Morgan's Boy

A troubled boy from the big city goes to live with his Welsh hill farmer uncle ( Gareth Thomas) , partly to escape trouble back home. The initial mutual hostility gives way to grudging respect on both sides, but external forces have other plans for both of them. Essentially a two-hander, but with superb performances from all the cast.

Morgan's boy was one of the finest productions of the mid 80s. Heart warming story about a spiteful teenager who moves to Wales and grows into a wonderful, thoughtful, responsible adult. Superbly acted and a watertight script. The main character Lee Turner is spunky and knows his own mind even at such a tender age and is not afraid to say what he thinks.

It touches discretely on a range of taboo topics that were seldom mentioned in those days, such as homosexuality, bullying of gays in small-town Wales, the relationships between older and younger men. Even incest is alluded to. The scriptwriter uses language that is in a way Bennettonian - trimmed down, to the point, percussive, hard-hitting.

It's interesting to see a take on Mwgabay and Zimbabwe from nearer the time when the revolution happened. And it's notable that the few female characters are depicted as being self-obsessed and undermining. I'm not sure if it was the intention to give the production homo-erotic appeal but the two main young male actors were both smolderingly handsome. The old lady character, Eileen played by Maxine Audley delivers some hilarious one-liners that Noel Coward would be proud of. Its a shame the BBC never repeated the series or released it on DVD. I am lucky enough to have a copy from the old days of VHS and re-watch the series often.