and Colin Cant cropping up regularly throughout the decade. The latter two of these were involved in the creation of Moondial, a 1988 serial that concerned the tale of Minty, a young girl who finds herself drawn into a mysterious time-travelling adventure. In this period there seemed to be a proper drive not to talk down to children and to provide them with very high quality, thoughtful programming. Jacqueline Pearce is the standout name amongst the guest cast, taking the dual role of Miss Raven and Miss Vole. Familiar to 1980s viewers of course as Servalan from Blake’s 7, Moondial represents one of the – sadly – few major roles that she would go on to take on. Cant would use her again in Dark Season, again as a villain, and it appears that she became somewhat typecast following her time as the Supreme Commander. It would have been interesting to have seen such a talented actress in a wider variety of roles. As Miss Raven, Pearce looks like and plays the part rather similarly to that of Servalan, but is never less than captivating. Miss Vole, is even worse – she is completely horrid to Sarah and the scenes in which Vole torments the girl shows of some of Pearce’s most effective ever acting. Moondial’ (1988) is available on DVD from Second Sight Films, originally released 4 May 2015. BBFC classification PG. Running time 158 mins. Catalogue no. 2NDVD3274. Minty is played by Siri Neil. Although Minty is supposed to be just thirteen years old, Neil is evidently a touch older than this. She’s hauntingly attractive and exactly the right sort of actress for this part, doing a terrific job in what was her first professional acting role. Neal has a confidence here that isn’t always seen in child actors, and is completely believable. Following Moondial, she went on to appear in a number minor roles in other television series and could have been a much bigger star than she ultimately became as her potential clearly stands out here. Unfortunately for viewers, she later retired from acting and moved on to a new stage of her life. Virtually the entire story rests on Neil’s shoulders – a big task for such a young actress – but she copes admirably. Tony Sands takes the supporting role of Tom, and is another really good performer who seems to have disappeared from the acting scene. The character of Old World is played by Arthur Hewlett, an actor who seemed to make a career out of playing elderly men. World is a wise old chap who seems to be partially psychic and is able to guide Minty in her investigations, imparting vital clues along the way. He believes that he sees and hears glimpses of the children from the past, and represents a link to the older time. ‘Moondial’ (1988) Photo: BBC/Second Sight Films

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Minty is staying with her Aunt Mary in a little cottage on the edge of an Crumpton Manor which is now always open to visitors. Minty has a mystic streak and realises there are unhappy ghosts who are trapped. With some aid from old Mr World she is drawn towards the moondial and decides to solve the mystery but she has to overcome many obstacles. Led on to the sundial, upon a strangely symmetrical journey resembling that of her dream which opens this six-part serial – and accompanied by the late David Ferguson’s magnificent score – Minty discovers its powers to be that of not just ‘apparent-time’ but also that of ‘moon-time’ and the dial spins her on course to the 19th Century where she meets a fellow time-traveller, a boy called Tom ‘short for Edward’ (Tony Sands). When Minty is taken by her mother, Kate, to stay with her aunt in Belton, she has no reservations. Living with a mum who is so busy with work that her daughter is almost independent, Minty sees this trip as an adventure of sorts and hopes that something exciting will happen when she explores the grounds of Belton House: a stately home which he aunt lives across home. Perhaps she'll see ghosts!

Moondial’ (1988): An Appreciation » We Are Cult ‘Moondial’ (1988): An Appreciation » We Are Cult

This magical, at times, harrowing, and engaging six-parter signalled an end of an era as the decade closed to allow the 1990s to begin where children’s drama would continue its shift for faster-paced viewing with less quiet tones. Colin Cant reflects upon this change of pace. More advanced moondials can include charts showing the exact calculations to get the correct time, as well as dials designed with latitude and longitude in mind. The BBC made a children’s television programme of Moondial with Helen Cresswell writing the script. Her method had been to write the book first and to keep the television script faithful to the book. The six episodes were filmed at Belton House and village, with local children taking part. The series was broadcast from February to March 1988 and was repeated in 1990. A DVD of the series can still be obtained. Regarded as a nostalgic favourite by followers of 1980s BBC children's drama, Moondial employs extensive location filming (in the grounds of Belton House in Lincolnshire) and fantastical, dreamlike imagery. In her autobiography, Helen wrote ‘I played with words as other children play with Lego’. Her play with words began with poetry at age 6, later producing around 100 children’s stories including Moondial. After becoming a teacher, she returned to writing in 1963. Helen wrote early in the morning, with a pot of tea beside her. She would sit on the floor and write in a large plain book, with ‘real pens and real ink’. When writing Moondial, as with other timeless fantasies, she used a white pen with sepia ink. After writing between 500 and 3,000 words, she would then type up her work, while it was fresh in her mind. Helen never edited the content once it was written.

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Moondial’ by Helen Cresswell was first published January 1st 1987 by Puffin Books, and originally broadcast on BBC1, 10 February – 16 March 1988. There’s a genuinely spooky, haunting feel to Moondial , and whilst perhaps modern viewers may turn away from a six-part adventure because of the pacing, the story is never less than interesting and raises plenty of questions in the mind of the viewer. Not all are always answered, and perhaps this is no bad thing – viewers don’t always need to be spoon-fed. This is a complex, layered story rather than your typical runaround adventure which caught the attention of children: some even being interviewed for the BBC’s Take Two programme to voice their opinions. Paul Stone also appeared, answering questions from Phillip Schofield on whether the serial was too scary for younger viewers. A timeslip novel much akin to The Children of Green Knowe and An Enemy at Green Knowe, Moondial sees a young girl attempt to comes to grips with a sense of a place and those who inhabited it before. Her relationship with Tom and Sarah, children from other times, were engaging enough although I suspect a more fruitful exploration would have come across in the T.V. version (for which the idea was also conceived.) Moondial, a children’s book written by Helen Cresswell, was jointly published in October 1987 by Faber and Faber and the National Trust. The story is set in 1985 Belton village and at Belton House.

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D uring the 1970s and 1980s, children’s television drama was arguably at its height with both original and adapted material being brought to the screens during weekly tea-time on a consistent basis by both the BBC and ITV networks. Dramas where children took the centre stage and were given a platform to be equals to their adult counterparts and therefore subject to as much peril and tribulation within stories that didn’t shy away from hard-hitting subject matters and dealing with very real issues that were instantly relatable no matter how fanciful the setting. Minty (Siri Neal), is a gifted child who can sense things that many cannot (this is subtlety alluded to during the opening of episode one much like the opening paragraphs of the novel although the adaptation omits the dark notion of Minty sensing a past act of suicide on the landing in her own home and realised her ability when she could hear her father’s voice even though he is dead). Neal gives Minty a rather fearless and unconventional quality to her character along with an incredibly real vulnerability having already lost a parent and is now facing the very real threat of losing the other.

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The book is short, and the plot is simple, but it's a beautifully mysterious and atmospheric read, with a big dollop of nostalgia in it for me. Belton is a real house, and the Moondial of the story is a real thing in the grounds, so I think one day I'm going to have to visit and see it. And if P J Lynch had illustrated the tower with the golden pennants which never moved in the breeze, I'd have been most grateful - I never understood how this was meant: like stiff flags, vertically from the tower or corners? Or hanging horizontally and downwards from rampants? Or strung along like a bunting? For some reason I never got a good mental image of this, nor understood why Minty wondered if they ever moved. A lovely little mystery with some beautiful symbolism and lovely morals about love being the most important thing. As another reviewer remarked Cresswell sometimes spends more time on the things you aren't interested in then skips over other moments you felt could have had more tension in such as the finale. Cresswell writes good characters and this was a good book which was deservedly made in to a TV series. It seems a shame that her name has fallen in to obscurity. If you want to know how they achieve it, you will have to read the book for yourself, but I can tell you it isn't as straightforward a solution as you might think. I'm not even sure if you will think it's a happy ending, but the children seem pleased enough. In terms of scope, it's quite terrific as it takes in time travel and the supernatural, two genres which can be exhilarating in their own right, so the promise of greatness is set in the foundations. However, in terms of startling clarity, Moondial fares worse than a moondial on a sun-drenched afternoon. There's a basic thread woven into the narrative that Minty needs to help others be it her unconscious mother or two ghostly children. It's an admirable message and one which is translated loud and clear, but slightly more deafening are the unanswered questions left clogging your consciousness.

Moondial (Audio Download): Helen Cresswell, Charlotte

Helen Cresswell, a BAFTA award winning children’s author, was passionate about developing the imagination and creativity of youngsters. She travelled all over the UK visiting schools to share her belief in the power of reading. In 1984 she approached the Educational Advisor for the National Trust to suggest that imaginative stories set in their properties could raise children’s interest in them. I spoke to one school child who went on the ‘Below stairs’ tour and experienced life as a kitchen boy. He dressed up as a servant polishing the silver in the kitchen which was used as part of the filming of the television series. He learnt that all the kitchen boys were called Tom. Tom in Moondial is the kitchen boy from the 1860s. Connecting the house to the kitchen is a tunnel with a rail for moving food to the dining room. When the kitchen boys were in the tunnel, they had to whistle or hum to stop them eating anything on the way. The illustrator of Moondial, P J Lynch, was a young man who had recently left Brighton Art College and was illustrating book covers for Faber when he was given Moondial to read. He told me that once he had read the book, he was excited about illustrating it. There are around twelve line drawings which are evocative of the mood of the story and add an air of mystery to the book. P J Lynch’s front cover cleverly captures several elements of the book, including the Halloween masks taken from the faces on the urns in the garden and the cloaked figure of Sarah. He was particularly pleased with the front cover which is still used by Faber.

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When I was younger, that is to say, younger than I am now (11), this was one of my favourite books of all time. Now, I have 3: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Pride and Prejudice. I have always been a keen reader, so, when I was...7 or 8?...I read Moondial for the first time. But Sarah is an innocent, beautiful child who has been led to believe she is evil has seemingly never been loved or accepted by anyone. At one point, Minty and Tom witness her daring venture into the daylight and trying to wash the devil’s mark from her face by the fountain in a heart-breaking scene that shows the true extent of the mental torment she has been subjected to. And all the while, as she walks the grounds of Belton House in darkness, singing her solitary song, ‘I’m weeping for a play-mate on a bright summers day’ she is completely unaware she has two mates awaiting to save her from her loneliness.

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