A thriller in which a man pursues his daughter’s kidnapper to Northern Ireland, confronting his own Protestant Ulster past.
When his adopted daughter is abducted from their English home by a mysterious figure from Ireland, Martin (Liam Neeson) follows in pursuit. The chase leads him back to his native Ulster, forcing him to reckon with the Protestant background he left behind. The search for his daughter becomes a journey into a landscape of divided loyalties and buried history.
The machinery of a chase thriller is used as the vehicle for a highly personal statement on the Troubles. Writer David Rudkin constructs the narrative as a tense pursuit, but the real subject is Martin’s re-engagement with a world he has tried to escape. The production avoids simple political polemic: it is instead a portrait of a man forced to examine his own identity against the backdrop of a fractured society. The casting of Northern Irish actor Liam Neeson, in an early leading role, grounds the drama in an authentic sense of place and personal conflict.
Broadcast: BBC Two, 10 June 1983
Written by: David Rudkin
Director: Paul Seed
Producer: Kenith Trodd
Music: Ilona Sekacz
Main Cast: Liam Neeson (Martin), Wendy Morgan (Angela), Jay Hilalen (Abigail), Sandra Voe (Annie), Jack McQuoid (Tommy), Gerard Mannix Flynn (Abigail’s Father), Aingeal Grehan (Woman)
