Colin Campbell and Coral Atkins who played David and Sheila Ashton were also particular favourites and Coral was later the subject of a television biography on account of her work with deprived children.

So there are three episodes in a row which essentially could have been done simultaneously by three different director plus film units … the scenes with Sefton and Edwin in Liverpool from Episode 4 could have been filmed with episode 2 or episode 5 (or elsewhere altogether).The experiences of the Ashton and Briggs families during the Second World War, both at home in Liverpool and on the battlefields of Europe and West Africa. The furniture was rudimentary, the props were laughable but by Thursday of that week the director and the cast were ready to show the lighting director, technical supervisor and senior cameraman what they would have to shoot on the following Tuesday. The cast also included Barbara Flynn as the marginally less morose Freda Ashton, a hotel receptionist; Colin Campbell as eldest child David Ashton; and Coral Atkins as Sheila Ashton, David’s sad deserted wife always trying to do her best for her two children, Peter and Janet. I only know that the budget was very tight and the administration of it an endless agony for the heroic producer, Richard Doubleday. Shetland was an important naval port, and as many as 70 per cent of those serving from Shetland were at sea, either in the navy or merchant navy.

I found the first season of this series on a streaming service here in Canada and absolutely loved it. In fact the pressure of transmission and the need to have more than half the episodes ‘in hand’ before starting a run, dictated another economy. The latter is a hard businessman who appoints his son Tony as the new manager of the workplace, rather than the experienced Edwin.The central character, paterfamilias Edwin (Colin Douglas) appears in only a couple of short scenes. People generally waited until their old set gave up the ghost before switching, and in those days sets could last a long time.