7 January: The Forsyte Saga

On this date in 1967 BBC1 began serialisation of The Forsyte Saga. 10 things you might not know about it:

1. It was based on a series of books by John Galsworthy, for which he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1932.
2. The story follows the fortunes of the upper middle class Forsyte family; themes include duty versus desire, and generations and change.
3. The 1967 TV series was the last major British drama serial to be made in black and white. While colour technology was available then, and producer Donald B. Wilson said he would have loved to see it in colour, but it would have meant delaying filming, and the cast might not have all been available.
4. The series starred Eric Porter as Soames, Kenneth More as Young Jolyon and Nyree Dawn Porter as Irene.
5. Kenneth More is actually two years older than Eric Porter, who played his father.
6. The series was first broadcast on Saturday evenings between 7 January and 1 July 1967 on BBC2. At that time, not many people in the UK could even get BBC2, but it was repeated on BBC1 on Sunday evenings, and it was those repeats which pulled in the viewers – 18 million watched the final ever episode in 1969.
7. In fact, the show was so popular that some churches changed the times of their evening services so that the congregation could get home in time to watch it. No such thing as video recording or watch on demand in them days!
8. There wasn’t much in the way of a musical soundtrack. The theme tune was Halcyon Days, from the suite The Three Elizabeths written in the early 1940s by Eric Coates.
9. Before this series, there was a film adaptation released in 1949 which starred Errol Flynn as Soames, Greer Garson as Irene, Walter Pidgeon as Young Jolyon, and Robert Young as Philip Bosinney.
10. In 2002 the series was re-made by “the other side” aka ITV. In this version Soames was played by Damian Lewis.

Character birthday

Ninja, a trained assassin and martial arts master, though he’s not an actual Ninja. He originates from a similar culture in the Infinitus dimension, resident in Scotland with others who came through a wormhole to Earth and formed a band of heroes known as the Earth Guard.