Sarah Todd: Horsey tales brought to mind by end of a Sunday TV institution

LIKE many others, we were sad last weekend at the end of Heartbeat.

Lighting the fire, settling down in front of the television… The Sunday evening slot just seemed to finish the week off on a pleasant note.

I go to sleep with my mouth open in Midsomer Murders, Poirot or Miss Marple and anything else just seems too weird. If you nip out to make a cup of tea in the majority of today's edgy dramas there's no chance of getting back into the plot. Whereas with Heartbeat we could shut the hens up, check the ponies and still put the kettle on without missing much.

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We'll have to get tuned in to the digital channel ITV3 which seems to host quite a few gems, such as Darling Buds of May, alongside vintage episodes of the dear departed police drama.

Our daughter has, sadly, inherited my mathematical skills (although bravely battles on when it comes to adding up the egg takings). On the upside, she's a real reader, averaging a book a week.

To save her bankrupting us, we've bought some smashing second- hand books. The latest is one from 1968, Fly-by-Night, perhaps some readers remember it? It's all about 11 year-old Ruth who moves from London and fulfils her dream of buying a pony. It's not all roses around the

door though, with the totally unsuitable gelding to break-in, buy tack and food for. It caught my eye as it was by KM Peyton, who penned the trilogy Flambards. Mention of this will certainly get some people's cogs whirring as back in 1978 Yorkshire Television made it into a television series, shown at "prime time" like poor old Heartbeat.

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It was filmed at Sawley Hall, near Ripon, with the main character, Christina, telling an untruth at her interview that she could ride. Together with the actor who played Mark Russell she had a fortnight to learn, going out hunting with the Bramham Moor. Scenes of

the hunt ball, where Mark's flying-mad younger brother William asked Christina to run away with him, were filmed at Broughton Hall, near Skipton. There must have been many other locations used.

The third book, Flambards in Summer, is especially enjoyable for anybody with an interest in farming, as it charts Christina's wartime struggle. Farm men can't be found and she's ostracised by the local community for taking on a German prisoner of war. It was equally difficult to find horses to work the land – with all the best ones taken by the army.

What some might not realise is that 12 years after starting the series of books, Peyton wrote a fourth – Flambards Divided – which brought a new ending (not yet read by me) that was sadly never taken up by the television chiefs as a sequel. Just goes to show, as with Heartbeat, what do they know?

CW 18/9/10