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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Drama
    Drama TV Shows - 1970s 2 Mins Read

    Who Pays the Ferryman?

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    1 9 7 7 (UK)
    8 x 50 minute episodes

    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

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