I don't think a children's show today would be made with so much talky exposition and genuinely dark creepiness. If you recall, Children of the Stones was part of the Nickelodeon show The Third Eye, which I was obsessed with as a child. Now I'm obsessed with finding all the elements (it was a hodge podge of various British and New Zealand shows re-aired together as The Third Eye). This is the only one available on DVD though.
Like all things sentimental, I was concerned with how well it would hold up. I'm glad to say it was stranger than I remembered, though perhaps a little slow by today's standards.
The story takes place in Milbury, but was shot at the real neolithic site of Avebury, Wiltshire. The site, consisting of circles of large, strangely shaped stones has unknown origins. Since I had never heard of the site, and the stones in the show seemed almost unnatural, often looking like faces were carved in them, I thought it was all a set created for the show. I was very wrong. The stones are very real and I for one am intrigued.
Writers Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray must have been intrigued as well when they structured this strange tale of mind control, paganism, and time bubbles.
A young boy named Matthew and his father move to town to find all the smiling, happy people are zombie-like and the only people they can trust are other new comers and a mumbling Welsh drunk who becomes Matthew's ally. The reason behind all the madness is admittedly complex, but it makes for pretty riveting TV. You can rarely guess what will happen next.
Here you can watch the series introduction.
But what do you think?