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TV ONLINE EPISODE GUIDE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Director : Gareth Davies Publicity : The arrival on our screens of Ennal's Point (BBC-2, 6:30pm), Alun Richards' serial about Welsh lifeboatmen which he has adapted from his own novel, coincides with the unseemly wrangling over the distribution of money in the Penlee disaster fund. Apart from any entertainment value it has, the serial serves a useful purpose in reminding us that posterity must not remember Penlee for its legalistic aftermath but for the courage of eight brave men. The first episode is, by definition, an establishing one. At this stage, the characters of the lifeboatmen and their families are two-dimensional. But, given the authentic flavour of Mr Richards' book, it seems likely that the third dimension will be added as the weeks go by. Already, it is possible to detect some hopeful signs: Philip Madoc's coxswain is a quietly humming power station who is going to energise the rest of the crew, and the location photography around Mumbles Bay is going to make up in authenticity what the plots might lack in conviction. The sax-and-percussion music strikes me as being wholly out of sympathy with the serial's unsophisticated theme of unforced heroism. (The Times, January 7, 1982). Notes : Episodes were originally transmitted 6:30pm to 7:15pm on BBC 2.
Director : Gareth Davies Synopsis : Mutinous rumblings among the crew because of a courtesy outing on the lifeboat. Luke's feelings are similar for different reasons.
Director : Myrfyn Owen Synopsis
: Nance Grail gets
called in to save Animal's
"legacy" from
going up in smoke; and
when his wife goes away
for a week, Harry Quentin
discovers that affairs
of the heart are sometimes
all they seem to be.
Director : Gareth Davies Synopsis
: Doctor Stafford
has his doubts about
becoming the lifeboat
doctor. Animal Morgan,
however, has no doubts
about his intention
- to be the new Second
Coxswain.
Director : Myrfyn Owen Synopsis
: The new Second
Coxswain is chosen and
he soon gets a chance
to show his mettle.
Nance Grail and Billy
John Grail feel the
repercussions of Luke's
continuing misfortunes.
Director : Gareth Davies Synopsis
: Luke can't resist
using his own family
for business purposes.
This time, it has consequences
beyond his control.
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 Based on the novel of the same title by Alun Richard (who also adapted the novel for television), Ennal's Point was a rare BBC Wales drama serial which concerned itself with the professional and personal lives of the men and women working for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution. The series was highly praised for its technical authenticity courtesy of the assistance afforded by the Mumbles Lifeboat Coxswain and Crew, and proved relatively undemanding fare. Philip Madoc starred as Jack Austin, with Glyn Owen, Gerald James and James Warrior in support. Alun Lewis also featured in the series as Billy John Grail, seven years before his role as Darryl in Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran's highly-successful Birds Of A Feather. The series itself, as with Oil Strike North, successfully portrayed the relative hardships faced by professionals in this industry, but was fortunately salvaged by virtue of the fact that it did not delve too deeply into the soap-serial potential the programme possessed - a failure inherent in Roughnecks during the 1990s. Madoc's performance proved an attractive draw-card with audiences and the media alike, which would continue in the highly-popular Channel Five series A Mind To Kill some fifteen years later. Ennal's Point has faded somewhat in the public psyche over the years, as the appreciation of other more high-profile fare has blighted its presence. However, the serial is as least notable as an example of the endeavours by the BBC's foundling arms to produce entertainment of equally, and occasionally higher, calibre than its parent organisation. The series was globally exported but the limit of its commercial realisation was the novelisation upon which the series had been adapted. Text © Matthew Lee, 2004. The series was created and written by Alun Richards, adapted from his novel of the same title. The series was produced by John Hefin. |