My google fu has failed me.
I’m looking for the title of a mini series that aired in the early days of HBO, probably 1982 or 1983.
IIRC, it was set in England and was about 3 or 4 brothers. They were from a wealthy family but decided to run away (for reasons I can’t remember) and live in the forest by their estate.
Does anyone remember this?
There’s a list of past HBO shows here but there’s nothing like what you describe.
Do you remember anything else about it? How old were the brothers?
The brothers ranged in age from maybe ten years old to late teens . It wasn’t set in modern times either. I want to say early 20th century but my memory is really shaky.
I thought From the Earth to the Moon was HBO’s first miniseries…
Sounds vaguely like something Nickelodeon ran in its very very early days. All I can recall exactly is Black Beauty, but that’s obviously not it.
Maybe it was made for another network and then ended up on HBO.
That seems likely: did HBO even make its own mini series in the early 1980s? I don’t think so.
Though I’d place it a year or two later than the OP because my folks didn’t get cable until 1984, I bet this is probably the same mini-series that I’ve been wondering about since I was a little kid. It was shown on HBO (though not necessarily produced by HBO), and remember how they had little booklets to tell you about the movies that they’d have on each month? The picture for this one had a waterwheel attached to side of a stone cottage. I have no idea what the plot or anything was, because I didn’t watch it with my parents.
Wow, it took us a whole weekend to figure that out…this message board is slipping. 
/me bows.
You sir, are a god among men!
Edited to add: It’s not available on dvd but is on youtube.
Well, not meaning to blow my own filthy trumpet, but it took me all of 10 minutes after first seeing the thread. Although, admittedly, it was more luck than killer research skills - I never saw the show but somehow managed to get it returned in a search on Television Heaven (quite useful site for old UK TV) using a combination of keywords I no longer recall.
OB