Pre-recorded ahead of broadcast 16 January - 20 February 1960; novelisation Garry Halliday and the Kidnapped Five published at 10s 6d by Faber & Faber, 12 October 1962, with jacket design by Leo Newman.
The Voice kidnaps leading scientists as part of a new diabolical plot. Garry Halliday and his friends get involved and end up in Switzerland, where Halliday finally meets his nemesis in person...
NB: Episode 3, "The Outcast", exists in the BBC archive, the only one of 50 episodes of Garry Halliday to survive.
Regular cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Terence Alexander (Bill Dodds); Jennifer Wright (Jean Wills); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Nicholas Meredith (Inspector Potter); Juno Stevas (Sonya Delamere, eps 1-4, 6); James Neylin (O'Brien, eps 1-3, 5); Mercy Haystead (Mary, eps 2-6); Edward Evans (Assistant commissioner, eps 2-6); Peter Myers (Smith Clayton, eps 2-5); Richard Dare (Professor Mundt, eps 2-3, 6); Glenn Williams (Barman, eps 4-6); Terry Baker (Flash, eps 4-6).
Crew: Justin Blake (Writer); Stewart Marshall (designer); Richard West (producer); Leonard Newson (Film cameraman, eps 1-4, 6); Norman Carr (Film editor, eps 1-4, 6); Terry Baker (fight arranged by, eps 3-4, 6).
Flying and Airport sequences by courtesy of Silver City Airways Ltd.
1. Money Unlimited (5.25 pm, Saturday 16 January 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: John Collin (Man on the run); Mela White (Countrywoman); David Waller (Clovis and Sir Alexander Conway); Michael Bilton (Jarvis); Jay Denyer (Bookie Bob); Ian Wilson (Clerk); Sydney Bromley (The Admiral); Michael Harding (Sergeant Shotter); Francis Buckeridge (Cook's help); John Champ (First crook); Richard Duke (Second crook).
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "Money Unlimited"): There's a man on the run over Dartmoor. At one moorland farm, a woman called Emily and her mother [the cast list suggests there was only a "countrywoman" on screen] hear shouting and gunshots. Emily opens the door to find the running man. He just has time to say, "Voice... the... Voice" before another shot rings out and he collapses dead. His pockets are stuffed with five-pound notes.
Inspector Potter from Dartmoor visits Garry Halliday and his friends, knowing of their history with The Voice. The dead man was carrying £2,000 in new five-pound notes, which are very good forgeries. Halliday can offer no clues, but he and his friends then discuss the means by which a villain might dispose of forged notes quickly, and Bill Dodds suggests brewing up a formula to spot the fakes. His fiancé Sonya Delamere says she once lost a lot of money quickly at a horse race in Newton Abbot - which is the nearest large town to where the running man died.
Halliday and his friends calculate that you could use forged notes to place a wide range of bets at a horse race and be sure to win back a reasonable share of it in genuine currency, without too much loss. If so, and The Voice had people doing this at Newton Abbot, where might his people try next? Halliday reasons that it would be a smallish race, of similar scale to Newton Abbot but in another part of the country so the organisers won't recognise the Voice's people placing bets from a previous occasion. Through this kind of logic, they whittle down the possibilities to Carringstoke, where a race is to be held the next day.
The Voice is indeed running an operation to bet a total of £30,000 in forged notes at Carringstoke. Bill Dodds spots and gets chatting to one suspicious man ["Clovis" on screen, "Thornproof" in the book], but is then hit over the head by another crook (O'Brien). Two days later, Dodds spots a photograph of the suspicious man in the newspaper: Sir Alexander Conway is a celebrated atomic physicist!
Halliday and Dodds visit Sir Alexander at home. He is baffled by their story; his servant, Jarvis, confirms that Sir Alexander spent the day in question at the Ministry of Defence rather than the races. Then both Sir Alexander and Jarvis are called away: the former to see a man who has arrived from the ministry, the latter to attend to some problem in the kitchen involving a new maid.
The "man from the ministry" is really O'Brien, who chloroforms Sir Alexander are drags him away to a car. Clovis/Thornproof then steps from the shadows, the perfect double of Sir Alexander. However, this double isn't expecting Halliday and Dodds to be there. When he starts on seeing them, they know something is up. Clovis/Thornproof pulls a gun, saying he doesn't want to kill them but has no choice.
2. The Vanishing Scientists (5.25 pm, Saturday 23 January 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: David Waller (Clovis); Michael Bilton (Jarvis); John Hussey (Martin); Peter M Elrington (Mappin); Leon Thau (Crake); Lee Richardson (Police sergeant)
Summary (based on the second chapter of the novelisation, "The Vanishing Scientists"): Clovis/Thornproof is nervous. Halliday takes a chance and grabs an antique vase from a nearby table. He thinks it is Ming and worth thousands; Dodds thinks it must be Tang. Halliday hurls it at the gun and between them they overcome Clovis.
Jarvis walks in and thinks Halliday is holding up Sir Alexander. Halliday asks his captive what he had for breakfast. Clovis gives the wrong answer, so Jarvis knows he's an imposter and calls the police. While they wait for the police to arrive, Dodds asks the maid (Mary) to make them all tea. Clovis drinks his tea and drops dead.
The only identifying mark on the dead man is a small tattoo on his left wrist: number 132. The maid has disappeared. The real Sir Alexander can't be traced and neither can leading French atomic scientist, Andre Pannier. Then The Voice sends a recorded tape to the police admitting that he has both scientists in his custody and will soon auction them to the highest bidder. He boasts that ahead of the sale he will add three further scientists to his collection...
Inspector Potter produces a list of 10 possible targets in Britain alone; they will all be offered police protection. An eleventh possibility is Professor Mundt, currently in the country to attend a congress but due to fly back to Frankfurt that same night. Halliday offers to fly him. Potter agrees, issuing instructions to a young sergeant - who has a tattoo on his wrist, number 96.
The Assistant Commissioner of Police and the Home Office's George Smith-Clayton both disapprove of this plan. It then turns out that Smith-Clayton is an old friend of Sonya Delamere who, after one "crazy night" (p. 45) at the the Commem. Ball at Oxford some seven years previously, hit him with a champagne bottle so hard he was in hospital for nearly 10 days. Sonya refers to this as "only a gesture of affection really. A sort of love-tap" (p. 46). Embarrassed, Smith-Clayton insists on going on the flight with Mundt to ensure he is delivered safely.
Meanwhile, Jean Wills is called away because her mother is ill - only to find Mary waiting for her instead.
The flight takes off. As well as Smith-Clayton, there are uniformed security guards. But they're really villains, led by O'Brien, who pulls a gun on Sonya.
3. The Outcast (5.25 pm, Saturday 30 January) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: John Hussey (Martin); Peter M Elrington (Mappin); Leon Thau (Crake); Frederick Steger (Swiss inspector); Norman Hartley (Swiss policeman); Jill Hyem (Swiss clerk).
4. On the Run (5.25 pm, Saturday 6 February 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Norman Hartley (Swiss policeman); John Harrison (Police sergeant); Joe Greig (Smudger); Rowena Gregory (Win).
Summary (based on the fourth chapter of the novelisation, "On the Run"): Inspector Potter arrives in Switzerland but not to rescue Halliday and his friends: he thinks they're guilty. That night, a fourth scientist - Strega - is kidnapped in Turin.
Next morning, Potter speaks to the staff at the Swiss post office who confirm Halliday's story of having tried to call him at Scotland Yard. That helps to convince him Halliday is telling the truth. On the flight back to London under police guard (but not overheard), Halliday says he knows a well-connected pickpocket, Arthur "Smudger" Smith, who is likely to know at least something about the counterfeit money which might lead them to The Voice - but adds that Smudger would never cooperate with the police. Potter accepts this and helps Halliday to escape; they stage a fight, Halliday punching Potter to make it look as though the inspector isn't in on this. Dodds hits the police sergeant and Sonya clonks Smith-Clayton on the head with a water carafe. Sonya then allows herself to be caught, so that Dodds and Halliday can get away.
Smudger and his new fiancé Win are suspicious of Halliday, though news reports of his villainy help assuage their concern that he is in league with the police. Smudger is also wary of The Voice and turned down the offer to help get rid of the counterfeit money, knowing it was a bad business. Against his better judgment, he shares with Halliday the little he knows - that an operation was planned involving somewhere called "Nunkum". This means nothing to Halliday.
The Voice taunts Jean Wills that Halliday is even now doing exactly as expected and will soon walk into a trap.
Halliday calls Potter, who knows that Nuncombe Hatch in Berkshire is home to leading scientist Elias Senior. While Potter follows up on that, Halliday returns to Smudger, who has been asking around and directs Halliday and Dodds to meet a man called "Smiling Otto" at a cafe for layabouts. They go in disguise, wearing sharp suits and lengthened sideburns like crooks. In fact, without knowing it, they've been recognised, not least because they've had a tip-off. Win, it turns out, has a tattoo on her wrist of the number 72.
5. The Hunt is Up (5.25 pm, Saturday 13 February 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Joe Greig (Smudger); Michael Hitchman (Dr Senior); Alban Blakelock (Feathers); other, unspecified parts played by Andrikos Adonis, Wendy Smith, Michael Harding, Keith Rawlings and John Harrison.
Summary (based on the fifth chapter of the novelisation, "The Hunt is Up"): Halliday and Dodds continue with their act, asking to speak to Smiling Otto as Smudger said he could put some work their way. One of the other people in the cafe, who Dodds refers to as an "Old Geezer" is really The Voice (who viewers would recognise but our heroes wouldn't). He and the other patrons are ushered out and the door is locked. Halliday and Dodds are alone in the cafe.
Then, a pair of enormous eyes appears on one wall and The Voice is heard through a speaker. A side door opens and Mary brings in Jean. O'Brien comes in and searches Dodds, finding the "Mark II" formula he's been developing in an effort to spot counterfeit notes. Dodds says it is highly effective and will foil The Voice's scheme. The Voice orders O'Brien to test it and - as Dodds knew it would - the formula produces nothing but smoke. Halliday and Dodds use the confusion to grab Jean and escape. The Voice blames O'Brien for this, and he is not seen again in the story.
Out in the street, a car pulls up to rescue Halliday and his friends. Smudger had come to the rescue having learned that Win betrayed them. Halliday and Dodds head for Nutcombe Hatch to prevent Elias Senior being kidnapped. Jean instead goes to the police, but the Assistant Commissioner doesn't believe her story that Halliday is innocent.
Halliday and Dodds race in Smudger's car in the direction of Nutcombe Hatch but then a policeman stops them as their car has been reported stolen; Smudger must have pinched it. Halliday punches the policeman and drives on. This assault is reported back to headquarters, further evidence that Halliday has gone bad. Halliday and Dodds are more concerned that the altercation means they won't reach Nutcombe Hatch in time to save Dr Senior. In discussing the fastest route, Dodds mentions the deserted runway nearby, which Halliday realises would be the perfect place from which to smuggle Senior out of the country.
Smith-Clayton is staying with Elias Senior and his servant Feathers. They drink cocoa - and collapse unconscious, it having been spiked by villains called Filcher and Serge. These men carry Senior down to the nearby boathouse, where Potter apprehends them. The villains knock him out and take him with them.
The knocked-out Potter and drugged Senior are loaded into a plane that takes off from the deserted runaway. Halliday and Dodds are also onboard and emerge from hiding to find the two unconscious men. They're not sure of their next move.
6. The Last Hours (5.25 pn, Saturday 20 February 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: David Waller (Sir Alexander Conway); Frederick Steger (Swiss inspector); Michael Hitchman (Dr Senior); Louis Hasler (Gully); Jill Tracey (Elvi).
Summary (based on the sixth chapter of the novelisation, "The Last Hours"): Potter wakens, bruised but okay. When the crook Fincher comes into the loading bay, Potter pretends to still be unconscious and Halliday and Dodds hide. They pounce on Fincher and take his gun, then capture fellow crook Serge and the pilot.
Halliday appeals to the nervous Dr Senior to help them rescue the four other scientists. The imprisoned crooks are now worried about prison sentences so share what they know about the location of The Voice's hide-out. They don't know where it is and can only say that previously, they were collected by car, then transferred to an ambulance. Halliday deduces that an ambulance would draw attention unless it delivered its charges to a hospital or sanatorium, so The Voice out be based in such a building. The journey took some 90 minutes, so Halliday guesses the hide-out can't be more than 55 miles from where the crooks were collected.
They hatch a plan. While Halliday and Dodds (impersonating Serge and Filcher) go with Senior in the car/ambulance, Potter will go to the local police and at get a list of every hospital and sanatorium within that radius. At 9.15 pm, he'll start ringing each one. The hope is that by then, wherever Halliday and Dodds end up, they will have put the phone out of action. A line being out of order will indicate that Potter has found the right place.
They put the plan into action. Halliday, Dodds and Senior are duly collected by car, then transferred to an ambulance. But then they're transferred again to a cable car that takes them up a mountain to the Chalet Mireille sanatorium. Senior is taken away by the ambulance drivers and Halliday and Dodds are sent to the kitchen to get something to eat. There, Halliday says he's been told to make a call and is directed to the phone. He claims this isn't working and so is directed to the nearby exchange. He and Dodds cut the line just before 9.15.
While Potter makes his calls, Halliday and Dodds have little choice but to continue pretending to be Serge and Filcher. That means they're guarding the five scientists while The Voice taunts them with reports that a bidder from behind the Iron Curtain has offered £55 million for the five scientists, with an hour still to go before the end of the auction. This is too much for Senior, who begs Halliday to do something - blowing his cover.
A fight breaks out. Potter and the police arrive just in time. They find Mary (who held Jean prisoner) with a dead man she claims is The Voice, who took his own life rather than be arrested. But Halliday spots the tattoo on the man's wrist - number 14 - and can't believe The Voice would rank so low in his own outfit. The others rush to the window and see a cable car just beginning to head down the mountain, with a solitary occupant. Halliday is already on the move. He skis down the slope at high speed, overtaking the cable car and is just in time to apprehend the real Voice, who is taken off for trial.
Halliday and his friends return to work at the charter airline. On the last page of the novelisation, we're told that,
"Jean surprised us by getting married. Not to Garry - if there'd been anything like that brewing, you'd have noticed it before now." (p. 119)
Instead, she marries Philip Latters, the scientist from the previous serial. After the wedding, Halliday and Dodds return to their office to find a telegram waiting. The Voice has escaped from prison. The book concludes that no one who has seen his face will now be safe...
Production notes
As far as we can tell, there are no papers in the BBC's Written Archives Centre related to the third Garry Halliday serial. There are no surviving production files for the series anyway but, as we've seen, some papers in other files, such as the drama writers' file for John Bowen, make reference to Garry Halliday. Sadly, none of these relate to the third serial.
There's also very little in the way of press coverage beyond basic TV listings for this third adventure. Unlike the previous serials, Radio Times offered no preview feature and the listing for the first episode did not include a photograph. The return of Garry Halliday was not among the "highlights of the week". (Source: Radio Times #1887, 10 January 1960).
What's more, there's nothing on the third serial in producer Richard West's memoir, The Reluctant Soldier & Greasepaint and Girls. The closest we get is West's assertion (as detailed previously) that shortly after the first serial concluded, Owen Reed, head of the BBC's children's department, was asked at the weekly Programme Board meeting of senior execs,
"If Garry Halliday would catch The Voice. 'Wait and see,' he said. Indeed he did not know himself." (Kindle ref. 3,258)
Given all this, it's ironic that a lot of what we know about Garry Halliday overall is down to this serial, which is due to two key sources. The third episode, The Outcast, survives in the BBC archives - the only one of 50 episodes of Garry Halliday known to still exist. Watching that episode (which used to be available on YouTube but seems to have been taken down), we can see what the series was like generally: the pace and feel of it, the quality of acting and sets, the scale and ambition of pre-filmed material played into the studio performance, the smoothness of the production.
In addition, the surviving episode closely matches the version of the same events in the novelisation. We'll address the few, small differences in a moment but the faithfulness of the adaptation suggests that the novelisations are a reliable guide to what was shown on screen and between them they detail the events of 30 otherwise missing episodes. (As we'll see, the adaptation of the fifth serial seems to have taken more liberties with the story as broadcast.)
Being able to see the surviving instalment also means that when we read accounts of other episodes, whether or not they were novelised, we can better imagine how they looked and sounded, as well as the way they were staged.
One of the few bits of newspaper coverage related to this third serial is a preview in the Birmingham Evening Post heralded "the return of an old favourite". The author had clearly been well-briefed. The Voice "has kidnapped the five top nuclear scientists", they reported, a little ahead of the game since the second of the five intended victims is kidnapped during the first episode. They also said that The Voice communicates with his minions "by means of eyes projected on the wall." (Source: The Mail Man, "The return of an old favourite", Birmingham Evening Post, 8 January 1960, p. 17.)
It's unlikely the author had seen these episodes. Even when programmes were pre-recorded rather than broadcast live, there was almost no facility for the press to view them ahead of broadcast other than by being on set. The likelihood is that the information was supplied to the Birmingham Evening Post in a BBC press release - examples of such publicity material survive for other programmes. It would be odd if a press release was sent to just one publication; it's more likely that the BBC sent it out to a wide range of publications including the corporation's own Radio Times but they opted not to cover it.
That is markedly different to the situation a few years later when, as normal procedure, each new serial of a series shown in the same Saturday teatime spot as Garry Halliday was promoted in Radio Times with a specially written piece and photograph. Doctor Who's then producer referred in a memo to this ongoing arrangement, which must have been agreed between the editorial team on the magazine and the production team making the programme. (Source: Verity Lambert to D.G.O.Tel, "DOCTOR WHO", 15 September 1964, WAC T5/648/2 General Doctor Who.)
When was that agreement made and why? It's tempting to speculate that a lesson was learned in the (failed) promotion of Garry Halliday that was of direct benefit to Doctor Who.
The Radio Times listings for each episode of this serial include the words "BBC recording", as with the previous serial, and give a clue why they were pre-recorded rather than broadcast live. Each listing also says which of the actors could be seen on stage in London's West End at the same time; they were surely required for matinee and evening performances on Saturdays, so couldn't be in the TV studio. Terence Longdon and Nicholas Meredith were in The Sound of Murder at the Aldwych Theatre according to the listings for all episodes; Elwyn Brook-Jones was in The Crooked Mile at the Cambridge Theatre (eps 1-3); Joe Greig in Salad Days at the Vaudeville Theatre (eps 4-5); and Mercy Haystead in Night Life of a Virile Potato at the Lyric Theatre (eps 5-6).
As we'll see, episodes of the fourth Garry Halliday serial were pre-recorded on the Tuesday morning prior to each Saturday broadcast to accommodate one actor's stage commitments. It may have been the same on this third serial.
Knowing that this serial was pre-recorded informs any viewing of the one episode to survive. I said of the second serial that pre-recording allowed for retakes, some editing and, overall, a slicker production. Today, the surviving episode of Garry Halliday seems a little hokey, the performances large, the accents heavy handed, the whole thing a bit of daft entertainment for children. But for its time, this was an ambitious production, pushing what TV could do.
It's worth breaking down how the story is conveyed on screen.
The title sequence begins with film of an aircraft hanger containing a plane. Garry Halliday (Longdon) appears from the left of frame and walks into shot. As he reaches medium close up, the titles appear and exciting music plays. My colleague Paul Hayes has identified this as Sidney Torch and the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra performing "They Ride By Night" by Charles Williams (Chappell's Library - LPC 37738). This sounds similar to Williams's more famous "Devil's Gallop", aka the theme from Dick Barton, which is probably why it was chosen.
We cut to footage of the spinning propeller of a Dakota DC-3, over which further titles appear giving the name of the episode and the author credit. We don't know if this is the same opening titles and theme as on previous serials.
The narrator then tells us the story so far. Even though there have been just two episodes, this takes a whole minute, involving photo captions of 10 cast members. A load of characters, incident and twists are packed into just that short summary. The reminder is necessary for viewers who might have missed either of the preceding episodes, there being no facility to catch-up. But I can well imagine new viewers being confounded by so much information given at speed. Doctor Who didn't feature such recaps, partly because the story so far - or the current stakes - were relayed in dialogue, and partly because the plots were less complex and involved fewer characters. Again, is that something learned from Garry Halliday?
Radio Times doesn't tell us the identity of the commentator / narrator on this serial. On some other Garry Halliday serials, that role was taken by Geoffrey Palmer, but on the surviving episode it doesn't sound like him. One possibility is that the narration was read by an actor who also had a credited role in the story and so didn't get a second acknowledgement - but which of the actors might it have been?
After the titles, the episode opens on Sonya being held at gunpoint in the cabin of the aircraft. The plane is notably short, with just a few row of seats. At 07:38, we can see that the cockpit is part of a composite set, connected directly to the cabin. The exterior door seen at 15:32 may have part of the same set, too, given how quickly Smith-Clayton leaves the cabin and is then seen at the door. It's all still a relatively compact space.
In fact, all the sets used in the episode are small. Apart from the plane, they are:
- The Voice's room, which we barely see anything of in the surviving episode because he takes up much of the frame. There's some kind of control panel behind him.
- Nondescript room with chair and plain walls where Mary holds Jean prisoner. When they speak to The Voice, an image of his eyes and distinctive glasses is projected on the wall to one side of them, in the same form as they appear on the cover of the novelisation. This seems to have been a regular, recognisable feature of this serial.
- Office of the Assistant Commissioner in England, with a telephone, two chairs and some shelves, files and a window.
- Office of the Swiss Inspector, with a different desk, phone and chairs, plus a cell (to the left of the desk) and a door (to the right)
- The booth at the Swiss post office, where Halliday tries to put through a call to Potter.
Given the small sets, much of the episode is by necessity relayed in close-up or medium close-up of the actors, with little camera movement or depth of field. For the final shot of the episode, the camera zooms in on Halliday in the Swiss cell, a rare example of the camera being used to convey emotion and as part of the story-telling, rather than passively covering action.
That and the style of acting makes this all feel very old-fashioned. By comparison, early episodes of Doctor Who, made just a few years later by many of the same people and using the same facilities, are much more dynamic in style.
And yet this episode of Garry Halliday is trying to push what can be done on screen. It is packed with incident, including a lengthy and complicated fight sequence, a scene of torture and a series of plot twists to the plot. Scale is provided the flight to Frankfurt which is diverted to Switzerland, involving various characters with different foreign accents, with frequent cuts back to characters in England.
Pre-filmed sequences also add scale. Five shots of the Dakota DC-3 in flight, each lasting about five seconds, are used to segue between scenes. They're all side-on views of the plane in the air, which now seem rather perfunctory. How different did these feel at the time of broadcast, when shots of air travel were rarer?
In addition, there's a single shot of a plane coming into land, a five-second sequence of snowy mountain peaks seen from the air and a three-second sequence of a small settlement at the base of a snowy mountain. Since these are establishing shots, not featuring cast members, it's not clear from the surviving episode if this serial involved location filming in Switzerland (or anywhere else); this material may have been taken from stock.
The fight arranged by Terry Baker involved an ingenious use of film. First, there's a studio-recorded scene lasting 1m 40s in the aircraft cabin, as Halliday and Dodds step out of the cockpit to find the villains holding everyone at gunpoint. Halliday mentions that Dodds does card tricks; Dodds takes the cue and offers to perform a trick. There's an awkward pause for perhaps a second.
We then cut to a pre-filmed insert of the same actors on what looks like the same set. With Dodds having distracted the villains, Halliday strikes O'Brien and a big fight ensues, involving multiple characters. It's a complex sequence in such a small space, but with lots of fun moments such as Dodds and his fiancée taking turns to punch the same villain. The filmed insert lasts 1m 3s, at the end of which we see a villain knocked to the floor.
I've found no production paperwork to say where this sequence was filmed, but from 1963 Doctor Who filmed such stunts and fight sequences at the BBC's Television Film Studios in Ealing, which the corporation acquired in 1955. We then return to the studio, and the same characters on the same set, the scene continuing for a further 30 seconds. It is almost seamless, though the awkward pause before the filmed insert begins suggests there was no facility to edit the tape after recording.
In the novelisation, the fight is even more dramatic. On TV, the villainous pilot Crake is shot and wounded, meaning he can't take charge of the plane. In the book, Halliday opens the cabin's emergency hatch and pushes Crake out to his death!
Was that Bowen and Bullmore's original intention which simply wasn't workable given the technical limitations of filming or wasn't though suitable for the children watching? The series hadn't previously shied away from killings - something noted in press coverage of the second serial.
My guess is that, in novelising the story, the authors worked from their original scripts rather than what made it to the screen, where amendments would have been made to meet practical concerns and where changes may have been made in rehearsal. For example, after O'Brien leaves the plane with Mundt, Sonya says (in both TV version and book) that she thinks she might cry. In the TV version she adds that she might not be equipped to be hero. Bill Dodds responds wryly, "Darling, your equipment's all right by me."
Something similar happens later in the episode when Halliday speaks to the Swiss clerk in halting French, asking her to call "Whitehall 1212" - the phone number of Scotland Yard. In TV version and book, the pretty young clerk assures Halliday that she speaks English, having studied at the University of Basle, and "should enjoy to practice conversation". In the broadcast version, Halliday says he would enjoy that, too, but doesn't have time. Then, when he's arrested, he calls out to the clerk to make the call anyway. She says it is romantic but against regulations. These flirtatious elements are not in the novelisation.
Again, that's not because this wasn't deemed suitable for child readers - the book includes the odd history between Sonya and Smith-Clayton, where she once hit him with a champagne bottle as a "love tap". I think Halliday's flirtation with the clerk and the risqué joke by Dodds must have been added by the actors during rehearsal. As with the death of Crake, the novelisation follows the scripted version. (As we'll see, the fifth serial seems to have diverted much more from what Bowen and Bullmore had had in mind, which they "corrected" in the novelisation, meaning it is not so useful as a record of what was on screen.)
The theme used for the closing titles, again identified by Paul Hayes, is "Hue and Cry" by Robert Busby. That exhausts what we can glean from the surviving episode. What else can we glean about this serial from the other sources?
The Radio Times listing for the fourth, fifth and sixth episodes refers to characters called "Barman" and "Flash", who don't appear in the novelisation; my best guess is that these are villains in the book called "Serge" and "Filcher". One clue is that "Flash" was played on screen by Terry Baker, who was also fight arranger on the serial.
The day before the final episode was broadcast, the Leicester Evening Mail ran a short profile of Baker, a "one-time sailer, ex-boxer, and by inclination an actor". A slightly longer version was syndicated in other papers the following week, all with the same photograph of Baker grappling with Terence Longdon in the final episode of this third serial - presumably he Flash is the novelisation's Filcher, who has a fight With Halliday early on. (Sources: Cathryn Rose, "TV Talk - Ex-boxer and his is TV's fight fixer", Leicester Evening Mail, 19 February 1960, p. 7; Cathyrn Rose, "TV Topics - Terry fixes TV fights", Derby Evening Telegraph, 24 February 1960, p. 24; Cathryn Rose, "Tele-page - Fights are fixed by Terry", Leicester Echo, 25 February 1960, p. 6.)
This would have been good promotion for the series but the syndicated versions came out after the final episode had been on, and there was no way to see it again.
The Radio Times listing for the fifth episode is unusual, in that it doesn't tell us the roles played by actors by Andrikos Adonis, Wendy Smith, Michael Harding, Keith Rawlings or John Harrison. Harrison played a police sergeant in the previous episode and may well have reprised that role in this one. Other roles in the episode, as detailed in the novelisation, include the teenagers who object to being thrown out of the cafe before it is locked up, and the police constable who stops Halliday's (stolen) car.
That listing also lacks credits for film cameraman and film editor, which may mean that this instalment featured no pre-filmed material, for the first time on Garry Halliday. If so, that may have been to balance the additional cost of more complicated film sequences in the final episode, in which Halliday skis down a mountain at speed to overtake a cable car and so apprehend The Voice. The cover of the novelisation depicts this arresting moment and previous covers had been based on production photographs, so this cover artwork - the best of the five novelisations - may well depict what was seen on screen.
Yet producer Richard West doesn't mention filming a ski sequence in his memoir, there's no mention of it in the press, and no skier is credited in Radio Times, in the manner that Terry Baker was credited for arranging fights. It's a thrilling sequence in the novelisation but perhaps it was all relayed off screen, Bills Dodds looking out of a window and telling us what he could see.
It could have been amazing; it could have been really mundane.
At least we know a bit more about the ambitious overseas filming on the next serial...
Further reading:
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