The Flame Trees of Thika

Director: Roy Ward Baker Roy Ward Baker

Overview

Shown on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre," this story is set in 1913 on a coffee plantation in East Africa. Based on the memoirs of Elspeth Huxley, the story is told through her eyes as a child. An interesting character study of the eccentric members of the small British community, her reminiscences are also replete with memories of the Masai and Kikuyu tribes that were a major part in her childhood years.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/30/2018
UPC:	0759731416221
Original Release:	1981
Rating:	NR
Source:	Henstooth Video
Region Code:	1
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	6:05:00
Sales rank:	25,858

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Hayley Mills	Tilly Grant
David Robb	Robin Grant
Holly Aird	Elspeth Grant
Sharon Mughan	Lettice Palmer
Nicholas Jones	Hereward Palmer
Morgan Sheppard	Mr. Roos
Carol Macready	Mrs. Nimmo
Ben Cross	Ian
David Bradley	Alec Wilson
John Nettleton	Major
Tony Osoba	Ahmed
Steve Mwenesi	Sammy
Mick Chege	Njombo
Mzee Pembe	Chief Kupanya
Paul Onsongo	Juma
James Falkland	Victor
Sheila Brennan	Mary
Tom Mwangi	Warrior

Technical Credits

Roy Ward Baker	Director
John Hawkesworth	Producer
Christopher Neame	Producer
Verity Lambert	Executive Producer

Editorial Reviews

Menacing leopards, racism, war, and the whims of nature vie for attention with a charming little girl in this six-hour production chronicling the fortunes of a British family in East Africa in the early 20th century. Time and again, it is the little girl -- a dimpled tyke with a curious mind -- who wins the viewer's favor. Her name is Holly Aird, an actress with a rare ability to communicate childhood in all of its innocent wonder. She portrays Elspeth Grant, an 11-year-old whose parents, Robin and Tilly, forsake an easy tea-and-crumpets life in England to coax a coffee crop from scrub land in the vast, open reaches of Kenya. The Grants lead an idyllic life, full of the romance and adventure of untamed Africa. But the film does not ignore the hard realities of everyday life: the racism of white overlords, the infidelity of a bored neighbor woman, and the slaughter of wildlife by trophy hunters. In her role as Elspeth, young Aird sets an example for the adults, making friends with shy blacks, oddball whites, a spindly deer, and two chameleons. She develops a special rapport with British hunter Ian Crawfurd (Ben Cross) and wins over priggish Scotswoman Mrs. Nimmo ( Carol MacReady) and gruff Boer Mr. Roos (William Morgan Sheppard). Hayley Mills, herself a winsome child actor in earlier days, plays Elspeth's mom, the neighborhood's nurse, and everybody's shoulder to cry on. Her well-starched British manners suffer a wrinkle or two as she adjusts to African life, but she maintains her good humor throughout. So, too, does David Robb as Elspeth's father, who does not cower before foul weather, arid land, and war. Lending authenticity to the film are native East Africans recruited to play the black Kenyans.