Trivia / The Onedin Line

• California Doubling: The programme was recorded in Dartmouth, Devon, as well as certain scenes in Exeter, Falmouth and Gloucester (many of the dock scenes). The last season was filmed in Pembroke Dock, Wales, where the 18th-century naval dockyard and surrounding streets became Liverpool, and various coastal locations in the Pembrokeshire area substituted for Turkey and Portugal.
• The Other Darrin:
  • The story and the cast in the pilot were basically the same as the resulting series with the exception of Sheila Allen playing Anne Webster/Onedin; Anne Stallybrass took over the part for the series.
  • Robert Onedin was played by James Garbutt for one season and Brian Rawlinson for the rest of the run.
• What Could Have Been: Series creator Cyril Abraham had originally envisaged the series as being about a modern shipping company with its boardroom battles and seagoing adventures, but then he discovered that almost all such companies were run by boards of anonymous executives. However, he noticed that most of these companies had their origins in the 19th century, mostly started by one shrewd and far-sighted individual who, through his own business acumen, built up a shipping line from nothing.

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