The Intruder: Introduction and The Stranger

This post is by way of an introduction to this 1972 series, with a focus on the first episode. Regular readers of this blog will be well aware that I tend to write a post like this and raise expectations that I will blog about the whole series consecutively, like a normal person, but instead tend to return to the show about a decade later, so I am not offering any promises that I will continue through this series in a linear fashion.

One of the reasons that I can't promise what I will do next is that this series is actually quite hard work. It was based on a children's novel of the same title and broadcast in the afternoon teatime slot usually reserved for family programmes which tended to be aimed at the whole family, and therefore safe while with some hidden depths that would appeal to the parents. However if I tell you that this was made by the production team that made The Owl Service you already know that we're in some difficult territory from the start.

The premise of the show is similarly difficult. Arnold Haithwaite is 16 years old and works as a sand pilot, guiding people across the tricky sand which is underwater at high tide in his home village, and living with his adoptive father. He also does some fishing. So far, so safe and wholesome. However right at the start of the first episode this idyll is shattered by the arrival of the titular intruder, a man who has Arnold guide him across the sand and abruptly stays with the family and announces that he is actually Arnold Haithwaite and the one who is the protagonist of the show is a fake. You would naturally be absolutely horrified at this, and the series progressively chips away at the whole of Arnold's identity, his relationship with his adoptive father, reason for existence and ultimately his actually life is in doubt. I haven't read the book this was based on, but I have read that the show departs considerably from it and makes the story much more difficult and adult than the book was. This series is in exactly the same school of difficult 'children's' TV as The Owl Service and Penda's Fen.

I must also comment that in addition to the stressful plot the series is also incredibly sexy, but in a particular way which may not be apparent at first sight. No actual sex takes place. However both Arnold and a 17-year-old girl visiting the village called Jane, have a huge amount of flesh on display throughout. Now you may say, but John, have you looked at yourself recently, and yet that is not what I mean. True to his job, Arnold spends quite a lot of the show in tiny shorts which are also very tight, which so far would be expected. Quite a lot of the show is also shot from a low camera angle, and I can only say that the camera has a tendency to linger on his groin and his bum which can only be deliberate and in a way the camera doesn't do with the similarly sexy female lead. Certainly I can see that a few mums must have had difficulty getting tea on the table! It would be unusual for so much attention to be given to the male lead's body, and certainly this doesn't compare with anything in The Owl Service, which was also very sexy in a disorientating way. I wonder whether it was done deliberately to add to the discomfort created by the already difficult plot. Anyway the picture which illustrates this post can give you an idea of the camera angle and the shorts.

In this first episode the show throws us right into the plot without ceremony by showing us Arnold, immediately followed by showing us the stranger, who wants to be taken across the sands. He suddenly tries to drown Arnold by pushing his head under the water and afterwards immediately telling him he has the same name and they want to be friends. He then says that this is a joke. Obviously an older character than sixteen would immediately be very wary of the stranger and steer well clear of him. However the stranger essentially gets his feet under the table in Arnold's home, despite his father's initial misgivings about the stranger. He claims to be Arnold's father's long lost cousin from Manchester and again the whole vibe is very weird indeed.

There is a running theme through the show of identity and family, and I can only say how absolutely distressing it would have been for Arnold to have this cuckoo in the nest in his own home, eventually taking in even his own father.

I do wonder whether the character of the stranger (played by Milton John) could have been an inspiration for the appearance of Frank Spencer in Some Mothers Do Ave Em, which started broadcasting in 1973. The stranger has an eyepatch but otherqwise the bizarre combination of raincoat and beret is identical with Frank Spencer, and not something I think you would come up with by chance.

I just have one major criticism of this series, which is that the actors playing Arnold and female lead Jane are way too old for the roles they are playing, which are both supposed to be 16/17 years old. I see that James Bate, who played Arnold, was 26 when the series was made, and unfortunately it shows. As a bare minimum they could have done with getting rid of the sideburns and applying make up over his beard shadow to make him look younger. I wonder whether the casting realised that an actor who was actually 16 wouldn't be so able to cope with the idea of a camera that kept filming his crotch, as well as such a challenging role, which to his credit Bate takes in his stride. However this has the unfortunate effect of detracting from the point of the series: Arnold is still living at home and his entire life is supposed to be upset by the intruder. Unfortunately casting an older actor makes this much less credible: a man of 26 would be more likely to have moved out of the family home and to have had the life experience either to tell the intruder that he is obviously a con or be more assertive with his dad who is apparently happy to have this intruder just walk in.

Apart from this one niggle this is an interesting and challenging series, which is incredibly disturbing in the tradition of some other children's TV series of the time.

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