The Darling Buds of May (novel) film "The Mating Game" in 1959. ITV produced a television series based on the novel and its sequels, "The Darling Buds of May", which ran from 1991 to 1993. The Darling Buds of May (novel) The Darling Buds of May is a novella by British writer H. E. Bates, first published in 1958. It was the first of a series of five books about the Larkins, a rural family from Kent. Pop and Ma Larkin and their many children take joy in nature, each other's company, and almost constant feasts. Their only income is through selling scrap, picking strawberries, and
The Darling Buds of May (TV series) weeks to film, followed by two months in post production. Much of the series was filmed in and around the village of Pluckley in Kent; Executive Producer Richard Bates lived just a few miles away. The location for "Home Farm", the Larkin residence, was Buss Farm a few miles south of Pluckley, owned by the Holmes family. All four main buildings of the Grade II listed farm were utilised, the farmhouse itself, a square oast house (depicted in the title sequence), a Tudor barn and cart lodge. After being put up for sale by the family in 2012, it was