The Secret Garden

Based on the works of Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden tells the story of a young orphan girl, who while living with her uncle in Yorkshire discovers a secret garden hidden in the grounds.

A rude little girl changes her ways and brings love to a bitter, dark household in "The Secret Garden," a se-ven-part dramatization of the well-loved children's classic by Frances Hodgson Burnett which was broadcast in the US on Sundays at 11 a.m. beginning on December 7, 1978 in the family drama series, "Once Upon a Classic."
After her parents die in a cholera epidemic in India, Mary Lennox is sent to live in her uncle's lonely house, Misselthwaite Manor, on the Yorkshire moors in England.
Embittered by the death of his wife, the uncle, Mr. Craven, shuns his home and spends his time traveling, leaving Mary in the care of servants.
The girl is used to having her own way and is arrogant and rude, expecting the servants to wait on her hand and foot. Misselthwaite is a boring place, even for a disagreeable little girl and Mary entertains herself by exploring the vast grounds
and gardens It is Martha, the servant who cares for Mary, who first tells her about the walled-in garden, which has been locked and forgotten for 10 years since the death of Mrs. Craven. Mary becomes
obsessed with finding it. She finds an ornate key and then painstakingly searches for the garden door. It is a heartwarming scene when Mary discovers the door under years of ivy growth. She pushes it open and cries, "I am standing inside the secret garden. How still it is ... I am the first person that has spoken in here for ten years!"
Mary works every day in her hidden garden and the garden, in turn, works its magic on Mary. The girl finds a good friend, Martha's brother, Dickson, who brings her flower seeds and gardening tools.
One night, Mary hears someone crying in the lonely
house and discovers Colin Craven, her cousin. Colin, only an infant when his mother died, is even more spoiled than Mary was.
His father has a hunched back and Colin believes he has the same affliction. Because the boy thinks he's deformed, he cannot bear for people to look at him and has kept himself bedridden for years.
Mary soon convinces Colin that there is nothing wrong with him and it is not long before she brings her cousin outside to work in the garden with her and Dickson.
In the course of bringing the garden back to life, Mary and Dickson bring Colin back to life. Each day, the boy grows stronger. When Mr. Craven returns to Misselthwaite Manor, he finds his son healthy, happy and normal, and the long-neglected garden alive, as his wife would have wanted.