Soldier and Me - Season 1 (1974)

The boys go on the run North hoping to reach refuge with a friend of Wiloctt's. However they are hotly pursued by Smiler and the rest of the gang and are forced to cut their plan short by jumping off their train in the middle of nowhere

Lost, cold and hungry the boys stay the night in an abandoned quarry where they find an OS map and try to navigate a route to Wilcott's friend's farm and safety. However the gang relentlessly pursue them to the point of exhaustion

The gang have put the word out that the boys are escapees from borstal. The ruse works when a farmer rings them after scaring the boys from his hayloft. Exhausted but with refuge within reach they are unaware how close the gang is.

The boys make it to the refuge of their friend's farm only to discover it's the wrong one. The owner takes pity on them and gives them some food but secretly he too has heard of the runaways and calls the gang. All looks lost for the boys

Captured, the boys are blindfolded and driven to a secret location to await their fate where another shock is in store for them. Meanwhile, the wife of the farmer who had turned them in starts having second thoughts about their identity.

As the truth about the cripple and his connection to the gang is revealed and with no-one knowing where they are, the boys realise that their fate is doomed.