Studio: BBC
Director: John Hay
Runtime: 180 min.

When their mother goes on holiday with her new boyfriend, Barney (Thomas Sangster) and his sister Lou (Perdita Weeks) are sent to their grandparents (Geoffrey Palmer and Phyllida Law) for the summer months.

However, the siblings' fear of being bored quickly evaporates when Barney is chased into the forest by local bullies, the infamous Snarget brothers.

In a desperate bid to escape, Barney falls over the edge of a quarry pit, through a grass roof and straight into the home of a pre-historic man.

Barney befriends this unusual-looking character and names him Stig (Robert Tannion).

But he quickly realises that his new friend is from a completely different time and place. He is, in fact, a real life caveman.

As the pair teach each other about their different worlds, Barney also has to find a way to get Stig back to his original time and people.

The only problem is that Barney's grandparents are becoming increasingly worried about him.

He keeps talking about "Stig".

Is this Stig an imaginary friend? Or a real person?

Episode One - Over the Edge
Barney and Lou are staying with their grandparents - Marjorie and Robert - for the summer holidays, whilst their mum, Caroline, goes on holiday with her new boyfriend, Stephen.

Exploring the woods, Barney stumbles across the village bullies, the Snarget brothers - Billy, Kenny and Danny - building a den. A chase ensues and Barney topples over the edge of a disused quarry.

A canopy of ferns and branches breaks his fall and he finds himself lying on the floor of a shelter. Terrified, Barney sees a dark shape shuffling towards him and suddenly he is face to face with a caveman.

In an attempt to placate the creature, Barney offers it his watch, and in return is given a flint knife. The creature then shows Barney the way out of the quarry.

Later on his computer, Barney searches the web and finds a picture of the creature in the quarry.

It is Stiganopithecus - a caveman who lived over a hundred thousand years ago. Naturally, Lou doesn't believe Barney's story of the caveman in the woods, but much to his annoyance tells their grandparents.

Barney returns with presents, in order to get his watch back, but all he gets from the caveman is a half-eaten turnip.

Naming him Stig, (after the Stiganopithecus on his website) Barney helps him light his fire. Stig shows him inside his secret cave, which is full of salvaged junk from the rubbish tip and, together, they finish making a window from bottles held together with mud.

Later that day Barney returns to see Stig, but once more comes face to face with the Snarget brothers.

Episode TWO - The Snargets
The Snargets have captured Barney, but argue over what to do with him.

The older brothers try to sell the junk they have collected at the tip to Gypsy Dave, a scrap dealer, whilst Danny goes in search of an ants' nest with which to torture Barney.

Stig sets Barney free and captures Danny, whose brothers don't believe his story of the hairy caveman.

Meanwhile, Majorie, Barney's grandmother, is concerned about her grandson who keeps taking "useful" things for Stig, telling him not to let his imagination run away with him.

She suggests to Robert that Barney is being bullied into taking things and has invented Stig as he can't bear to talk about it.

She tells Robert to follow him; and a curious Danny also follows Barney to Stig's cave. Stig and Barney make a chimney for the cave out of old paint tins.

But when Barney returns that evening, he discovers that the Snargets have vandalised the cave and even destroyed the new chimney.

Episode Three - The Clean Boot
Barney is rebuilding Stig's chimney, whist Stig discovers a new talent - drawing. Finding a sketch book of Barney's and discovering that pencils are too fiddly, he soon learns to draw in charcoal on the cave wall.

Meanwhile, Lou's friends - Flora and Becky - invite her to the local hunt. But she's not keen until the gorgeous Nathan Pinchbeck persuades her, explaining that it's only a draghunt where they hunt the "clean boot" - namely himself.

Stig has drawn a hunting scene on his cave wall and Barney realises he wants to eat meat. But when Stig refuses the hamburger Barney has bought for him, he realises Stig wants to catch his own dinner.

Together they make bows and arrows and Stig dresses in his new hunting gear - snorkel, mask and Bermuda shorts, presents for Barney from his mum's holiday.

On the drag hunt, Lou becomes separated from the rest of the party; and Nathan falls over a waterfall and onto a rocky ledge, Stig and Barney spot Nathan and Stig hauls him to safety.

Lou arrives and almost bumps into Stig.

Later, Stig leads the pack of hounds along the riverbank to the pool, and hides underwater using his snorkel and mask when the Master of Hounds arrives.

The hounds lead the huntsmen to the waterfall, where they find Nathan and call an ambulance.

Later, Barney notices that Stig is still wistful about his old life as a hunter in his caveman community.

Episode Four - Undercover
Damian, a honey television engineer, calls at Miss Hardwick's house for a "quick quality control check" of her satellite television system, and takes away her television set claiming there's a problem with it. Only after he's gone does she realise that he has also taken her purse, jewellery and a clock, and calls the police.

WPC Egerton calls at Robert's house with news of the burglar, and Barney is determined to help catch the thief by going undercover.

Meanwhile, in the woods, Stig watches a yellow monster with fascination - it's a JCB digger clearing trees.

Damian arrives at the rubbish tip and off-loads Miss Hardwick's TV with Dave in return for cash. He then calls at Barney's grandparents' house, claiming to be Detective Sergeant Catchpole investigating Miss Hardwick's burglary.

Stig draws a picture of the yellow JCB monster on his cave wall and daubs his face with yellow paint.

Barney tells Stig that he doesn't want to go and live in London - he'll miss Stig too much.

Whilst Robert and Barney are out, Damian breaks into their house, and captures the real Detective Sergeant, locking him in the cellar.

When Barney returns from Stig's cave, Damian tells him he caught the burglar and invites Barney to go with him to get back-up.

At the rubbish tip Damian claims that Dave is also undercover and is really his boss, Chief Inspector Trubshaw. But while the two men chat, Barney sees his money box and his grandparents' valuables in Damian's van.

He tries to escape, but Damian and Dave stop him. Stig has seen everything and comes to Barney's rescue by using the JCB to stop their getaway van.

WPC Egerton tells Miss Hardwick and Robert what happened, but they can't find the loot in the quarry.

Barney rushes to Stig's cave where all the stolen goods are, but WPC Egerton has followed him. She tells Robert that it's not safe for Barney to be at the quarry, and tells him there's definitely someone living down there.

Barney overhears and rushes back to Stig's cave, all ready for the pair of them to run away together, but his friend is nowhere to be seen.

Episode Five - Man Of The Match
Barney has spent the night alone in Stig's cave and is found the next morning by WPC Egerton.

Back at home, Dr Pelham has been called and again, Barney tries to explain who Stig is.

Barney is miserable and blames himself for Stig's disappearance.

Dr Pelham tells Marjorie that imaginary friends are quite common, and that Barney needs a hobby. He invites Barney to train for the local football team, but when he does, the Snarget brothers give him a hard time.

WPC Egerton explains to Robert and Marjorie that a development company owned by Councillor Fishwick, has bought the quarry, and Barney is furious to discover that Marjorie has written a petition calling on the local council to fill in the quarry as soon as possible and make it safe.

Danny Snarget finds Stig's watch in the woods and follows Barney to Stig's cave. There is still no sign of Stig, but a fresh drawing on the wall tells Barney that he has been back.

He and Danny study the new drawing, which depicts cavemen kneeling in front of rectangular shapes, one of them caught against a stark white background. It reminds Danny of something – the stones at Scraper Low.

Danny takes Barney to Scraper Low where they see a diagram of how the ancient monument would have looked in Stig's time - just as he drew on the cave wall.

Back at the cave Danny and Barney compare Barney's sketch of the stones with Stig's, and Barney is overjoyed when Stig appears.

When Barney overhears that work will start on the quarry the next day, he and Danny rush to the cave to find somewhere else for Stig to live.

Stig doesn't seem worried by his predicament - he's too busy showing off his footballing skills.

The next day, Danny and Barney compete in the football match, whilst Fishwick's construction workers start fencing off the quarry in order to blast it with semtex.

At the match, Stig comes to Barney's rescue by trapping the bullying Kenny Snarget in the goal net, but the rain-soaked caveman can't get back to his home.

BBC