''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 I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

who is sent to live on a farm in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ) is an area of Northern England which was History of Yorkshire, historically a county. Despite no longer being used for administration, Yorkshire retains a strong regional identity. The county was named after its county town, the ...

for the duration of the war with his relatives, the Kirkby family. While living on the farm he has various adventures involving German spies, prejudice towards resident enemy aliens, saboteurs, escaped POWs, 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. Unusually for a drama television series, the episodes included a narrator who would sometimes appear on screen.

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 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 Scho ...

and others by

Stephen Frears Sir Stephen Arthur Frears (born 20 June 1941) is a British 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 has received numerous a ...

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 (stylized in all lowercase as tvo), formerly known as TVOntario, is a Canadian publicly funded English-language educational television network and media organization serving the Canadian province of Ontario. It operates flagship station ...

and in America on the

American Broadcasting Company The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American Commercial broadcasting, commercial broadcast Television broadcaster, television and radio Radio network, network that serves as the flagship property of the Disney Entertainment division ...

network. Also shown on Irish television. 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