This series was shown on the, then, new Welsh channel 4 and is one of the best TV series I've ever seen. It's about a boy growing up in North Wales during the war and I believe it is semi-autobiographical. I wish it was available to buy on DVD. In my favourite episode Joni accidentally swallows some chewing gum obtained from some Americal G.I.'s and his friends tell him he will die. He writes a Will bequeathing his meagre possessions but is very relieved to wake up the following morning. In another episode he covets a football in a shop window but hasn't any money so has to make do with a bundle of rags. Whilst his mother is collecting money for the war effort savings club he steals a coin from an elderly lady but his conscience gets the better of him. In the last series Joni is sent by train to an English boarding school in Shrewsbury where he is very homesick and writes letters to his mother pleading to come home.
3 Reviews
looking for the this TV series
Rck53621 March 2018
Adventures in the life of a 10-year-old Welsh boy during WW2
WNH330 April 2005
Warning: Spoilers
CAVEAT: What I saw was an episodic movie--and now I know why it was that way, since finally finding this IMDb entry. Apparently, it was a 1988 assemblage of episodes from the 1982 series, narrated by the protagonist looking back on his life.
"The Adventures of Johnny Jones" (sic) is four episodes from the life of a ten-year-old boy growing up in Wales during the Second World War. His father is off fighting the Axis; his mother is struggling to make ends meet, keeping the home fires burning & doing her best to raise her son. Against this period-piece backdrop, "Joni" struggles with problems familiar to we veteran ten-year-old boys: How does one "fit it" with his peers? How does one decide what the Right Thing to do, is? How does one balance parental expectations with those things a boy would RATHER be doing?
***SPOILER FOLLOWS***
The most touching episode was that of his accidental discovery of an escaped Italian POW. Joni misses his father & worries about what might happen to him: when he learns the injured man is a POW, he decides not to turn him in, but to help him by sneaking him food & drink while Giovanni's wound heals. The POW is recaptured while Joni is away visiting an aunt, and Joni has to keep the secret of "aiding the enemy." Still, it's how he would want HIS father treated, were the shoe on the other foot.
Other episodes: embarrassment at the "soccer ball" his Mam knitted for him & his quest for a REAL, leather ball; facing down bullies; and coping with his entry into an boarding school, exchanging the land of his fathers, for the alien world of the English.
"The Adventures of Johnny Jones" (sic) is four episodes from the life of a ten-year-old boy growing up in Wales during the Second World War. His father is off fighting the Axis; his mother is struggling to make ends meet, keeping the home fires burning & doing her best to raise her son. Against this period-piece backdrop, "Joni" struggles with problems familiar to we veteran ten-year-old boys: How does one "fit it" with his peers? How does one decide what the Right Thing to do, is? How does one balance parental expectations with those things a boy would RATHER be doing?
***SPOILER FOLLOWS***
The most touching episode was that of his accidental discovery of an escaped Italian POW. Joni misses his father & worries about what might happen to him: when he learns the injured man is a POW, he decides not to turn him in, but to help him by sneaking him food & drink while Giovanni's wound heals. The POW is recaptured while Joni is away visiting an aunt, and Joni has to keep the secret of "aiding the enemy." Still, it's how he would want HIS father treated, were the shoe on the other foot.
Other episodes: embarrassment at the "soccer ball" his Mam knitted for him & his quest for a REAL, leather ball; facing down bullies; and coping with his entry into an boarding school, exchanging the land of his fathers, for the alien world of the English.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
