The Changes (1975) (TV series review).
Want to see a children’s TV series that is disturbing? Then you should watch this 1975 teen series derived from Peter Dickinson’s three novels, which I haven’t read so can’t compare but is available as ‘The Changes: A Trilogy’.
Various weather conditions depict the Earth in turmoil. Suddenly, on the 19th of April, a significant impact is felt by humans, particularly in one town and the Gore family. This results in a craze of collective destruction of any technology nearby. While the destruction of a kitchen and a living room may not be as sophisticated as it is today, it still resonates. Suddenly, the kitchen and living room return to normal, but the outside world remains a mess, with everything destroyed. Eventually, father Gore (actor Bernard Horsfall) decides that he and his pregnant wife, Sonia Graham, and teenage daughter, Nicky (actress Vicky Williams), need to flee to a safe place, specifically France.
He isn’t the only one, and various families are leaving through the town turmoil. The only issue arises when Nicky loses track of her parents. Her father, unable to locate her, decides to first get his wife to safety before returning to retrieve her. Nicky actually does what he thinks she would do and goes home, but after ten days, she decides she has to go because it’s not safe and leaves a message on the front door. For a moment, let’s stop here. I could understand leaving a note inside the house, but what about on the front door, subject to the weather or someone throwing it away? Similarly, given the destruction of technology, how did the boat’s motor avoid being trashed?
OK, back to the story. With a few packed belongings, Nicky leaves and convinces a Sikh group to let her travel with them and point out the danger spots as they didn’t get the tech compulsion others had. This situation persists for a while, despite her ethnicity being disregarded for stealing canned food from abandoned houses. However, they take over a deserted farm, and Nicky ends up being a go-between for a nearby village that sees the Sikhs as the ‘devil’s children’. Trade-offs for farm animals and crops in exchange for repaired tools prove to be beneficial. Robbers intensify their attacks on the village, forcing the villagers’ children into submission. The Sikhs come to the rescue, with Nicky helping to save the children.
Later, the Sikhs believe that Nicky would be happier with her own people, and they offer her a cart lift to relatives who live on a farm. The cart crashes into a pothole before she reaches her destination, leaving her unconscious on the ground. Her driver leaves for medical assistance, while Nicky awakens with a broken leg, travels to a nearby farm, spends the night in the barn, and wakes up the next morning. They declare her a witch and plan to stone her to death for moving the tractor. However, the farmer’s teens, Jonathan (actor Keith Ashton) and Meg/Margaret (actress Zuleika Robson), rescue her. Jonathan decides to use a boat to get Nicky and himself to France, but an intervention by the villagers scuppers that.
Taken in by a couple freeholders, Nicky thinks they ought to find out what caused the problem in the first place. The ending is a spoiler. This takes on a fantasy quality, which kind of throws the SF aspect out the window, which is a shame, mostly because I think it could have been done better. Flipping the clock back is a standard cliché. By necessity, books for teens tend to put the lead character as the hero or heroine, and I suspect Dickenson wanted to end the trilogy on a good note. As an adult, I’m just disappointed, and had I seen it when it first came out, I would probably have thought the same thing.
What I like about BFI releases is that they include short films from their extensive back catalogue. Here is the 34-minute-long ‘At Home in Britain’, produced by the Central Office of Information. Created in 1974, it illustrates the stark differences between Hindus, Muslims, and Sikhs in their respective religions, while also highlighting their common work ethic within their communities. Although it’s 50 years old, it is also extremely educational.
GF Willmetts
October 2024
(pub: British Film Institute, 2011. 2 DVDs 245 minutes 10 * 25 minute episodes with extras. Price: varies. ASIN: BFIV2002)
cast: Vicky Williams, Keith Ashton, Marc Zuber, David Garfield, Jack Watson, Rebecca Mascarenhas and many more
check out website: www.bfi.org.ok
