john thaw and of inspector morse fame and play old tom oakley in this movie . tom live in a tiny english village during 1939 and the start of the second world war . a bit of a recluse and tom have not yet recover from the death of his wife and son while he be serve during the first world war . if you can imagine inspector morse old and retired and twice as crochety a when he be a policeman and then you have get tom oakley character . yet this heart of flint be about to melt . london child be evacuate in advance of the blitz . young william ( willie ) beech be billet with the protesting tom . willie be play to good effect by nick robinson . this boy be in need of care with a capital c. behind in school and still wet the bed and and unable to read be the small of his problem . he come from a horrific background in london and with a mother who can not cope and to put it mildly . slowly and yet steadily and man and boy warm to each other . tom discovers again his ability to love and care . and the boy learn to accept this love and caring . see tom and willie build a bomb shelter at the end of their garden . see willie joy at what be probably his first ever birthday party thrown by tom . not to give away the end and but willie be adopt by tom after much struggle and and the pair begin a new life much rich for their mutual love . in this movie and thaw and robinson be follow in a long line of movie where man meet boy and develop a mutual love . see the late dirk bogarde and jon whiteley in spanish gardener . or clark gable and carlo angeletti in it start in naples . or robert ulrich and kenny vadas in captain courageous . or mel gibson and nick stahl in man without a face . two point of interest . this be the only appearance of thaw that i know of where he sing . only a verse of a hymn and new jerusalem and but he do sing . second and young robinson also star in a second movie feature tom in the title and tom midnight garden and which be base on a classic child novel .