Kathy Kirby belts out this title track very powerfully and impressively – much in the style of Goldfinger and just as good.

The last line ‘Leave this man alone’ is memorable for all of us who watched the series. I remember working down in London, in Grosvenor Stree for one of the Oil Companies, and a lady who worked there came into the office singing this line – I remember that to this day

Adam Adamant was an Edwardian man revived following building works that uncovered his long lost body entombed in ice. He had been placed there in 1902.

Once revived, Adam re-establishes his swash-buckling work in a changed world; taking on gangsters, spies and all evil doers

Gerald Harper was cast as the hero, Adam Adamant, who certainly cuts a magnificent dash due in no small part to his elegant dress sense and handsome looks.

Aiding him in his battle with crime are Georgina Jones, played by Juliet Harmer, and butler Simms, played by Jack May – of The Archers fame as Nelson Gabriel for many years

The show had a run of two seasons, including some episodes directed by a young Ridley Scott, it only just missed being renewed for the third season and then disappeared from Television – what a pity !

The first episode sets the scene for all the others.

Now 99 years old but still youthful, the adventurer takes on a different bunch of foes each week – often at the unofficial nod of the British Government, who value his peculiar talents

Adam Adamant remains impeccably dressed in the style of a 1880’s gentleman, complete with spats, waist coat and a sword stick – making him a dashing and charismatic figure.

Despite the best charms of Miss Jones, Adam Adamant seems above real flirtation (although he is a ladies’ man in his own, genteel way)

In one episode he thwarts a sinister plan to devastate Blackpool’s golden mile, with exploding light bulbs.

Above all, it’s very atmospheric fun, marvellously preserved -very much of its period.

After this series Gerald Harper had another Television success with Hadleigh – and even later was in the 1979 remake of ‘The Lady Vanishes’

Gerald Harper starred as debonair young landowner James Hadleigh, a unique character, full of charm and dynamic energy and possessed of a sharp intelligence. Hadleigh is a man of total privilege. He has inherited not only the magnificent Melford Hall but also the 

proprietorship of the Westdale Gazette, and his deep love of his native Yorkshire, and the people who live there, is always in evidence.

Peter Dennis plays Sutton, Hadleigh’s butler, and Magaret Flint is the housekeeper at Melford Park. Other well known actors appearing in the series include, Jane Merrow as Anne Hepton (1971), Hilary Heath (credited as Hilary Dywer) as Jenifer Caldwell / Hadleigh (1973), Michael Billington as Freddie Hepton (1971) and Hannah Gordon as Sarah Alwyn (1971). The series ran for seven seasons from 1969 until 1976 with 52 hour-long episodes being produced. The theme tune for the series was composed by Tony Hatch.

Series Two co-starred Jane Merrow as Anne Hepton, a strong willed career woman with a young daughter, Charlotte. Michael Billington played Annes estranged husband, Freddie Hepton, a hard-drinking womaniser who turns up unannounced in an effort to save their marriage, albeit for purposes of his own. James Hadleigh is having a friendship with Anne Hepton which causes problems when the two men clash. The situation is ultimately resolved and Anne Hepton becomes an important part of James Hadleigh’s life and their relationship provides an important thread throughout the series.

Gerald also has a Saturday slot on Radio 2 and with is distinctive and appealing voice it proved very popular

This is actually again, a Sixties film but I have recently acquired the Press Book from the film so I just had to use it.

Christopher Lee has top billing alongside Leo Genn and Cecil Parker, although he does not really have much screen time in this film.

The film opens with a robbery at London’s Tower Bridge in which a gang steal a quarter of a million pounds from a security van.

The horde of money is then hidden in the winter quarters of a travelling circus – and then there follows a series of brutal killings around the circus

Each of the victims is found stabbed with a circus throwing knife.

Inspector Elliot (LEO GENN) suspects that one of the circus performers is the killer and the mastermind behind the raid. He has a number of suspects to choose from including the hooded lion tamer Gregor (CHRISTOPHER LEE) who for some mysterious reason is determined to conceal his face. Then there’s Mr Big (SKIP MARTIN), a dwarf assistant on the big top who is blackmailing Gregor. As the death toll rises, the pressure is on from Sir John (CECIL PARKER), Elliot’s superior, to bring the killer to justice.

Suzy Kendall who had previously appeared in the Bond film ‘Thunderball’ played the part of Natasha – at that time she was married to Dudley Moore

Much of the filming was done close to Windsor Castle at Winkfield – the winter quarters of Billy Smart’s circus

Just to summarise the plot there is an insanely jealous knife thrower with a promiscuous girlfriend, a blackmailing dwarf and Gregor, a lion tamer (Christopher Lee) so hideously scarred by one of his own beasts that he has to conceal his face under a black hood.

A  silver-crested knife is found in the back of the decomposing gang member’s corpse, a strange German ( Klaus Kinski) who tries to get a job in the circus but won’t give his name – then someone leaves the lion’s cage door open.

The film is an Anglo-German production.

Circus of Fear is a good film for a late night movie.

There are enough red herrings to keep you guessing as to who the murderer is right up to the end.

There’s also a bit of a nostalgia the 1960s with Wolseley Police cars, Old Scotland Yard and London streets.

This very attractive young actress was born in Budleigh Salterton in Devon

Shortly after Belinda was cast as the love interest of Stewart Granger in ‘Footseps in the Fog’ – a film starring his wife Jean Simmons. It was a British made Cinemascope film with a strong storyline with many twists and turns and was successful. She was well up at the top of the cast list.

Straight after this, she completely changed tack and was cast alongside Norman Wisdom in ‘Man of the Moment’

Following these performances her star had risen and so -in 1955 she attended the Royal Film Performance of To Catch a Thief at the Leicester Square Odeon in London . Also there were Diana Dors, Kathy Jurado, Gina Lollobrigida, Kenneth More, Anna Neagle, Arthur Rank, and Peter Ustinov.

In October 1956 she is one of the young ladies chosen to meet Queen Elizabeth II at the year’s royal command film performance. To curtsey before the Queen this year are also Marilyn Monroe, Anita Ekberg, Arlene Dahl, Brigitte Bardot, and Joan Crawford.

She was certainly promoted all around at Film Premieres, Garden Parties and events deemed to be advantageous to her career.

Then in 1957 she starred with John Gregson in the delightful ‘Miracle in Soho’

One setback she had was when she suffered injuries in April of 1957 when her hair caught fire from a candle in a scene that she was filming. Luckily that didn’t seem to set her back for long.

In May of 1957, she reporesented Britain at the Cannes Film Festival along with Muriel Pavlow and Diana Dors and late that year in September, she went to the Venice film Festival.

She then seemed to become involved with Prince Philippo Orsini whilst she had been filming in Italy and when she returned to Britain it was soon announced that her marriage was over.

Belinda then flew to Africa for ‘Nor the Moon by Night’ but midway into the film she came back to Rome.

In January 1958 she took a drug overdose but luckily survived and went back to Africa to finish the film. Throughout 1959 she and Orsini are together but by mid 1960 Belinda seems to have dumped him.

A year later she headed to Hollywood and it is there near San Bernardino that she was killed in a car crash – March 1961

Belinda Lee quite rightly holds up very much as a major star of the early fifties – but the things seemed to go wrong for her sadly.

Certainly a beautiful British actress

Sir Patrick Hastings was one of our most renowned and notable barristers. He also found time to write plays, two of which have been adapted for film.

During this period quite a few stage plays made it onto the silver screen – I can think of this one ‘The Winslow Boy’ and a favourite of mine ‘The Holly and the Ivy’ – Hugh Williams was in that too

This film is based upon Patrick Hasting’s play of the same name in which a young man accuses his former employer of embezzling funds from a charitable organisation. During the trial the defendant seems to be creating a good impression until the plaintiff’s lawyer produces a letter……….

The intriguing beginning of this film takes place in Prague but soon switches to London where we are introduced to Michael Denison and Claire Bloom. It is not too long before the appearance of Hugh Williams and Anne Crawford as Lord and Lady Brasted and Eric Portman as Sir John Dearing KC.

The Courtroom scenes were quite dramatic and effective and well constructed.

The Plot :-

In Prague, Count Mikla is found dead, a presumed suicide, though we know better, having seen his valet shoot him. Back in England, Mikla’s friend Derek, who works for Lord Brasted, is suspicious, as Mikla had been feeding Derek information that Brasted, head of a commission raising money to aid displaced people after the war, was embezzling much of that money.

Derek tells Brasted that he’s going to the Prime Minister with his charges, which he does. Brasted then tells his wife Helen (who, as it happens is a former lover of Derek’s) that Derek tried to blackmail him, using a conversation that, if overheard, could be interpreted that way.

Brasted sues Derek for libel with the formidable Sir John Dearing as his barrister. Dearing, taking the word of Brasted, works his legal wonders in the courtroom, basing much of his case on a letter written by Derek—but as we know, forged by Brasted.

Eventually, another letter comes into play, one Derek wrote to his girlfriend Mary ( Sir John’s daughter) but which is passed off an illicit love letter to Brasted’s wife. How far will Brasted go to punish Derek?

When evidence finally appears to suggest that Brasted is in fact guilty, will Sir John do the honourable thing in court?

Some sources call this a thriller, but it’s actually just a slow-burning courtroom drama

The acting is fine all around: Eric Portman is excellent as usual, also Hugh Williams (Brasted), Michael Denison (Derek) and Anne Crawford.

Harold French the Director on this film, began and ended his career in the Theatre. In between he proved to be a capable film director.

The film marks Claire Bloom’s film debut. The performance that stands out in the film is that of Anne Crawford as Lady Brasted.

Claire Bloom in her first film role

A Stage Play – this programme from 1947

Honor Blackman was in the production – it must have been one of her first.

This film was shown today on TCM and was a pleasant and colourful little film with a simple, but good storyline.

The production values were quite high too – it was filmed in Technicolor

Columbia Pictures brought this one to the screen – I am pleased that they did

The acting in this movie is not out of the top drawer but adequate and the plot not too involved, but it was so much better than expected. One of the most delightful parts of the film was the horses. The palominos were beautiful and the acting of “The Duke” was almost on par with those of the “Smartest Horse in the Movies,” Trigger himself.

No gunfights in this one. The hero seems unlikely but works hard to be likable

This production was by Harry Cohn’s nephew Robert – he did a good job.

Vincent Farrar the photographer knows how to use his cameras and locations to great effect.

ABOVE and BELOW – Two brilliant matte shots, I think

This is a publicity picture for the BBS Serial ‘The Three Musketeers’ from 1966. It also had Brian Blessed as Porthos, Jeremy Young as Athos and Gary Watson as Aramis. Richard Pasco played The Cardinal and Mary Peach was cast a Milady de Winter.

Paul Whitsun Jones was also in it and in a smaller early role, Pauline Collins

I have to say, I don’t remember Jeremy Brett in this but I do recall Brian Blessed as Athos playing the part in his usual rumbustious style – but I would think they needed someone like that in the cast to lift it a little.

I also remember Paul Whitsun Jones from this adaptation

Not long before this Jeremy Brett had gone to Hollywood to take the part of Freddie in ‘My Fair Lady’ – probably one of the worst parts you could get. However he didn’t take to Hollywood at all, so even if better parts had been offered, he wanted to remain in England

Jeremy Brett in real life was twice married, first to Anna Massey, the actress, and secondly to Joan Wilson, the American producer (under the name Joan Sullivan) of Masterpiece Theatre for the Public Broadcasting Service, in the United States.

The romantic story is that, when Brett, during the early Seventies, stood in for a period for Alistair Cooke as the presenter of Masterpiece Theatre, Sullivan was so overwhelmed by Brett’s handsome appearance that she vowed to make him her husband. Her death, after only seven years of marriage, came as a devastating blow to him.

He had a son with Anna Massey, but she described their marriage as being an unhappy one. She admitted to being young and naive when she married him and later stated that the fact that he was a manic depressive homosexual were not ideal traits to have in a a marriage

ABOVE – The look happy here though with their young son

Jeremy Brett, was an emotional man of great warmth and generosity of spirit, who cared deeply for his friends and colleagues and acted always spontaneously out of a good heart.

Quite a few years later, he got the part that seemed to fit him well and it gave him Worldwide popularity – as Sherlock Holmes

The dark shadow which lay across his overflowing good nature was an increasing tendency to manic depression, an illness (later coupled with heart disease) which began to show itself during the second series of Sherlock Holmes and which made the production of later episodes a determined and heroic struggle for him.

When he was well and stable he bravely treated his own disorder with a sharp sense of mockery and joked about his condition to his friends. 

Few actors could be better suited than David Tomlinson for the role of a doltish viscount unintentionally entangled in politics, and this brisk 1949 satire was a huge success both for the accomplished character player and his similarly gifted co-stars, Cecil Parker and eighty-year-old film veteran A.E. Matthews. The Chiltern Hundreds is directed by John Paddy Carstairs – whose in his later career he went on to direct a string of box-office hits with the likes of Frankie Howerd, Norman Wisdom and Tommy Steele

Young Viscount Tony Pym wangles National Service leave on the pretext of standing as a Tory candidate for a local seat held by his family for generations. The request is a feeble excuse to enable Pym to marry his wealthy American fiancee while she’s still in England, but his masterplan backfires when he finds himself swept into an election  campaign and beaten by Labour’s Mr Cleghorn – who is then made a peer. In an attempt to save face, Pym decides to stand again – as a socialist. It all proves too much for the Pyms’ loyal, true-blue butler, Mr Beecham…

David Tomlinson

But despite his image as a happy-go-lucky gentleman, David Tomlinson’s personal story was plagued by misfortune – including a tragic murder-suicide. Born in May 1917 and raised in the middle-class surroundings of Folkestone, Tomlinson – known as DT to friends – left school at 15 and took a job in accounting, before trying his luck as an actor.

“It was a profession that required no qualification of any kind,” he reminisced. “It is a very attractive way of spending one’s life.” Although his parents detested his fickle choice of career, David adored the life of a wandering actor, often lodging in shabby theatrical boarding houses piped with lukewarm water and lumpy beds.

His favourite story was of an old landlady telling him of the kindness of her previous guest. “Do you know,” she explained, “that man went out on Saturday night, met a sailor who had nowhere to stay and let him share his bed.”

When the Second World War interrupted his career, he was posted to Canada as an RAF flight lieutenant and flying instructor. In 1943 in New York, he married socialite and heiress Mary Lindsay Hiddingh, whose husband had been killed in action, and became stepfather to her sons Michael, eight, and John, six. “She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen,” he declared. “We were terribly in love.”

Mary, who had raven hair and almond eyes, worked at the British Ministry of War Transportation office on Broadway. “I was the luckiest fellow in the world,” Tomlinson gushed, as they excitedly mapped out a future life together.

However, even before the honeymoon glow had faded, he was recalled to Britain – leaving his new wife and the children in New York. Eventually, Mary was given permission to join her husband but was stunned when she learned the children would have to remain in America and wait out the war.

The following day – with the children in tow – she checked into the Henry Hudson Hotel on West 57th Street. The family took the lift to their 15th floor room. The next morning Mary ended her life and those of the children – in a manner everyone struggled to explain. Police records detail how she rose from bed, unlatched the window and plunged to her death, holding John to her body and Michael by the hand. All three were killed instantly after striking the roof of a business near 9th Avenue.

David Tomlinson was never able to bring himself to visit Mary’s grave. As this was all going on, back in Europe, his bomber pilot brother Peter was marched into a Nazi prison camp after crashing during a mission.

“It was a fearful blow,” Tomlinson remembered. Peter survived the war but was thin as a rake after suffering severe malnutrition. He spoke of how, after dragging himself on foot through a treacherous landscape on a forced march to Flensburg, advancing Allied troops set him free in 1945. Remarkably, after his own demobilisation, Tomlinson broke into films in 1946.

“There is nobody more interested in the successful development of my career than me,” he reasoned on refusing to engage an agent. His son Henry recalled how this decision manifested itself in an idiosyncratic way. “We would hear the phone ring and I would stand at the sitting room door listening, thinking, ‘Why is dad talking with an American accent?’ And then it became clear he had this imaginary manager-agent called Harry Gunnell.”

DT was known to friends as one of the best-natured of men but, as the actor Robert Morley observed, was “never one to cheerfully take orders from officialdom”.

“Dad had no safety mechanism,” his son Jamie explained. “He said exactly what he thought. He was also utterly fearless.” It was a trait which led to countless misunderstandings. As one former colleague put it: “He was a straight-talker. For some people, especially the more sensitive types, that could be shocking.”

As his star shone in the late 40s with appearances in Miranda, Broken Journey, and School for Secrets, the latter alongside Ralph Richardson, he was rarely without a girl but none of the short-lived relationships, including with film actresses Dinah Sheridan and Jill Clifford, provided what he sought.

Happiness finally came with his marriage to actress Audrey Freeman in 1953. Blessed with long legs and a stunning complexion, Barnsley-born Freeman had been starring in the West End alongside George Formby.

“I was truly smitten with David,” she recalled with a hoot. “He had immense sex appeal. He didn’t know it and laughed when women were suggestive. I think comedians do have it, you know – people that make you laugh are very attractive.” The couple married in 1953 and had four sons, David Jr, William, Henry and James. They remained together for 47 years until his death.

Though he often played serious roles, comedy was his forte. With his perplexed expression and aristocratic voice, he shone in classics like Up the Creek, Hotel Sahara and Three Men in a Boat.

“David didn’t actually need funny dialogue,” Vera Day, who starred with him in Up the Creek, told me. “You just needed to look at his face… it could explode into exasperation in a millisecond. He could steal a scene without breaking a sweat.”

He breezed through a string of West End successes before Mary Poppins catapulted him to international stardom. “I couldn’t believe it. I clutched the script to my bosom and hurried home to Audrey,” he cried on winning the role. By then, well into his forties and by no means a matinee idol, his face had developed more folds and creases, leading Noel Coward to quip that he “resembled a very old baby”.

Julie Andrews starred as the no-nonsense nanny taking charge of two unruly children, and turning their father, Mr Banks, from a stuffed shirt into quite the lad. Her mission accomplished, Poppins disappears on the next wind. “He knew he was good but was never unpleasant with it,” Julie Andrews recalled. “He always nailed every ‘take’ so well.”

The film included Tomlinson’s triumphant performance of Let’s Go Fly A Kite with his on-screen children, Karen Dotrice and Matthew Garber as Jane and Michael Banks, and Dick Van Dyke as Cockney jack-of-all-trades, Bert. However, when the first preview took place at a small theatre near Walt Disney’s office, DT was aghast. “I thought it was the worst film I had ever seen, the most sentimental rubbish,” he lamented. “And I practically said to dear darling Walt, ‘Well, you can’t win them all, can you?’”

As it happened, Mary Poppins was not only greeted with almost universal critical acclaim, it won five Academy Awards, two Baftas, a Grammy and a Golden Globe. “I was wrong about that one,” he admitted.

It later transpired the inspiration for Tomlinson’s portrayal of Mr Banks came from his own life. He discovered in middle age that his father – a stiff and proper Edwardian lawyer – had been living a double life with a secret second family, including seven children.

It wasn’t long afterwards that Tomlinson and Audrey were devastated when William, their third son, began displaying unusual behaviour. Doctors believed he was hearing impaired but the couple weren’t convinced. After consulting anyone that would listen, it was found Willie was suffering from autism, then a virtually unknown condition. “Doing the right thing by Will became my parents’ greatest achievement,” David Jr reflected.

Although David Tomlinson was bombarded with social invites, he avoided showbiz circles and revelled in family life at his country cottage in Buckinghamshire.

The success of Poppins was rewarded with a steady income and parts in two further Disney blockbusters; as villain Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug and quack magician Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, a sobering experience. During a tense shoot in California, he failed to hit it off with co-star Angela Lansbury who constantly upstaged him. Audrey recalled. “ Angela Lansbury was terrified of him and made it very tough. He found it very awkward.”

Despite being a hit, the experience was sour and DT omitted the movie altogether from his memoirs. While nothing ever replicated the magnitude of Mary Poppins, he worked throughout the 1970s and 80s, appearing on radio, TV and tirelessly promoting autism charities. But his greatest pleasure was motoring around England in his vintage Bentley sniffing out antiques shop bargains.

“He was an avid collector and that kept him busy,” says Audrey. “He got wonderful things at marvellous prices before those antiques programmes started on TV.”

However, even retirement was tinged with tragedy. In never-before-seen letters, Tomlinson wrote of his devastation at his brother Peter’s suicide in 1997.

The end came on the morning of June 24, 2000, when, aged 83, DT slipped away without any fuss. His final wish – made tongue firmly in cheek – was to have the tribute: “David Tomlinson, an actor of genius, irresistible to women,” on his headstone. “Obviously, our mum had her own thoughts about that and it didn’t quite happen,” says his son Henry.

Despite a life of ups and downs, David Tomlinson always maintained he was luckier than most. I think he probably was.

This is a Television Series loved by us all I think. The very last season they ever did was filmed in colour but this picture is from a Christmas Special in 1965

ABOVE – A scene from the ‘ The Gifts of the Magi’ a Christmas Special written by Harry Green. The Episode tells how Alison Bell, a former BBC Radio producer, goes talent-hunting at the Cottage Hospital children’s party. Eventually for the sake of a very sick child, she persuades Doctors Finlay and Cameron, and Snoddie to do their party pieces. When the day arrives each doctor seems bent on outshining the others – only to find that someone else outshines them all.

ABOVE – We see the doctors preparing with Janet looking on.

The popular series Dr Finlay’s Casebook was set in the 1920s in a pre-NHS medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae (the series was actually filmed in the Highland town of Callander).

ABOVE – The cover of the Scottish Radio Times

The little town of Tannochbrae – in truth, not much more than a village – had a 26-bed cottage hospital, with the Lanark Infirmary nearby, and an ambulance available when needed from the police station or neighbouring Knoxhill.

The residents of Arden House were Dr Angus Cameron (Andrew Cruickshank), a confirmed bachelor who loved chess, was prone to asthma and was the type of old-fashioned doctor who intimidated patients into recovery.

The ‘young’ Dr Alan Finlay (Bill Simpson),  and no-nonsense housekeeper Janet MacPherson – played to perfection by Barbara Mullen.

ABOVE – A postcard from Tannochbrae

DR FINLAY’S CASEBOOK

This delightful BBC TV series – which first appeared on our screens on 16 August 1962 – became hugely popular.

The last series was filmed in Colour which showed off Scotland’s beauty to great effect

Bill Simpson was plucked from reading the news with Scottish ITV in Glasgow. Like Dr Finlay, he was an ex-farmer and hailed from the Ayrshire fishing village of Dunure, almost an exact replica of Tannochbrae. In fact, the prodigal son returned to Dunure to film an episode in the series.

The BBC took great pains to maintain period detail in the series and there was a surprisingly large amount of location footage, clearly shot in rural Scotland. This helped create a realistic setting for the stories as well as provide a sense of isolation.

Among its active population, Tannochbrae numbered a good few workers from the colliery and shipyard not far away and – being near the Clyde and a pleasant loch – it attracted businessmen who commuted from their offices in Glasgow.

The daily medical needs of a sleepy lowland community between the wars proved hugely successful with viewers and Dr Finlay’s Casebook was a Sunday evening must for millions of viewers during the 1960s.

During the final season, the inhabitants of the Arden House surgery also appeared on radio, where they carried on dispensing common sense and rubbing ointment for a further seven years.

The show made stars of the dapper Bill Simpson, veteran actor Andrew Cruickshank and Barbara Mullen.

ITV revived Doctor Finlay in 1993 with Ian Bannen, Annette Crosbie and David Rintoul playing the parts of Doctor Cameron, Janet and Doctor Finlay and, in 2001, John Gordon Sinclair took on the title role in new adaptations of Cronin’s stories for BBC Radio 4.

This was a productive role for Christopher Lee – I hadn’t realised that he had made Three such films but in fact, looking further into it, I discovered that had actually made five of them. These three came between 1965 and 1968 and were churned out quite quickly you would, think although they were in Colour and had some good actors

This one – ABOVE – also starred Douglas Wilmer as Nayland Smith – Fu Manch’s arch enemy – and Howard Marion-Crawford

‘The Brides of Fu Manchu’ again had those two as well as Burt Kwouk

Richard Greene this time played Nayland Smith in ‘The Blood of Fu Manchu’ as well as Howard Marion-Crawford and this time Shirley Eaton.

Harry Towers was the producer who had started in Television, then tried his hand with ‘Death Drums Along the River’ starring Richard Todd and filmed in Africa. It wasn’t a bad film at all and so next he made ‘Mozambique’ with Steve Cochran, and staying in Africa, he again used Richard Todd in ‘Coast of Skeletons’ and this one had Dale Robertson in the cast. I wouldn’t know how they performed at the Box Office but I would think fairly average

Not long after that he produced these three films and a great many more.

During lockdown and even before, I had got fed up with the constant stream of gloomy news from the media peddling the same old gloom and doom whether it be Brexit of Coronovirus. So I took to buying CDs of old radio plays such as Lord Peter Wimsey and Sexton Blake.

Then more recently I came across another interesting programme and quite by accident at that. It was Dr Morelle which was on BBC Radio 4 Extra

In 1957 a new Radio series began featuring sleuth Dr Morelle played by Cecil Parker

Dr. Morelle is referred to as a Harley Street Doctor of Psychiatry, specialising in criminal psychology. He is also possessed of an unshakable confidence in his opinions, conclusions and psychological impressions of virtually everyone he meets.

He his also not without his own eccentricities for instance we learn that he is afraid of going up stairs – which he admitted was a throwback to his childhood.

He was introduced in a thirteen-week comedy-detective drama, A Case for Dr. Morelle, featuring successful Film actor Cecil Parker as Dr. Morelle and Sheila Sim as Miss Frayle. 

Cecil Parker was an inspired choice, having portrayed several Film characters with many of Dr. Morelle’s traits and aloofness.

The programme was an instant hit. Dr. Morelle is reintroduced in the first episode by way of a chance meeting with his ‘former’ assistant Miss Frayle.

Miss Frayle comes to Dr. Morelle hoping to enlist his interest in the problem of an acquaintance of hers. Dr. Morelle, has just lost his assistant of many years and spends as much in the first episode solving a murder as trying to win Miss Frayle back as his assistant.

This first episode, Alarm Call, also gives Cecil Parker an opportunity to establish his characterisation of Dr. Morelle. 

Cecil Parker was a gifted international character actor, who was as at ease playing straight dramatic roles as light comedy which suited this role well.

As is the case in more recent Radio and Television shows , we get a compelling preview portion of the story before the theme music and announcement of the episode’s title.

Robert Beatty – Another Radio drama character

In very recent times, again on BBC Radio 4 Extra I came across  Destination – Fire! Stories of a Fire Investigator which had been originally on the BBC Light Programme (1962-1966)

This starred Robert Beatty in the lead role here in these half hour episodes which cleverly manage to set the scene, establish the possible crime and solve it by the end – as well as introducing all the characters