Story–by-story: Tales from the Levels: Remembrance

This lost episode of a 1970s children’s television series came to me in a dream. Usually dream stories are nonsense but this one, to my astonishment, worked.

Here’s the dream:

You’ll note that, in the dream, it was Tales from the Fens, but I don’t know East Anglia well enough (yet) to write that.

So I brought it closer to home, to Somerset.

The dream gave me a premise and some details but, of course, I had to do a lot to turn it into a coherent piece of fiction.

I also found myself thinking about Jeremy Deller’s nationwide art installation to mark the centenary of the start of World War I, ‘We’re Here Because We’re Here’, from 2014.

There is also, of course, that story from Sapphire & Steel with the ghost of a soldier from World War I haunting a railway station. (Which I think Jeremy Deller must also have had in mind.)

Having dreamt of a TV show, I had to make it a TV show, which also happens to tie into my interest in grainy old BBC ghost stories for Christmas, and Tales of the Unexpected, and similar.

Let’s be honest, this is pure nostalgic, hauntological fan service.

The final component was the idea that Bernard Miles might be the narrator of the story. Miles is perhaps best known for his performance as Joe Gargery in David Lean’s 1946 film of Great Expectations. He was also famous for his stage and screen performances in rural dialects.

Though he specialised in the accents of counties surrounding London, I reckon he could easily have stretched to a Somerset accent with a little time to prep. And I think he’s exactly the kind of person an ITV subsidiary might have approached for a job like this in 1970.

I dithered a little about how much storytelling business to include. In the end, I went heavy on it at the start, and at the end, but let it fade out in the middle. Because I suspect that, as with attempts to write in regional accents, it would get pretty annoying after a while.

Somerset place names

People who know Somerset will notice that I’ve rendered a couple of place names as they’re spoken rather than as they’re spelled.

In reality, Chidgey is Chedzoy and Muchney is Muchelney.

My thinking was, though, that surely Mr Miles would be given them as spoken in his script, right?

But also, I just take a certain homesick pleasure in these little details.

Intervals of Darkness will be published on 7 September. You can pre-order the eBook now.