The Outcast

I watched it and thoroughly enjoyed it. And loved the book.

Having watched Countryfile, the Northumbrian coast, earlier, I was in a euphoric mood. I spent my first 20 years there, and would like to return eventually.
So I'm glad I didn't watch Outcasts. I've never heard of the book.

I thought it started to get a bit daft half way through but stuck with it and glad that I did. Didn't deserve the slating it got in the Telegraph last week [or was it the Guardian?]. Did anyone else think the actress who played the blonde daughter looked a bit anorexic, though?

I really enjoyed it, too. Good to see a positive ending and for others to receive their comeuppance! Won't say more, as some haven't seen it all, yet.

I thought it was different, thought-provoking and very well acted .The characterisation was excellent and it was possible to empathise with almost everyone (with one exception), even the father. It held my attention from beginning to end and I still have Joanna Lumley to look forward to.

Fathers didn't come out of it at all well, did they?

Oh I stuck with it until the end. I thought it was brilliant. Good acting too. Even though it was very bleak at times I enjoyed it. The ending was really very good (don't want to spoil it for anyone who might want so catch up). Personally I blamed the father for everything.

It really was depressing, wasn't it? Hard to watch, the only glimpse of hope right at the end and that not entirely likely...

I will have to watch the last half hour on iPlayer as DH declared he'd had enough misery and switched over to Joanna Lumley which put a smile on his face!!!

I have to say her Siberian adventure is extremely watchable.

Bleak, dismal total misery with no redeeming features at all to give some kind of balance. I have no criticism of the actors at all as they did a good job, but a constant portrayal of brutality, cruelty, and despair becomes unwatchable in the end.

Things were so different in the 50 s. My father kept a cane above the kitchen door on the rim, and used it on my legs if I didn't eat my meal.
Going back further, my biological grandfather was in the navy and went awal, my grandmother met someone else who I knew as my grandfather but we think they never married. This was never ever mentioned. I only found out through family research.

My father had been divorced before he met my mum. She took me to one side one day [not sure how old I was] and told me of it. It didn't bother me in the slightest but she was very embarrassed by it. He hadn't been married long and there were no children; I still know very litle about the marriage and divorce as it was very hushed up, although I did find a record of it when I was doing a bit of family research. But the fact that he'd married her because he desperately wanted children and she then seemed unable to have them almost drove her mad; I don't think she ever recovered mentally . I'd give anything to go back in time and talk to her about it now and try to comfort her in some way. She must have given up working when she was pregnant with the first baby, never went back and spent nearly ten years losing babies until she had me.

Like you whitewave, I really enjoyed this drama. There is so little quality drama on television these days - programmes that make me think and consider how other people sometimes have to live - with hardship and unhappiness. You are so right about the constraints of the 1950's. My parents divorced in the 50's and it was an unmentionable subject. I was so embarrassed at school and didn't want any one to know. There was no support for children. If you couldn't talk about divorce, you certainly would not talk about how you saw your mother drown. The poor boy must have been in torment and no one saw his unhappiness.
I think he may be going to form a good relationship with the young girl from the other family - well, I hope so!
I enjoyed all the furniture, clothes and hairdos of the 50's - even though both families were obviously quite wealthy. (I noticed a radiator - gosh, we didn't have those!).
I checked out the author on Amazon, and think I will try one of her other books - certainly this is a story not of the usual Sunday evening drama.

Got a nasty feeling that it is going to end badly though. Will give the book a try, although I think it will be tough going.

Yes; there were no hints at that prior to the drowning [unless I didn't pick up on them]. As with reading A Thousand Splendid Suns, I hope the ending justifies the sheer pain of watching it!

The only hint we had that Lewis's mum possibly had a drink problem was the fact that she drank half a bottle of what looked like vodka or gin at the picnic. Perhaps if she hadn't she'd have been able to save herself.

The storyline about the stepumum not being able to have children is also very poignant because of my mum having that problem at what must be exactly the same period in history .

I know; it was when his stepmum told that other mother at the boating like about Lewis's mum's death, just as he seemed to be feeling and bahaving like a 'normal' boy again. As if, no matter what he did he couldn't get away from what had happened. According to a review I've read his mum turned to drink because of the constraints of the society she lived in; I don't think that came across in the programme [unless I missed it].

I can't think of the first time either Tegan. I think the first time the older Lewis smiled was when he entered that Jazz bar.

It was the second time his stepmum had broken a confidence [I'm trying to remember the first incident] cause I thought, oh dear, you've done it again . Why the attraction to the older woman in the bar....was she meant to look like his mum or stepmum in some way?

... just too much ...

Authors/TV writers seem to feel a need to cover all the issues these days. There was just took much unrelenting sadness in it for me on a Sunday night when I want a pleasant relaxing evening. I shan't be watching next week.

I am sure she was making an effort , but in the end was unable to understand him. I know he doesn't seem very ry appealing but I think that is the point Lewis has been let down on every front, from the time of the trauma of his mother's death and the well meaning but inadequate response of the adults around him to the isolation he feels at school and when socialising. Lewis has never talked about his mum's death. He is probably suffering from post traumatic syndrome. His actions are as a result of all that he has suffered.

I quite liked it and thought it was a good (if somewhat depressing) drama. I agree with you Ana the character of the grown up Lewis was nothing like the child who was a sweet looking boy. The grown up Lewis was rather creepy odd looking and not a good likeness at all. Am I alone in thinking that the step mum was trying to like/love Lewis at the beginning but finding it impossible to reach him. he must have felt terribly betrayed when she didn't keep her promise not to tell his cold fish father about the self harming although i can understand why she did it.

A surprising number of my daughters friends lost their mums when they were in their early teens and, much as I tried to help I never felt that I truly understood how they were feeling, so I wanted to stick with the programme for that reason. In one scene it was as if I was seeing something that had been described by one of them, and it had me in tears. I hope the ending is uplifting because Lewis's pain is sitting heavy with me right now .