I just noticed Earl Hamner’s obituary in Friday’s Guardian, you can read it here if you’re interested. He died in March but I think the Guardian is a bit behind with some obituaries – it has been such a busy year! It was one of those times when I looked and thought – I assumed he was already dead! In case you don’t know, Earl Hamner Jr was the man who created The Waltons, but he did an awful lot more than that.

As a youngster I loved The Waltons, I know it has a reputation for being sickly sweet and schmaltzy but I think if that is your idea of the series then you must never have watched it.

The Walton family is portrayed as a realistic one with the siblings often at daggers drawn with each other, the reality in large families. Even grandma and grampa had a rocky relationship, often not speaking to each other and referring to each other as ‘old man’ and ‘old woman’ in a cutting way. Hamner based The Waltons on his own family’s experiences of life in Virginia in the 1930s.

I must admit that I haven’t read any of his books. Have any of you?

What do you think of The Waltons? I saw a Walton Christmas film recently and I could just sit down and watch the whole series again given the chance. You might call it ‘comfort’ viewing, but there was always some sort of crisis going on and that house is one that I could move into right now. Castles, palaces and the like have never appealed to me as a home.

It’s a shame this is just a film set.