This 13-part BBC drama series revolved around David Powlett-Jones (John Duttine), the youngest son of a coal miner from South Wales who – unlike his three older brothers, two of whom died in a mining accident along with their father – is “kept out of the pit” to attend the local grammar school.
At 18, David is shipped to France (instead of heading to Oxford as he planned), where he spends three years fighting in “the Great War.”
Returning as a shellshocked veteran, David is sent to Devon to teach at Bamfylde (an exclusive public school for boys) as part of a recovery program prescribed by an army neurologist – a closed community in a rural setting to help mend both the physical and the mental wounds David endured in the war.
Over the course of twenty years teaching at Bamfylde (eventually ending up as headmaster), David has three primary loves: Beth (Belinda Lang), his young wife who dies early (along with their twin babies); Julia Darbyshire (Kim Braden), an attractive young woman who would not be tied down to a school (or even the island of Britain); and Christine (Susan Jameson), the failed Labour candidate who becomes his second wife.
Frank Middlemass is a delight as old Algy Herries, the headmaster.
The series – adapted by Andrew Davies from the best-selling book by R.F. Delderfield – won the Broadcasting Press Guild Television Award for “Best Serial”. The school scenes were filmed at Milton Abbey School in Dorset.
David Powlett-Jones
John Duttine Algy Herries
Frank Middlemass Howarth
Alan MacNaughtan Ellie Herries
Patricia Lawrence Carter
Neil Stacy Christine Forster
Susan Jameson Alcock
Charles Kay Julia Darbyshire
Kim Braden Cordwainer
John Welsh Sir Rufus Creighton
Cyril Luckham Emrys
Phillip Joseph Barnaby
David King Boyer
Simon Gipps-Kent Beth Marwood
Belinda Lang Alderman Blunt
Norman Bird Brigadier Cooper
Michael Turner Garside
John Line Dobson
Nicholas Lyndhurst Molyneux
Alastair Wyllie Kassava
Sonesh Sira Dr Farrington
Peter Arne David’s Mam
Ann Wrigg Winterbourne
Grant Bardsley Griff
Tim Wylton Irvine
Andrew Bicknell Esther
Eileen Nicholas Rigby
Tony Halfpenny Briarley
Matthew Waterhouse
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Returning as a shellshocked veteran, David is sent to Devon to teach at Bamfylde (an exclusive public school for boys) as part of a recovery program prescribed by an army neurologist – a closed community in a rural setting to help mend both the physical and the mental wounds David endured in the war.
