1 9 8 5 (UK)
8 x 25 minute episodes
During World War II, two young English brothers, Stanley (Stefan Gates) and Tommy (Timothy Stark), write a letter to the American president (George Montgomery) requesting that they and other British children be evacuated from their homes and sheltered in the US to escape the bombing of Britain.
The idea is approved thanks to the President’s grandson, twelve-year-old William (J.D. Roth), and “Operation Pied Piper” gets underway.
But en route to America, the convoy carrying the children is attacked by a pack of German U-boats and the SS Philadelphia – carrying Stanley and Tommy – is torpedoed.
All the children are rescued with the exception of 11 – including Tommy and Stanley – who drift away in a lifeboat and are shipwrecked on a deserted island (location filming took place in South Africa).
And so, Tommy, Stanley, Steven, Janet, Peter, David, Kathleen, Grace, Oliver, John, and Diana (and her pet monkey, BoBo) slowly establish a small society on what they christen “Children’s Island”.
While all the adults believe the children are dead, young William is determined to find them.
The modern-day Robinson Crusoe series – based on the book Insu-Pu by Mira Lobe – aired in the US as two two-hour segments in October 1986.
Tommy
Timothy Stark
Stanley
Stefan Gates
William
J.D. Roth
President
George Montgomery
Mr Grant
Richard Haines
Spud
Jonathan Taylor
Children
Roger Charteris
Paul Lockwood
Joanna Rowlands
Christine van den Berg
Roslyn McNamara
Kevin Greetham
Martin Bernstein
Jason Norman
Sophie Camara
Episodes
Dormire Necesse Est | It’s Land | One Day We’ll Go Home | Hello, We’re Here | Going to Canada | Is the Moon Really a Cheeseball? | Zero Hour 0200 | Infasu