The Clifton House Mystery facts for kids
Quick facts for kids The Clifton House Mystery |
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| Genre | Supernatural drama Children's |
| Created by | Leonard White |
| Written by | Daniel Farson Harry Moore |
| Starring | Sebastian Breaks Ingrid Hafner Peter Sallis |
| Theme music composer | Sidney Sager |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 6 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Patrick Dromgoole |
| Running time | 30 minutes per episode |
| Production company(s) | HTV West |
| Distributor | Granada International Media Limited |
| Release | |
| Original network | HTV |
| Audio format | Monaural sound |
| Original release | 1978 – 1978 |
The Clifton House Mystery is a British TV show made for children. It's a supernatural drama, which means it has exciting stories with ghosts and mysterious events! The show was first shown in 1978 by HTV in the UK. It was written by Daniel Farson and Harry Moore.
Contents
What's the Story About?
The show follows a family, the Clares, as they move into an old house. Timothy Clare, the dad, is a concert pianist. He moves into the house in Bristol with his wife and three children. They bought the house from an older lady, Mrs. Betterton. Her family had owned the house for many years.
Discovering a Secret Room
Soon after moving in, Timothy's two sons are exploring the garden. They notice something strange: the house seems to have an extra window! This makes them think there might be a hidden room inside. They decide to investigate.
The boys break through a wall upstairs. There, they find a secret, dusty old bedroom. In the bed, they make a spooky discovery: a very old skeleton!
Strange Things Start to Happen
After finding the skeleton, many weird things begin to occur in the house.
- The Clare's daughter, Jenny, sees the ghost of a kind old woman. This ghost seems to appear when a special music box plays. The music box was left behind by Mrs. Betterton's granddaughter.
- Plates and bowls suddenly jump out of people's hands and crash to the floor.
- A special helmet, which the boys bought at an auction, starts to glow mysteriously. It's a helmet from a type of soldier called a dragoon.
- One evening, a red, blood-like liquid drips through the ceiling! It lands right onto some dinner party guests.
Calling a Ghost Hunter
Because of all these strange events, the boys decide they need help. They ask a local ghost hunter named Milton Guest to come and investigate. Milton Guest listens to their stories. He quickly becomes convinced that a ghost is haunting the house. He thinks the ghost is connected to some big events that happened in Bristol in 1831. These events were called the Bristol Riots.
Milton Guest checks old records. He believes the ghost might be a dragoon commander named George Bretherton. This commander got into trouble for how he handled the riots. After that, he disappeared without a trace.
The Family Secret
Mrs. Betterton confirms that her family owned the house during the time of the riots. However, she says she didn't know about the secret room. She also didn't know about any family link to the riots. She does mention that there was a "family scandal" around that time. But she was never told the details. Milton Guest suspects that Mrs. Betterton is a direct descendant of George Bretherton. He thinks the family changed their name because of the scandal.
Trying to Stop the Haunting
Milton Guest performs a special ceremony called an exorcism. At first, it seems to work! The glowing helmet stops shining. The ghost of the old lady, who seems to be the dragoon's mother, is no longer seen. The music box that called her also stops working. Everything seems to go back to normal.
But in the very last episode, something unexpected happens. The authorities remove the skeleton from the house. They give it a proper burial. After this, the strange events start to happen again! The mystery continues...
Main Characters
- Timothy Clare (played by Sebastian Breaks): He is a concert pianist. He moves his family into the old, mysterious house in Bristol.
- Sheila Clare (played by Ingrid Hafner): She is Timothy's wife. She slowly starts to believe that the strange things happening are caused by ghosts.
- Milton Guest (played by Peter Sallis): He is a ghost hunter. The Clare sons ask him to investigate the spooky events. He tries to get rid of the ghost with an exorcism.
