Set against the horrors of the Japanese occupation during the Second World War, the lives of two prominent and privileged Singapore families become intertwined when Englishman John Dexter (Shakespearian actor Christopher Bowen) falls in love with Chinese girl Julie Soong (newcomer Khym Lam).
Defying family and racial taboos, John, the heir to a powerful British trading family, recklessly pursues Julie, the daughter of the wealthy Soong family.
Her family sends Julie to America. John is banished to his family’s London office, where he drifts into marriage with Irene Bradshaw (Anne-Louise Lambert), the daughter of a respectable English family.
But when war threatens the Pacific and the Japanese army approaches Singapore, John is recruited into a secret force set up to operate behind enemy lines and he and Julie – who is working as an army nurse in Ceylon, where she is pursued by Australian doctor Neil Forbes (John Jarratt) – find themselves thrown together once again.
The multi-million-pound co-production of Central Television (ITV) and Australia’s Grundy Productions was based on the novel Tanamera by Noel Barber, the one-time chief foreign correspondent for the Daily Mail.
FIlmed on location in Singapore and Australia, the series followed the tried and trusted miniseries formula with lots of exotic settings, plenty of action, beautiful people, warring brothers and forbidden love. And plenty of cliches.
There is also a frightful appearance by Robert Coleby as a European spy with an ‘Allo ‘Allo accent, which proves so upsetting that somebody kills him for it.
John Dexter
Christopher Bowen Julie Soong
Khym Lam Tim Dexter
Anthony Calf Tony
Gary Sweet Neil Forbes
John Jarratt Irene Bradshaw/Dexter
Anne-Louise Lambert Mama Jack
Penne Hackforth-Jones Grandpa Jack
Ed Devereaux Natasha
Tushka Bergen Papa Jack
Lewis Fiander Hammond
Bruce Spence Lady Bradshaw
Betty Lucas Shelton Thomas
Wallas Eaton Paul
Darren Yap Bonnard
Robert Coleby Miki
Anthony Wong
Defying family and racial taboos, John, the heir to a powerful British trading family, recklessly pursues Julie, the daughter of the wealthy Soong family.
John Dexter
Mama Jack
