The British seem to have a soft spot for smuggling and a sneaking admiration for the feat of outwitting the excise men.
One such secret and somewhat improbable sympathiser was John Meade Falkner, the author of Moonfleet, the novel on which this six-part serial was based – retitled Smuggler’s Bay for television.
He started life as a private tutor but went on to become a senior executive in the armaments firm of Armstrong-Whitworth, a keen student of ecclesiastical affairs, a respected antiquary, and the writer of three popular romances. He published this work in 1898.
The story is set in Dorset, in the rumbustious 19th-century days when children were enjoined to “watch the wall, my darling, while the gentlemen go by”.
Its hero is John Trenchard, a young man who becomes involved in the hazardous world of ‘free trading’ when he finds in the vaults of Moonfleet Church a locket with a mysterious inscription.
His adventures subsequently take him far away from his little Dorset village.
Trenchard was played by Frazer Hines, a familiar participant in Z Cars,Dr Finlay’s Casebookand Compact. Elzevir Block, the local innkeeper who was his friend and ally, was played by another Z Carsveteran, John Phillips; and magistrate Maskew – the evil-tempered scourge of the smugglers – was Paul Curran.
The adaptor, Bob Stuart, was a former actor and stage manager who wrote serials for both Australian and American television, and the director was Christopher Barry.
John Trenchard
Frazer Hines Elzevir Block
John Phillips Grace Maskew
Suzanne Neve Magistrate Maskew
Paul Curran Sam Tewkesbury
Robert Brown Ratsey
Patrick Troughton Mr Glennie
Robert James Tom Farley
Alan Haywood Ben Field
Brian Jackson Mrs Belmore
Nancy Nevinso Granny Tucker
Margot Lister Aldobrand
Henry Osca Johannes
John Dawson Aunt Jane
Jean Anderson Rose Aldobrand
Elizabeth Zinn Tom Tully
James Langley Ned
Alf Edwards Captain Hennig
Charles Hodgson
He started life as a private tutor but went on to become a senior executive in the armaments firm of Armstrong-Whitworth, a keen student of ecclesiastical affairs, a respected antiquary, and the writer of three popular romances. He published this work in 1898.
John Trenchard
Mr Glennie
