Peter Viney's Blog

A Family At War 

Granada TV series 1970-1972

Four series.
52 Episodes, 16 to 22 x DVDs, 47 hours 

Created by John Finch

SEE: http://www.afamilyatwar.com for an episode guide and discussions

Cover photo: David Ashton (Colin Campbell)

MAIN CHARACTERS

Colin Douglas  – Edwin Ashton (44 episodes)
Barbara Flynn – Freda Ashton, daughter (40 episodes)
Lesley Nunnerley – Margaret Porter, ne Ashton, daughter (39 episodes)
Coral Atkins – Sheila Ashton, David’s wife (34 episodes)
John McKelvey – Sefton Briggs, Freda’s brother, Edwin’s boss (32 episodes)
Colin Campbell – David Ashton, son in RAF (30 episodes)
Shelagh Fraser – Jean Ashton, wife (28 episodes)
T.R. Bowen – Tony Briggs, Sefton’s son in navy (25 episodes)
Ian Thompson – John Porter, Margaret’s husband in army (24 episodes)
Keith Drinkel – Phillip Ashton, in army (19 episodes)
Diana Davies – Doris Jackson (17 episodes)
John Nettles – Ian McKenzie (14 episodes)
Margery Mason – Celia Porter, John’s mother (10 episodes)
Patrick Troughton – Harry Porter, John’s dad (9 episodes)
Georgine Anderson – Helen Hughes (8 episodes)
David Dixon – Robert Ashton, age 16, navy (7 episodes)
Oh! Having typed that out while only being on series Two has revealed A LOT of the plot.

It’s the realistic touch, or the brilliant acting, or the interesting story, though probably all of them together.
The Guardian

These series are completely transporting, fabulous and deeply memorable.
The Times

Back in 1970 to 1972 I didn’t have a television, and if I ever saw an episode of A Family At War it has long gone from my memory. It was so popular at the time, that it did the unprecedented feat of knocking Coronation Street off the top two spots in the weekly Top Ten.  Because it was revived in 2017 on one of those many channels the TV keeps asking to add, we happened to read a review. This praised the authenticity of the setting and costumes, as at that point directors, designers and the senior members of the cast still remembered the war. Colin Douglas, as the lead and father of the Ashford family, was a captain in WW2 and fought in Sicily and at Arnhem. Coral Atkins, who played Sheila (terrified of her kids being evacuated in the series) was an unhappy evacuee herself in the war. Most importantly, the audience at the time remembered the war, and even those born after it, like me, had heard SO much about it. Also the drab 1950s didn’t look very different. I notice I type “the war” not World War Two or The Second World War. To several British generations “the war” is sufficient.

Still from “Believed Killed”- Series 2, second B&W episode

We decided to get a box set, and discovered that by far the cheapest option was the Dutch edition of the whole thing. Four series. Fifty two episodes, of which eight were black and white due to an ITV technicians’ strike when they refused to operate colour equipment. That sort of thing was normal in 1970 to 1971. As it happens, the black and white look crisper and more detailed. They work because we know only high budget feature films were colour in that era. Black & white lasted in Britain into the early 60s for more domestic film, and till 1967 for TV.

Our Dutch edition is fine. There are three episodes per DVD. The Dutch subtitles come and go, regardless of the SUBTITLES setting on the remote control. They seem to be there for the first episode per disc then switch off. I don’t mind them. In the duller bits I try to learn a bit of Dutch. Is dat zo? Is the standard subtitle for Really? / Indeed. / Yes. / Do you think so? / Was that true?/  Did he? / Have they? / Is it? Or even Is that so? Then we have The (tea) pot’s not warm subtitled Der pot is nog warm. I could get to like Dutch.

I believe from guessing that the subtitles are a long way from the original lines. You’d think they’d be switchable, because so many Dutch people speak English at a high level that it must be irritating to contrast them. I recall being in a hotel on some Dutch ring road and the bar was full of Dutch guys watching football on TV. I joined them with my Irish colleague. At half time we were talking, and they immediately apologized for having the TV in Dutch and switched to BBC for the second half. We protested that there were more of them, but as they pointed out, they all understood English almost perfectly.

It soon becomes apparent that each episode of A Family At War had a different writer and director. John Finch oversaw it as ‘creator’ but there were nineteen writers.

Alexander Baron, at six episodes, was used most. Alexander Baron was the novelist who wrote From The City From The Plough (1948) and The Lowlife (1963). His screenwriting credits for serials are extensive … Poldark, Sense and Sensibility, Jane Eyre, Sherlock Holmes, Oliver Twist, Vanity Fair. He had served in the army in Sicily, Italy and at D-Day. He had attended Hackney Downs Grammar School. A later pupil was Harold Pinter, and guesses have been made that Pinter took his stage name as an actor, David Baron, from the inspiration of Alexander Baron.

Lines of Battle: Season 1.3. Lesley Nunnerley as Margaret, Ian Thompson as John Porter

Stan Barstow wrote one episode, Lines of Battle (Season 1, Episode 3) about Margaret’s wedding in June 1939.

There were thirteen directors. Gerry Mill directed ten, Baz Taylor eight, Bob Hird seven, Les Chatfield six.

Back: David, Tony Briggs, Freda, Sefton Briggs, Philip, John Porter,
Front: Sheila, Edwin, Jean, Margaret

The basic setting of the Ashton family home in Liverpool is a large private house, but it is a studio interior and the colour balance reminds me of Granada’s mainstay, Coronation Street. There is outside location work, and indeed some episodes are all outside. The series starts in 1938 and takes us through to 1945. The Ashtons are a Liverpool family. Edwin is the manager of a printing company, which is owned by his brother-in-law, Sefton. They are described on IMDB as “lower middle class.” I’d take out the “lower” as siblings Jean and Sefton are definitely of wealthy stock. The Ashtons have two daughters, Margaret (Mags) a schoolteacher, and Freda who is the chirpy independent one,  and three sons. Phillip was at to Oxford University and fought in the Spanish Civil war. David is the womanizing brother with two kids who’s in the RAF as a Flight Sergeant navigator. Robert is 16 and joins the navy.

The Liverpool setting comes out in a horrific 1940 bombing raid in series one, but strangely only one of the main cast has a Liverpudlian accent, David. None of the others do. David and Sheila, who had to get married at 18, are the “poor relations” in a rundown flat.

The others tend to generic vaguely Northern, though Edwin retains Colin Douglas’s light North-East accent. This is so strange because after 1962, the Liverpool accent was writ large in the public consciousness. Maybe the actors couldn’t do it. Maybe it was “all north anyway” but then it was made by Manchester based Granada TV. Perhaps it was the mindset used in many modern Shakesperean productions: use the accent you’re most comfortable with, but choose a vaguely Northern one. It has advantages in avoiding actors doing Over The Top “stage Scouser.” In any case, most of the “Liverpool” exteriors were filmed in Manchester, including the station.

August 1940. Air Raid warden, Sheila and David

It’s clear that they blew large parts of the budget on single episodes (e.g. the blitz in The Night They Hit No. 8 in series one) and were left with basic studio for several others. I’ve been there with video.

The first major bombing raid on Liverpool was 28th August 1940, when 160 bombers hit the city. There were fifty major raids in the next three months, Between 20 and 22 December 1940, 365 died when there were direct hits on air raid shelters. It was to get worse … in the first week of May 1941, 681 bombers attacked Liverpool, levelling much of the city centre. These raid episodes are the war on the home front on a major scale.

By series two, you can see how they were working the schedule to film so much so quickly by using different production units.

So Episode 2 I Can Be Happy, Can’t I? is based on the family in Liverpool in January 1941, revolving around the women. It’s straight soap opera, and very good soap opera at that. Margaret’s husband was reported missing nearly a year ago. She finds some solace in the arms of one of her pupil’s parents. We cut to March (signalled too lightly, I thought … my wife missed the reference and was puzzled) and Margaret’s been to see the doctor. Oh, dear …

A lesson in war: Polish soldier Stanislas (Bryan Marshall) and Phillip Ashton (Keith Drinkel)

Episode 3 A Lesson In War  is only about one son, Philip, off in the North African desert. No other regulars are seen from beginning to end. It’s a very good episode with a great Polish soldier, and unpleasant and stupid regular NCOs and officers. It’s stylistically totally different. That’s the third time Philip dominates an episode away from home … first in the Spanish Civil war in flashback (To Die For Spain, August 1938), then a whole episode set in Guernsey before the German invasion (Four Strategic Reasons). In the North African Desert, seagrass sprouts from the dunes, the sky is grey, and in at least one shot the grey sea is seen in the distance. The dug sand has that mottled look which slightly damp sand has on the beach. For it is a beach. We thought it might be Studland, Dorset, though as the next episode was the Yorkshire coast, we thought it might be there. Actually it was nearer to Granada Studios … The Fylde Coast, near Formby.

Only a few episodes later, Hazard takes us back to the Western Desert for another full-length second dose,

May 1941: Tony Briggs (Trevor Bowen) and girlfriend Jenny (Wanda Ventham), though the Morgan 3-wheeler is the star.

Then Episode 4 Is Your Journey Really Necessary is based on the uncle, Sefton and his son, Tony, off on the Yorkshire coast where Tony’s corvette is docked. Tony is a navy sub-lieutenant. The episode centres on Tony and his older and far more worldly wise girlfriend, Jenny. Sefton turns up for a surprise visit and is shocked to find they’re off for an unmarried weekend away. A first for Tony. Sefton sees it as immoral. (Much of the series focusses on the shift of attitudes to relationships in wartime). This episode keeps cutting back to the intricate story of the shares in the printing works and who will control them, which I found distracting and dull compared to the romance. The central character, paterfamilias Edwin (Colin Douglas) appears in only a couple of short scenes. No other regulars appear.

So there are three episodes in a row which essentially could have been done simultaneously by three different director plus film units … the scenes with Sefton and Edwin in Liverpool from Episode 4 could have been filmed with episode 2 or episode 5 (or elsewhere altogether). I had imagined that all twelve episodes in a series would have been pre-planned and filmed out of sequence to suit locations. Apparently not … each had a two week production slot, but as the schedule got heavier, they overlapped between two episodes … hence the location switches.

Similarly One of Ours (Episode 10) in September 1940 follows a bombing raid on Germany, focussing almost entirely on David, ignoring the rest of the family.

The Other Side of the Hill photo shows: Robert, Edwin, Freda, Margaret.

To put it in perspective, in spite of being the main role, Edwin appears in only 44 out of the 52 episodes.

The production values are those of 1970. Sets are sets. The acting and air of authenticity gets you past that very quickly.

We’ll be watching this for months. I’ve started this halfway through series two, and will continue to add thoughts as we go.

REFLECTIONS

We wondered why Barbara Flynn as Freda appears so “sexy” even when doing mundane lines. That’s a tribute to the actress, but we realized that her character was  carrying over for us from the (later) brilliant series written by Andrew Davies, A Very Peculiar Practice, in which she plays the right-on feminist Dr Magda, who sees everything in a sexual light!

LATE EPISODES

The remarkable thing about 1944 and 1945 is the way the war fades so far into the background. They get through D-Day preparations, D-Day, the whole 1944-45 campaign and VE day with only David’s career in the RAF providing a link to the war. They’ve given up following Phillip, who is abroad, entirely. Tony, in spite of his naval uniform, seems more likely to appear at home than away. The 1945 election brought the state of the world back, but VE Day was a few seconds of Edwin wandering past fireworks.

I guess the family saga took over almost completely. It goes on in Series 4 past VE Day … but my dad always said, as far as he was concerned, the war ended in 1946, not 1945. He was kept in uniform in Germany until mid-1946. As far as I recall, VJ Day doesn’t even get mentioned. The series ends on Christmas Day 1945.

The last few episodes are especially strong. Series IV, Episode 10 (overall #49) A Faint Refrain October 1945, shows Margaret’s lover, Michael, returning from the war and being confronted by her husband, John. Michael (inexplicably in uniform, and no longer a conscientious objector)  has arrived with news of Philip, in Germany. We’d been wondering where Philip had gone … there are many reasons why characters get written out of long term series, and plot is only one of them.

Series IV, Episode 11 (overall #50) is Two Fathers and is a return to the totally new location, with only one major series character, this time, Edwin. It’s November 1945 and set in Germany among the rubble. That year after the war was chaos, and has only recently been written about extensively. The episode looks at the terrible conditions for German kids and defeated civilians, most unusual from a 1970 viewpoint. Philip was trying to help them, and there has been an explosion killing Philip and many children. The army (Keith Barron appears as an army major) blame SS booby-traps. In fact it’s an RAF bomb. I was just waiting to find out that David’s plane had dropped it, but that would be a step too far. The other future star to appear is Philip’s friend, a corporal, played by Gareth Hunt. It’s unusual in many ways, identifying the German point of view … you’d have to wait for The Book Thief to find similar. I read long reviews of some recent books on the post-war chaos in Europe. A point which was brought out (I wish I could remember the title of the book) is that British and American troops related far better to the defeated Germans, and fraternised more with them,  than they related to the vast numbers of bedraggled, starving released Jews, slave labourers, Russian prisoners-of-war and other displaced persons. Even in the East, the Russians apparently switched ex-SS people from Nazi to Stasi. It is a fascinating period. I turned to 1946: The Making of The Modern World by Victor Sebestyen (which may be the book I was thinking of) and that points out the near-starvation in late 1945,  particularly in the British-occupied zone, because Britain got the industrial areas, and their traditional agricultural suppliers were now in the Russian zone. This episode is thought-provoking and different.

I found the last two quite downbeat and unresolved … lots of Edwin philosophising. Done extremely well.

2018 and still in the news …

In February 2018, Talking Pictures TV, who have been showing the series were reprimanded by OfCom for failing to censure a 1942 episode Hazard (Episode 24), (link to afamilyatwar.com episode guide) written by Philip Purser,  where a soldier, Sergeant Hazard, (Maurice Roeves) uses the word ‘wog’ several times in the Western Desert campaign in North Africa. Interestingly, the British press reports it as a “1944 episode.” Hazard also uses ‘Senoritas’ to describe the Spanish (probably inoffensive), Reds to describe the Spanish Republicans, and Jerries to describe the Germans.

Philip Ashton  & Sergeant Hazard in “Hazard”

The character is supposed to be unpleasant and admires both General Franco and the German Afrika Korps. That’s what soldiers said in 1942 (and 20 years later too). In the context, Hazard is ridiculing a native servant and the locals generally, allowing Philip to give the contrary point of view.

I don’t understand that kind of censorship. We cannot say that as the Empire crumbled that the average British squaddie was suddenly a Politically Correct individual. The series is true to life. We are supposed to dislike the person saying it. Talking Pictures TV were entirely right to broadcast it as it is. Number of complaints? One.

The Durrells, Series 3 2018

Wonderful to see Barbara Flynn as Aunt Hermione.