Starring Naomi Watts, James Earl Jones

Those who saw The Christmas Box will remember how Richard Evans (Richard Thomas) met aged widow Mary Parkin and how they transformed and enriched one another’­s lives.

Timepiece begins on the wedding eve of Richard’­s daughter, Jenna, when he gives her Mary’­s rose-gold watch and tells her the story of Mary’­s life.

Set in the 1940s, Timepiece is a prequel to the movie Christmas Box and stars Naomi Watts as Mary, a British transplant not yet married to her widowed boss, businessman David Parkin (Kevin Kilner). The plot centers on the story of Lawrence Flynn (James Earl Jones), an old black clock-maker who is accused of murdering the bullying white bigot who’d been tormenting him. As the town’s legal authorities prepare to throw the book at Flynn, David Parkin steps forward to make a statement that will win him the undying love and fidelity of the impressionable All the while, Kilner’s family life is in disarray with various crises including his daughter Andrea (Mercedes Villamil) catching meningitis.

This made-for-TV family drama is adapted from a novel by Richard Paul Evans, and made its first CBS network appearance on December 22, 1996.