Film tells of effect on child of marriage break-up

Press, 22 July 1989, Page 18

Film tells of effect on child of marriage break-up

Sunday night’s “Mobil Masterpiece Theatre: Sun Child” (8.15 on One), written by Angela Huth, tells of the emotional price paid by one small child when her parents’ marriage shatters. Emily is eight years old, with all the sunny confidence that a happy, secure childhood can give. Her parents, Fen and Robert Harris (played by Twiggy and James Fox), are a devoted, loving couple and Emily adores her beautiful mother and successful father and their rambling old house in the country. The only occasional visitors to this peaceful haven are Emily’s best friend, David; Robert’s loyal and efficient secretary, Marcia Burrows; and Fen’s brother, Tom, a theatre director. Fen seems content to stay at home with her daughter and there is nothing to spoil Emily’s idyllic existence — except that her father’s work takes him away from home more often than she would wish.

It is during one of Robert’s absences that Fen begins a compulsive new friendship. Mark McCloud is an actor and it is Tom who first introduces him to the family. Emily thinks the world of her Uncle Tom but is less sure of Mark. She becomes annoyed and troubled by Mark’s subsequent appearances at the house while her father is away on a long business trip in Africa.