Billy The Kid

The year is 1871. Billy McCarty (Jonah Collier) is a 12- year- old boy living with his younger brother Joe and his parents, Patrick and Kathleen, in squalid rented accommodation in New York. They are Irish immigrants. They can't find jobs in the city and are advised to go west, to a land of new opportunities. Patrick is reluctant to leave but his strong-minded wife persuades him, and so they join a wagon-train travelling out to a place called Coffeyville, in Kansas. The journey is dangerous -- they lose all their luggage and are attacked by horse thieves along the way -- and Patrick becomes increasingly depressed and unwell. Their destination is not the golden land of their dreams either.

Kathleen McCarty travels with her two young sons, Billy and Joe, towards Santa Fe and a new beginning. Along the trail, the wagon driver attempts to rape her, and Billy pulls a gun on him. In Sante Fe Kathleen soon finds a job working as a waitress, but life is hard. She meets a man -- Henry Antrim -- who seems respectable and kindly, and for the sake of the children agrees to marry him. But Bill is suspicious of Antrim's motives. We cut forward in time. Billy is 5 years older and he has some very hard lessons to learn.

Antrim and Kathleen, with her two sons Billy and Joe, have moved on to Silver City to escape Antrim's creditors. Antrim tries his hand at mining but nearly kills himself, and returns to his life of drinking and whoring. Kathleen works in a restaurant and Billy gambles but fails to find a job as a cowboy. He meets Jesse Evans, a petty criminal but a charismatic figure who coaxes Billy into doing some cattle rustling so that Billy can support his family. But then tragedy strikes and Billy loses everything. He and Jesse try robbing a Chinese laundry for funds, but everything does not go according to plan.

Billy rides away from Silver City but is ambushed by a character called Alias, who leads him into fresh troubles. Alias persuades Billy to change his name to William H. Bonney, and then join him in some cattle rustling. Billy falls out with a local blacksmith and in a drunken brawl Billy kills him in self-defense – but is still jailed for murder. Once again he manages to escape – but he can't escape when a party of Apaches ambush him and take his horse. Billy is left to walk through the desert alone and without water. He collapses and almost dies but is rescued and finds himself recovering with the help of a young woman called Barbara Jones, who belongs to an outlaw gang. They have a brief affair, ended by the return of the gang – led by none other than Jesse Evans.

Rather than share his girlfriend with Jesse, Billy once more takes to the trail that leads him inexorably into Mexico – and yet more trouble. Reaching Chihuahua, he falls in with a young Mexican gambler called Segura. Billy and Segura enjoy several dramatic escapades together, including a failed attempt to rob a bank, being fleeced by two beautiful young Mexican women, and fleecing, in turn, a dangerous Mexican poker dealer called Don Ortiz. After leaving with his money, Billy and Segura agree to go their separate ways – only for Don Ortiz and three of his killers to hunt down Billy for a final showdown.

Always on the run from his past, Billy bumps into an ex-buffalo hunter called Pat Garrett, who has joined up with Jesse Evans and his 7 Rivers Gang. He takes Billy to their camp, where Jesse and Billy are once more reunited. Billy signs up for some cattle rustling but he still dreams of someday being able to go straight. But not yet. He makes an enemy of one of the gang called Olinger and then a cattle raid goes badly wrong. The law are after the gang, who plan to escape to the lawless realms of Lincoln County. But Billy is deflected by being asked to free his friend Segura from jail. He manages – but Segura, seeing his ruthless side, tells him he's changed, and Billy starts to fear that he will never get the chance to go straight.

Billy joins Jesse, Pat Garrett and another outlaw called Frank Baker, as well as the rest of the 7 Rivers Gang in their new camp just outside the town of Lincoln. They tell Billy that the big man in these parts, Major Murphy, wants to recruit the gang to help protect his (often criminal) interests. Billy and the others meet Murphy and his henchmen, Dolan and Riley, who make it clear that the gang's principal job will be to monitor and disrupt the activities of a new rival to Murphy's business – an Englishman called John Tunstall. Friends of Tunstall's try to lure Billy away from Murphy's employ. Billy is hesitant – but finally agrees to meet in secret with Tunstall's lawyer, McSween.

We are on the eve of the Lincoln County War. Murphy's henchmen put pressure on Jesse and the gang to ramp up their threats against the farmers, mostly Mexican, who have signed with Tunstall. Billy doesn't want to join this campaign of intimidation. Without his presence, Jesse and the gang go on a violent rampage, shooting several farmers, as well as some of their wives and daughters. Billy is outraged. He decides to leave Murphy's firm – and join Tunstall's. But before he does so, there is something he has to do: go back to camp and tell Jesse and the others of his decision to quit. It's an extremely dangerous move.

Created by Michael Hirst ("Vikings"), this epic romantic adventure series tells the life story of Billy the Kid - also known as William H. Bonney - from his humble Irish roots and his early days as a cowboy and gunslinger in the American frontier, to his pivotal role in the Lincoln County War and beyond.