Hide and Seek

Plot

Keith, a.k.a. the Deptford Dodger, is a runaway from Borstal eager to join his dad, who has told him in a letter that he is leaving England. However, when Keith encounters two local children, he discovers that his father is actually planning a bank heist.

Cast

Peter Newby as Keith Lawson

Gary Kemp as Chris Barker

Eileen Fletcher as Beverley Dickie

Robin Askwith as fake Police Constable

Roger Avon as first workman

Richard Coleman as Police sergeant

Frances Cuka as Mrs. Dickie

Roy Dotrice as Mr. Grimes

Liz Fraser as Audrey Lawson

Godfrey James as Police Constable Dickie

Alan Lake as Lorrimer

David Lodge as baker

Alfred Marks as butcher

Terence Morgan as Ted Lawson

Johnny Shannon as Wykes

Bernard Spear as fruit vendor

Graham Stark as milkman

Critical reception

The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Although Terence Morgan is convincing as the unsuccessful master criminal, the film's surface realism is frequently offset by the comic stereotyping of the other adult characters, several of whom are played by well-known comedians. ... Though the children's parts are played with an unwavering solemnity (and some rather unsteady Cockney accents), they too are rendered less credible by a script which determinedly presents the boy from the approved school as a less resourceful version of the average boy scout ... Despite these contradictions – in part, perhaps, because of them – Hide and Seek emerges as a highly entertaining and well made adventure story for younger children. But one can't help wondering whether Deptford's teenage population will find a shade Utopian its image of a friendly local constabulary which apparently knows every inhabitant by name."

The BFI described it as "amongst the best of the CFF's 1970 (sic) output."