Soldier and Me

I was twelve years old when this thriller was first screened, on Sunday teatime, around 5pm if my memory serves me right. I had just finished eating my Sunday lunch and was checking what was on TV, as my older brother slept a few beers off on the lounge settee.

Soldier and Me immediately caught my attention. It followed a long tradition on both ITV and BBC of showing family dramas on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

The plot was very simple. Two teenagers witness a murder of an old man, only for them to tell the police and the old man turns up alive. Of course he is an imposter, the old man really did died. And as a consequence the two lads spend the following five programmes evading capture from the killers who are spies.

Unfortunately, because of the then UK coal strike, I missed the last episode due to a power cut. I managed to see part of it when the show was re-screened in 1981 - seven years later!! But to this day I have never seen the full last episode.