Premiering on 9 January 1983, this six-part Sunday teatime series from HTV (based on a 1945 book of the same name by Poldark author Winston Graham) was set in 1898 and weaved a tale of mystery, murder and love on the Cornish coast.
With his mother dead and his father off seeking gold in the wilds of Canada, 11-year-old Anthony (Alexis Woutas) is sent from North America across the Atlantic to Cornwall to stay with his Uncle Joe Veal (John Stratton), who keeps a seamen’s restaurant and tavern in the bustling seaside port of Falmouth called Smoky Joe’s.
Anthony is welcomed and treated kindly by his cousin Patricia Veal (Angharad Rees) and taken in by Joe and his second wife, Madge (Lila Kaye), his former cook.
Gradually, Anthony discovers that Patricia is married and has left her husband, Tom Harris (Jonathan Kent), because she was made to feel uncomfortable in Tom’s upper-class environment. She is now going out with a sailor called Ned Pawlyn (George Camiller).
A fight ensues between these two men in Joe’s tavern, and Joe becomes stricken with a mysterious illness. When he ultimately dies, ownership of the tavern goes to Madge.
Left nothing by her father and with no means to support herself, Patricia is forced to leave Falmouth and take a job as a teacher elsewhere.
It transpires that Madge – a psychologically twisted woman – had been slowly poisoning Joe (as she had done to his first wife), abetted by Joe’s ne’er-do-well rum-swilling brother (American actor Van Johnson).
Anthony discovers Joe’s previous Will, and Madge plots to have him killed. She and Perry concoct a story that Anthony’s father wants him to come to Canada.
But as the young boy sets out on his return voyage to the Americas aboard the Grey Cat in the final episode, he is shocked to find Madge and Perry also aboard.
Madge is, in fact, planning to see the boy drown in an “accident”. And there’s a storm brewing.
Despite being set in Falmouth, most of the series (except the establishing shots) was filmed at the Harlech TV studios in Bristol and on location in Wiltshire.
Anthony Alexis Woutas Perry Veal
Van Johnson Patricia Veal
Angharad Rees Madge Veal
Lila Kaye Tom Harris
Jonathan Kent Joe Veal
John Stratton Ned Pawlyn
George Camiller Fanny
Sarah-Jane Bickerton Jenny Veal
Elizabeth Ashley Mr Cowdray
Peter Copley Captain Stevens
Robert Brown Martin
Robert Blythe Dr Penrose
Richard Mathews Purvis
Alan Penn O’Brien
Robert Cartland Mrs Cooley
Betty Tucker Reverend Cooley
Hubert Tucker Ted
Peter McQueen Bert
Chris Colyer
With his mother dead and his father off seeking gold in the wilds of Canada, 11-year-old Anthony (Alexis Woutas) is sent from North America across the Atlantic to Cornwall to stay with his Uncle Joe Veal (John Stratton), who keeps a seamen’s restaurant and tavern in the bustling seaside port of Falmouth called Smoky Joe’s.
A fight ensues between these two men in Joe’s tavern, and Joe becomes stricken with a mysterious illness. When he ultimately dies, ownership of the tavern goes to Madge.
But as the young boy sets out on his return voyage to the Americas aboard the Grey Cat in the final episode, he is shocked to find Madge and Perry also aboard.
