Can anyone identify this 1980s children's TV serial (v. limited info, sorry)

[PlaitBilledDuckyPuss]

This has been bothering me on and off for ages and google has been no help - trying to find the name of a drama serial from my childhood.

I think it would have been the early 1980s - possibly 1982 - and broadcast on BBC1 in the after-school segment.

This is as much as I remember, and it may be incorrect:

It was set in the 19th century. There were children - the oldest one was a girl - and they lived by the sea in a small cottage. Their father was a sailor and he'd been away at sea. He came back to much celebration and sat by a fire drinking, but then fell ill with a fever. He started raving deliriously about a sailor's whistle that had something to do with hidden treasure. He then died. The rest of the series concerned the children trying to seek this whistle.

If this rings any bells with anyone I would be delighted!

I'm usually good at this sort of thing... I'm the right age and watched all those dramas... there were some great ones in the 70s and 80s!

The only possibility I can come up with is Children of Green Knowe?

I don't have any suggestions but it doesn't sound anything like the The Children of Green Knowe to me.

Thanks for the suggestion Victoriana - I don't think it's Green Knowe unfortunately as I read the books as a child and don't recognise anything from that story.

It must be an obscure one as I've googled it endlessly over the years!

Does sound unusual!! I was an avid watcher of children's series on BBC (wasn't allowed to watch "commercial television" - the horror!!)

There's a very good record of 80s children's TV too and you've got a decent description there. Mad you can't find it.

Oh, snap on not being allowed to watch ITV! I didn't even realise there were children's programmes on ITV until I was 11. I would hear people at school talking about things they'd watched on ITV and be baffled as to when they could have been on because I'd never heard of them.

If you wanted you could trawl the radio times and see you can find it!
genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/1a8d0aa3820540bdb1cf71db7ec5d033

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:1980s_British_children%27s_television_series

Anything from there? The series Spooky or spine chillers?

Feels a bit Leon Garfield could it have been late 70s or a Jackanory?

Try r/old British tally on Reddit. I asked a really vague question about an 80s tv series and they found it.

Ffs autocorrect

r/oldbritishtelly

Also dramarama anthologies.

Yes, it was just the historic aspect that made me suggest that!

I'm intrigued, though.

Was it definitely British? Doesn't appear in Wikipedia 70s and 80s lists of British children's TV programmes, but I don't think those lists are entirely complete.

Sounds a bit Moonfleet-ish.

A Little Silver Trumpet?

I was also going to suggest Moonfleet (although I can’t really remember the storyline!).

This is what I'm thinking... otherwise, I seem to remember something with "Enchanted" in the title – "Enchanted Castle", maybe??

Was it A Little Silver Trumpet?

I'd never heard of this but it seems to be the one. A father who dies on shore leave. And adapted for the BBC.

Part of the original recording is available on YouTube if you search A Little Silver Trumpet. It includes the only bit I remember - where the girl delves into a box and cries "A little silver trumpet!!" as she pulls out the whistle thingy.

We all did impressions of her the next day at school.

YES! It is 100% and without a doubt this! Thank you so much! I can see from the helpful Radio Times link provided by @PinkHeadphones that it was shown in 1980 and then again in 1982 - I'm fairly sure it would have been the 1982 broadcast I saw.

Thank you to everyone who offered helpful suggestions.

The Power of Mumsnet strikes again!

Me too! Took me ages to realise our TV was only tuned to BBC 1 & 2.

For Christmas 1982 we took my mum's mum to my dad's mum.
Mum's mum suggested watching something on channel 4. Dad's mum was shocked at the thought. She watched BBC 1, if she didn't like that BBC 2 and at a push ITV. She hadn't even set up Channel 4 at that point.

I've found this I think!

Oh thanks for posting that! I don't know how to link and was meant to be working this pm so there wasn't time to work it out.

So glad you started this thread as I had forgotten all about this (watched over forty years ago) and am amazed that it just came straight back when I read your description (as compared with things I watched e.g. yesterday which I am sure have gone for good...).