A juvenile delinquent named Raven is sent to an archaeological dig site as part of his reform. He will stay with Professor Young and his wife, who are running out of time to recover ancient artifacts from the underground dig before the government takes it over to dump nuclear waste there. Raven tags along with the government official overseeing the handoff, and is quite taken with Naomi, a newspaper reporter sent to cover the closure of the dig and its conversion to a waste dump. Spending time with the Youngs, Raven learns of the professor’s theory that Arthur may not have been the name of a specific king, but rather the title of a series of rulers of medieval England. And it’s roughly around this time that Raven’s strange visions begin…
written by Jeremy Burnham and Trevor Ray
directed by Michael Hart
music not credited
Cast: Michael Aldridge (Professor Young), Patsy Rowlands (Mrs. Young), Phil Daniels (Raven), Shirley Cheriton (Naomi Grant), James Kerry (Bill Telford), Roger Milner (Ticket Collector)
Notes: Raven is on release from a borstal, a kind of institutional school for juvenile offenders
which was eliminated – at least by name – by the British government in 1982, after existing for most of the 20th century. Ireland similarly abolished borstals (by name, if not necessarily by practice) in the 1960s; the only remaining borstals in operation in the 21st century are in India.
LogBook entry by Earl Green