Shot on location in Avebury during the summer of 1976, the now legendary Children of the Stones was screened by ITV as a seven-part series in early 1977. It was repeated only once, yet an astonishing number of people still recall being terrified by it as children, due partly to Sidney Sager’s stunning music score, with its dissonant vocal harmonies and pagan chanting.

The film’s power-ful atmosphere, and its sense of dark and brooding mystery lurking within the ancient stones, obviously impacted deeply on some young minds, as many of Avebury’s regular visitors – including pagans, druids and some leading archæo-logists – acknowledge that it was watching Children of the Stones that first got them interested in the place.

For a children’s drama, the plot is surprisingly adult. Astro-physicist Adam Brake and teenage son Matthew arrive in the village of ‘Milbury’, which sits inside a stone circle. Brake, whose wife has recently died, plans to research the natural magnetism of the stones. They are befriended by two other recent incomers, the newly widowed Margaret, Dir-ector of the Milbury Museum, and her teenage daughter Sandra, who both add more than a hint of sexual tension. Adam Brake is played by Gareth Thomas, who later starred in Blake’s Seven; probably seen as sexy by 1970s standards, he has a bizarre, frizzy hairdo, not unlike the one sported by Moss in The IT Crowd.

The paranoia experienced by outsiders coming into a closed, rural community is quite justified in Milbury, as almost all the villagers are ‘Happy Ones’, brainwashed by the piece’s villain. Played by Iain Cuthbertson, of Budgie fame, the unctuous Hendrick has harnessed the mystical power of a black hole – once a supernova witnessed in Neolithic times – and turned it to his own evil ends, using the magnetism of the stones. Hendrick eventually reveals his state-of-the-art ‘computer’, which is about the size of my house and controlled by huge rolls of magnetic tape. Several real aspects of Avebury are cleverly incorporated into the plot: Silbury is featured and Dai, a Welsh poacher played by the wonderful Freddie Jones, actually lives inside the West Kennet long barrow.

In the most memorable scene, Adam Brake is persuaded to touch one of the stones. This results in a prolonged and violent electric shock; after much writhing about, Brake pulls away his hand and is thrown to the ground, unconscious. This was so memorable that for years after the series was shown, concerned parents would ask Avebury staff if it was safe for their children to touch the stones. Even today, a good deal of fun can be had by re-enacting the scene on a busy Sunday afternoon.

Children of the Stones is a great story, extremely well told, but it is particularly fascinating to anyone familiar with Avebury – spot the extra polystyrene stones added for filming! There is considerable appeal for anyone nostalgic about the 1970s, from flares and tank-tops to the dreadful Austin Maxi. As this was a children’s programme the usual smoking is absent, but none of the adults eat food – they survive only on vast amounts of whisky and reach for the bottle at the first sign of stress. The picture quality is also of its time, with an enormous difference between the exteriors shot on 16mm film and the interiors shot on video in HTV’s Bristol studios.

Although it has appeared before on DVD, this new release comes in a handsome package, with a second disc featuring other alleged ‘cult’ children’s TV shows of the 70s. I remember none of them, but that’s probably because I’m too old. There is also a booklet containing far more detailed information about 1970s television than anyone could possibly need.