About this season
An anthology series adapted from plays and short stories by A.E Coppard and H.E. Bates, depicting English country life and rural romance at the turn of the 20th-century. It presents unsentimental stories of human relationships and raw emotions – heartfelt passions, crippling frustrations, unspoken love and destructive jealousy.
Episodes (7)
1. The Little Farm
9.0Aired 28 January 1973 • 60 min
Illiterate farmer Tom Richards advertises for a housekeeper. Edna Johnson takes the post and they seem destined for happiness until they encounter the destructive forces of jealousy.
2. The Black Dog
Aired 4 February 1973 • 60 min
The Honourable Gerald Laughlin finds himself locked in a power struggle between Nathaniel Crabbe's daughter, Orianda, and Crabbe's mistress Lizzie, under the roof of his inn the Black Dog.
3. The Higgler
Aired 11 February 1972 • 60 min
Harvey Witlow's mother cannot understand why Harvey has chosen to stand by his longtime sweetheart Sophy Daws and reject the advances of well-to-do Mary.
4. The Simple Life
Aired 18 February 1973 • 60 min
Stella Bartholomew is disillusioned with her husband's weekend obsession with the 'simple life' at their country retreat, until Roger comes to help around the house.
5. An Aspidistra in Babylon
Aired 25 February 1973 • 60 min
Dover, summer 1919: Christine's mother runs a boarding house, in which Christine feels like the dull aspidistras which clutter the rooms, until the dashing Captain Blaine arrives to find rooms for his rich aunt. Christine falls in love for the first time, and undergoes a jarring change from innocence to corruption.
6. The Ring of Truth
Aired 4 March 1973 • 60 min
Following his father's death, George Pickard has a strange dream where his father tells him he's travelling to the small town of Skelby Moor, where he learns both the positives and negatives of his lineage.
7. The Four Beauties
Aired 11 March 1973 • 60 min
Henry Batley, a bored young journalist in a small town, is attracted to Davenport sisters Christie and Sophie, whilst younger sister Tina is determined to make him hers.