The Cedar Tree

The Cedar Tree
Genre	Soap opera
Created by	Alfred Shaughnessy
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	119
Production
Producer	Ian Fordyce
Running time	30 mins (Series 1–2) 60 mins (Series 3).
Production company	ATV
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	20 September 1976 (1976-09-20) – 1979 (1979)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

The Cedar Tree was a television serial that ran from 1976 to 1979 on ITV in the United Kingdom.

It involved the story of the upper class Bourne family in the decade leading up to the Second World War.^[1] The main setting is Larkfield Manor, the family home set in Herefordshire, in the grounds of which is the cedar tree.

The Cedar Tree was made by Associated Television Productions (ATV) and recorded at their studios at Elstree. Two established cast members were the veteran actress Joyce Carey and Susan Skipper, who played one of the Bourne family's daughters. Two other noted actors involved were Philip Latham as Commander Bourne, and Cyril Luckham, as Charles Ashley, the benevolent grandfather.

Series 1 and 2 were shown on ITV in the afternoon in a thirty-minute twice weekly format. Series 1 had 82 episodes and Series 2 had 24 episodes. Series 3, which was the final series, was given an evening prime time slot and the episodes were extended to sixty minutes. Series 3 consisted of only 13 episodes.^[2]

In a bizarre bit of casting, Jack Watling, who had been playing Captain Julian Palmer, an old friend of the Bourne family, in Series 2, took over the role of Arthur Bourne in Series 3.

In February 2013 it was announced^[3] that the first 1976 series was to be released on DVD. A complete box set of all three series has since been released.