"Noah's Castle" (1979) TV series

Director:

Colin Nutley

Writers:

Nick McCarty (adaptation)
John Rowe Townsend (novel)

Seasons:

1

Genre:

Adventure | Family

Plot Keywords:

Based On Novel

Cast

Annette Ekblom

...

Nessie Mortimer (unknown episodes)

Runtime:

30 min (7 episodes)

Country:

UK

Company:

Southern Television

A dimly remembered drama... at least by me.

I remember seeing this series sometime in the early or mid eighties when I lived in Australia. It depicted a British society on the brink of anarchy with troops roaming the debris-littered streets and food prices rising to the levels of Weimar era Germany. The family which are the most prominently featured is headed by a stern army colonel type. Although he isn't actually in the military, his reasoning seems pretty close to it. He has planned ahead for the apparently looming breakdown of social order by hoarding serious amounts of food, petrol and other essentials (as well as booze, "for barter", he said!) in the cellar of the fairly isolated family home (the "Noah's Castle" of the title). He decides that the best way to safeguard this 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. That aside, There's not a lot else I remember to spoil the ending with (it was over 15 years ago that I saw it, after all).

Sample of dialogue:

Father:(speaking to daughter) How much was that tin of beans?

Daughter:(eating beans out of the tin) £2.

Father: And tomorrow, it'll be 3. D'you know where this county's headed?...Anarchy.

What I remember best about this show is undoubtedly the opening titles which feature a scruffy, denim clad youth fleeing down a rock-strewn street (running away from the camera) closely followed by a couple of British soldiers in fatigues. They become visible one-at-a-time as they run from behind the camera in slow(ish) motion, eerily in time with the moodily grim synthesiser music. Very of-it's-time, but very memorable (unlike the series itself).