morbid outlook on death. Michael spends increasing time with his school friends and chafes at Barries's desire to keep him close; he drowns short of his 21st birthday. In later years, Barrie suffers loneliness but takes some measure of enjoyment in the company of the young son of his secretary, Lady Cynthia Asquith (Sheila Ruskin). Cast J. M. Barrie - Ian Holm – His son Barnaby plays the eldest of the Davies boys in the scenes in which the two become friends. Sylvia Llewelyn Davies - Ann Bell Arthur Llewelyn Davies - Tim Pigott-Smith Mary Hodgson - Anna Cropper Mary Barrie - Maureen O'Brien Charles Frohman - William Hootkins Each of the boys is portrayed by a series of young actors as the years pass within the story: George Llewelyn Davies - Barnaby Holm, Paul Holmes, Philip Kassler, Mark Benson, and Christopher Blake Jack Llewelyn Davies - Nicholas Borton, Guy Hewitt, David Wilson, and Osmund Bullock Peter Llewelyn Davies - Jean-Benoit Louveaux, Matthew Blakstad, Dominic Heath, and Tom Kelly Michael Llewelyn Davies - Sebastian Buss, Paul Spurrier, Alexander Buss, Charles Tatnall, and William Relton Nicholas Llewelyn Davies - Stephen Mathews, Jason Fathers, Matthew Ryan, and David Parfitt Background Writer Andrew Birkin had been hired to work on a musical adaptation of Peter Pan starring Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye. Wishing to spend more time with Farrow, Birkin 'justified [his] presence on the set by becoming the resident Barrie expert.' His proposal to the BBC was based on his notes from that research. Birkin worked closely with Nicholas Llewelyn Davies, the youngest and last survivor of the five brothers, and his script adheres closely to the known facts and timeline of the Barries' and the Davies's lives, sometimes using surviving correspondence between the subjects as the basis for dialogue. Reception The Lost Boys was first aired on BBC-2 television in three weekly 90-minute episodes, beginning 11 October 1978. Reviews were highly favourable. The critic Sean Day-Lewis wrote in The Daily Telegraph, 'I doubt if biography has ever been better televised than in this sensitive and beautifully crafted masterpiece, and I am quite sure such excellence is beyond any other television service in the world. ... The entire House of Commons should be required to view it before voting on the proposed increase in BBC funding.' Janet Dunbar (Barrie's 1971 biographer) called it 'a brilliant achievement ... a classic in the television