''Tom Grattan's War'' was a British television series which ran from 1968 to 1970. The show revolved around the life of Tom Grattan who was sent to live with relatives in Yorkshire during the Great War.

Plotlines and setting

Tom Grattan was a 15-year-old boy from London during

World War One World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

who is sent to live on a farm in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

for the duration of the war with relatives the Kirkby family. While living on the farm he has various adventures involving German spies, saboteurs, escaped P.O.W.'s, criminals and secret weapons. The series was filmed entirely on location in rural Yorkshire including making use of various rundown and abandoned castles, quarries and factories although the show did also feature vintage stock footage from the war. The story-lines ranged with some plots carrying over for multiple chapters while other episodes were stand alone.

Cast

*Michael Howe as Tom Grattan *Sally Adcock as Julie Kirkby *Connie Merigold as Mrs Kirkby *George Malpas as Stan Hobbs * Richard Warner as the Host/Narrator Artist

Clive Hicks-Jenkins Clive Hicks-Jenkins (born 11 June 1951) is a Welsh artist known especially for narrative paintings and artist's books. His paintings are represented in all the main public collections in Wales, as well as others in the United Kingdom, and his a ...

appeared as a guest star in one multiple episode story line. Some episodes were directed by

Ronald Eyre Ronald Eyre (13 April 1929 – 8 April 1992) was an English theatre director, actor and writer. Biography Eyre was born at Mapplewell, near Barnsley, Yorkshire and he taught at Queen Elizabeth's Grammar School, Blackburn and Giggleswick Sch ...

and others by

Stephen Frears Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is an English director and producer of film and television often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply drawn characters. He's received numerous accola ...

Broadcast history

26 episodes were produced by

Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...

with the show originally airing between 1968 and 1970 in Britain and was also carried in Canada on

TV Ontario TVO Media Education Group (often abbreviated as TVO and stylized on-air as tvo) is a publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It is operated by the Ontario E ...

and in America on the

American Broadcast Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califor ...

network. It was released on Region 2 DVD in July 2009.

Other media

Stories from the series were also adapted in paperback book form.

References

{{reflist

External links

IMDB page on ''Tom Grattan's War''tv.com webpageFanbase siteBrief article from a former cast member with a behind the scenes photo
World War I television drama series Television shows set in Yorkshire 1969 British television series debuts 1970 British television series endings