British boatbuilder Alan Haldane (Jack Hedley) returns to the island of Crete where he played a roll in the resistance movement, fighting alongside the ‘Andartes’ after the Nazi’s occupied the island during WWII – which earned him the honorary name of “Leandros”.
He had also had an affair at the time with a fellow partisan called Melina Matakis.
30-years later, Jack finds he had unknowingly fathered a daughter with (the now deceased) Melina – who now also has a child of her own – and determines to stay on the island to assure their future as best he can.
Unfortunately, his daughter’s clan is headed up by Katerina Matakis (Patience Collier), a Greek dowager who intervenes to settle old scores.
This story is told over eight episodes. Several episodes only touch on the main plot, having stand-alone stories of their own (the Gareth Thomas episode is especially good), and throughout all of them, Haldane has an on-off love affair with local woman Annika Zeferis (Betty Arvaniti) who – it transpires – is Melina’s sister and unaware of the full history of Leandros.
Other performances of note are Stefan Gryff as the seemingly nonchalant police inspector who acts as a moral oracle arbitrating between Cretan traditions and his duties as a modern policeman, and Neil McCarthy as Haldane’s oldest friend, a lawyer named Babis Spiridakis.
The miniseries was a major success in the UK and watched by millions. The theme tune even made the Top Ten.
Alan Haldane
Jack Hedley Annika Zeferis
Betty Arvaniti Matheos Noukakis
Takis Emmanuel Katerina Matakis
Patience Collier Babis Spiridakis
Neil McCarthy Elena Vassilakis
Mairi Sokali Nikos Vassilakis
Nikos Verlekis The Major
Stefan Gryff Alexis Vassilakis
Alexis Sergis Petros Matakis
Steve Plytas Georgios
Labros Kotsiris Xenophon Hasapis
Nikos Kouros Lorna Matthews
Ann Lynn Bernard Kingsley
Patrick Magee Tony Viglis
Gareth Thomas William Hebden
Jack Watson David Haldane
Bernard Brown Jo Hebden
Lalla Ward Samantha Ross
Sally Knyvette Maria Kaladis
Anastasia Divoli Father Nikolaos
Kostas Baladimas Leonard Cooper
Allan Mitchell Mary Cooper
Elizabeth Chambers Dimitrios
Kostas Pasalis Ariadne
Marina Sirtis Andreas Hagieleftheris
Giannis Heimonidis
Episodes
Return to Yesterday | Some Talk of Alexander | The Long Shadow | A Dead Man to Carry My Cross | Receive the Light | The Well | A River to Cross | The Daughters of Themis
30-years later, Jack finds he had unknowingly fathered a daughter with (the now deceased) Melina – who now also has a child of her own – and determines to stay on the island to assure their future as best he can.
Alan Haldane
