It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Instant Favorite.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

I first watched this when I was 8 and I blame it for my tinfoil hat mentality today; I still won't have an electric cooker or kettle or a TV in the house! I bought the DVD and, if you are able to suspend disbelief in certain scenes, you will enjoy watching it again. Very much in the 'Survivors' mode, it would likely scare the pants off children today.

I clearly remember this programme, as though it were yesterday; I was thirteen at the time of first broadcast. Despite the fact that the programme was the usual dystopic(god, why does this website not understand the word dystopic - IT IS A VALID WORD!!!) Sci- Fi of the time, and seemed to be highly derivative of a film from the previous year, called No Blade of Grass, right down to the presence of Asian characters (generalised Asian characters in No Blade of Grass, Seikhs in The Changes) and a catastrophe situation (dying plants in No Blade of Grass, hatred of technology in The Changes), I liked the programme, largely because at thirteen, I fancied about half the women on TV (don't we all at that age?) and Vicky Williams was one of them, along with Gillian Blake (Follyfoot), Hilary Dwyer (Hadleigh), and Helga Anders ( The White Horses) which brings me to the main point of writing this. Does any body, apart from me, remember that The Changes was first show in 1973, when I was thirteen and all these other programmes were on the TV? The programme ran, at the very least, in th BBC Midland region; I remember discussing the programme with school friends, and since I changed schools at the end of 1973, and therefore subsequently had new friends, I CLEARLY remember the event of the time, and know that I am right in this. Final Point. If I find it this difficult to put a review on IMDb again, I will deal with the production company direct - IMDb are NOT the definitive authority; this is obvious from my review.

THE CHANGES is one of these shows you watch as a child and you can remember elements all the way in to adulthood . I saw the first episode in January 1976 knowing nothing about and was disturbed as the characters quickly set about destroying any appliance that could vaguely be described as a machine . It quickly had me tuning in to every episode for ten weeks and the only show that had an effect on me at the time was DOCTOR WHO . I In short it's a show you don't forget in a hurry and one that in a world of videotape and VHS video you want to track down . Unfortunately once you do see it 30 years after its broadcast you might be rather disappointed The first episode " The Noise " was just as I remember and is somewhat chilling as buildings collapse and psychotic crowds take to the streets to destroy machinery . The effect is somewhat diluted somewhat when you realise much of the footage is taken from the 1967 Hammer version of QUATERMASS AND THE PIT . Simiraly the impact is lessened when the psychotic crowds seem to be very liberal in working out what qualifies as " modern man made machinery " . You can understand someone smashing up televisions but is a bike getting beaten to death by a lynch mob is possibly a bit silly but writer Anna Home and director John Prowse rightly just concentrate on informing the audience a terrible event is occurring without going in to detail Unfortunately both the writer and director throw a massive spanner in the works where Mrs Gore states that they" Must escape to France where I've heard things are still normal " Since the televisions and radios have been destroyed in a mass cull , and telephones too probably how would she know this ? The audience are also left scratching their heads a few minutes later when the Gores embark on their journey to France only to have the noise happen again leading to more machine mashing . Mr and Mrs Gore notice that Nicky has disappeared only to have Mr Gore state that he'll take his wife to France then he'll come back to England to find his daughter ! Nicky can't be more than a few hundred yards away but her parents will go to France then Mr Gore will go back to find her . T. I know this is a plot turn to set up Nicky being separated from her parents but when you're making a plot turn it's imperative to structure it so that it doesn't seem illogical . In fact throughout the whole episode the time frame and story structure hold together rather badly , so much so you'll swear that this fondly remembered piece of television from childhood has been heavily edited such is the disjointed nature That said the story does pick up somewhat in the second episode though be it the story does seem somewhat slow in places . Nicky is given sanctuary in the second episode by a group of Sikhs . Halfway through the series Nicky and the Sikhs part ways as the protagonist goes and searches for her Aunt in the countryside and it as Nicky is accused of being a witch by a contemporary Matthew Hopkins who insists that Nicky be stoned to death . This is a very effective subplot and shows that you don't have to be graphic in order to chill an audience . Both the writing and performances tell the story without the need of cruelty .If you think it's somewhat lame in 2010 please remember it's a children's show from the mid 1970s Despite the effectiveness of this segment where THE CHANGES falls down is in the denouncement which is every bit as clumsy and confusing as the opening episode . Nicky and Jonathon ( Who saved her from the Witch Finder ) go in to a cave and meet the cause of the noise that brought about the changes - a megalith . Apparently Mr Megalith has been annoyed at humanity so has tried to destroy civilization in Britain . He's able to read Nicky's mind and seeing what she has seen he decides he's been unjust so effectively destroys himself as Nicky and Jonathon make good their escape . It's confusing too since the two protagonists hear an airliner passing over head as they exit the cave . If a plane is flying over the sky does this mean that the changes never happened in the first place ? If not it's contradicted by Nicky mentioning her parents are still in France In all honesty watching THE CHANGES again with an interval of over 30 years I was slightly disappointed . The main narrative is involving enough though the story is let down by both the opening and concluding episode . Someone like Russell T Davies can get away with writing a poor DOCTOR WHO episode by concentrating on an opening hook and emotional ending where as Anna Home's 10 episode saga seems to be the antithesis of this type of writing . That said if it compelled you to tune in every week as a child then that can only be viewed as a success and if you can remember it more than 30 years later then that's an even bigger success . It's also a children's show that would never be produced nowadays . Instead we'd get " soap opera lite " for teenagers so perhaps we should praise THE CHANGES flaws and all

CONTAINS SPOILERS (not that you'll ever get to see it!)This was a children's TV series consisting of ten twenty-five minute episodes first broadcast in 1975 on BBC1, and repeated a year later. I have very vivid memories of it, because it scared me half-stupid (and considering I have grown up believing, for instance, The Exorcist to be a comedy, that's saying something!)Young Nicky Gore wakes up one morning to discover that everybody - her parents included - has gone mad. They are out on the streets smashing up cars, destroying televisions - any mechanical / electrical device you could care to mention, in fact. Deserted by her parents (who decide to flee to France) she is befriended by a group of Sikhs who, like her, appear to be immune from the cause of the madness - the "Noise", disturbing waves of sound which emanate from electricity pylons (or so I remember).Various adventures in rural England ensue before Nicky - accompanied by various companions along the way (and at one point tried as a witch) - finds the source of the noise in a recently excavated cave system... This is the last episode and things get SERIOUSLY weird! She finds a large glowing red monolith which is crying out in a strange faraway voice "Muni targit! Muni targit!" (Latin for "I stop the World" I believe).Apparently, it is a very confused supernatural force which has been reawakened by the excavation work, and sensed (I'm guessing here - it is twenty-seven years since I saw it and I was eight at the time!) that the natural order of the planet has been perverted (and indeed, polluted) by the inventions of man since the Industrial Revolution in the Eighteenth Century, and is attempting to revert the world to a time when people were more at one with their environment.The denouement is something of a cop-out. Nicky prostrates herself before the ancient force, pleading with it to reverse the harm it has caused. And, um, it does so.The world is free again to poison the land and seas, for superpowers to threaten each other with nuclear weapons, for s/he-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins mentalities... Civilisation, it may be concluded, is amoral, but once innocence is lost, it can never be regained. Will wisdom grow in parallel with progress, or are we merely rushing headlong into self-destruction? Thoughts to chew on, certainly.Note: Much of the location work was shot in Bristol and the West Country.