Flambards
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Flambards is a novel by K. M. Peyton. The book and its sequels are set just before, during, and after World War I. The first book, originally published in 1967, tells how the teenage heroine, Christina, comes to live at Flambards with her two male cousins, and falls in love with a stable lad. Its original sequels were The Edge of the Cloud and Flambards in Summer (both 1969); Flambards Divided (1981) controversially reversed the ending of the original trilogy.
Television adaptation
A popular British television series (made in 1978 but not shown until 1979) was based on the first three novels in the series - "Flambards Divided" had not been written at this stage. It was made by Yorkshire Television for ITV, adapted by Alan Plater, Alex Glasgow and William Humble, and consisted of 13 50-minute episodes shot on (very grainy) 16mm film. The music soundtrack was written by David Fanshawe; the "Song of Christina", for which many best remember the series, was sung by the late Nick Curtis.
Video and DVD releases
The series initially appeared on PAL VHS in 1994, released by the now defunct Video Gems label, and then received a further video release in 1999 by Granada Television, which had taken over YTV in 1997. This was superseded by a region 2 DVD released by Granada subsidiary VCI in January 2004.
In the United States, where the series has been consistently popular since its first transmission on PBS around 1980, it was released on region 1 DVD in June 2001.
Reruns
The series has also been repeated in the UK on archive channels such as Hallmark and UKTV Drama (then known as UK Drama), but has not been seen on terrestrial television since the early 1980s.