Soldier and Me DVD – Richard Ireson, Richard Willis

A memorable and much-sought-after drama series from the mid-1970s, this ruggedly authentic thriller chronicles the sinister events that happen to two boys in Britain following the 1968 Prague Spring uprising. Adapting David Line’s bestseller Run for Your Life, Soldier and Me was directed by Carol Wilks, a former World in Action researcher/director. It won the BAFTA award for Children’s Drama. Pavel Szolda is a young Czech refugee living in the north of England; a bespectacled outsider at a tough school, he is befriended by the more streetwise Jim, who nicknames him ‘Soldier’. After overhearing some of his countrymen plotting murder, Soldier involves Jim in secretly observing the conspirators’ movements. But when they are discovered, the teenagers are forced to flee for their lives relentlessly pursued across open country by seemingly ruthless gunmen… SPECIAL FEATURE: Booklet featuring Richard Willis’ personal reminiscences of making the series