The original 1969 Randall and Hopkirk; who remembers it?
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This was my favourite TV series in late '69 which used to be on a Friday evening after a serries called Parkin's Patch in our ITV region at least. This half hour police series seemed last ages. The production values on R&H were not exactly top notch [Kenneth Cope wore his wig back to front for four episodes I believe], but it was miles ahead of Reeves and Mortimer version.
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I have all 26 episodes on DVD from rcent ITV4 screenings. as well as all 30 eps. of 'Man in a Suitcase' although I was not fussed at the time it was originally on.
Why not buy the episodes on proper dvd?
The ITV4 versions are all missing between 3 and 4 minutes each .
The dvd boxset also has 4 episodes with the original opening credits seen on the ITV broadcasts of the 70's but then lost until 2000.
The dvd boxset also has a couple of nice documentaries.
One reunites Annette Andre and Kenneth Cope and the other is a tribute to Mike Pratt who died in 1976 , so he was never able to see just how appreciated the series was despite ITV's best efforts to bury it when it was first on.
Production values were far higher than most British tv shows at the time simply by being made on 35mm film which is why it stands up today and why its suitable for a Bluray release.
It's not as glossy and colourful as The Champions or The Persuaders but then its not supposed to be .
It's about a hard up downtrodden PI who can't afford to pay his bills.
R&H is my fave British series of all time.
I finally got round to watching the first episode of the remake a few weeks ago but I've not watched anymore yet.
The arrival of Tom Baker as someone from the world where Marty lives sounds really crap but I will give it another go soon.
The series is generally seen as the most popular of all the ITC shows of that era.
ITV repeated it in the mid 80's and it was the first ITC show aired by the BBC after the Gerry Anderson series .
But its been done to death on ITV4
Unfortunately that was where it was nearly always shown.
Or last thing at night.
It's testament to the quality of the show that being buried in the schedules was not a big enough hurdle to make people forget it.
When it was first on I lived in Anglia land who ignored it for a whole year but fortunately I could also receive London ITV so I managed to see some of the series when it first appeared on sundays at 7.25 on LWT in 1969 and I then followed it as best I could when they moved it to Fridays at 7.30 in Jan 1970.
I caught some weekend repeats in the early 70's but by 1973 we had moved and I had no access to LWT so I was stuck catching the odd Anglia afternoon broadcast in school holidays and I was gutted when I missed a good run on saturday mornings by LWT in 1975.
Many regions aired it on sunday afternoons but not Anglia:mad:
When ITV started repeating it in the mid 80's I was mortified that the original "only you jeff only you" credits were gone .
If I remember rightly, when the series was first shown in inthe 60s STV only joined the series at episode 3!
Re the R & M remake, the main problem with it IMHO was they both played the wrong characters!
In 1969 very little was networked so STV would likely have shown it when they wanted to and not as part of a linkup with another broadcaster so they should not have skipped the first 2 episodes but what was episode 2.
Apart from the first episode most regions played them in a different order to everyone else anyway.
IIRC the UK boxset follows the LWT order which is not the production order nor the order that ITC recommended.
I have the Australian dvd boxset too which follows another order entirely
As with so many of the ITC shows it is what the actors bring to the characters that makes the show.
The main 3 were irreplaceable
I wasn't born until early 70s, but in the 80s Central TV showed the original at lunchtimes, so I used to go home for lunch to watch it, helped I was only a 3 min walk from school.
Like most ITC series, it actually looks good, glossy and well lit.
And Annette Andre was lovely. Or maybe it was just the 1960s mascara that did it for me.
The main reason ITC show have lasted so well is that they were shot on 35mm and so look far better than VT shows which look dated almost immediately.
Yes, it's criminal the way ITV4 chops this and other ITC series. Surely they know it's the whole package, intros and all that people tune in for from nostalgia.
They should have 65min slots which would allow the whole episisode.
BBC Two used to repeat it years ago. I've been watching it on ITV4 but they hack it to pieces.
The remake was very poor and quite tacky by comparison.
One point nobody has mentioned above is the theme music, which I love. Probably my second all-time fave "theme", just behind The Persuaders
See post 12.:)