The Cedar Tree
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Alfred Shaughnessy
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	119
Production
Producer	Ian Fordyce
Running time	30 minutes 60mins in 1978.
Production company	ATV
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	20 September 1976 (1976-09-20) – 1979 (1979)

The Cedar Tree was a television serial that ran from 1976 to 1979 on ITV in the United Kingdom.

It involved the story of the upper class Bourne family before the turn of the Second World War.^[1] The main setting is Larkfield Manor, the family home set in Herefordshire, in the grounds of which is the cedar tree.

The Cedar Tree was made by Associated Television Productions (ATV) and recorded at their studios at Elstree. Two established cast members were the veteran actress Joyce Carey and Susan Skipper, who played one of the Bourne family's daughters. Two other noted actors involved were Philip Latham as Commander Bourne, and Cyril Luckham, as Charles Ashley, the benevolent grandfather.

The first two series were shown on ITV in the afternoon in a thirty-minute twice weekly format. The first series had 82 episodes; the second had 24 episodes. The final series was given an evening prime time slot and the episodes were extended to sixty minutes; the series consisted of only 13 episodes.^[2]

In a bizarre bit of casting, Jack Watling, who had been playing Captain Julian Palmer, an old friend of the Bourne family, in series 2, took over the role of Arthur Bourne in series 3.

In February 2013 it was announced^[3] that the first 1976 series was to be released on DVD. A complete box set of all three series has since been released.

Cast

• Joyce Carey – Lady Alice Bourne, widowed mother of Arthur and Phyllis
• Philip Latham – Commander Arthur Bourne (series' 1 & 2)
• Susan Engel – Helen Bourne, Arthur's wife
• Sally Osborne – Elizabeth Bourne, eldest daughter of Arthur & Helen Bourne
• Jennifer Lonsdale – Anne Bourne, middle daughter of Arthur & Helen Bourne
• Susan Skipper – Victoria Bourne, youngest daughter of Arthur & Helen Bourne
• Kate Coleridge – Phyllis Bourne, Arthur's sister
• Cyril Luckham – Charles Ashley, father of Arthur's wife Helen
• Gary Raymond – Jack Poole
• Carol Royle – Laura Collins, friend of Victoria
• Jean Taylor Smith – Nanny
• Peter Hill – Gates, the Bourne's chauffeur and general help
• Ruth Holden – Mrs. Gates, the Bourne's housekeeper
• Shaun Scott – Jim Tapper, assistant to Gates
• Alan Browning series 1 & 2/Richard Thorp series 3 – Geoffrey Cartland
• Lillias Walker – Rosemary Cartland
• John Oxley – Peter Cartland
• Tom Chatto – Parsons, the Cartland's butler
• John Hug – Gwylym Meredith-Jones
• Joan Newell – Winifred Hedges
• Patrick Ryecart/Steven Pacey – Klaus Von Heynig
• Nigel Havers – Rex Burton-Smith
• Jack Watling – Captain Julian Palmer (series 2) / Commander Arthur Bourne (series 3)
• Rosemary Nicols – Angela Scott, magazine reporter
• Michael Macowan – Doctor Cropper
• Pamela Mandell – Miss Pringle, owner of the Copper Kettle tearooms
• Richard Vernon – Lord Evelyn Forbes, old flame of Lady Alice Bourne
• Peter Egan – Ralph Marsh

References