help me ID old PBS show...
 

This is a really random question and my memories of this show are sketchy at best, but here goes...

I remember this show on PBS in the early 80's that I used to catch bits and pieces of during my Sesame St./Mr. Rogers days that used to scare the crap out of me. It was probably a BBC import and I only have vague memories of it. I seem to recall there were a couple of kids who were either trying to escape from or help someone else escape from the clutches of some sort genie/wizard. I'm pretty sure the show was serial in nature and I just remember this sense of doom that these kids or whatever were never going to escape, or find who they were looking for, or whatever. Now what I've just described could be just one storyline or it could be the show's whole premise. I honestly couldn't say.

I realize I'm not exactly overwhelming anyone with details here, but someone's got to have some idea of what I'm talking about. This has been bugging me for a while. Thanks for any help.

This is no help, but I have memories of some kind of show on PBS, very dark and spooky, and I also got a Fahrenheit 451 vibe from it sometimes because libraries were abandoned and always a mess. Is this the same?

I'd also appreciate anyone that can help ID this.