Moondial (TV serial)

Moondial
Moondial title screen
Format	Children's television Fantasy Time Travel
Created by	Helen Cresswell
Starring	Siri Neal Tony Sands Jacqueline Pearce Joanna Dunham Valerie Lush Arthur Hewlett Joe York Martin Sadler Helena Avellano Alison Rowley
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of episodes	6
Production
Running time	25 - 28 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	BBC1
Original run	10 February 1988 (1988-02-10) – 16 March 1988 (1988-03-16)

Moondial is a British television serial made for children by the BBC and transmitted in 1988, with a repeat in 1990. It was written by Helen Cresswell, who also wrote the novel on which the series was based.

The story deals with a young girl staying with her aunt after her mother is injured in a car accident. Minty (Siri Neal) spends much of her time wandering around the grounds of a nearby mansion, and is drawn to a moondial that enables her to travel back in time, where she becomes involved with two children, Tom (Tony Sands), who lives in the Victorian era, and Sarah (Helena Avellano), who seems to live in "the previous century" to that, and must save them from their own unhappy lives.

The west entrance to Belton House near Grantham in Lincolnshire, the setting for Moondial

Regarded as a nostalgic favourite by followers of 1980s BBC children's drama, Moondial employs extensive location filming (in the grounds of Belton House in Lincolnshire) and fantastical, dreamlike imagery.

The series was produced by Paul Stone and directed by Colin Cant. Other cast members include Valerie Lush as Minty's aunt Mary, Arthur Hewlett as the elderly, mysterious Mr. World and Jacqueline Pearce in the dual role of the vicious Miss Vole (who seems to have lived in the 18th Century) and the present-day ghost hunter Miss Raven.

The series was released on video in 1990, and reissued in 1995, but only in a shortened "movie edit". This was released on DVD in 2000, but has long since been deleted. The full episodic version was released in 2009 by Reader's Digest.

External links

• Moondial at the Internet Movie Database
• Moondial at TV.com
• Little Gems