Swallows and Amazons Forever!


Swallows and Amazons Forever! is a 1984 BBC children's television series based on two children's novels from the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, Coot Club four episodes, and The Big Six four episodes.
The setting is the Norfolk Broads in the 1930s, partly near the village of Horning, with the children sailing and bird-watching, plus some detective work in The Big Six. The main characters are visitors Dick and Dorothea Callum and locals Tom Dudgeon, the twins Nell and Bess, three boatbuilders’ sons Joe, Bill and Pete, and adults Mrs Barrable, Dr Dudgeon and Frank Farland plus in Coot Club five obnoxious adults in a motor cruiser, the Margoletta who are called the Hullabaloos by the children. Despite the title, Ransome's other groups of children, the Swallows and the Amazons, do not appear.
A Puffin paperback with the same title was published in 1983; it is a condensation of Coot Club and The Big Six. It was reissued as a Red Fox paperback in 1993 with the title Swallows and Amazons for Ever!
It was intended that Swallows and Amazons Forever! should have continued with adaptions of all the books in the series, and Swallowdale and The Picts and the Martyrs were to have been next. Casting and scouting for locations began, but the cost of filming on National Trust property in the Lake District was too expensive, so the series was cancelled.

Episodes

The series was broadcast on BBC Two on Wednesdays in 1984.
EpisodeDateTime
Coot Club - Episode 1Wednesday 14 March 19847.10-7.35pm
Coot Club - Episode 2Wednesday 21 March 19847.10-7.35pm
Coot Club - Episode 3Wednesday 28 March 19847.10-7.35pm
Coot Club - Episode 4Wednesday 4 April 19847.00-7.25pm
The Big Six - Episode 1Wednesday 11 April 19847.05-7.30pm
The Big Six - Episode 2Wednesday 18 April 19847.15-7.40pm
The Big Six - Episode 3Wednesday 24 April 19847.15-7.40pm
The Big Six - Episode 4Wednesday 2 May 19847.10-7.35pm

Characters