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Howards'
Way
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Jan Harvey and Maurice Colbourne
In
the first episode, the Howard family are celebrating Tom's (Maurice
Colbourne) success in winning the 'Commodore's Cup' in
his boat
the 'Flying Fish'. After a drink in the 'Jolly Sailor'
pub, the Howards' head for
home. After a
celebratory champagne
dinner, Tom drops a 'bombshell',
he
announces to his wife, Jan and children Lynn and Leo that he had been made redundant from his design job at 'Southern
Aviation' a month earlier!
The
'Flying Fish' has been slightly damaged below the
water-line in the
'Commodore's Cup' event and the boat has been taken to the 'Mermaid
Yard' in 'Tarrant' for repair. The 'Mermaid Yard'
is
in
deep financial difficulty with no large orders on the books and only a
large overdraft of more than £100,000 to support the ailing
business. Jack
Rolfe (Glynn Owen) is assisted with the
administration side of the business by his daughter Avril (Susan
Gilmore) who had returned to 'Tarrant' from London 3 months
earlier and was trying to re-organize the business for her father.
Jack
Rolfe (owner of the boatyard) is told by Laurie Meadows
(Alan Downer) his local Bank Manager that the bank's head
office is going to fore-close on the 'Mermaid Yard's' overdraft.
But when the yard's foreman, Bill Sayers lets Jack know that the
repair to the 'Flying Fish' is complete, Jack has a
'brainwave';
could Tom Howard be the answer to all his problems and the 'Mermaid
Yard's' saviour? Jack telephones Tom and
tells him the 'Flying Fish' is
ready and invites him over to the 'Mermaid yard', ostensibly for
a drink, but by the end of episode one, Jack had broached the
subject of a business partnership. Jack Rolfe suggests to Tom
that it could be mutually beneficial for the pair to become business
partners (and the yard could do with "a capital inject"). Tom Howard agrees
to a partnership with Jack Rolfe, but has to use
his shares, his savings and his redundancy money and also has to sell
his beloved boat the 'Flying Fish' in order to raise enough
money to buy his share in the 'Mermaid' boatyard.
Later
in the serial there would be a dispute over the ownership of the
boatyard, which is 'engineered' by ruthless businessman Charles
Frere, played by
Tony Anholt, who wants the land for development. Tom
and Jack overcome the challenge from Frere
in court
and the boatyard does eventually become successful again, with both
Tom and Jack designing new boats, albeit very different
designs and methods of construction.
The marriage of Tom and Jan (Jan
Harvey) however, does
not survive; Tom has an affair with Avril Rolfe. Jan
also has an affair with Ken Masters (Stephen Yardley), owner of
the local chandlery where she works part-time. Jan later
becomes involved in the fashion industry owning a chain of
boutiques. Many new characters are introduced later in the serial
which ran from
1985 until 1990 on BBC Television, with episodes of 50 minutes
duration. The opening titles sequence theme tune
was composed by Simon May and performed by The Simon May Orchestra.
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