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
