17/06 to 16/9/1976
A castle-like building on a remote island is used as an exclusive guest house for foreign visitors. The place harbours secret passages, has strange happenings and even the occasional ghost.
Robin - Annie Whittle
Charlie - Olly Ohlson
Oatmeal - Russell Smith
Blue - Endel Lust
Written By Patrick Huston
Producer Kim Gabara
GHOSTS IN THE TAKAHE
Press, 28 May 1976, Page 7
The Sign of the Takahe is the setting for a new 13-part children’s series being produced by TV2. Called “Woolly Manor”, it features the stone building as a gloomy castle on an island. It is operated as an exclusive guest house for people who want to get away from it all, and who don’t mind the bats. Access is by launch from the mainland, followed by a jolting ride through the island’s craggy hills (the Port Hills) by four-wheel drive vehicle.
The programme has been written by Patrick Huston and produced by Kim Gabara. It is for the seven to 11 age group and is a follow-up to the programme "Woolly Hills.”
The name of the programme, incidentally, comes from Fineas St John Woolly, an eccentric English aristocrat who travelled to New Zealand in the late 1840’s and built the castle. The staff of the manor guest house is Robin Ashford, played by Annie Whittle, and her three friends, Charlie (Oily Ohlson), Oatmeal (Russell Smith) and Blue (Endel Lust).
In the series, they manage the place while Mr and Mrs Ashford, Robin's parents, combine business with a sight-seeing trip to Europe.
Guests are sometimes a problem — an Arab sees Robin as a useful addition to his harem; an English couple invoke an ancient curse with disastrous consequences, and uninvited rats, ghosts and suits of armour move in the night.
The leading actors have been together for some time, although Russell Smith joined the team this year. But he has had ample opportunity to settle in and develop his own acting style in the second series of “Woolly Hills,” the programme centred around life on the high country station.
Huston and Gabara have tried to involve their young audience as much as possible and each programme includes a song that is simple and easily remembered.
Using every-day material and a story that appeals to a younger sense of humour, the creators have endeavoured to create a programme that educates as well as entertains.
Patrick Huston spent some time teaching the age group for which he now writes. For six years before taking up writing as a career, he lectured at Christchurch Teachers’ College on art, drama and language. He enjoys writing for children.
Both he and Kim Gabara say children should get the best on television. “Some say that children’s television doesn’t account for much, and that children will watch anything on the little square screen,” says Gabara. "But they don’t, and why should they have to?”
The first of the “Woolly Manor” series will screen on June 17, and it will be shown weekly.
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