"Abby. You're truthful and you're searching. Please don't be afraid" - Jack


After staying at a train station for the night, Abby, Greg and Jenny drive on towards Peter's
school, when they pass the school's minibus parked by the side of the road. They check it out,
thinking it could have been used by Peter and the other boys when they fled the sickness and
stop to check it out.


Abby carries on to the school in the hope that the boys are there. Greg and Jenny check out
the surrounding area and come across two young children, John and Lizzie, who have been
fending for themselves.


They tell them that a boy was driving the minibus and had said that the rest of the boys had
gone to 'the angels'. He'd left and not returned. They think that the 'angels' were in Derbyshire.

They all go on to the school, which Abby has found is deserted. In the chapel there, they
decide on their next course of action. Lizzie has the minibus key, so they go back to check its
contents. 

Inside the minibus are a map, with a place marked in Derbyshire, and some newspaper
articles about a religious group who had retreated into the Derbyshire hills preaching
impending doom just before the death. They set off for Derbyshire in the minibus.

Once they reach the area, they find a  house to use as a temporary base. An unstable man
called Lincoln is living there. He shoots Greg in the shoulder in fear. He explains that he has 
just escaped from a small settlement which was raided by a group of thugs calling themselves
the 'British Government'.

Greg and Jenny are suspicious of Lincoln, who comes across as unstable. Abby meanwhile,
sets off on foot to find the 'angels'.

She finds them  in a remote farmhouse. They are three deeply religious men, who have not
lost their faith in God despite the death. Abby is the first person they have met since they
came there. Abby asks if she can stay.

Back in the house, Lincoln appears to be jealous of Greg and Jenny's relationship. They
decide to leave and find Abby and the 'angels'. Lincoln briefly takes Lizzie hostage but they
escape in the minibus thanks to John and Lizzie's stray dog.


Leaving Lincoln behind, they find Abby at the 'angels' farmhouse.


Soon after their arrival the 'angels' become ill. The symptoms are lumps under the arms
and high temperatures.


Abby realises she has carried the 'death' with her and infected them.  Abby, Greg and Jenny
nurse the 'angels' until they die and then leave the farmhouse.

 

Episode Review

This episode introduces John and Lizzie, played with enthusiasm and vigour by Tanya Ronder (Jack Ronder's daughter) and Stephen Dudley (Terence Dudley's son). Their adoption of Greg and Jenny as surrogate parents appears to cement the couple's relationship and is touching. As in the previous four episodes, the three lead actors are consistently strong again here.

Abby's quest for Peter is becoming increasingly hopeless and a little tiresome for Jenny and Greg, and perhaps the viewer. Nevertheless her excursion to the angels provides an opportunity for a religious response to the death. The fact that the angels survive the death and then catch it later provides an ambiguous message. However it does not appear to affect the faith of the angels as they die.

Elsewhere in this episode Peter Miles provides sterling support as the unpredictable Lincoln. Lincoln's intentions are unclear throughout, but his distinct lack of sanity is never in question.

Rating: 7/10

 


Episode 5 - Gone to the Angels

writer: Jack Ronder
first broadcast: 14th May 1976

Regular Cast:

Abby Grant: Carolyn Seymour
Greg Preston: Ian McCulloch
Jenny Richards: Lucy Fleming

and introducing...

Lizzie Willoughby: Tanya Ronder
John Millon: Stephen Dudley

Guest Cast:

Lincoln: Peter Miles
Jack: Frederick Hall
Matthew: Nickolas Grace
Robert: Kenneth Caswell

designer: Ray London
director: Gerald Blake
producer: Terence Dudley
episode recorded: 1st - 2nd April 1975


 For biographies of the guest cast in this episode click here

For the Radio Times listing for this episode and details of TV programmes broadcast in this week in 1975 click here


Next Episode: Garland's War by Terry Nation


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