Grant Taylor and Megs Jenkins played the two veterinary surgeons at the centre of Weavers Green, the first rural soap opera, which Anglia Television filmed entirely on location in the Norfolk village of Heydon. The production team abandoned 16mm film for outside broadcast videotape, a technical gamble that let them capture real fields, farmyards and the County School railway station instead of painted backdrops. Twice-weekly episodes followed the rhythms of a small country town where Kate O'Mara’s student vet already hinted at the steel that would later define her prime-time bitch roles.
Brothers Troy and Ian Kennedy Martin took over scripts after the first 30 episodes from husband-and-wife team Peter Lambda and Betty Paul, keeping the budget at exactly half a million pounds across the full run. The complete archive survives, a rarity for 1960s ITV, yet Anglia’s lack of network muscle meant regions scheduled the show anywhere but peak time and it was quietly dropped after 50 half-hour instalments. The resentment lingered long enough for Anglia to keep Emmerdale Farm buried in daytime years after every other company had promoted it to primetime.
Production Details
UK / ITV (Anglia Television) / 50x30 minute episodes / 1966
Created by: Dick Joice
Scripts: Peter Lambda, Betty Paul, Troy Kennedy Martin, Ian Kennedy Martin
Main Cast
Grant Taylor as Geoffrey West
Megs Jenkins as Dotty West
Kate O'Mara as Mick Murphy
Eric Flynn as Alan Smedley
Wendy Richard as Jean Hopwood
Richard Coleman as Jack Royston
Maurice Kaufmann as Dan Andrews
Susan George as Barbara Wyatt
