Morgan's Boy
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Morgan's Boy |
| Abbreviation(s): | MB |
| Creator: | Alick Rowe |
| Date(s): | 10 October 1984 |
| Medium: | TV series, 8 episodes at 55mins each |
| Country of Origin: | UK |
| External Links: | Morgapedia (Morgan's Boy Wiki), IMDB, Hermit.org, AO3, Youtube |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Morgan's Boy is an eight-part television series from 1984 starring Gareth Thomas and Martyn Hesford.
Summary:"When seventeen-year-old Lee agreed to visit his uncle Morgan in the Black Mountains of Wales after losing his job and arguing with his mother, he didn't expect to find a lonely, shy man up to his ears in debt on a remote farm, five miles from the nearest village, whose tenancy was threatened. All Lee wanted was an easy life - and this didn't seem to be it."
Gareth Thomas also played Roj Blake in Blake's 7 and many fans of Morgan's Boy gravitate to the fandom because of this connection.
The series was only aired on the BBC once in 1984 and there has been no VHS/DVD release to date.[2] The only known copy available online can be seen here on Youtube.
Characters
Cast in order of appearance:
- Morgan Thomas played by Gareth Thomas
- Val Turner played by Marjorie Yates
- Lee Turner played by Martyn Hesford
- Ros played by Harriet Cole
- Colin played by Gary Oldman
- Alan played by Stephen Yardley
- The Old Lady and Gentleman (deceased, seen on tombstone and portraits throughout the episodes)
- Pugh Davies played by Jack Walters
- Matthew Gibbs played by John Skitt
- Captain Harry Gregory played by Alan Rowe
- Eileen Gregory played by Maxine Audley
- Tom Griffiths played by James Warrior
- Gethwyn (Gareth) Price played by Charles Dale
- Graham played by Robbin John
- Tom Duncan played by David Quilter
- Vicar played by Michael Troughton
- Sarah Griffiths played by Pippa Hinchley
- Greener played by Julian Firth
- Louise Gibbs played by Tracey Childs
Lesser characters (who do not directly affect the plot) include: Les (Castle Inn landlord), Williams, James and Mary Austin, Carol (Lee's casual girlfriend in Episode 1, coworker), Mr. Ellis (Lee's boss), Jean (Pugh's daughter), Boulton (owns a pony trekking centre), Bryn, Ted Rivers and Barry.
Locations
Blainau
Blainau (pronounced "Bly-knee" /blaɪnɪ:/, or "Bly-kny" /blaɪnaɪ/ by the Welsh characters) is the name of Morgan's farm, located approximately 5 miles from Talgarth. The farm was first leased by Ivor and Gwen Thomas on the 18th of September 1935.
By the time of the main story, Blainau has been reduced to 120 acres, with approximately 300 sheep. When the Old Gentleman died in 1970, "the pigs went, halved the cattle, good grazing turned to rough pasture". (pg 60)
All filming was done on location in Wales with few location names changed. The real working farm used for Blainau can be seen here: Blainau on Google Maps
Fan references and parallel to Gauda Prime
A trope is emergering within with Blake's 7 fanfic community where authors make allusions to Blake working on a farm post Star One or PGP. Blainau is also referenced as a fan-created planet.
Fics that have features such references include:
- Nocturne by foreignobjecticus in The House Always Sins
- Satisfied by SeedyGan in The House Always Sins
- Insult and Injury by Emmaliza
Fanworks
- Coign of Vantage by 'Felis Sylvestris' in Uncharted Waters #1
- Not Even a Day by foreignobjecticus
- Morgan, a crossover zine with Blake's 7
- Morgan is featured on the back cover of The House Always Sins Blake's 7 fanzine
- Farm to City by Emmaliza - a Morgan's Boy/Blake's 7 crossover
- 'That Sweater' fanvid - an ode to Morgan's holey jumper by foreignobjecticus
- Other works by Emmaliza on AO3
Archives & Fannish Links
- Morgan's Boy works at AO3
Book
A television tie-in book was written by the series' creator Alick Rowe and published the same year the show was broadcast. The book is an almost word-for-word, scene-for-scene recount of the television series, although some dialogue has been reduced to exposition for brevity. Each of the eight chapters corresponds directly to each episode in the show. The final chapter has a few key differences in details, presumably changed by the author intentionally, although they do no affect the overall story.
A note on references: unless otherwise specified, all page numbers cited refer to the tie-in book. Most dialogue quotations from the book match the dialogue in the television series verbatim.