DICK TURPIN
The best known of all 18c highwaymen, working mainly around London (but eventually hanged in York), Dick Turpin and his horse, Black Bess, became legend in the 19c thanks to the Penny Dreadfuls, sensational stories of gruesome events serialised in weekly parts at the cost of one penny. A romantic version of the Turpin legend had already been filmed in 1933 starring Victor McLagen (an instantly forgettable film that is perhaps only notable for starring James Finlayson -the comic foil or protagonist to comic legends Laurel and Hardy in numerous movies). This 1979 TV version starring former ’Man About The House’ star Richard O'Sullivan was no less of a romantic tale. Turpin, cheated out of his wealth while on duty in Flanders, decides to regain his money using his own, not so lawful methods. The law was represented as corrupt in the form of Sir John Glutton (Christopher Benjamin) and his sneering sidekick, Capt. Nathan Spiker (David Daker), whilst Turpin was assisted by a young tearaway by the name of Swiftnick (Michael Deeks). A spin-off mini series, ’Dick Turpin's Greatest Adventures’ (1981) starred ’Dallas’ bad girl Mary Crosby.
25 episodes of 30 minute duration. LWT 1979 - 1981
Fun, free-wheeling, undemanding early adventure series, ’Cannonball’ was a series of half-hour family dramas chronicling the adventures of two truckers who hauled freight on the highways of Canada and the U.S.A. U.S. actors Paul Birch (Mike Malone) and William Campbell (Jerry Austin) in what was essentially a format to the later and classic, ’Route 66’. Filmed around Toronto, Canada, the series was a joint Canadian/UK production, yet another example of Lew Grade's incredibly prolific ITC company co-production output. It aired in Canada on Mondays at 9.30pm on the CBC network. Apart from its two American leads, the series relied heavily on Canadian talent in supporting roles. Beth Lockerbie was Mary Malone, Mike's wife, and Beth Morris and Steve Barringer were Ginny and Butch Malone. Howard Milsom portrayed dispatcher Harry Butler. Other Canadian character actors who appeared in the show included Ruth Springford, Alfie Scopp, Sylvia Lennick, Eric House, and Cy Mack. Interestingly, the concept was revived fifteen years later in 1974, for the short-lived series starring Claude Akins and Frank Converse; ’Movin' On’.
A minor hit on both sides of the Atlantic starring Hollywood screen star Robert Taylor as the hard-nosed and humourless Captain Matt Holbrook, head of a city's detective department. The series was dropped by ABC after its second season but was picked up for one more run by NBC in 1961 under the title ’The Detectives, Starring Robert Taylor’. In the UK it was more appropriately named ’Captain of Detectives’, not relying on the star's name in the title to draw in the audience. Each episode allowed a different member of Holbrook's team to take centre stage and they included Lt. John Russo (Tige Andrews) and Sgt Chris Ballard (Mark Goddard). Holbrook himself was a widower who had little time for romance, although there was a brief affair with a police reporter called Lisa Bonay, who was played by Taylor's real-life wife Ursula Thiess. In the final season the team were joined by Sgt Steve Nelson played by an actor who would go on to make his own mark in television heaven as TV's ’Batman’...Adam West.
Popular Western series for kids that was made along similar lines to 'The Lone Ranger', 'The Cisco Kid' and other successfully syndicated shows of the late 1950's. Alan Hale Jnr (who was later marooned with the rest of the 'Gilligan's Island' crew) starred as the heroic driver of the Cannonball Express, which traversed the Illinois Central Railroad circa 1890. Unlike the song from which the show was derived Casey Jones (steamin' and a rollin') didn't meet with a sticky end and with the aid of his wife, Alice (Mary Lawrence), son, Casey Jnr (Bobby Clark), fireman, Wallie Simms (Dub Taylor), conductor, Red Rock (Eddy Waller) and faithful dog, Cinders, Jackson Tennessee's most notable citizen outwitted the slimy sidewinder's that attempted to break the law or would otherwise stop him bringing his train in on time.
Checkmate Inc., was a very expensive investigative agency operating in San Francisco and owned by Don Corey (Anthony George) and Jed Sills (Doug McClure), protecting the lives of people who had become targets of the criminal underworld. Aiding and abetting the duo was Oxford professor of criminology Dr. Carl Hyatt (Sebastian Cabbot) who was employed as a special consultant to the firm. Investigator Chris Devlin (Jack Betts) joined for the final season.
Made during an era when TV Westerns were hugely popular, Clint Walker (real name Eugene Walker) starred as half-breed frontier scout, Cheyenne Bodie, who travelled the Wild West in the years following the Civil War. The show was given more of a lavish look by Warner Bros by including action scenes taken directly from their all action Western movies. Behind the scenes the series was beset with problems. At the end of season two Walker entered into a contract dispute with the studio and was promptly dropped. The series retained its title but now starred Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne. Then Walker was re-instated and the show continued as part of an anthology series where it rotated with ’Sugarfoot’, and Hardin's new series, ’Bronco’. In 1962 it went solo again but only for one more season, at the end of which Walker rode off into the sunset for the last time.
An acronym for California Highway Patrol this US cop-series starred Erik Estrada as devil-may-care Officer Francis 'Ponch' Poncherello and Larry Wilcox as the more down to earth Officer Jonathan Baker. Together the twosome patrolled (on motorbikes) the highways and byways around the vast Los Angeles freeway system where the action was divided between enforcing the law and eyeing the City of Angels' foxy ladies. Typical of its time the series downplayed the violent aspect of a policeman's lot to concentrate on the 'human interest' and humorous elements of their work although the action was beefed up with auto-crashes galore. Estrada fell out with the studio over pay and was replaced by former Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner as Officer Steve McLeish, but this proved a temporary absence and Estrada returned. However, Wilcox then left permanently (rumour has it the two stars never saw eye to eye) and in 1983 the series was cancelled. Michael Dorn, who would go on to find success in ’Star Trek: The Next Generation’ starred as Officer Turner from 1979 to 1982.
When Tony Hancock decided to do away with the services of Sid James the BBC offered the actor a series of his own, written by Hancock's scriptwriters, Galton and Simpson.
Within a few years, Hancock, his career in steady decline, took his own life -whilst Sid, the master of the dirty laugh, became the star of no less than 19 'Carry On' films and in the process walked into the hearts of an adoring British public. The character of Sidney Balmoral James in 'Citizen James' was set in the same mould as the growling, fast-talking, quick thinking Cockney gambler of the Hancock series', aided on this occasion by his girlfriend, Liz (Liz Fraser) and sidekick, Bill (Bill Kerr -another former Hancock regular). Although the character had somewhat dubious morals, as the series progressed he became less of a layabout and more of a champion for the underdog, until finally, by the third and final series (scripted by Dick Hills and Sid Green) Sid had a fully developed social conscience with which he championed many a good cause. With this change of character Sydney Tafler as Sid's new assistant, Charlie Davenport, replaced both Kerr and Fraser.
Based on (John) Dickson Carr's collection of short stories first published in 1940 under the title 'The Department of Queer Complaints', Colonel March was a British series made in 1953 by Sapphire, although it didn't get a UK airing until the birth of Independent Television in 1955, by which time three of its (compilation) episodes had been released as a feature film; 'Colonel March Investigates'. Playing the one-eyed detective was Hollywood screen legend Boris Karloff, who had won recognition in Universal's acclaimed 1931 production of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's classic horror story, 'Frankenstein'. Working out of D-3, Scotland Yard's department for seemingly unsolvable cases, March's investigations brought him into contact with the impossible, the unnatural and the supernatural. However, with dogged determination the good detective, aided and abetted on occasions by Ewan Roberts, Eric Pohlmann and Richard Wattis managed to solve such mysteries as 'The Case of the Lively Ghost', 'The Sorcerer' and 'The Second Mona Lisa'.
It is June 1940 - and Britain stands alone. The choice of Colonel Trumper (Dennis Price) to rescue a Polish professor proves that our backs are indeed against the wall. Following his rescue the professor, (played by Warren Mitchell), joins Trumper's unit which also included Pvt. Hicks (George Tovey). Each week Trumper and his unit are sent on a different undercover mission in Europe, but not before they complete preperations at a highly secret School of Espionage where they manage to pass their final test-with some degree of success. Trumper, of British Counter-Intelligence, was described in a 'TV Times' article as the man "with the mind of a criminal and the morals of a Borgia." Somehow, though-he managed to muddle through each assignment. He took his orders from a Lt. Hasting (William Gaunt). This was television's first attempt at making a sitcom set during the War years. The series first aired at 8.55pm on Friday 15th September 1961. By October the cast had been demobbed.
Children's entertainment show that had it's roots firmly set in the old music hall/variety tradition. Introduced each week with the by-line "It's Friday, it's five to five, and it's Crackerjack!" to which the shows adolescent audience at the BBC's Children's Television Centre would echo the shows title at the top of their voice (and indeed throughout the show whenever it was mentioned). Originally introduced by ex-boxing commentator Eamonn Andrews (later to host ’This Is Your Life’), but perhaps best remembered for it's golden era when co-hosts Leslie Crowther and Peter Glaze would perform comedy routines, introduce the guest pop act, and host the weekly quiz 'Double or Drop' (devised by Andrews in the shows early days), in which contestants were given a prize for a correct answer or a cabbage for a wrong one, and then had to hold as many as they could without dropping them. Win or lose everyone went home with a 'Crackerjack Pencil' -heady stuff!
Richard Crane decided to give up the life of a city businessman and trade it in for one of excitement and adventure in Morocco. He said goodbye to his safe suburban home and headed for the sun, bought himself a boat and opened a beachfront bar near Casablanca. He also had a nice little operation dealing in illegal contraband. Keeping a watchful eye on his activities was local police chief Colonel Mahmoud (Gerald Flood), although there were times when the two men joined forces to work against 'serious' criminals. Crane also had an accomplice in the form of ex-French Foreign Legionnaire, Orlando O'Connor (Sam Kydd), who later reappeared on British shores in the children's adventure series, 'Orlando.' Glamour was provided by café bartender, Halima (Laya Raki). The show's star, Patrick Allen, had previously appeared on stage with the Royal Shakespeare Memorial Company in Stratford-on-Avon and was offered the role of Crane whilst playing Achilles in "Troilus and Cressida". Immediately the play was over he left for Morocco, where most of the filming for the series took place. Allen went on to appear in numerous other series although he is probably best remembered for his deep, authoritative voice, which kept him in television-commercial voiceovers for years to come. He was also the 'four-minute warning man' on the Frankie Goes To Hollywood hit single, 'Two Tribes.'
Based on the 1965 movie 'Clarence, the Cross-Eyed Lion,' and appearing on television in the same year as the motion picture 'Born Free' this series tapped into the public's sudden affection for all things wildlife. 'Daktari' (the Swahili name for doctor) which replaced 'Rawhide' on CBS was set at the Wameru Study Centre for Animal Behaviour in East Africa and was run by Dr. Marsh Tracy (Marshall Thompson) and his daughter/assistant Paula (Cheryl Miller), assisted by US conservationist Jack Dane (Yale Summers), and Mike (Hari Rhodes), a native African. In truth, the series was filmed (rather convincingly) at Africa, USA, a wildlife park near Los Angeles. The real stars of the series were Clarence the lion Judy the chimpanzee. Judy loved to climb on Clarence's back for a free ride and the lion was so mild mannered that it let her. The concept was developed by producer Ivan Tors who was inspired by the work of Dr. A.M. Harthoorn at his animal rights orphanage in Nairobi and a visit to Africa, USA where he first came across Clarence and the animal's odd physical condition. When the audience saw what Clarence saw, it was in double vision. In the last season a seven-year old orphan joined the family. Young Jenny Jones was played by Erin Moran who would find even greater television fame as Joanie Cunningham in both 'Happy Days' and 'Joanie Loves Chachi.'
A 12-year old boy overhears two sinister men plotting to assassinate their country's ruler. That is the sudden drama which faces Nicholas, holidaying on a Mediterranian island. Unsure who to tell and who to trust, Nicholas goes on the run. Mervyn Joseph played Nicholas, his first part in a TV series, although he had appeared previously on television in a milk commercial. For the story, "Southerner," the high-powered jet-engined launch owned by Southern Television, usually used for outside news broadcasts, was 'armed' and fitted out as a gunboat. This series also featured real-life husband and wife team Eric Barker and Pearl Hackney.
Years before ’Lou Grant’ became a massive hit in the US, British series ’Deadline Midnight’ focused on the investigative reporting team of fictitious Fleet Street newspaper The Daily Globe. The series featured the usual suspects of editors, senior reporters, the hard-bitten veteran and the less than efficient junior. To give the series credit it brought in former Daily Express editor Arthur Christiansen, who was been employed by ATV as Editorial Advisor, to oversee the series authenticity. It also gave an early TV outing to Peter Vaughan who went on to appear in 1969's ’The Gold Robbers’, Wolfie Smith's prospective father-in-law in ’Citizen Smith’ and the less-than-genial Harry Grout in ’Porridge’. When he left the series he was replaced by Glyn Houston.
Created by cartoonist Hank Ketcham, Dennis first appeared in US newspapers in 1951 before making his television debut in October 1959 in the person of 7 year-old actor Jay North.
Although Dennis's long suffering parents had to endure the antics of a child who always tried to help out -only to find that he had created mayhem in his wake, their plight was nothing compared to that of luckless next door neighbour George Wilson. Actor Joseph Kearns died before filming had been completed for the 1961-62 season and was replaced by Gale Gordon, who was initially introduced as George's brother, John. For the last season John moved into the house next door with a wife of his own. By that time, the lovable tyke was 11 years old, but still dressed in striped tee-shirt and dungarees. In the UK the series was renamed 'Just Dennis' to avoid confusion with the Dennis the Menace cartoon strip in the popular children's comic, Beano. The series continued in reruns for many years, in 1987 there was a one-off sequel starring Victor DiMattia as Dennis and an animated series ran from 1986 to 1988. But by far the most successful revival was the 1993 feature film, 'Dennis', starring Mason Gamble and Malter Matthau.
Billed as the British equivalent to 'Highway Patrol', 'Dial 999' was an above standard cops n' robbers thriller starring Canadian actor Robert Beatty as Detective Inspector Michael McGuire. What set this show aside from the standard police series format was that it was made with the cooperation of Scotland Yard, and threw a spotlight on real police methods of the time. Advisor to the series was an ex-Superintendent by the name of Tom Fallon -in fact the very man who had been responsible for setting up the 999 emergency call service for the London area. The series centred around McGuire, a "Mountie" who had been seconded on temporary assignment to "The Yard" to study advanced crime detection techniques. He was assisted by Detective Inspector Winter (Duncan Lamont) and Detective Sergeant West (John Witty). This Anglo/American venture was co-produced by ATV and Ziv Television Programmes in America, where it received its first airing. A number of scenes were shot at Elstree Studios, but the shows large budget ($1¼ million) allowed for extensive location scenes in the streets of London and of many provincial cities.
