Swallows and Amazons (1963)

Country

United Kingdom

Length

1 season, 6 episodes

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

Two groups of children spend their holidays sailing and camping on a lake in the English Lake District during the 1930s. They call themselves the Swallows and the Amazons and have summer adventures on an island.

wholesomenostalgicleisurelysunnyplayfulgentleadventurousold-fashioned

What happens

Swallows and Amazons is a 1963 BBC children's television series based on the 1930 novel of the same name by Arthur Ransome, about the holiday adventures of two groups of children, the Swallows (Walkers) and the Amazons (Blacketts), sailing on a lake and camping on an island in the Lake District in the 1930s. The series of 6 episodes was shot on location on Coniston Water and Windermere. Arthur Ransome, who lived at Hilltop near Haverthwaite, was not impressed: They began by proposing to blow up some of the rocks in the Peel Island harbour, and went on from there. According to Arthur their child-actors were ugly, their Captain Flint was 'common', their script a travesty of his book, their rural characters were made to talk Cockney, and they introduced some Cockney villains. Genia (his wife, who was always discouraging about his books when he was writing them) missed no chance of telling him he was a fool ever to have consented to the project, and he sadly agreed with her. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Swallows and Amazons (1974)
• Grasshopper Island (1971)
• The Adventures of a Jungle Boy (1957)
• The Enchanted Castle (1979)
• Sea Urchins (1980)
• The Return of the Antelope (1986)
• Swallows and Amazons Forever! (1984)
• Me Too! (2006)