The Cinder Path is a 1972 novel by Catherine Cookson

Catherine Cookson

Dame Catherine Cookson DBE was a British author. She became the United Kingdom's most widely read novelist, with sales topping 100 million, while retaining a relatively low profile in the world of celebrity writers...

 and a 1994 film directed by Simon Langton

Simon Langton

Simon Langton is a television director and producer. He is the son of David Langton, the actor who played Richard Bellamy in Upstairs, Downstairs....

 and based on the novel.

Plot introduction

In the English countryside of the early 20th Century the working-class main protagonist must deal with a cruel and tyrannical father and later with a romantic tangle and a problematic marriage, as well as with a dark secret which he must keep hidden at all costs.

Later, he is taken into the British Army fighting on the Western Front

Western Front (World War I)

Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...

 of the First World War, where the shadows of his past pursue him and lead to a shattering climax.

Film

• Screenplay: Alan Seymour
  Alan Seymour
  Alan Seymour , is an Australian playwright and author. He was educated at Perth Modern School, leaving at 15 after failing to complete the Junior Certificate. He found work as a radio announcer in a commercial radio station 6PM. During his two years there he wrote a number of short radio plays that...
  
  
• Music: Barrington Pheloung
  Barrington Pheloung
  Barrington Somers Pheloung is an Australian composer, now living in England. He is one of the most prolific television and film composers in the UK, known for his wide range of compositional genres....
  
  
• Executive Produces: Ray Townsend & Keith Richardson
  Keith Richardson
  Keith Richardson is an English television executive who is currently Controller of Drama for ITV Yorkshire and is notable for being Executive Producer of the station's primetime soap, Emmerdale. Richardson was in charge of the programme for 24 years, during which time he oversaw its transformation...
  
  
• Producer: Ray Marshall
• Director: Simon Langton

Cast

• Lloyd Owen
  Lloyd Owen
  Lloyd Owen is a British actor of Welsh descent. Trained at the National Youth Theatre and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he is probably best known for his portrayal of Indiana Jones's father Professor Dr. Henry Jones, Sr...
  
   - as Charlie MacFell
• Catherine Zeta Jones - as Victoria Chapman
• Tom Bell
  Tom Bell (actor)
  Tom Bell was an English actor on stage, film and television. He was dark-haired, lean, and in his later years often played characters having a sinister side to their nature.-Biography:...
  
  
• Maria Miles
• Anthony Byrne
• Rosalind Ayres
  Rosalind Ayres
  Rosalind Ayres is an English actress. Active since 1970, Ayres may be best known by a wide audience for her role was in the 1997 film Titanic, in which she played Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon....