Noah’s Castle

1 9 8 0 (UK)
7 x 30 minute episodes

Britain is without a government and on the brink of anarchy, with troops roaming the debris-littered streets and food prices rising to the levels of Weimar-era Germany.

The Mortimer family is headed by father Norman – a stern army colonel type who has planned ahead for the looming breakdown of social order by hoarding serious amounts of food, petrol and other essentials (including booze – “for barter”) in the cellar of the isolated family home (the “Noah’s Castle” of the title).

He decides that the best way to safeguard his hoard is to have a heavily fortified front door, a British army issue revolver and to strongly encourage the rest of the family not to tell anyone about what they have hidden since hoarding is illegal.

When Norman’s boss, the lecherous Mr Gerald (Jack May), forces himself on them, Norman’s wife (Jean Rimmer) and teenage daughter (Annette Ekblom) find themselves virtually living as slaves while Norman is forced to deal with an official food distribution group, a group of anarchists bent of redistributing his wealth and a gang of black marketers led by chirpy Cockney geezer Mike Reid.

The series from Southern television was based on the 1978 novel by John Rowe Townsend. It was grim stuff for a children’s tea-time television drama.

Geoff Mortimer
Marcus Francis
Barry Mortimer
Simon Gipps-Kent
Nessie Mortimer
Annette Ekblom
Mr Mortimer
David Neal
Mrs Mortimer
Jean Rimmer
Terry
Alun Lewis
Cliff
Christopher Fairbank
Ellen Mortimer
Louise Olley
Mel Holloway
Lee Macdonald
Mr Gerald
Jack May
Vince Holloway
Mike Reid