The Camomile Lawn (TV serial)

The story begins in August 1939, when young adults Oliver, Calypso, Polly and her brother Walter are visiting their disorganised Aunt Helena and her husband Richard Cuthbertson at their house by the sea in Cornwall, which has a camomile lawn. Ten-year-old Sophy, the daughter of Richard’s late half sister, lives with them and is delighted with the arrival of her cousins, especially Oliver. The family is often visited by the twin sons of the rector of the parish and by Max and Monika Erstweiler, a Jewish refugee couple from Austria whom the rector has taken in; they are missing their only son, Pauli, reported to be in a German concentration camp. The cousins invent 'The Terror Run', a cliff path dash which they race at night by the light of a full moon. They are joined by some of the adults, and Sophy is determined to run it as well. However, on a daylight practice run, a coastguard exposes himself to Sophy, with surprising results.

After he has fought in the Spanish Civil War, Oliver is depressed and disenchanted, but develops a crush on Calypso. She fends him off, determined to make the most of her beauty and marry a much richer man.

Polly is intelligent and practical, and when the Second World War breaks out in September 1939 she joins the War Office to work for Military intelligence, while her brother Walter joins the Royal Navy, Oliver the army, and the twins the Royal Air Force. Meanwhile, Max and Monika are interned as enemy aliens. Calypso marries Hector Grant, a Scottish landowner and member of parliament, but has many affairs. The Erstweilers are released, and Helena begins an affair with Max, and Richard with Monika. Walter is killed at sea, and Calypso has a son, Hamish, shortly after her London house has been hit by a bomb, with Sophy acting as midwife. Pauli Erstweiler is reported to have died in Dachau, but in fact survives the war.

In 1984, more than forty years on, the survivors meet again at the house in Cornwall for the funeral of Max Erstweiler. He had become a well-known violinist and bought the house from Helena after Richard’s death. Oliver is now a well-known author. Oliver says he has had two failed marriages to Calypso lookalikes. He and Sophy find they are both single and leave the funeral together, planning to get to know each other.

The house now belongs to Pauli, who plans to redevelop it and replace the camomile lawn with a swimming pool.

The principal film locations were at Broom Parc House, Veryan, Cornwall, the nearby village of Portloe, and central London.[1]

The younger leading actors, Toby Stephens and Jennifer Ehle, were both playing their first screen roles. The scriptwriter, Ken Taylor, was the father of Matthew Taylor, member of parliament for this part of Cornwall. Ehle's screen career was launched by the television drama, in which she played a role that required multiple nude scenes. "I haven't done any nudity since - and never will again," she later said. "When I took the job, I didn't realize there would be so much of it, but no one forced me to do it. The first time I felt really shocked - then came a whole day of naked scenes. I went home and was physically sick. But it wasn't the time or place to sit down and ask why I'd done it. I'd forgotten that I'd be seen naked in a lot of living rooms."[2]

The Camomile Lawn achieved unprecedented viewing figures for Channel 4, its success not exceeded until Humans was broadcast more than twenty years later.[3]

The theme tune for the adaptation, by Stephen Edwards, is based on Ravel's String Quartet in F major, a piece of music rehearsed in the action by Max (Oliver Cotton) and his colleagues.

• The Camomile Lawn at IMDb
• The Camomile Lawn at the BFI's Screenonline