Episode 1

Highwaymen, duels, swirling fogs, escaped convicts - part one of a thrilling two-part dramatisation of Leon Garfield's classic 18th C. mystery adventure.

Dramatised by Martin Jameson

Episode 1 of 2

Directed by Marc Beeby

14 year-old George is the oldest of the seven Treet children. Captained by their larger-than-life father, the Treets are touring thespians, forever on the edge of poverty. But their normally happy lives are shadowed by the twice yearly arrival of "the Stranger" who hands Mr Treet a sum of money and disappears. This year, however, the Stranger appears for the last time and Mr Treet reveals to George that he is the son of a nobleman, Sir John Dexter. Now, George must, reluctantly, be returned to him.

At the gloomy Dexter family home, George is welcomed by Sir John, who is recovering from a pistol wound received in the course of a duel with his black-hearted brother Richard. Richard has been imprisoned as a result. George does his best to settle into life in his forbidding new home.

But trouble is waiting in the fog that surrounds the house. Richard Dexter has escaped from Newgate and is hiding in a nearby copse. What's more, it soon becomes clear that someone is trying to kill George...