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''Raven'' is a British children's
television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
drama series made for ITV by
ATV ATV may refer to: Broadcasting * Amateur television *Analog television Television broadcaster * Andorra Televisió * Anguilla Television * Ayna TV, Afghanistan * ATV (Armenia) * ATV (Aruba), NBC affiliate * ATV (Australian TV station), Melbourn ...
in 1977.McGown, Alistair D. & Docherty, Mark J. (2003) ''The Hill and Beyond: Children's Television Drama - An Encyclopedia'', BFI Publishing, , p. 111 The series starred
Phil Daniels Philip William Daniels (born 25 October 1958) is an English actor, musician and singer, most noted for film and television roles playing Londoners, such as the lead role of Jimmy Cooper in ''Quadrophenia'', Richards in '' Scum'', Stewart in '' T ...
in the title role.


Story

A orphan and former
borstal A borstal is a type of youth detention centre. Such a detention centre is more commonly known as a borstal school in India, where they remain in use today. Until the late 20th century, borstals were present in the United Kingdom, several mem ...
inmate sent on a rehabilitation programme, assisting an archaeology professor in his excavation of a system of caves and who subsequently is compelled to fight a plan to build a nuclear waste disposal plant on the site. The man-made cave system is underneath an ancient
stone circle A stone circle is a ring of megalithic standing stones. Most are found in Northwestern Europe – especially Stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany – and typically date from the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, with most being ...
, and contains 5th-century rock carvings which may be connected to the legend of
King Arthur According to legends, King Arthur (; ; ; ) was a king of Great Britain, Britain. He is a folk hero and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain. In Wales, Welsh sources, Arthur is portrayed as a le ...
and Arthurian lore. The professor believes that "Arthur" may not have been a single individual but an inherited office and he emphasises the notion of Arthur and his knights slumbering below the West Country landscape awaiting the call to return to action in a time of peril, more as an idea than a physical reality. The programme consistently featured the sign of Pluto (referencing
Plutonium Plutonium is a chemical element; it has symbol Pu and atomic number 94. It is a silvery-gray actinide metal that tarnishes when exposed to air, and forms a dull coating when oxidized. The element normally exhibits six allotropes and four ...
as a by-product of a nuclear reactions), a symbol for Raven's quest. The core of the story is the central sage/apprentice hero relationship between Professor Young and Raven, representing the legend of
Merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...
and King Arthur, both characters having avian projections: Young as a
merlin The Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) is an interferometer array of radio telescopes spread across England. The array is run from Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Re ...
(a bird which often accompanies Raven throughout the story), and Raven (protected by his namesake bird
raven A raven is any of several large-bodied passerine bird species in the genus '' Corvus''. These species do not form a single taxonomic group within the genus. There is no consistent distinction between crows and ravens; the two names are assigne ...
at birth when abandoned by his parents).


Cast

*Michael Aldridge as Prof. James Young *Patsy Rowlands as Mrs. Young *Phil Daniels as Raven *Shirley Cheriton as Naomi Grant * James Kerry as Bill Telford *
Tenniel Evans Walter Tenniel Evans (17 May 1926 – 10 June 2009) was a British actor. Family Walter Tenniel Evans was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His middle name derived from the illustrator Sir John Tenniel, a distant relation.Blake Butler John David Blake Butler (22 October 1924 – 15 April 1981) was an English actor best known for his role as the lecherous chief librarian Mr. Wainwright during the first and third series of ''Last of the Summer Wine'' in 1973 and 1976 respect ...
as Stone * Ellis Jones as Vicar Wakefield *
Harold Innocent Harold Sidney Innocent (18 April 1933 – 12 September 1993) (born Harold Sidney Harrison) was an English actor who appeared in many film and television roles. After attending Broad Street Secondary Modern School in Coventry, Innocent worked f ...
as Minister * Hugh Thomas as Clive Castle *
Roger Milner Roger Lloyd Milner (2 April 1925–22 February 2014) was a British actor, author and dramatist who is probably best remembered today for appearing in two of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas dramas in the 1970s. His "outrageous comedy" '' ...
as Ticket Collector *
Geoffrey Lumsden Geoffrey Forbes Lumsden (26 December 1914 – 4 March 1984) was a British character actor who had a lengthy career on television. He often played pompous upper-class characters, army officers and the like. Biography Lumsden was born in ...
as Sir Lewis Gurney * Terry Pearson as Scientist (uncredited)


Production

Cast members in the serial included
Michael Aldridge Michael William ffolliott Aldridge (9 September 1920 – 10 January 1994) was an English actor. He was known for playing Seymour Utterthwaite in the television series ''Last of the Summer Wine'' from 1986 to 1990 and he had a long career as a ...
,
Patsy Rowlands Patricia Amy Rowlands (19 January 1931 – 22 January 2005) was an English actress who is best remembered for her roles in the ''Carry On'' films series, as Betty Lewis in the ITV Thames sitcom '' Bless This House'', and as Alice Meredith ...
, James Kerry,
Shirley Cheriton Shirley Cheriton (born 28 June 1955) is an English actress and performer, best known for her roles as Debbie Wilkins in the BBC soap opera ''EastEnders'' and her portrayal of Miss Prescott in the ''Are You Being Served?'' follow up, ''Grace & F ...
and
Tenniel Evans Walter Tenniel Evans (17 May 1926 – 10 June 2009) was a British actor. Family Walter Tenniel Evans was born in Nairobi, Kenya. His middle name derived from the illustrator Sir John Tenniel, a distant relation. They also compared ''Raven'' with other fantasy TV programs of the era, including ''
Sky The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the planetary surface, surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from ...
'', '' The Changes'' and '' King of the Castle''.


Novelisation

A novelisation of ''Raven'' by Burnham and Ray was published by Carousel Books (an imprint of
Corgi Books Transworld is a British publishing house in Ealing, London that is a division of Penguin Random House, one of the world's largest mass media groups. It was established in 1950 as the British division of American company Bantam Books. It publi ...
) in 1977. The novelisation was republished by Fantom Publishing in 2014.


Release

An episode of this series is available to view at the
National Science and Media Museum The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
in Bradford, UK. The whole series of six parts was long been believed to be incomplete in the archives, until Network DVD, an independent DVD publishing company that specialises in classic British television, unearthed the original 2" VT tapes. Network released the series on DVD in 2010.


External links

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References

{{TV series based on Arthurian legends Television series based on Arthurian legend ITV children's television shows British children's television series 1977 British television series debuts 1977 British television series endings 1970s British children's television series British children's fantasy television series British English-language television shows Television shows produced by Associated Television (ATV) Folk horror