goodnight mister tom

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Goodnight Mister Tom

Published: Monday, 4 June 2007, 4:56PM

First broadcast: 1999

Stars: John Thaw, Annabelle Apsion, Nick Robinson

Adapted by: Brian Finch, based on Michelle Magorian's novel of the same name

The lowdown: This charming, award-winning family drama stars John Thaw as “Mr Tom” Oakley, a widower who reluctantly looks after a boy who has been evacuated from London during World War II. Mr Tom is still brooding over the death of his wife and young son and so finds his new charge William an unwelcome guest. However, the old man soon takes the quiet 10-year-old under his wing after discovering the child has scars on his back and irrational fears, as a result of an abusive home life, and resolves to give him a better life.

Trivia: Goodnight Mr Tom won the Most Popular Drama, and John Thaw the Most Popular Actor gongs at the National TV Awards in 1999.
Thaw was voted number three in a public poll of TV’s Greatest Stars in 2006, four years after his death from throat cancer aged 60.