Brendon Chase

Brendon Chase is a children's novel by Denys Watkins-Pitchford, writing as "BB". It was published in 1944 but is set at an earlier date, unspecified in the book but revealed as 1922 by the fact that a letter to the boys' parents was written on a Friday and dated 20 October. It was later made into a 13-part TV serial (described as being set in 1925), adapted by James Andrew Hall, produced by Southern Television in association with RM Productions and Primetime Television in 1980, and shown on ITV in the United Kingdom from 31 December 1980 to 25 March 1981 (other than in Wales where HTV Wales transmitted it between April and July 1981, after it had been displaced by Welsh-language programmes before the inception of S4C). The series was also shown in many other European countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. In the United States it aired on HBO.

Both the novel and the TV series were based around the Hensman brothers, Robin (played in the TV series by Craig McFarlane), John (played by Howard Taylor) and Harold (played by Paul Erangey), who spend eight months living as outlaws in the forest of Brendon Chase. As in much British children's literature of the era, their parents are absent, and living in India, at the time part of the British Empire, while in the TV series their mother has died and it is only their father who is abroad. They are cared for by their Aunt Ellen, a strict and somewhat cold spinster (played in the TV series by Rosalie Crutchley). At the end of the Easter holidays, Harold falls ill with the measles, so Robin and John are unable to return to boarding school (described as "Banchester" - the name is similar to Winchester College, but it was inspired by Rugby School where the author taught Art). They decide to run away and fend for themselves, taking some food from their aunt's house, and also taking a rifle and ammunition so they can survive in the wild.

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