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{{Short description|British television series}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Infobox television
| image                = CenturyFallsDVD.png
| caption              = ''Century Falls'' DVD Cover, showing from left to right Tess Hunter, Ben and Carey Naismith
| runtime              = 25 minutes
| creator              = [[Russell T Davies]]
| director             = [[Colin Cant]]
| producer             = Richard Callanan
| starring             = [[Bernard Kay]]<br/>[[Marc Sinden]]<br/>[[Mary Wimbush]]<br/>Catherine Sanderson<br/>Tatiana Strauss<br/>[[Beryl Cooke]]<br/>[[Georgine Anderson]]<br/>Heather Baskerville<br/>[[Simon Fenton]]<br/>Emma Jane Lavin<br/>[[Eileen Way]]
| country              = United Kingdom
| language             = English
| network              = [[BBC One|BBC1]]
| first_aired          = {{Start date|1993|02|17|df=yes}}
| last_aired           = {{End date|1993|03|24|df=yes}}
| num_episodes         = 6
}}
'''''Century Falls''''' is a British [[cross-genre]] [[Television program|series]] broadcast in six twenty-five-minute episodes on [[BBC1]] in early 1993. Written by [[Russell T Davies]], it tells the story of teenager Tess Hunter and her mother, who move to the seemingly idyllic rural village of Century Falls, only to find that it hides many powerful secrets.

==Background==
[[Russell T Davies]] had worked in the BBC Children's Department for many years, writing the science-fiction series ''[[Dark Season]]'' for the weekday afternoon [[Children's BBC]] strand in 1991. The following year, he had left the BBC to work for [[Granada Television]], where he was producing and writing for their children's medical drama ''[[Children's Ward]]''.<ref name=BFIScreenonline/>

The director of ''Dark Season'', [[Colin Cant]], had been assigned to direct another children's series for [[BBC1]], but had little enthusiasm for the script. Instead, he wrote to Davies asking if he could provide something else. Davies quickly wrote the first episode of ''Century Falls'' for Cant to take to his superiors, who then fully commissioned the programme.

The production was shot entirely on location around [[Richmond, North Yorkshire|Richmond]], [[Langthwaite]], [[Muker]] and locations around the northern [[Yorkshire Dales]]. The waterfall of Century Falls was actually Gibson's Cave, just north of Bowlees.

The series was broadcast as part of [[Children's BBC]] on [[BBC1]] on Wednesday afternoons at 5:10&nbsp;pm from 17 February to 24 March 1993. Each episode was repeated on [[BBC2]] the Sunday morning after transmission.

''Century Falls'' was released on [[DVD]] by 2|entertain Ltd on 24 July 2006. Upon release, it received a [[British Board of Film Classification]] rating of PG.

==Plot==
When Tess Hunter and her mother arrive in Century Falls, they gradually find it to be a strange village, haunted by a disaster that befell it during the performance of an [[occult]] ceremony forty years earlier.

Tess befriends the only other children in the village, brother and sister Ben and Carey Naismith, and finds that Ben has strange powers which he draws from the waterfall that gives the village its name.

The Naismiths' uncle Richard is working with his aged father, Dr Josiah Naismith, to complete the unfinished ceremony using Ben's powers, hoping to raise the spirit of a mysterious God-like being, Century. They are eventually stopped by Tess's actions, aided by the local Harkness sisters, who knew the original tragedy of the 1950s events.

==Cast and crew==
[[Russell T Davies]] had already gained a good reputation from his work on ''[[Dark Season]]'' and ''[[Children's Ward]]''. He later went on to forge a career as one of Britain's top writers of television drama, although he did not write again for the BBC until he penned an episode of ''[[Linda Green]]'', transmitted on [[BBC One]] in 2001. Davies became the chief writer of the revival of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' in 2005, for which he won several awards, including a [[BAFTA]] for Best Drama.

[[Colin Cant]] had, for many years, been the Producer of the BBC's long-running school drama ''[[Grange Hill (TV series)|Grange Hill]]'', and had directed several well-received children's series before ''Century Falls'', such as ''[[Moondial (TV series)|Moondial]]'' (1990) and ''Dark Season''.

Of the cast, the three teenage leads were unknown: Catherine Sanderson as Tess, [[Simon Fenton]] as Ben, and Emma Jane Lavin as Carey. Simon Fenton has since gone on to appear in several well-known television dramas, such as [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s police soap opera ''[[The Bill]]'' (in 2002) and [[Steven Spielberg]]'s ''[[Band of Brothers (TV miniseries)|Band of Brothers]]'' (2001).

Many of the adult cast were already well-known character actors from a range of British television dramas. [[Bernard Kay]] (Richard Naismith) had appeared in episodes of many long-running British television dramas, such as ''[[Doctor Who]]'',<ref name="bbc.co.uk">{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/classic/centuryfalls/trivia.shtml|title=BBC – Cult – Classic TV – Century Falls (1993)}}</ref> ''[[Crossroads (soap opera)|Crossroads]]'', ''[[Dixon of Dock Green]]'' and ''[[Z-Cars]]'', as well as films such as ''[[Carry On Sergeant]]'' (1958) and ''[[Doctor Zhivago (1965 film)|Doctor Zhivago]]'' (1965). [[Mary Wimbush]] (Esme Harkness) appeared in the BBC's famous adaptation of ''[[Poldark]]'' (1975) and several episodes of [[ITV (TV network)|ITV]]'s ''[[Jeeves and Wooster]]'' (1990–1992). She was probably best known, however, as the voice of Julia Pargetter in [[BBC Radio 4]]'s long-running rural soap opera ''[[The Archers]]''.<ref name="bbc.co.uk"/>

==References==
{{reflist|refs=
<ref name=BFIScreenonline>
{{citation |last=McGown |first=Alistair |title=Century Falls (1993) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1383234/index.html |publisher=BFI Screenonline |accessdate=6 July 2012}}</ref>
}}

==External links==
*{{BBC programme}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040208164315/http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/ilove/tv/centuryfalls/ ''Century Falls''] at [[bbc.co.uk]]
*{{IMDb title|id=0105969|title=Century Falls}}
* {{Screenonline TV title|id=1383217}}
{{Russell T Davies}}

[[Category:BBC children's television shows]]
[[Category:1990s British science fiction television series]]
[[Category:Television shows written by Russell T Davies]]
[[Category:1993 British television series debuts]]
[[Category:1990s British children's television series]]
[[Category:1993 British television series endings]]
[[Category:Television series created by Russell T Davies]]
[[Category:British children's fantasy television series]]
[[Category:British television series about teenagers]]
[[Category:British English-language television shows]]