Barriers

1/11/1981

Billy visits his birth mother's old house in London, where he encounters fugitives from an anti-apartheid demonstration.

1/18/1981

Billy meets the mysterious Vincent Whitaker, who accompanies him to Munich where an ex-client of Whitaker's takes them to Lake Chiemsee. Frau Gruber tells Billy his mother was killed whilst crossing the Hungarian border, along with her own son. But is she telling the truth?

1/25/1981

Now in his final term, Billy learns his birth father, Jerry Toff, defected to Britain in 1955 and married, then later divorced, a glass heiress. Along with his best mate Spike and other classmates, he has a run-in with a local motorcycle gang.

2/4/1981

An unannounced visit to his father's ex-wife Charlotte in Scotland reveals that Billy has an older half-sister named Pamela. He learns little other than that his father and Charlotte met when he worked as a stable lad on her father's estate.

2/8/1981

Billy seeks help to pursue his goal of becoming a professional flautist. Meanwhile, a runaway family take refuge in his seaside cottage.

2/11/1981

Billy visits France where he learns more about his parents and helps his hosts' son fulfill a family tradition.

2/15/1981

Spike arrives unexpectedly. Billy offers to put him up for the night, causing friction between him and Mr Whitaker.

2/18/1981

Frau Gruber sends Billy his father's ring, prompting him to return to Lake Chemsee for answers. However, she will only tell him that the search for his natural father only spells peril.

2/22/1981

Billy befriends a teenage runaway who stays the night with him at his seaside cottage. Meanwhile, Mr Whitaker receives an unexpected home visit from Miss Price.

2/25/1981

An unannounced visit by Mrs Dalgleish, originally from Hungary but now the colourful and wealthy widow of a financial tycoon, affords a few more details about Billy's birth parents.

3/1/1981

3/4/1981

In Salzburg to audition for a music scholarship, Billy finds himself followed by Hilda Gruber. Instructed to kill him, she chooses instead to tell him that it was his father who died fleeing Hungary, not Karl Gruber.