THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY

Title: Little Lord Fauntleroy
Production Type: TV Mini-Series
Year of Transmission: 1976
Director: Paul Annett
Screenwriter: Adaptation of novel by Jack Gerson
Country of Production: Britain
Genre: Historical fiction
Length: 6 half-hour episodes
Language: English
Availability: The Editor has been unable to find any copy whatever of this TV series, or any footage from this TV series online.
Principal boy actor: Glenn Anderson plays Cedric in what was his only ever screen acting role.

Synopsis
The story, based on the novel (serialised 1885-86, published as book 1886) by Frances Hodgson Burnett, is well known enough. When Cedric Errol, who lives with his mother in genteel poverty in New York City, learns that he is the heir to the Earldom of Dorincourt, and a vast estate in England, he is sent to England to live with his paternal grandfather, the current Earl, in order to learn aristocratic ways. The Earl despises Americans and is in turn disliked by nearly all who know him; but Cedric, of course, wins over both his grandfather and the locals with his natural goodness, and in doing so shames his grandfather into being a better and kinder man.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel has been adapted to both TV and film many times. In this adaptation, which the Editor has not seen, it seems that the series makers dispensed with the velvet and lace of Cedric's costume in the novel in favour of something that would make it easier for contemporary boys to identify with. This point receives some commentary in the Radio Times article reproduced below. In any case, Cedric looks appropriately masculine with a baseball bat on the cover of the TV tie-in paperback above.

Two page article in Radio Times 20-26 November 1976
(Editor's personal collection. Click on images to open full size scans in new tab.)

   

Listing for episode 1, from same issue of Radio Times

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