From the 70s TV series

[Debbie]

I saw this pointed out on a Dark is Rising group I'm in:

The book cover of one of The Dark is Rising books uses one of the photos from the FF 70s TV series. I don't know how to put an image on here (sorry), but if you follow this link it shows the cover:

https://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl= ... egUIARC6Ag

Apologies if this has already been seen.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Gosh, how odd! I have a paperback copy of The Dark is Rising but it's not that particular edition.

[timv]

Very unusual - did the artist just come across the film stills, and did anyone ask Southern TV or its successor-station (STV was replaced in the 1980s by a new franchise, I think) if it was OK? Normally publishers are cautious about using old photos from other books or TV series lest any owners of the copyright go after them for royalties! (But would a blurred montage of part of a TV 'still' as part of a larger , mostly artist-created cover count as 're-use'? And who would own any rights when the TV company closed?)

The image of the children at the top of a stone wall looks to me like the shot of the Five climbing over the stone wall outside the 'isolated barn' where they are to stay the night in Hike Together, before the night-time scene where 'Dirty Dick's convict friend passes the secret message to Dick by mistake. That was filmed at Lodge Farm near Sowley, just down the road from Newlands and the Secret Trail site, and Gary, Adrian, Oliver and I took a look at the location in June - but the wall was out of sight behind the barn as seen from the road and the hedge has grown up too much to get a photo from the other side.

[Debbie]

I was also wondering if the main figure was also a still from a different TV show-anyone identify it?
I wondered about The Tomorrow People, but came to the conclusion that it wasn't.

[FiveFanDownunder]

Hello Debbie and all,

I've been trying to get back to this interesting thread, I knew I had seen the photo that appears to be the 'inspiration' for the book cover. I thought it might have been at Lepe but it looks almost certain to be Bolton's Bench, as the children are dressed as for Mystery Moor I think and the glimpse of foliage behind looks right.

The image hosting site is down at the moment, and I am having trouble opening the pages that carry these images ( as I am a foreigner!! ) but this will hopefully work ... I assume it is being used as an image on BritBox UK.

The children are all looking gorgeous especially Gary.

https://static.bb-static.com/shain/v1/d ... 271453.jpg

[timv]

Great picture! From the children's dress and the gorse bushes around them, probably the top of the 'sandpit' at Bolton's Bench, about 200 yards East of the junction of Beaulieu Rd (the road from Lyndhurst to Yew Tree Heath and the main Mystery Moor sites) with the main Lyndhurst to Southampton road. (This is the edge of a ridge of sandy ground at the top of BB and there's a wide and level grassy walk behind where the children are lying, which you can't see in the shots.) There is a carpark and level area of ground below the sandpit so the camera crew could park and get multiple shots easily, and it's close to the Parkhill Hotel where the children stayed during series 1 filming so shots could be taken after a day's Mystery Moor filming. The shot of the small aircraft flying the packages of drugs over the Moor in MM (actually a model aircraft) was taken very close to this, as were the shots of Sniffer meeting the Five.