| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Num Episodes: | 7 |
| Producer: | Dorothea Brooking |
| Network: | BBC |
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a seven-part series produced by the BBC which originally aired on the BBC from July 24, 1960 [1] to September 4, 1960.[2] . After it was broadcast in England, it was brought to the United States as part of the What's New? series on National Educational Television.[3] Fred Smith, who played Tom Sawyer, and Mike Strotheide, who played Huckleberry Finn, were the sons of American servicemen stationed in Britain;[4] the rest of the cast was primarily British. The teleplay was adapted from Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by C. E. Webber and incorporated folk songs from Peggy Seegar.[5]
Allen Wright of The Scotsman, reviewing the series during its initial run, noted, "BBC Children's television is making a splendid job of Mark Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This adaptation by C. E. Webber captures the inspiring and exhilarating quality of the humorist's original."
Phillip Purser of The News Chronicle wrote, "(Y)ou could hardly have anyone who looks more Tom Sawyerish than young Fred Smith, who has all the regulation features of American boyhood, including freckles, jug ears and wide-spaced teeth. In the first episode, which told how Tom applied elementary capitalist principles to earning himself a Sunday-school Bible, he occupied the role with considerable charm, in particular sustaining some direct addresses to the camera which might have unnerved anyone."