Pamela Franklin, Teddy Green and David Griffin played art-school-bound Kate, garage mechanic Johnny and camera-toting Mark, three teenagers who stumble across a blackmail racket when Kate rents her attic to shifty lodgers. From May to September 1966 the BBC screened the resulting twenty-part chase across Saturdays, each four-episode block written by a different dramatist including N. J. Crisp and Jack Trevor Story and shot by directors who would soon move on to Doctor Who.
The formula was simple: Kate’s eidetic memory, Johnny’s homemade walkie-talkies and Mark’s dark-room skills combine to expose stamp thieves, naval spies and art-fraudsters. Location footage placed the trio in coffee bars, bomb sites and the brand-new ‘Big A’ nightclub while Monty Norman’s brisk theme, released as the B-side of a Pye single by Brian Epstein’s protégés Paddy, Klaus and Gibson, pushed the action along.
Ratings were strong yet the series was not recommissioned, Dixon of Dock Green reclaiming its autumn slot. All three leads sustained long careers: Franklin emigrated to America for Hawaii Five-O and Fantasy Island, Griffin became a sitcom fixture in Hi-de-Hi! and Keeping Up Appearances, Green stayed visible on Holby City. The entire show fell victim to the BBC wiping policy; only episode thirteen, the third instalment of Margot Bennett’s seaside espionage tale The Tungsten Ring, survives in the archives.
Production Details
BBC One / 1 Season / 20 Episodes / 7 May - 24 September 1966
Created by: N.J. Crisp, George F. Kerr, Jack Trevor Story, Margot Bennett, John Gray,
Producer: William Sterling
Main Cast
Pamela Franklin as Kate
David Griffin as Mark Dennison
Teddy Green as Johnny Martin
Guest Appearances
Margo Andrew as Vera
