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One Summer

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One Summer was a TV drama written by Willy Russell in 1983 and told the story of two schoolboys from Liverpool called Icky and Billy who ran away to North Wales. However, it's not long before their past catches up with them.

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Do You Remember One Summer?

Do You Remember One Summer?

  • Anonymous user
    on
    Yeah, I remember it well- they flee Liverpool after a gang fight in which Billy stabs an opponent (not fatally, but enough to get him convicted for GBH). Ending up in North Wales, they discover an apparently abandoned cottage in an isolated valley which they think could make an idyllic new home for them- but it turns out to be the home of bearded artist Kidder, a Yorkshireman folksy-type who has turned his back on the modern world and lives a pre-technology life of growing his own food, making his own furniture, and sketching & making music. Kidder befriends the two lads and at first all goes well, but then it is revealed that Icky is illiterate, a fact unknown to the other two. In his anger and shame, he flees back to Liverpool, steals a Ford Cortina and is killed when this smashes into a wall and explodes during a police chase. Back at the cottage, Billy is appalled when he discovers that Kidder is gay, and has made a pass at him. Billy also has some kind of brief relationship with a middle-class girl who turns up from somewhere. The series ends tragically when the police come to arrest Billy, after beating up Kidder who has tried to shield him. I remember Billy saying poignantly to Kidder "It don't matter about you bein' the way you are, y'know" in an attempt at reconciliation, as the poor man is left to rebuild his shattered life as best he can. The series was unashamedly anti-Welsh in it's portrayal of the local youths as cowardly bullies, and the plot line improbable to say the least, but superbly acted nonetheless.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Was glued to it on every episode,just bought the DVD all episodes,wtilll brilliant
  • Anonymous user
    on
    Hi Claire. Billy and Icky weren't brothers but school mates. I was 14 when it first screened in 1983. There's a great site about it. Do a Yahoo search and type in one summer. Loads of info on the cast and what they're up to now. It was released on DVD at the start of the year.
  • Anonymous user
    on
    the car ride playing madness as one of the brothers died

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