Freddie Jones children's drama

[tali122]

Freddie Jones starred in this children's period drama shown in late 70s early 80s, checked IMDB but can't seem to find.

Was shown around 4-5 pm and Jones played a strict leading character.Only scene i recall is some child mischeviously removing labels off tins in pantry

Thanks

[oxfam1uk]

I think I know the one you mean. It was a sort of parody of a Charles Dicken's type mystery, with Freddie Jones playing a lugubrious detectives.



Was it adapted from a novel by Leon Garfield ?



p.s. I think it was "The strange affair of Adelaide Harris"

[batman]

name='oxfam1uk']I think it was "The strange affair of Adelaide Harris"

I'd forgotten all about that series. IIRC it was pretty creepy at times.



Bats.

[oxfam1uk]

I can really only remember one bit of it - Jones' detective drawing a "spider's web" of connections between his suspects, and intoning the name of one:



"Maggie Hemp !!!!"



I'm sure no child of today could possibly sit through something as peculiar and static as this.

[tali122]

name='oxfam1uk']I think I know the one you mean. It was a sort of parody of a Charles Dicken's type mystery, with Freddie Jones playing a lugubrious detectives.



Was it adapted from a novel by Leon Garfield ?



p.s. I think it was "The strange affair of Adelaide Harris"

Thanks but can't recall any wolves at all.This was more as Jones as Master of the house keeping eye on kids.Don't recall any creepiness either

[MrsBartholomew]

Yes, it was the Strange Affair of Adelaide Harris by Leon Garfield. I've got the tie-in paperback.



The story is rather dark and decidedly un-PC. Two boys of the late Georgian/Regency era want to test the tale that a fox will adopt an abandoned baby and rear it. They steal the baby sister of one and put her out on a hill. She isn't taken by a fox, but a young couple who are 'courting' find her and the girl takes her to the orphanage. A private investigator (Freddie Jones) is commissioned to find the baby. He is a very odd character with a grim and cynical view of human nature, seeing sin and wickedness in every soul, even in babies. He also has a club foot covered in a sinister-looking boot. The boot seems to be his only friend in life, and he talks to it constantly.



The story from then on is a sort of black farce of interweaving plots and subplots and grotesque characters. I must say, the sexual element was a bit shocking for a children's book, with attempted rape and the mysogynistic view of the offending character, which is presented with an irony that would escape most kiddies. As an adult read it's quite interesting.



(I'm gradually collecting Leon Garfield's novels, which I loved as a child but definitely appreciate more now. "The December Rose" (1986) (mini) is another of his telly tales, but that one was written specifically for tv and then novelised. It's about a Cockney orphink chimbley swoop - Courtney Roper-Knight - who gets tangled up in a Russian terrorist plot and ends up sympathizing with the terrorists over the murderous English police - Patrick Malahide. Very dark.)



Personally, I'd love to see the series again, having a strong memory in particular of Freddie Jones and his boot. He trained with Tom Baker, which might give a clue as to the origins of his flamboyant style (love him as the uber-Victorian twit in the Ghosts of Motley Hall).