australian television information archive

Episode 1 of 6

After being imprisoned by the Japanese, Hal Stanton (Denholm Elliot) returned to England in 1946 to face a courtmartial. He was denounced as a traitor by the British and cashiered. Disgraced, he tried to escape his past by living abroad under various assumed names, eventually settling in Australia where he now works as a lawyer under the name Graeme Greene. Presented with new clients one day—a wealthy family named Faulkner—he falls in love with their daughter Catherine (Judy Morris). As part of their brief affair he spends Christmas at their luxurious and isolated country mansion “Guardbridge.” Shortly after, a newspaper story about the death of his father—a war hero—reveals that Graeme Greene is actually the disgraced Hal Stanton, the hero’s son. He is forced to resign from the law firm because of his deception but, worse, Lady Faulkner (Gerda Nicolson) will not allow him to see or speak further with Catherine. Hal drives out to Guardbridge to see her but she has already been sent away by her parents. He mistakenly believes she has spurned him and they never meet again.

Catherine discovers she is pregnant. The child, Katrina, is raised at Guardbridge by her mother and grandmother and is told that her father is dead. Years pass and by the age of twenty Kat (Nicole Kidman) is a somewhat awkward and solitary young woman suffering from asthma. Catherine, knowing she has cancer, appoints George McNair, the family lawyer, as her daughter’s trustee. A kindly man, he recognises Kat’s artistic talents. Going through her mother’s things after she dies, Kat finds Catherine’s journal which tells of her affair with “Graeme.” She confronts the longtime housekeeper Mrs. Cameron but learns nothing. Kat then visits McNair at his law firm, which happens to be where Graeme/Hal had formerly worked. McNair tells Kat her family had spurned him as a “con man.” Kat finally learns his real name was Hal Stanton and that other members of the family reside in London. McNair advises her to go and visit them for her own peace of mind, but not to expect a warm reception.

Episode 2 of 6

In London Katrina meets James Stanton (Lewis Fiander) who bitterly denounces his brother Hal and refuses to tell her anything of his whereabouts. Discouraged, she decides to fly back to Australia as soon as possible, however at the ticket agent’s she learns all flights are booked for the next several days. A young man offers her his seat on a flight in two days’ time. Arki Ragan (Jerome Ehlers) befriends the shy young woman, telling her he is a freelance photographer based in London. She tells him she is looking for a relative who was once a soldier. He offers to help and together they visit the war records office where she reads about the circumstances of Hal’s 1946 courtmartial. She also learns Hal was born in Bangkok and she believes he may now be living there again. She sees James Stanton again. After some hesitation he confirms that Hal does reside there. Arki offers to accompany her to Bangkok but since all flights there are booked he suggests they fly to India and then on to Thailand from there. Before they leave London he presents her with a gift—a camera and lenses in a metal attache case. On the Goa coast they share a hotel room and become lovers. Unknown to her, Arki places several bags of heroin in the false bottom of the camera case.

They fly to Bangkok. Kat telephones a solicitor, Richard Carlisle (Hugo Weaving), the contact she has been given for getting in touch with her father. Carlisle visits Hal, now a wasted alcoholic, and tells him he has a daughter who wants to meet him. Hal, utterly convinced his life has been a failure, does not want to meet her and instructs Carlisle to tell Kat as much. Arki suggests she fly home to Australia and perhaps Hal will change his mind in time. She accepts this idea and they go to the airport together. Arki manages to avoid having the metal case X-rayed. They obtain boarding passes together but when Kat moves on to the immigration counter Arki obtains a new boarding pass for himself. Meanwhile the camera case is picked out by a drug-sniffing dog. Customs officials take Kat away as Arki boards the plane. Narcotics officers find the heroin in the false bottom of the case.

Episode 3 of 6

Kat is questioned and advised to cooperate by pleading guilty, but she refuses. The only choices before her are a life sentence in prison or the death sentence. She is taken to prison, “the Bangkok Hilton.” She manages to get word of her predicament to Richard Carlisle, Hal Stanton’s solicitor in Bangkok. Carlisle visits her in prison but is reluctant to help her—he is not a criminal lawyer. Kat also tells him she still wants to meet her father and asks Carlisle to get access to her luggage—her mother’s diary is in it. Carlisle give the journal to Hal and reading it convinces him that Kat is his daughter. He has a change of heart: he decides to visit her in prison but plans to tell her he is only a friend of her father’s. He introduces himself to her as Bill Worthington, a lawyer colleague of Carlisle’s. He is touched by her innocence and doubtless reminded of Catherine as well. He leaves, saying he will try to talk Carlisle into taking on her case.

Carlisle and Hal take on Kat’s case together. An unpromising hearing puts her behind bars indefinitely. The charge is trafficking—a death sentence. She is put in a cell with other women in appalling conditions. Carlisle visits the Thai authorities and tries to get them to change the charge to possession. Hal is willing to help but tells Carlisle he can’t bring himself to go back to the prison—ironically, it’s the same prison he was in during the war.

Episode 4 of 6

Having agreed to do “the leg work” on the case for Carlisle, Hal forces himself to go back to the prison to see Kat and immediately flashes back to an incident from his internment there under the Japanese. She objects to his drinking. He is touched when she explains she had been in London to find her father when she met Arki Ragan. When their visit ends she suddenly remembers there is a photo of Arki, still undeveloped, in her camera. Hal urges her to try and remember more about Arki. Carlisle quizzes Hal about his trip to the prison and visit with Kat. Hal indicates he plans to give up drinking. He visits the Australian Embassy in Bangkok and is able to learn from flight records that Arki did fly to Australia after he left Bangkok. Hal next meets the Charge d’Affaires and learns that Achmet Ragan is actually the name of someone who is dead—Arki has been using a false passport and a false name. All leads are cold.

Bribery and corruption thrive in the prison. Mandy (Joy Smithers), a young drug addict who has befriended Kat, buys them some time outside their cell and takes Kat to meet her mentally disabled younger brother Billy (Noah Taylor) in the men’s section of the prison. Hal and Carlisle visit Kat and break the news to her that Arky was using a false identity and that they have no leads on him. Hal travels to London and tries the police, the airlines and a news agency for leads on Arki/Achmet but with no success. Back in Bangkok, Carlisle learns that the justice officials will not change Kat’s charge from trafficking to possession: the death penalty is certain. Stymied for leads and not knowing what to do next, Hal returns to his old home, meeting his brother James for the first time in years. They reconcile.

Episode 5 of 6

On a tip from Hal’s niece, who had spent an afternoon in London with Kat and heard about Arki, Hal visits the Quantas airlines office and learns that a woman named Jane Mitchell was originally booked to travel with Arki. He visits Jane who knew Arki as “Sam Morris,” an importer of antiques from India. Arki/Sam was going to use Jane exactly as he did Kat—even giving her the same false-bottomed camera case—but two days before they were due to leave Jane was struck by a car and couldn’t go. Hal goes to the police and gets the address corresponding to the phone number Jane gave him for Sam Morris. He finds no one home but meets a mailman who tells him Arki is “Mr. Rodgers,” whom he had seen him getting into a cab just a couple of days previously. Hal tells Carlisle he is convinced Arki is now in Goa and learns from Carlisle that a date has been set for Kat’s trial.

Hal travels to Goa and after making several stops around the city discovers Arki has just checked out of one of the hotels. He races to the airport and actually spots Arki boarding a plane with a woman but since there is no warrant for his arrest Hal cannot have him detained. Arki slips through his fingers. Hal returns to Bangkok. Mandy and her brother are executed by firing squad. Kat is sentenced to death. Carlisle tries to put together an appeal. Hal, reminiscing about his war experiences, suddenly remembers the men at the prison had been digging a tunnel to escape and thinks it is probably still intact—a storm drain tunnel below the prison hospital that led out to the river. The problem is the hospital is in the men’s section of the prison.

Episode 6 of 6

Kat tells Hal and Carlisle she wants to try and break out and they tell her they have learned “from a friend” about the old wartime tunnel beneath the hospital. She asks if it was her father who told them about it and they admit it was. She assures them she can get to the hospital, having done it before with Mandy. Kat now has all of Mandy’s possessions, including the homemade wooden key Mandy used to gain access to the hospital. During their next visit Hal and Carlisle pass Kat the map of the subterranean tunnel and they arrange to make a trial run on Wednesday—Hal and Carlisle will be waiting on the river at the tunnel’s exit.

Kat bribes the guard for two hours of time outside her cell and tries to get to the men’s section but cannot gain access—the time for the garbage pickup, which ensures the door will be open, has been changed. Out on the river waiting for her, Carlisle and Hal realise the rehearsal has failed. Meeting them at the prison the next day she tells them the new garbage pickup time is 6:00 a.m. They make plans accordingly and when Friday dawns she begins her escape. Using Mandy’s wooden key to gain access to the hospital, however, she cuts her hand badly on a mirror. She continues on, eluding the guards but leaving a trail of blood behind her. Using Hal’s map she attempts to find the entrance to the tunnel system but years of dirt and debris have buried it.

Out on the water Hal and Carlisle anxiously realise that her absence will soon be detected. Hal swims to the tunnel exit to look for her. Kat has finally found the entrance in the prison and is now in the tunnel. Hal flashes back to a war experience there before he and Kat find each other and quickly swim to the boat where Carlisle has a fake passport and clothing waiting for her.

Hal takes Kat to the airport where she has been booked onto a flight that is leaving immediately. A guard stops her and asks to see her passport. Hal tells him Kat is his daughter and she now releases that the solicitor Bill Worthington is actually Hal Stanton, her father. The guard lets her go and as she leaves she presses the locket with her mother’s picture into Hal’s hand. At the hotel in Goa, Hal watches Arki Ragan with his latest female victim. But she is part of a police sting, and as Arki is at last caught and led away in handcuffs Kat has a chance to look him in the eye. Hal and Kat walk on the beach, reunited as father and daughter at last.