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Barriers

Action & AdventureFamilyDrama

Teenage Billy Stanyon faces the loss of his parents in a sailing accident, only to discover that he was adopted. Billy then sets off on a journey to find his biological parents that takes him across Europe.

Jan 4, 19812 seasons20 episodesEndedEN

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Benedict Taylor

Billy Stanyon

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Paul Rogers

Vincent Whitaker

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Seasons

Series 1

13 episodes

Premiered Jan 4, 1981

Series 2

7 episodes

Premiered Jan 10, 1982

Episodes

1–6 of 13

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Ep 1

Part 1

Jan 4, 1981

25m

Six months before his 18th birthday, Billy Stanyon's mother and father die in a sailing accident. They leave him a flute, some letters, and the knowledge that they were not his biological parents.

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Ep 2

Part 2

Jan 11, 1981

25m

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

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Ep 3

Part 3

Jan 18, 1981

25m

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?

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Ep 4

Part 4

Jan 25, 1981

25m

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.

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Ep 5

Part 5

Feb 4, 1981

25m

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.

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Ep 6