This teen series from the Australian ABC depicts Alan Marshall’s autobiographical story about life with infantile paralysis.
Struck down by Polio as a child in the country town of Turalla, Victoria, the nine episodes show how he overcomes the crippling effects of the disease and traces his life from childhood into early adulthood.
Alan’s father (Tony Barry) is gruff but loving and ambitious for his boy; his mother (Julie Hamilton) is proud and maternal, but not coddling; and his sister Mary (Ann Henderson’s part is actually a composite of Marshall’s two sisters) is supportive and protective.
Many of the early scenes are a delight – a small, muddy boy (the young Alan is beautifully played by Adam Garnett) and his inseparable companion, a small, muddy dog; a rollicking buggy race to the country picnic; hearthside domesticity; the flurry of a wayward horse on the run.
As Alan grows, he moves from his rural home to a boarding school and later begins to find his voice as a storyteller. The series captures his internal struggle between his energetic spirit and the physical limitations imposed by his body and the social prejudices of the time.
When he turns 19, Alan (now played by Lewis Fitz-Gerald) moves to Melbourne and is determined to support himself while he hones his writing craft. Because he is crippled, he discovers he will have to work for half pay.
By 1929, Alan is working as a part-time accountant in a Collingwood boot factory. He continues writing, though, and eventually finds success when a leading literary magazine agrees to publish his first story.
The series ran in the UK on BBC2 in 1983.
Alan Marshall (Narrator)
Lewis Fitz-Gerald Alan’s Father
Tony Barry Alan’s Mother
Julie Hamilton Alan (Aged 11)
Adam Garnett Mary Marshall
Ann Henderson Joe Carmichael
David Clencie Maggie Mulligan
Sally Anne Bourne Biddy
Marilyn O’Donnell Arthur
Terry Gill Steve
Darren MacDonald Freddy
Jason Donovan Alice
Cindy Unkauf Mabel
Sigrid Thornton Gunner
Dennis Miller Mr Tucker
Don Barker
Episodes
Run Like the Wind | The Weight of Air | Starlight | Crutches Are Nothing | Bona Fide Traveller | Getting Your Breath | Take It or Leave It | Boots, Boots, Boots | Walk Into Paradise
Video
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Alan’s father (Tony Barry) is gruff but loving and ambitious for his boy; his mother (Julie Hamilton) is proud and maternal, but not coddling; and his sister Mary (Ann Henderson’s part is actually a composite of Marshall’s two sisters) is supportive and protective.
By 1929, Alan is working as a part-time accountant in a Collingwood boot factory. He continues writing, though, and eventually finds success when a leading literary magazine agrees to publish his first story.
The series ran in the UK on BBC2 in 1983.
Alan Marshall (Narrator)
