In this children’s adventure serial, a young boy raised in the African wilderness protects the local wildlife and people.
Known only as Jungle Boy (Michael Carr Hartley), a European orphan is raised in the Kenyan bush by the scientist Dr. Laurence (Ronald Adam). Together, they act as guardians of the region, protecting the local tribes and animal life from a steady stream of threats. Their adventures bring them into conflict with poachers, malevolent witch doctors, diamond smugglers, and other interlopers who seek to exploit the people and the land. Operating from their base camp, Jungle Boy uses his unique knowledge of the wilderness to overcome dangers and restore the natural order.
This series was a British attempt to create a juvenile hero in the popular mould of Tarzan. Produced by the American company Gross-Krasne for the UK market, the programme’s primary asset was its authentic location filming in Kenya, which lent a rugged credibility to its otherwise formulaic adventure plots. This visual authenticity was enhanced by the casting of Michael Carr Hartley, the son of a renowned Kenyan game warden, whose real-life familiarity with the environment gave his performance a naturalism that no studio-bound actor could replicate. Each 25-minute episode presented a straightforward moral contest, where the boy’s innate goodness and bushcraft invariably triumphed over the greed and superstition of his antagonists.
Broadcast: ITV – ABC, 13 Episodes, 10 January – 4 April 1959
Executive Producers: Jack J. Gross, Philip N. Krasne
Director: George Breakston
Writers include: Basil Dawson, Gordon Wellesley, Arthur Hoerl, Robert Furnival
Main Cast: Michael Carr Hartley (Jungle Boy), Ronald Adam (Doctor Laurence)
