Eye of the Storm is a British children's fantasy-drama Television Serial made by Childsplay Productions for CITV. Produced in 1992 and originally aired during early 1993, it was written by Richard Cooper, and starred Bill Nighy, Judy Parfitt, Kristopher Milnes, and Cordelia Bugeja in her first major role.
The serial follows teenage girl Nell Frewen and her father Tom, who have docked their titular converted boat home in Montliskeard Bay on the south coast of England. They operate an ecology watch from it, and arrive in the area to investigate a 1987 incident in which a freighter lost five barrels of what Tom believes to be toxic waste. The fifth was allegedly never found, and is deemed by him to be an ecological timebomb.
Whilst helping her father, Nell spots and approaches a disturbed young boy, Luke Montliskeard, on the cliffs. She begins to learn more about him - he is a blind psychic, abused by his malevolent foster parent Martha. It soon becomes apparent that she is plotting to find his evil alchemist forefather's five ancient jewels for a destructive cave ceremony, with which the Frewen's search for the barrel converges in a life-threatening conspiracy.
Eye of the Storm premiered across ITV in the United Kingdom from 8 January 1993 to 12 February 1993. It was originally commissioned as one of the first independent production company contributions to Meridian Broadcasting's content lineup for the network, replacing Television South after the 1991 ITV franchise auction. The series won awards
, received numerous imported broadcasts in Australia and Germany, and was repeated once in its country of origin the following year, but has not been screened or made commercially available since.
Another environmentally-conscious drama by Childsplay, Life-Force, is considered to be its Spiritual Successor.
This series provides examples of:
- Action Girl: Nell Frewen, who goes scuba diving multiple times despite the threat it poses by nearly killing her twice. Nonetheless, she saves Luke and essentially the entire south coast of England in The Climax.
- A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Erlingham, the purported ex-government green campaigner, who Tom and Nell soon discover to be Runceford, the 'field operations executive' (i.e. hitman) of the Drell Mont Corporation.
- Ancient Evil: Gilbert Montliskeard, one of Luke's 17th century ancestors only seen in visions and paintings, is very much this. His beliefs in the ways of the alchemists, made clear in his book 'Tractvs Natvralis', brought shame on his brothers. When he tried to assemble five powerful gems for a ceremony held in a nearby cave, this proved to be the last straw - he is implied to have been killed so that the gems could be scattered.
- Alchemy Is Magic: The entire Martha and Luke plot strand relies on this heavily. Martha believes the five Montliskeard gems can grant her great power over the elements of the Earth when united in a ceremony, as foretold by Gilbert. In The Climax, it is implied the gems genuinely do unlock some sort of power, with one beginning to shine brightly when the ceremony is underway.
- Big Bad: Martha, a loopy old historian who became obsessed with the outdated art of the alchemists to a dangerous extent... plus some loose morals concerning treatment of children, collusion, and criticism.
- Big "NO!": Luke, when seeing that Nell has been attacked underwater the first time.
- Black Comedy: Briefly used in dire times; Pryce likens Martha to Morticia behind her back as she makes unempathetic demands, Fran calls their group up at Montliskeard Place the 'Magic Circle' whilst explaining Rob's innocence after the attack, and Rob jokes that he thought 'saltpeter' was called as such because Martha bought it off of a bloke with the same name.
- British Rockstar: Tom, at least formerly. He has since became an environmental activist, but is still recognised by many, implied to have been to the detriment of him being taken seriously.
- Catapult Nightmare: Luke after his night terror vision of Matthew, one of his 17th century ancestors.
- Cliffhanger: Invoked nearly every episode. The first does this in the literal sense by showing Luke's face for the first time, whilst he is hanging off the edge of a cliff. Subsequent parts end on Nell being attacked underwater by an unknown hitman later revealed to be Runceford not just once, but twice. Rob is additionally subjected to one of these upon being knocked unconscious in a fight onboard the boat.
- The Climax: Becomes apparent when Martha's ceremony is interrupted spectacularly by Nell, and the cave starts to fill up with water, ruining everything that was prepared and breaking her hold on Luke.
- The Conspiracy: Nell and Tom's plot strand revolves around the cover-up of the lost barrel. This implicates the corporation that dumped it, the authorities, and to a lesser extent Martha.
- Contrived Coincidence: The ways in which the two narratives of the series converge seem as such sometimes. Fran, who Tom enlists to help with his cause, happens to be one of the gem holders. The fifth barrel ends up being found lodged in the tunnel to the cave where the fifth gem is, and its binary chemical contents are conveniently activated by one of the elements Martha wants to use for her ceremony.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Runceford, who colludes with the local authorities and Martha, steals incriminating evidence, and attacks Nell and Rob to keep his corporation's dumped barrel quiet, as well as posing as a frustrated ex-government green campaigner called Erlingham.
- Creepy Child: Luke's strange excursions to the cliffs and roof of his mansion at the start of the series, as well as his later complete submission to Martha's will - though these and his blindness are all ultimately revealed to be caused by her abuse.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Everyone who drowns in the cave during the series. But particularly Barnes, considering he was put there against his will by Martha.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Revealed by Luke's visions of his aristocratic 17th century ancestors, who are implied to have settled in and named the area. Gilbert Montliskeard and his alchemy profession, specifically his desire for the gems, tore his brothers apart - Matthew died trying to retrieve the fifth from its cave, and the others had to go their separate ways with the four that remained in an attempt to stop the union of them.
- Deadly Gas: An illegal binary chemical turns out to be the contents of the lost fifth barrel, activated when potassium nitrate is combined. Unfortunately for Tom and Nell, this just so happens to be one of the elements that Martha wants to fling around in her ceremony.
- Death by Materialism: Multiple people who have tried to retrieve the fifth gem have lost their lives in doing so (see above) - even Matthew, one of Gilbert's brothers that tried to collect and scatter all of them for the good of the world after realising his malevolent ideals.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Martha, especially when she effectively murders Barnes, upon overhearing him explaining her sad, obsessed state to Fran - though this does also act as a convenient ploy to obtain his gem that he would not hand over.
- Foreshadowing: Early on in the first episode, the underwater cave is pointedly mentioned by Tom, as the tide is coming in and audibly filling it up.
- Foster Kid: Luke. It's not explained exactly how Martha came to be his guardian - though it can be assumed that she simply gained the right to adopt him after his parents died and she bought their mansion.
- Free-Range Children: Nell constantly wanders off or goes diving whilst her father is out. Luke's room is conveniently often left unlocked, with him haphazardly roaming around the mansion grounds and meeting up with Nell and Rob as a result.
- Half-Hearted Henchman: Henry Pryce, Luke's homeschool tutor, comes across as this a lot of the time; though doing Martha's bidding, he is gluttonous, forgets to lock Luke's room, and shows signs of contempt for her actions and demands on a number of occasions.
- I'm Not Hungry: Luke, who goes on hunger strike in a childish attempt to stop his abuse.
- Intrepid Reporter: Fran Tuett, whose television programme reports on topics of green concern. She does have Tom come to her, but wastes no time in being of help to his investigation, and later trying to thwart Martha.
- I See Dead People: Luke on several occasions. This initially comes in hand with his clairvoyant visions of past events, and continues with sightings of his dead ancestors - first Gilbert as a doom-laden disembodied head, then Matthew, as a full bodied ghost in a nightmare warning him about the union of the gems.
- Karmic Death: Martha in The Climax - she dies like those before her did in the cave.
- Kid Hero: Nell by some distance in her desperate bid to save Luke, and Rob to a lesser extent.
- Near-Death Experience: Nell, twice whilst diving. She manages to swim back up to the surface on the first after having her scuba airline cut, but passes out on a dinghy whilst trying to get back to the boat - Tom ultimately brings her back to consciousness. On the second, she is very nearly stabbed, evading the knife by knocking her attacker with a loose rock from the cave tunnel and realising he was Erlingham all along.
- My Parents Are Dead: Martha tells Luke that his mother and father are dead in the first episode. He then relays this to Nell upon her asking in the following part. Nell's mother is also implied to be no longer with her and Tom. Exactly what happened to them is not clear, however, and the two don't outwardly bond over this.
- Plot Parallel: Foremostly seen in the fact that during the first episode, Martha is looking for the fifth of five gems, and Tom is looking for the fifth of five barrels.
- Psychic Child: Luke, though only limited to clairvoyant visions and flashbacks of events he is not present for.
- Really Moves Around: Tom and Nell, considering how they live on a converted boat as part of their campaign.
- Sanity Slippage: Martha, who becomes more obsessed with the search for the gems as the series goes on.
- The Scream: Happens multiple times in the cave, when those who enter it are trapped by the armillary sphere. First with Matthew in a flashback, secondly with Barnes, and lastly with Martha in The Climax.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Matthew in the visions of Luke's ancestors, trying desperately to scatter the gems.
- Supporting Leader: Fran and Rob Appleton (a teen male of around Nell's age), both coincidentally gem holders, support Tom and Nell in their struggle, even when held hostage by Martha later on.
- Temporary Blindness: Luke is introduced as blind, but the visions he sees and Martha's abusive drugging muddies the waters. The epilogue of the series clears things up fully - Martha's strange drug was inducing his blindness and visions, and he can now properly see again.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Though not foregrounded or explained in detail, Montliskeard Bay's whole namesake derives from the surnames of the aristocratic family that founded it, of whom Luke is the last living direct descendant.
- Would Hurt a Child: Nearly everyone surrounding Luke at his home - Martha drugs him, Howie manhandles him, and Tiarks threatens him. Nell is additionally subjected to some of this by Runceford.
- Wicked Cultured: Martha is eventually revealed to have once been a respected 17th century historian and teacher at Oxford, up until she wrote a book in admiration of the alchemists she'd read about. Unsurprisingly, she and the mansion are often accompanied by Ominous Pipe Organs.
