by Anne Lucas

This sequence from part one, directed by Henri Safran, begins with one of the most violent scenes I’ve yet to see in a PG-rated series. The actual violence is brief but the way the scene is shot and edited, backed up by the quality of the soundtrack, makes it seem to go on forever. The job done on Bert’s back, face and arms by make-up artist Jose Perez extends the horror into the next scene. It is at this stage that viewers find themselves doubting that Albert Facey really thought his was a fortunate life.

Did you recognise the actor playing the distressingly evil Bad Bob? It’s Ray Meagher, who’s much better known around the world these days as the gruff but kindly Alf in the Seven Network’s long-running serial Home and Away (1988–current). Here too, we get a brief glimpse of the late Willie Fennell, a genuine star of stage and radio as far back as the 1940s and a well-known face on television by this time, in a beautiful cameo performance as the Old Man at Cave Rock. Lacking even a name, he is insignificance personified: a drunken, dying shell of a man who, nevertheless, in the face of Bertie’s innocence and innate goodness, still finds himself capable of feeling. His is a small role but a real jewel.