362 A Horseman Riding By

First  viewed :  Autumn  1978

I  only  dipped  into  this  period  drama  adapted  from  an  R  F  Delderfield  novel   but  my  mum  and  sister  followed  it  all  the  way  through. It  was  broadcast  on  a  Sunday  evening  succeeding  the  latest  series  of  The  Onedin  Line.  It  concerned  a  young   gentleman  played  by  Nigel  Havers  with  a  small  estate  in  the  Devon  countryside  who  returns  from  the  Boer  War  , finds  romance  in  the  Edwardian  era  and  then  inevitably  gets  drawn  into  a  rather  larger  War.

I  was  never  too  enamoured  with  it  but  I  do  recall  the  scenes  where  one  of  the  working  class  characters  Will  Codsall  starts  suffering  from  shell  shock  which  were  quite  powerful.

The  role  made  Havers's  name  in  TV  although  it  also  imprisoned  him  in  playing  charming  , often  aristocratic,  gentlemen  for  the  rest  of  his  career.