Pre-recorded ahead of broadcast 5 November — 17 December 1960; novelisation Garry Halliday and the Sands of Time published at 10s 6d by Faber & Faber, September 1963*, with jacket design by Leo Newman.
* The Daily Post had a review copy by 30 September 1963, when it was listed among the "books received" (p. 6).
Criminal mastermind the Voice is never seen, even by his own henchpeople. In the brief time that he was held captive (in the previous adventure), 10 people saw his face. Now, one by one, they disappear for a week and then return with no memory of him — or much else. Garry Halliday, his co-pilot Bill Dodds and their friend Inspector Potter from Scotland Yard are among those who saw the Voice, so are at risk of the same sinister fate. They decide to find the Voice before he finds them and follow a trail of clues to the oil-rich state of Balakesh near Tripoli, for a final showdown...
Regular cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Terence Alexander (Bill Dodds); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Juno Stevas (Sonya Delamere, eps 1, 3, 6-7); Murray Kash (Leo, eps 1-2, 4-5, 7); David Lyn (Sergeant Schlumpieter, eps 1-3); Jennifer Jayne (Martha Blair, eps 1-2, 4-5); John Hollis (Dr Klaus, eps 2-7); Gordon Sterne (Viner, eps 2-7); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter, eps 2-7); Ivan Craig (Mustapha, eps 2, 4-7); Anthony Sagar (McPhee, eps 4-6); Victor Lucas (Sheik of Ballakesh, eps 4, 6-7); Edward Evans (Assistant Commissioners, eps 5-7). Commentator (ep 2) and narrator (eps 3-7): Geoffrey Palmer.
Crew: Justin Blake (writer); Bill Munn (film cameraman); Keith Latham (film editor); Stewart Marshall (designer); Richard West (producer); Terry Baker (fight arranger, eps 3, 5, 7); Geoffrey Manton (director, eps 4, 6-7). Title music composed and conducted by Lawrence Leonard (ep 1).
Flying and airport sequences by courtesy of Silver City Airways, Ltd.
1. The Man Who Forgot (5.25 pm, Saturday 5 November 1960) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: John Harrison (Passenger); Bettine Milne (Passenger's wife); Mike Hall (Jack Fawcett); Dorothy Gordon (Mrs Fawcett); Denis Goacher (Inspector Lacoste); Jay Denyer (Roy Jenkins)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "The Man Who Forgot"): A year after The Voice was arrested and then escaped Pentonville Prison, Garry Halliday is piloting a plane through a storm. Co-pilot Bill Dodds walks through the cabin reassuring nervous passengers and is surprised to recognise "Old Chris Fawcett" ["Jack Fawcett" in the Radio Times listing], the pilot who flew The Voice back to London from Switzerland, following his arrest. Yet Fawcett has no memory of this — or of Dodds. Mrs Kathleen May Fawcett explains that her husband suffered a breakdown four months previously.
Meanwhile, Swiss police inspector Etienne Lacoste [perhaps meant to be the same "Swiss inspector" played by Frederick Steger in two episodes of the previous serial] gives directions to a pretty Canadian young woman — "she was the kind of girl who can wear trousers" (p. 23) — driving a convertible. He live in the direction she is going and he is about to finish work for the day so he offers to show her the way and gets into the car.
Halliday speaks to a Mr Jenkins, former prison officer at Pentonville, who has also recently lost his memory. He is, like Mrs Fawcett, embarrassed by his predicament and unwilling to go to the police. It also turns out that police files and photographs of the Voice have all vanished, and now two of the 10 people who would be able to recognise him on sight have lost their memories. Halliday reasons that if the Voice had killed them, questions would have been asked, but the stigma of mental breakdown means the authorities have not been alerted. Halliday, Dodds and their old friend Inspector Potter at Scotland Yard are among the 10 people who saw the Voice, so assume they are at risk. Halliday is soon booked to fly to Basle in Switzerland, and says that while there he will check in on one of the others who saw the Voice: Inspector Lacoste.
Lacoste, meanwhile, is the prisoner of the pretty Canadian woman, Martha Blair, and her "bruiser" companion, Leo. On the instructions of a "Mr Benedetti", Lacoste is injected with a solution that knocks him unconscious. Before the villains fly him out of the country, "Mr Bendetti" assumes another identity, swapping his white wig for bandages and dark glasses. He will travel under the name "Mr Vox", the Latin for Voice.
2. The Counterfeit Sergeant (5.25 pm, Saturday 12 November 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: none.
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "A Doctor in Balakesh"): Dr Konstantin Klaus works in a small, private hospital in the middle-eastern state of Balakesh, where he is medical adviser to the local sheikh while also pursuing his own research. He is supported by Mr Vox, who knows Klaus wants "only to do good in the world" (p. 31) despite the scandal and lawsuit Klaus was once involved in. Together, they aim to sooth disturbed and dangerous minds by using drugs to destroy memories that affect personality. Their latest patient is a murderer, the so-called "butcher of Basle"; in reality, it is Lacoste.
Halliday and Dodds arrive in Switzerland to find that Lacoste has vanished. The local police sergeant, Schumpieter [he is just "Sergeant" in the Radio Times listings for the first two episodes, but "Sergeant Schlumpieter" — with an L — in the listing for ep 3], calls in Martha Blair, the Canadian woman who he saw give Lacoste a lift in her car. Blair, apparently eager to help and playing with a pencil as she answers, tells Halliday that she dropped off Lacoste at the turning for Lac Bleu, near his home. When asked about Lacoste's mood, Blair says he seemed nervous — "I thought he might be screwing up his courage to make a pass at me" (p. 34). Halliday asks "What about the Voice?" and the pencil snaps in Blair's hand. Innocently, Halliday, says he was asking about Lacoste's voice, since the man seemed so nervous. Blair, recovering herself, says he just seemed a bit husky.
Afterwards, when Blair has gone, Halliday notes her shocked reaction to him mentioning the Voice. Sergeant Schumpieter agrees to keep her under surveillance. She leaves Switzerland for Italy and then Yugoslavia, where the authorities lose her.
Back in England, Halliday and Dodds discover the fate of more of the 10 people who saw the Voice. Two Swiss gendarmes and their sergeant, plus another Pentonville prison officer, went missing for a week to 10 days and then returned with no memory. That makes a total of six people who have had a breakdown, in addition to the missing Lacoste. Halliday, Dodds and Potter are the last three people to remember what the Voice looks like. Fawcett and Jenkins (from the first episode) are persuaded to enter a sanatorium under the charge of Sir Walter Munsell [perhaps the psychologist seen on screen in the next episode] to see if the process can be reversed.
Then Potter receives a message from Sergeant Schumpieter to say that Martha Blair has been seen again in Switzerland. Potter flies out to question her.
The Sheikh of Balakesh has grown very wealthy in the three years since leasing the country's oil wells to a company based in Tripoli. He himself will "have no dealings with foreigners" (p. 38), so his brother Sharif [presumably Mustapha in the TV version] acts as intermediary, managing a range of interests. Sharif is advised by a disgraced accountant, Viner, who is in the employ of Mr Vox — who Viner refers to as "Voice". Viner tells the Voice that their operative Martha now knows that the two men who interrogated her in Switzerland were the Voice's old enemies, Halliday and Dodds. The Voice answers coolly that he has plans for the two men, but first wants to test the latest improvement Dr Klaus has made to his memory-deleting drug. They will do so on Inspector Potter.
3. The Two Halves of the Coin (5.25 pm, Saturday 19 November 1960) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Denis Goacher (Inspector Lacoste); Jane Cavendish (Ruth); Peter Halliday (Peter Grainger); Alan Stuart (Police sergeant); Graham Suter (Psychologist).
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "The Two Halves of the Coin"): Inspector Potter is met in Switzerland by Sergeant Schumpeiter — who then knocks him out. [On screen, this may have happened at the end of the previous instalment, given the title of that episode.]
Back in England, Halliday and Dodds realise they're the only two people left on the list. Meanwhile, psychologist Sir Walter Munsell is still no closer to reversing the loss of memories in the other victims.
Dr Klaus is told that Potter is a pyromaniac who accidentally killed three people and is overcome by guilt, so that erasing his memory would be a kindness. Having applied the process to Potter, and with Mr Vox's encouragement, Klaus tests the effectiveness of the newly revised treatment by leaving matches near the patient's bed. When Klaus, who is keen to publish his work, leaves the room, Vox calls Potter by his real name and gets no response. The man only responds to the new identity he's been given — "Simon Crabtree". He does not recognise The Voice.
A man called Pete Grainger visits the Halliday Charter Company to book a flight to Berlin and convinces Dodds that they're old friends from BOA days. Halliday isn't fooled and catches out Grainger with a trick question. They fight, Halliday overpowers Grainger and searches him. In the novelisation but presumably not on TV, that means making Grainger strip naked so that they can check the labels in his clothes. The only clue is found inside the lining of his pocket: a small coin with Arabic writing.
Halliday and Dodds are due to fly to Basle, where Lacoste is recuperating having been found in south France. Rather than delay their flight, they lock Grainger in a cupboard and phone the local police to tell them to collect him. In the novelisation, they reach the sergeant who responded to the death of Abraham Perry in the second serial. [That was Sergeant Eustace, played by John Harrison, who played a different role as a passenger in the first episode of this serial.] This sergeant arrives after Halliday and Dodds are in the air; he finds Grainger, who overpowers him and escapes.
In Basle, Lacoste can't even remember the names of local Swiss towns put to him by a local doctor. Dodds calls his fiancé Sonya Delamere, who is running London office of the charter company. She says she's had various potential customers seeking flights to different destinations: Berlin, which is where Grainger wanted them to go, Tripoli and Turin. Dodds puts these options to Halliday, who opts for Turin as their next job.
Dodds still has the coin they took from Grainger. The Arabic writing gives Halliday an idea and they see whether Lacoste responds to names of places in the Middle East. As before, they get no response — until they mention Tripoli, and Lacoste turns his head. He then recognises the coin as a piastre, despite having never left Switzerland prior to this recent disappearance. Sergeant Schumpieter reminds Halliday and Dodds that Lacoste was found in the south of France and responds to the name of a town there, Menton, to which Lacoste agrees eagerly. But Halliday decides to call Sonya back and take the job to Tripoli.
Grainger reports to the Voice (who is still wearing bandages and dark glasses); though annoyed by Grainger's failure, the Voice has another job for him.
Halliday and Dodds have been hired to deliver pumping equipment to the Balakesh Oil Company in Tripoli. Halliday's only plan when they get there is to see if the customs and immigration people recognise photographs of Potter and Lacoste, or have seen anyone muffled or bandaged, which may have been how the two police inspectors were brought into the country.
Crabtree (the brainwashed Potter) tells Dr Klaus he is feeling better after treatment, as though there is now one man in his head rather than two. He is keen to recover fully and then be of use to Mr Vox.
Viner reports to the Voice what he has heard from Martha Blair: Halliday is on his way. The Voice produces a small coin, his own piastre. Everything is as he has planned.
4. Come Into My Parlour (5.25 pm, Saturday 26 November 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Norma Parnell (Secretary); George Little (Airport official)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "Come Into My Parlour"): Sharif [ie Mustapha in the TV version?] reports to the Voice that, as instructed, he has created a situation in which the Balakesh Oil Company's under-manager, a westerner, has insulted a local religious leader, with the result that offended Arab workers have now gone on strike. To Sharif's surprise, the Voice is angry. He doesn't want Halliday to be dealt with in Tripoli, so close to where the Voice is operating. Instead, the mastermind wanted Halliday to visit briefly, fail to find anything and then leave on a sabotaged plane.
At the Oil Company HQ in Tripoli, Halliday and Dodds meet with Scottish manager (and cultural stereotype) MacPhee, who explains that the strike affects the airfield and means they are effectively grounded. Halliday hopes to appeal to the local sheikh to resolve the situation but MacPhee tells him the sheikh is,
"a very prejudiced, bigoted wee man ... with a strong streak of colour prejudice. In this case, he doesn'na care for Europeans." (p. 59)
MacPhee says they have more hope with the sheik's brother, Sharif. In describing the brothers' relationship and business interests, such as the private hospital, MacPhee mentions that Sharif is rumoured to take advice from a European 'mystery man'. Halliday is intrigued, suspecting that this might be the Voice, and decides to investigate this private hospital. He tells Dodds to continue showing photographs of Potter and Lacoste to staff at Tripoli airport. Dodds duly does so, to no avail. Then he spots two arrivals on a flight in from Milan: Martha Blair and Leo. Martha sends Leo on with her luggage, then pretends to be relieved that Dodds has found her.
Halliday arrives in Balakesh and meets Sharif. He asks to meet Sharif's western advisor and to see the new hospital. To his surprise, Sharif agrees.
Martha Blair tells Dodds that she wants to escape the Voice but no one can help her. Dodds assures her that he can. They agree a plan: Blair will return to Leo and see if they've received further orders that might indicate the Voice's plans or location. She'll then report back to Dodds. They agree to meet at the Green Parrot.
Halliday meets the sheikh's western advisor — it is Viner, rather than the Voice. Together, they tour the hospital, where Halliday spots one patient reading a book in English. He rushes over, but the patient is an old Arab man. After they've gone, Crabtree (the brainwashed Inspector Potter) emerges from another door and wonders why the old Arab is reading his book.
Meanwhile, Dodds arrives at the Green Parrot and walks headlong into a trap. Martha Blair delivers him to the Voice's other henchpeople.
5. A Message from a Stranger (5.25 pm, Saturday 3 December 1960) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Norma Parnell (Secretary); Desmond Llewellyn (Psychiatrist); Michael Bilton (Old Arab); Michael Peake (Loti); George Fisher (First Arab); Jack Cooper (Second Arab)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "A Message from a Stranger"): Psychologist Sir Walter Munsell [on screen, an unnamed psychiatrist, and not played by the same actor billed as the unnamed psychologist in ep 3] explains to the Assistant Commissioner that he has still found no way to reverse the brainwashing process. Meanwhile in Tripoli, Halliday learns from Macphee that Dodds has vanished and was last seen in the company of a young woman. Halliday deduces that this was Martha Blair, in the employ of the Voice. Sonya calls from England to find out how things are going; Halliday stalls her, without revealing the truth.
Once again, the Voice is unhappy with his minions, this time because they have taken Dodds prisoner which will draw attention to the vicinity. The Voice orders Martha Blair and Leo to let Dodds escape. In a comic sequence, Dodds is too wary of Leo's increasingly obvious feints. At last, Dodds takes the initiative, and when he hits Leo and the others they thrown themselves across the room. With new confidence, Dodds locks them all in the room where they held him prisoner and hurries away.
Prompted by Halliday, Macphee questions Viner about the extra money apparently needed to quell local unrest and keep the oil flowing. When Viner is gone, Halliday says the Voice is playing "the oldest game in the world" (p. 83) in extorting more money from Macphee's oil company. He also realises that the guided tour he received from Viner was all a trick. Dodds then reaches Halliday and they return to the Green Parrot — but Leo and the others have escaped. An Old Arab appeals to them for money. In exchange for some bank notes, he directs them to Loti the jewel-seller in the bazaar. They follow this tip, and while haggling with Loti over the price of a bangle, the brainwashed Inspector Potter passes them and drops a note, which Halliday recovers.
That evening, Halliday and Dodds prepare to fly home. At the last moment, as promised in the note, Potter joins them. But once they're airborne, the brainwashed inspector pulls a gun on his friends.
6. The Last of the List (5.25 pm, Saturday 10 December 1960) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Philip Howard (Sergeant); Minush Thuillier (Arab girl)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "The Last on the List"): Viner is also aboard and instructs Halliday to change course. Dodds manages to radio the start of a message that they are in trouble but Viner cuts him off. This is all according to Viner's plan, as the authorities will now think the plane has crashed,
In Balakesh, the Voice welcomes Halliday and Dodds, and tells them they will soon be brainwashed. The process begins by drinking a certain solution. Halliday, Dodds and Potter are placed in a very hot cell with a waiting carafe of cold, drugged water — how can they resist? In fact, Dodds resists the impending onslaught by going over his own memories, reciting aspects of his life history including his old school register. Halliday has an idea and asks Potter/Crabtree what he remembers of his own school days. When Potter is distressed to find that he can't remember, Halliday pushes further and gets him to recite his own school register. Potter begins, with names leading up to "Potter". Halliday and Dodds repeat the list of names, then Halliday calls out the names and to each one Dodds responds "Here, sir!" When Halliday reaches "Potter?", Potter gives the response.
Meanwhile, Macphee meets with Sharif and demands to know why further payments are necessary. The sheik overhears and confronts Sharif. When the Voice learns of this, he tells Sharif that they will have to dispose of the Sheikh. He also instructs Dr Klaus that he has two further patients.
Halliday has a plan to escape but it involves allowing himself to be drugged. Dodds can then copy his behaviour to convince their captors that they have both succumbed, helped by Potter (pretending to still be brainwashed) saying they both drank the water. Once the unconscious Halliday and Dodds are transferred from their cell to the hospital ward, Dodds can escape and get help. This he does,
"with his face and body blacked with cork, and stripped down to a single garment (not in the hope of being taken for an Arab but simply so as to to make it more difficult for anyone to see him)" (p. 105)
Thus attired, he climbs out of the window on knotted sheets. Time passes, the novelisation providing what is in effect a montage of the different characters in the story.
7. Strong Poison (5.25 pm, Saturday 17 December 1960) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Sally Douglas (Arab girl)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "Strong Poison"): In the small hours of the morning, the blacked-up Dodds finds a radio set and calls Tripoli — but receives no answer. Meanwhile, the Voice tells Sharif that they are to meet with the sheikh, and will serve him poisoned coffee. Sharif objects that they might be arrested before his brother drinks it; the Voice says they will stall for time by blaming everything on Halliday and Dodds.
Leo catches Dodds and returns him to the hospital ward. After Leo has gone, Dr Klaus arrives to see his new patients and is horrified to learn that Potter has broken the conditioning. Potter tries to convince the terrified doctor that he is not a dangerous arsonist. With a shot of adrenalin, they wake the drugged Halliday to confirm this. When Klaus still wavers, Halliday asks if the doctor is allowed to publish the results of this apparently benevolent work. Klaus says "Mr Vox" wants to wait until they are closer to perfecting the process. Halliday suggest that Klaus should tell the people here that he has mailed a paper to be published and gauge the reaction. Klaus does so, Viner is furious and Klaus realises the truth. He will no longer brainwash people. Halliday tells Viner that, with the game up, the Voice will flee — as ever, abandoning his henchpeople. Viner accepts this and to save his own skin tells them what the Voice has in store for the sheikh.
Halliday can get to the room where the sheikh is being served poisoned coffee by climbing along an exterior ledge. This is precarious enough but Klaus warns that the shot of adrenalin he gave Halliday will last only another 30 minutes before Halliday collapses. Halliday makes the perilous journey and bursts in on the sheikh. This seems only to confirm what the Voice has been saying about Halliday being a dangerous spy. Dodds is brought in, still blacked-up. The sheikh orders that Halliday and Dodds face the local system of justice and should be taken away and beheaded. As they are dragged out, Halliday warns that the coffee is poisoned. The sheikh gives his cup to Sharif, who drinks it — but doesn't swallow. When the sheikh order him to swallow it, Sharif does... and drops dead.
Beaten, the Voice flees the scene. Halliday collapses. He wakes 48 hours later, back in the hospital ward. The Assistant Commissioner (who has flown in from England) says that Viner, Leo and Martha Blair will all do time, while Klaus has been able to help the brainwashed victims recover their memories. Halliday then asks about the Voice. The sheikh tells him that the Voice escaped — but will not get far.
"The Voice bought a map, which was no map. He bought a jeep with ten cans of petrol, but in eight of the cans there was sugar. I told you, Captain Halliday, we have our own justice in Balakesh. The desert will punish him. Not in your way. In ours." (p. 126)
The novel ends with the Voice out in the desert, abandoning his now useless jeep and continuing on foot,
"his last and never-to-be-repeated escape, the last escape of all which is to nothingness" (p. 127)
Production notes
On Tuesday 5 April 1960, actor Terence Longdon flew in a Silver City Airways Dakota over Romney Marshes in Kent, while being filmed from another plane. A report three days later in the local paper included a photo of Longdon in costume alongside a bomb. Readers were told that the actor had taken some time off from filming to play a round of golf at Rye, had a handicap of 3 and that the filming was for a new series of Garry Halliday, to start in October. (Source: "Garry Halliday Adventure in Kent", Kentish Express, 8 April 1960, p. 12)
In fact, the new serial began in November 1960. Given that (as we'll see) the episodes were pre-recorded in studio in the same week as transmission, filming was undertaken a very long time in advance. Producer Richard West explains in his memoir, The Reluctant Soldier & Greasepaint and Girls, why this was. But, as is often the case with memoirs, what he remembered years after the events described doesn't quite match other available sources. I'll endeavour to piece together what happened.
According to West, filming Garry Halliday with Silver City Airways provided facilities for travel, and on the second serial "the cast thoroughly enjoyed" filming in Paris.
"I also discovered that they had a once weekly flight to Tripoli, Libya, that I, ever searching for fresh ideas and new locations, would be able to take. No sooner had I arrived there, when I was urgently summoned back, in order to direct a six-part serial adaptation of St Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson." (Kindle ref. 3270)
This serial, adapted by Rex Tucker and starring William Russell, Audrey Nicholson and Frederick Treves, was broadcast from 12 June to 17 July 1960. BBC productions often had an eight-week lead time, on which basis West would have joined St Ives around Monday, 18 April. The implication is that West's brief stint in Tripoli was before this, around the same time as Longdon and the crew filmed sequences in Kent.
According to West, after completing work on St Ives he was still keen on a middle-eastern setting for a Garry Halliday story— perhaps informed by his own wartime service in Tripoli, detailed in the earlier part of his memoir. He says he put this to co-writer Jeremy Bullmore, who replied that he had no ideas for a story but suggested that they fly out to Tripoli with lead actor Terence Longdon and film some atmospheric shots. Bullmore would then weave a plot around whatever they captured.
"Jeremy and I set off on the flight to Tripoli, taking Terence Longdon with us, together with my assistant [probably Jean Hart], and Tony Good [the public relations officer at Silver City Airways] as cameraman. We hired a car and set off the next day for the countryside, found a suitable location, and started filming. Alas, it was Ramadan, and the Arabs took mostly unkindly to our efforts, and started throwing rocks at the camera. … This made excellent film." (Kindle ref. 3281)
If West remembered right about it being Ramadan, this can't have been after he completed work on St Ives, as the Ramadan following broadcast of that serial ran from 17 February to 17 March 1961, after this fourth Garry Halliday had been completed and broadcast. Perhaps West misremembered and it wasn't Ramadan at all. But the previous Ramadan, running from 28 February to 28 March 1960, would come close to the date on which West and his crew filmed in Kent.
My best guess to rationalise this is that West scouted locations in Tripoli a whole year before he was assigned to St Ives; he was there with Jeremy Bullmore in the summer of 1959, as per the BBC memos relating to Bullmore's expenses, detailed in the production notes for the second serial. Then, within weeks of completing the third Garry Halliday serial on 20 February 1960, the lead actor and minimal crew flew to Tripoli to capture suitably atmospheric material from which Bullmore (and Bowen) could devise a plot. This was done through Silver City Airways and, around the same time, they filmed material involving the airline's planes over Kent. As detailed in the newspaper report of the latter, the team already knew at this stage that the new serial would not be broadcast for another six months; I think because Bullmore and Bowen needed time to write it. While the writers got on with that, West was assigned — not reassigned — to St Ives. (As we'll see, elements of that production informed the fifth Garry Halliday serial.)
It's an unusual way of planning a new serial but the issue of Bullmore's expenses for the research trip shows that production of Garry Halliday didn't always follow normal BBC practice. In fact, West makes the shoot in Tripoli sound quite a wild adventure. As well as having rocks thrown at the camera, he and his team were apparently arrested outside the US Wheelus airbase, where they had no prior permission to film. Only the fact that a US sergeant was impressed to learn that Terence Longdon had been in a film with Lana Turner got them out of this bother, but they were instructed to fly home, abruptly curtailing the shoot. With no direct flight back to the UK, they stopped first in Malta and then Rome, and in the latter filmed more shots (again, without permission) for the writers to weave into a plot. Indeed, the fifth serial Garry Halliday serial is partly set in Rome.
West's memory is that shortly after filming in Tripoli, Jeremy Bullmore,
"became Managing Director of J Walter Thompson, and had to give up scriptwriting. So Halliday never did get to Africa after all.” (Kindle ref. 3303)
Again, that's not quite right: Halliday did get to Africa in the fourth serial, and Bullmore wasn't managing director at JWT. According to the timeline on the Best of Bullmore website, he joined the advertising company in 1954 as a trainee copywriter, was Copy Group head from 1961 to 1964 and Creative Group Head from 1962; he was then Deputy Chairman 1975-76 and Chairman 1976-87. And West makes it sound as if Bullmore stopped writing Garry Halliday due to these commitments to his full-time job. Other sources suggest that what happened wasn't nearly so amicable.
In fact, despite West's recollection, the overseas filming trip proved very profitable, with Bullmore returning home with ideas for two new adventures. He and John Bowen were commissioned for both at once: a double-length fourth "serial" (as it was referred to in BBC paperwork) of 13 episodes comprising two distinct stories: one of seven episodes partly set in Tripoli, immediately followed by a six-part story partly set in Rome. If that was planned to start transmission in October (as per the report in the Kentish Express), it was surely intended to run up until Christmas 1960.
Writing kept Bowen and Bullmore (the latter with a full-time job) through the summer of 1960. They seem to have delivered scripts for the first, seven-episode story and a storyline for the second six episodes around mid August. Then things started to go awry. On 24 August, the BBC's head of copyright, Richard Walford, wrote to script organiser Robin Wade about progress on Garry Halliday and Wade replied the following day. These memos no longer survive but are referenced in Walford's follow-up on 1 September, in which he said Bowen and Bullmore had been instructed to stop all work on the second block of six episodes - ie the Rome-set story - and hand over the storylines for the remaining episodes to BBC staff writer Richard Wade.
The reason given was that the BBC didn't think the dialogue was good enough in what had been delivered. Richard Walford relayed this, but it's unlikely that he - as head of copyright - had any say in such editorial decisions. The judgment must have come from someone in the BBC's script department.
Years later, Bowen recalled that Garry Halliday "was reckoned successful" but that after he and Bullmore delivered what he called "G.H. and the Sands of Time",
"the BBC decided that this was a property with potential and brought in a script editor. Shortly afterwards, Jeremy and I left and, shortly after that, the whole enterprise collapsed. The BBC has not changed. Script editors still abound." (Source: p. 603 of John Bowen, "The familiar most frightens when it assumes an unfamiliar aspect," The Listener, 3 May 1980, pp. 603-604)
If so, staff writer Richard West was surely the script editor assigned to the series, and on receiving the scripts felt that he could better write Garry Halliday than its creators. He was then backed in this view by others at the BBC, including script organiser Robin West and head of copyright Richard Walford. As we've seen on previous serials, others had voiced concerns about the quality of the writing on Garry Halliday, so the decision didn't come out of the blue. Even so, given the perceived success of the three preceding Garry Halliday serials, one can see why the decision might have rankled with the two writers.
According to Walford's memo, Bowen and Bullmore suggested that they finish work on the scripts for the six-episode story, completing the run of 13, which could then be reworked by Wade. Walford warned that a clause in the writers' contracts might complicate matters: were the BBC to formally accept Bowen and Bullmore's scripts, they could refuse rewrites. Indeed, this would be an issue with the Rome-set story, which we'll come to in due course.
Bowen and Bullmore also proposed that, once they had completed work on the scripts for these six episodes, they would submit a storyline for a further run of 13 episodes, presumably comprising two stories, which the BBC would be free to adapt as they wished using other writers, on condition that the episodes were till credited to them, ie to Justin Blake. This seemed to satisfy the different parties and Walford suggested that Bowen and Bullmore receive a fee for such storylines plus a quarter of their usual fee for each script. He thought Richard Wade should receive 30 guineas for reworking each episode of this fourth serial, and between 50 and 60 guineas for writing each episode beyond that from the storylines provided. (Source: Head of Copyright [RG Walford] to Script Org.Tel [Robin Wade], "GARRY HALLIDAY SERIES", 1 September 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
Script organiser Robin Wade accepted this proposal. Indeed, his memo suggests that Bowen and Bullmore had already provided storylines for a second run of 13 episodes, for which they'd been paid a quarter of the usual fee for writing the script of each episode. The BBC now had a free hand to revise the plot and characters of these storylines, subject to an additional small fee being paid to Bowen and Bullmore. Richard Wade, meanwhile, would now be contracted to revise episodes 4, 5, 6 and 7 of The Sands of Time, for 30 guineas per episode. The same fee would apply if he rewrote the second set of six scripts, but if he were employed to write scripts for the second batch of 13 episodes, based on Bowen and Bullmore's storylines, his fee would increase to 50 or 60 guineas. (Source: Script Organiser, Television [Robin Wade] to H.Cop [RG Walford], "GARRY HALLIDAY SERIES", 7 September 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
Walford confirmed this arrangement in a letter to the writers' agent the following day. If the BBC decided not to proceed with the second run of 13 episodes, Bowen and Bullmore would keep the quarter fee they'd already been paid. If the BBC did proceed, and used other writers to produce the scripts, Bowen and Bullmore would receive and additional fee. Walford concluded that the storylines Bowen and Bullmore had provided were not very detailed and suggested Bowen and Bullmore's extra fee be just eight-and-a-half guineas per episode. (Source: RG Walford, Head of Copyright, to Gareth Wigan, Esq, 8 September 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
The writers were duly paid full fees for all 13 storylines and the first seven scripts of this bumper fourth series, suggesting these scripts had been delivered by mid September at the latest. (Source: Payment slip, 19 September 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1) By 11 November, they'd delivered the remaining six scripts, for the Rome-set story. (Source: Script Organiser, Television [Robin Wade] to Miss Rose, Copyright Department, "GARRY HALLIDAY: BOWEN AND BULLMORE", 11 November 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
In the meantime, Richard Wade presumably worked on the initial, Tripoli-based scripts during October 1960, ahead of the start of rehearsals leading up to recording the first episode on the morning of Tuesday, 1 November. We know the recording date from a preview of the new serial in an undated clipping from an unknown publication, which I found offered for sale on eBay:
"A new character on the scene is an adventurous Canadian girl called Martha. She will be played by Yorkshire-born Jennifer Jayne. Viewers first got to know her as Hedda, or Mrs William Tell, in the famous ATV series, but Jennifer has also appeared as a singer, dancer and commere (sic). ... Garry Halliday is being tele-recorded on Tuesday mornings. That is why London's Cambridge Theatre can spare Jennifer from its current production, Billy Liar."
Radio Times listings also referred to Jayne appearing in Billy Liar. The eBay clipping and a preview in The Birmingham Evening Post on 3 November (p. 10) both mention returning cast members Terence Longdon, Terence Alexander and Elwyn-Jones, and the wording is similar so was probably adapted from a BBC press release. I've found no other publicity for the new serial; Radio Times did not highlight the return of Garry Halliday beyond the listing for cast and crew.
Neither this nor the previews I've found mention changes to the regular cast. The character of Jean Wills, sometimes referred to as Halliday's girlfriend, has been in every episode to date (played in the first serial by Ann Gudrun and in the second two serials by Jennifer Wright). There was no replacement air stewardess, suggesting that the writers had no use for the role. Juno Stevas reprised her role as Sonya Delamere, but in only four of the seven episodes. Despite the introduction of Jennifer Jayne as Martha Blair (also in four out of seven episodes), it's a very male-dominated serial. Nicholas Meredith did not return as Inspector Potter; but he was replaced in the role by Edward Jewesbury.
It's not clear if Inspector Lacoste (Denis Goacher) is meant to be the same character as the unnamed "Swiss inspector" played by Frederick Steger in the previous serial. Nor is clear if the Arab Girl in the seventh episode of this serial, played by Sally Douglas, was meant to be the same character as the Arab Girl in the previous episode, played by Minush Thuillier. Most if not all the Arab characters in the story were played by white actors in make-up, which suggests that Bill Dodds blacking up as part of his escape plan was a kind of in-joke - for all that writers Bowen and Bullmore denied this in the novelisation. It's not simply that this was a story of its time; as we've seen, the first serial had been criticised in the press for the way it represented foreign people and cultures.
The character "Roy Jenkins" in the first episode may also have been an in-joke, since he shared his name with the well-known real-life MP for Birmingham Setchford who was later Minister for Aviation (1964-65) and then Home Secretary.
The series also boasts two actors who'd later be quite well known. A year after his one-episode role here as a villain, Peter Halliday was in the acclaimed A for Andromeda. As a result, when he returned to Garry Halliday for an episode in its eighth "serial" (comprising standalone episodes), Radio Times referred to him as the "guest star".
Meanwhile, the unnamed psychiatrist seen in the fifth episode of this serial was played by Desmond Llewellyn, three years before he began his decades-long run as Q in the James Bond films. Canadian actor, DJ and manager Murray Kash, playing Leo in this serial, was later a Bond villain, playing no. 11 in Thunderball (1965), while John Hollis, here playing the kindly, misguided Dr Klaus, was Bond's nemesis Blofeld in For Your Eyes Only (1980).
Geoffrey Manton was credited as director on three of the episodes, presumably to ease pressure on Richard West - still credited as producer - who was overseeing two serials at once. I've not been able to find any other credits for Manton as a director. Indeed, these episodes are his only credits of any kind in Genome/Radio Times. In the 1970s, he was credited as a production assistant on several BBC series, including episodes of Dixon of Dock Green, Blake's 7 and Secret Army. He was then production manager on the 1982 Doctor Who story Earthshock. Perhaps he was production assistant or had some similar, uncredited role on Garry Halliday and took on more responsibility in this one instance.
There's one more notable entry in the listings for this serial: on the first episode alone, there was a credit for the theme music composed and conducted by Lawrence Leonard (1923-2001). It's not clear if Leonard provided a theme for all episodes of this serial, or whether this was a different theme to that used on previous and subsequent Garry Halliday episodes - as we've seen, stock music was used for the opening and closing of the sole surviving episode of Garry Halliday (episode 3 of the third serial). Lawrence Leonard was quite a coup: in his teens before the war, he'd been a cellist with both the London Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. After the war, as a conductor, he co-founded the Goldsbrough Orchestra which, the same year he was credited on this episode of Garry Halliday, became the English Chamber Orchestra. He was also assistant conductor of the BBC Northern Orchestra around this time and later published his own adventure story for children, The Horn of Mortal Danger (1980).
There's also one more notable item in surviving BBC paperwork relating to this serial. On 17 November 1960, between the recording and broadcast of the third episode, BBC script organiser Robin Wade copied a memo related to the next story to producer Richard West, adding a handwritten note asking to be informed when the Voice had been killed off. (Source: Script Organiser, Television [Robin Wade] to Miss Ross, copy to Richard West, "GARRY HALLIDAY (5th series)", 17 November 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
Perhaps he merely wanted to know when revisions to the scripts for this serial had been completed. But the way it's worded makes me wonder if killing off the Voice was a new and very late development. That might explain the slightly abrupt ending to the novelisation.
The irony is that, on TV, the Voice didn't really die - he'd be seen again. But the novelisation of this serial was published in 1963, by which point Garry Halliday had finished on TV - the last original episodes broadcast a year previously, the repeats concluded that summer, and a replacement adventure serial due to start in November that would all but eclipse Garry Halliday in the public mind. Actor Elwyn Brook-Jones was also dead, and the novelisation begins by telling us that this story is Garry Halliday's last adventure involving him.
According to the book, after this encounter Halliday was able to track down some details about the man behind the Voice. He'd been well known in the English village where he grew up, the son of a respected brigadier, and was once "a clever, diligent boy, a hard worker" (p. 9), head of his House at school, captain of rugger and then a captain in the army by 19. A major during the war, he was captured by the Japanese and had "broken down under the threat of torture, and told everything he knew." When he and a young lieutenant from the Ninth Gurkhas escaped, the young major feared anyone learning of his shameful behaviour, so shot the young lieutenant to silence him. In fact, the lieutenant lived, telling the major's family that he'd died with honour, but later confessing to Halliday what really happened. The major was listed as missing believed killed on 12 June 1944. Ashamed, he'd hidden away, cut himself off from his past and become a new person without a name or face, just a Voice. We never learn his name.
The same introduction tells us that Sonya and Bill Dodds now have two kids (p. 11); Dodds does not narrate this adventure, having handed over the responsibility to Justin Blake himself. But Bill and Sonya still had one more adventure with Garry Halliday to come...
Further reading
Written by and (c) Simon Guerrier. Thanks to Paul Hayes, the BBC's Written Archives Centre, the British Newspaper Archive and Macclesfield Library.
No comments:
Post a Comment