The Adventures of Black Beauty

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How could I celebrate the website's fifth birthday and not even mention Black Beauty? Well, I have mentioned Black Beauty, but only in passing. Richard Carpenter is one of the authors I've just added to the website. He wrote 17 of the 52 scripts for The Adventures of Black Beauty. He started off his working life as an actor, but when parts became thinner on the ground, he changed tack and started writing scripts.


Black Beauty wasn't his only success, by a long way. He was also responsible for Catweazle, Robin Hood and The Ghosts of Motley Hall. Catweazle and Robin Hood passed me by but I loved The Ghosts of Motley Hall. This was classic Sunday tea time viewing for us. I remember loving it, possibly just as much as I loved The Adventures of Black Beauty. This of course was another TV favourite of mine: not a great deal to do with Anna Sewell's book (well, virtually nothing at all if I am honest) but it had a horse - and how I loved that horse. Even at the time, Black Beauty's capabilities struck me a bit unlikely, but I didn't care. The first notes of the theme tune have only to sound, and I am back at the age of 10, and obsessed.



Here it is. Goodness that nearly made me cry.

Comments

Christina Wilsdon said…
The 2nd "Adventures of Black Beauty" series came on TV here in the States and I caught it as a kid then--I snapped up that set when it appeared in DVD form at our local bulk-buy store, and then got the first series, which I'd never seen before, afterward when it became available. I have LOVED sharing them with my horse-loving daughter!! Even though the thread connecting it to the classic Black Beauty was slender, it didn't matter--they were just fun shows, with a super horse :) I liked the pugnacious Vicki in the second series. And such villians! One would think they'd have gotten rid of the horse, he was a magnet for bad guys!
8 July 2010 at 20:17
Tabitha said…
Oh my goodness, I haven't thought about that programme for years but I remember the music so well! Thanks for posting it - memories!! :-)
9 July 2010 at 09:36
Jane Badger said…
You know, I don't think I ever saw the second series! One to drop hints for when the family want to know what I'd like for Christmas.

Tabitha - it's the music, isn't it? And him galloping through the cornfield....
9 July 2010 at 09:50
Liz said…
Oh, I loved that show as a kid. But I just realised that Michael Culver played Squire Armstrong. I so fancied him as Major Brandt in Secret Army! I'll have to rewatch The Adventures of Black Beauty to see if he has the same effect on me as Squire Armstrong, as he didn't back then!!

The music is fab. It's called Galloping Home.
11 July 2010 at 12:09
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