A story of two young girls growing up in the charmed environment of a beautiful English country house, whose lives are suddenly and irrevocably transformed by the advent of the Second World War.

It’s 1936, and for young Judith Dunbar the loneliness of boarding school looms as her dithering mother Molly and sister Jess are leaving to join her father
in Singapore.

At St Ursula’s, Judith meets her life long friend in the devil-may-care Loveday Carey-Lewis who invites her home for the weekend
to Nancherrow.

Judith falls in love with the house and the Carey-Lewis’s themselves. Glamorous Diana, the reserved but kindly Colonel and Loveday’s dashing brother Edward for whom she falls, all treat her as one
of them.

When Judith’s eccentric guardian Aunt Louise is killed in a car accident, the Carey-Lewis’s become her surrogate family. It’s here that Judith grows up and has her first kiss during a game of sardines with Loveday’s 
brother Edward.

But World War II appears on the horizon and the salad days are gone. A shadow has fallen
over Nancherrow.

Edward is killed in action and her mother, Molly and sister Jess have been torpedoed in the Pacific.

Judith joins the Navy and after a chance meeting while on leave in London, spends a night of passion with the caring reliable Dr Jeremy Wells, originally the family doctor, now a Navy surgeon.

A cruel twist of fate prevents a letter from Jeremy, that might have changed her life for ever, from being delivered.

Loveday convinces herself that her true love, Scottish artist Gus Callender has been killed in action and settles for marriage to dependable local farmer Walter only to be faced later with Gus’s return.
Similarly Judith discovers that her sister Jess has survived the war but is traumatized by events.

Could Nancherrow find them happiness ?

Running time
2 x 2 hour or
4 x 1 hour mini-series
or movie

Starring
Peter O’Toole
Joanna Lumley
Emily Mortimer
Paul Bettany
with an ensemble cast

Based on Rosamunde Pilcher’s best selling novel.

A Portman/Telemunchen co-production adapted for dramatisation by John Goldsmith

Links

Other titles based on novels by Rosamunde Pilcher:

September (Portman)

Nancherrow (Portman)

And a documentary about the author:

Rosamunde Pilcher (Portman)