THE MOVING PICTURE BOY ARCHIVE

BOY DOMINIC

Title: Boy Dominic
Production type: TV Mini-Series
Year of first transmission: 1974
Country of Production: Britain
Genre: Historical drama
Length: 13 episodes, each around 25 minutes in length
Language: English
Availability: An official DVD release is available.
Boy actors: Murray Dale (below, left) plays the protagonist, 12 year old Dominic Bulman. Dale was 13 years old at the start of series transmission, and was from Holland Park Comprehensive School in London, though he had had some previous acting experience in a couple of minor roles. Along with Dale, Jonathan Arundel (below, centre) plays Robert 'Bob' Varley in episodes 3-5; and Alan Early (below, right) has a small part as the servant boy Tom in episode 13.

Synopsis
In 1830, the Bright Star, a merchant ship commanded by Charles Bulman, is wrecked off the North African coast. In London, Bulman's wife Emma and twelve-year-old son Dominic (who owns a pet monkey called Bathurst) fall into penury. After being turned away by Charles Bulman's mother, Lady Bulman, who never approved her son's marriage to Emma, the pair have the good fortune to meet William Woodcock, who wants Emma to be his business partner in the running of a boarding house. As Emma struggles to make the business successful, Dominic has various adventures, some of which involve the unusual guests at the house.

Throughout the series, Dominic keeps a 'log' in which he records recent events, a device that enables the writers to remind the viewers of what has gone before. The edition of Look-in magazine for the week ending 9 March 1974 ran an article (see below) on the forthcoming series which referred to it as The Log of the Boy Dominic, suggesting that this might have been the series' original name.

To coincide with the transmission of the television series, Armada published an "original story" based on the characters in the series, written by Geoffrey Morgan.

Two years later, Murray Dale was to reprise his role as Dominic in a miniseries which was a sequel to this one, entitled just Dominic.

Below: Article from Look-in magazine for week ending 9 March 1974

Screencaps
Episode 4, 'Captain Darkness'
(First four images show Jonathan Arundel as Robert Varley)

Episode 5, 'Fair Game'

Below: Robert furiously polishes his telescope

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