Pre-recorded ahead of broadcast 4 February — 11 March 1961; novelisation Garry Halliday and the Flying Foxes by Justin Blake published at 13s 6d by Faber & Faber, c. November 1965*, with jacket design by Leo Newman.
* Reviewed by Jean Ware, "Adventure unlimited", Daily Post (Merseyside edition), 24 November 1965, p. 8.
A rival charter airline is taking Garry Halliday's business. Garry soon discovers that the "Flying Foxes" — brother and sister Nigel and Vicky Fox — are involved in smuggling an anti-ageing drug stolen from a laboratory in Rome, on behalf of some dangerous villains...
Regular cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Terence Alexander (Bill Dodds); Hector Ross (Jumbo Wiles); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Harold Lang (Da Rica, eps 2-6); David Morrell (Luigi, eps 2-6); Richard Dare (Berhman, personnel manager, eps 3-6); Jane Cavendish (Giuletta, eps 4-6); Michael Harald (Newspaper boy ep 4, BBC announcer eps 5-6). With Juno Stevas (Sonya Delamere, eps 1 and 4). Narrator (eps 3-6): Geoffrey Palmer.
Crew: David Whitaker (writer); Justin Blake (based on characters created by); Bill Munn (Film cameraman, eps 1-5); Keith Latham (Film editor, eps 1-5); Stewart Marshall (Designer, eps 1-5); Richard West (Producer).
Flying and airport sequences by courtesy of Skyways Ltd.
1. A Bad Business (5.25 pm, Saturday 4 February 1961) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: John Forbes-Robertson (Traffic controller); Robert Young (Mr Sharples)
Summary (based on the first chapter of the novelisation, "Going Broke"): The Voice is dead; a body and distinctive glasses are discovered out in the desert. Garry Halliday returns home — only to find that a rival charter airline working from the same airfield is undercutting his business. The "Flying Foxes" are also a three-person outfit operating a single Dakota aircraft: pilot Nigel Fox, his sister Vicky acting as stewardess plus a moustached man called Jumbo Wiles.
Given Garry makes little profit, he can't understand how the Foxes can offer the same service for 25% lower rates. They must be running at a loss until he is put out of business. But then how are they funded?
In the control tower at the airfield, Garry watches the Flying Foxes' Dakota take off for Treviso. He's surprised to see it perform "a rather showy roll" (p. 12), which Bob the Chief Controller [an unnamed traffic controller on screen] says Nigel Fox always does. It seems Nigel is superstitious; another idiosyncrasy is that, when returning to the airfield, he always begins his approach run over the nearby Tonbridge Estate.
When Garry visits the Foxes to hand over documents relating to clients they have taken from him, he drops a pin to see if the superstitious Nigel will pick it up for good luck. He doesn't. When Garry asks about the Tonbridge Estate, Nigel says he likes to fly over it because his and Vicky's old nanny lives there. He is obviously lying.
Prompted by Garry, his own stewardess / secretary Sonya Delamere makes enquiries. Local shopkeeper Mr Sharples is among those who tells her that the Foxes pay for everything in cash. Having been questioned, Mr Sharples is suspicious of Vicky Fox the next time she comes into buy something. Vicky learns to her horror that Garry Halliday's people have been casting aspersions.
Vicky angrily confronts Garry, who coolly asks how the Flying Foxes can run an airline at such a loss. He asks if it involves something crooked. "My brother would never do anything really dishonest," insists Vicky (p. 20) — which, Garry notes, doesn't mean he's entirely honest. Garry asks about Jumbo Wiles and is told he is a "brilliant man" who earned a medal as a bombardier among the Dambusters. Realising she's said too much, Vicky rushes out. Garry deduces that the Foxes are using Wiles's skill to drop small parcels into the lake on the Tonbridge Estate before they land — it's a smuggling operation.
Jumbo Wiles is annoyed by Vicky having said too much. He has also annoyed Nigel by ringing someone called "Barstow", who Nigel normally deals with.
Hidden in the reeds by the side of the lake, Garry watches with binoculars as the Flying Foxes' Dakota begins its approach run — and yes, a "hat-box-sized" parcel (p. 24) drops from it, hits the lake and then sinks. Garry waits and waits, watching. But no one comes to retrieve it.
2. The Secret of the Lake (5.25 pm, Saturday 11 February 1961) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: John Harrison (Baristow); Jack Carlton (Airport manager); Winifred Hindle (Nanny)
Summary (based on the second chapter of the novelisation, "The Secret of the Lake"): "This is a chapter in which Bill Dodds shows enormous intelligence and perspicacity," says the novelisation (p. 25). Bill is preparing breakfast when Garry comes in having spent all night at the lake and explains what he's seen regarding the missing parcel [this recap may explain why there's no "narrator" credited in the listing for this episode]. Bill then goes for his bath, where he experiments with submerging his scrubbing-brush by loading it with different implements such as a nail-brush, razor and tube of shampoo. The point, as he then demonstrates to Garry and Sonya, is that one can load the scrubbing-brush in such a way as to make it disappear under the surface for a given amount of time before it pops back up again.
They assume that something similar is involved with the parcel dropped from the plane: it must contain something heavy to make it sink but which slowly dissolves in water, whereupon the parcel resurfaces. It's unlikely that the Foxes will retrieve the parcel during daylight when they might be seen so it has probably been rigged to resurface at dusk. Sure enough, Nigel Fox and Jumbo Wiles set off to the lake that evening, only to discover that their Landrover has a puncture. They fix it, then find a second wheel now damaged — they don't realise that both have been sabotaged by Bill Dodds.
While they're distracted, Garry swims out in flippers and successfully recovers the parcel. It is full of drugs — but apparently of an innocuous sort.
"The neat packages contained in the canister were labelled 'penicillin', 'sulphananomide' and 'ascorbic acid concentrate', not 'morphine', 'heroin' or 'cocaine' ... Garry had carefully opened three of the packages, and taken out a little of the contents. He was no chemist ... but, by using himself as a guinea-pig and tasting a small quantity, he could be fairly sure that they weren't cocaine or anything like it." (pp. 33-34)
Garry presents his findings to Bob the Station Officer [on screen, the "Airport manager", a different character from the first episode], who asks Nigel Fox to come see him. With Garry there to witness proceedings, Nigel repeats his story about visiting his old nanny, who he phones up and asks to join them. Nanny convinces the embarrassed Station Officer that Nigel's story is true. Nigel denies having anything to do with the canister Garry found.
"He examined the neat packets with great curiosity. He even opened one, tasted it, and made a face. 'Still,' he said, 'wherever you got these from, it's not illegal to have them. I mean, look at the labels. They're not poisons or addictive drugs or anything like — what's the word? — 'snow'? It doesn't say 'snow'. It says penicillin. You could get them anywhere." (p. 36)
The implication is that Garry had made up the whole story to frame the Foxes. Shaken by this encounter, Garry sends a small sample of drugs from two differently labelled containers in the parcel to Bill's chemist friend Les to analyse. Les confirms that the two samples, though differently labelled, are the same, unidentified substance. He will continue to investigate.
Nigel Fox thinks he has outwitted Garry Halliday; his "nanny" is really an out-of-work actor Nigel paid to play a role. But Jumbo Wiles suggests that it would be easier if Halliday were out of their way permanently. Nigel quickly assures the innocent Vicky that Jumbo didn't really mean this.
Garry is sure that a precision drop like the Foxes made must involve some specialist targeting equipment on the Fox's plane, of the sort used by the Dambusters. At midnight, he crosses the airfield to take a quiet look. There he is stopped by a man [Luigi] with a gun, who thinks Garry is "Mr Fox". Garry plays along.
[Note that the chapter doesn't feature "Barstow/Baristow" or "Da Rica", though they had credited roles in the TV episode.]
3. Halliday Must Die! (5.25 pm, Saturday 18 February 1961) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Jack Carlton (Airport manager); Jennifer Schooling (Ruth Weyland); Jill Hyem (Vera Staple); Peter M Elrington (Cab driver)
Guest crew: Terry Baker (Fight arranged by)
Summary (based on the third chapter of the novelisation, "'Halliday Must Die'"): The man with the gun gives "Mr Fox" (ie Garry) new orders: he is to kill Garry Halliday by arranging an accident. Fox is also to telephone Barstow on a new telephone number that the gunman provides, to receive his next instructions.
Bill Dodds, meanwhile, has been "snogging with Sonya on the road to the village" (p. 46) but arrives back at the office on the airfield to find Jumbo Wiles has broken in. They fight. Garry arrives and they overcome Wiles. Garry tells Bill to go to the Flying Foxes' office to ask Nigel to join them; if Nigel refuses, Bill is to say that Garry will phone Barstow. That name should have the desired effect.
An angry Vicky joins Nigel at Garry's office, where Nigel tries to bluff it out — he's told Vicky that what they're smuggling is merely perfume. Garry tells them about the man with the gun and his order to kill Garry Halliday. Now Nigel rounds on Jumbo Wiles for getting them into this mess.
Nigel agrees to call Barstow on the new number and a voice on the other end tells him to deliver his latest consignment of smuggled drugs to Parliament Square at 9 am on Wednesday morning. There he is to hail a taxi and go to 47 Saxon Street to deliver the canister. Having rung off, Nigel explains to Garry and the others that the person to whom he just spoke had a different voice to the man he usually dealt with. Garry gets Nigel to ring the old number for Barstow. The phone is answered by a "middle-aged woman with thick legs" (p. 56) [suggesting TV viewers saw her] who informs Nigel that Mr Barstow has been murdered, his body found down by the railway.
Garry doesn't want to go the police because the Foxes will face prison. Instead, he offers them a chance to help expose the real villains. The Foxes and Jumbo Wiles agree. But first, says Garry, they must ensure that these villains think he (Garry) is dead: his friends must arrange an accident.
Meanwhile in an "undistinguished building not far from the Piazza Navona" in Rome (p. 58), a nervous, disgraced Personnel Officer [named "Berhman, personnel manager" in TV listings], who is originally from Detroit, reports to the Managing Director of Da Rica International — though Mr da Rica "liked to be called the Spider (p. 59). This Spider is angry that the people hired by the Personnel Officer for the smuggling operation — ie Barstow and now the Foxes — have proved to be unreliable. They will instruct Jumbo Wiles to kill Nigel Fox.
Nigel takes the consignment of drugs (bar the samples Garry sent for analysis) to Parliament Square as instructed by the new "Barstow". Vicky is ready at a telephone booth with a view of 47 Saxon Street to observe who comes and goes. However, the taxi never gets there: it stops in a mews, where the driver tells Nigel to leave the parcel on the seat and get out. Delivery has been made without being observed.
However, da Rica soon learns that this consignment has been opened, some powder extracted and the contents resealed. He orders the Personnel Officer to bring him the inquisitive Nigel Fox, dead or alive, "or I will get you" (p. 62). When the Personnel Officer protests, da Rica presses a button and a huge net — "Spider's Web" — falls on him.
Garry and Bill, meanwhile, have flown to Oslo to collect a cargo of toys, a job Nigel passed on to them. On the journey home, they play out the "accident" by jettisoning the toys and a barrel of oil into the sea. Bill then bails out. From an inflatable raft, he waves up at the departing plane — and his "dead" friend.
[There's no mention in the novelisation of the characters Ruth Weyland or Vera Staple, who are listed in Radio Times. My best guess is that Vera Staple is the woman who answers the phone to Nigel. Ruth, who also features in the next episode, may be the TV interviewer who, in the opening of the next chapter, Bill tells about the "death" of Garry, given that there's no one else credited in the cast for this role. If so, this third episode must have ended with some part of the interview. But see notes on the next instalment.]
4. The Disappearing Rabbits (5.25 pm, Saturday 25 February 1961) — Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Jennifer Schooling (Ruth Weyland); Peter Myers (Les); David Lander (Dherio); Clive Cazes (Dherio's assistant)
Summary (based on the fourth chapter of the novelisation, "A Matter of Some Rabbits"): Bill appears on the live, real-life news programme Tonight to give an account of Garry's "death", which he says was caused by engine failure over the North Sea. [No interviewer is credited in the cast list; the novelisation says the interviewer is male and assisted by "a worried young woman" (p. 65), while Bill glimpses but does not speak to real-life host Cliff Michelmore.]
In Rome, the Personnel Officer reads out to da Rica the news of Garry's death, as published in the Times, Daily Mirror and Sun [the latter launched on 15 September 1964, so if newspapers featured in the TV broadcast it would have been the Herald].
Les the chemist reports to Bill on the powder that he's now fully analysed: it's an "anti-agathic" drug called BDM, manufactured in Italy.
"It slowed the process [of ageing] down, helped the cells to renew themselves, and so actually prolonged life. That was the claim, anyway. The drug hadn't been going long enough for anybody to be sure exactly how well it worked." (p. 69)
BDM has been developed by an Italian pharmaceutical firm owned by Roberto Dherio and is licensed for sale in the UK by Hartford, Logue and Company. Bill phones Garry, who is now in Rome, to report this. Garry has just read a newspaper headline about a break-in at Dherio's laboratory with a quantity of BDM stolen worth 400 million lire or £200,000. He supposes that if the stolen BDM is to be sold in the UK, it will either be put into bottles that resemble those used by Hartford, Logue or the villains might offer to sell it to Hartford, Logue direct. Bill is dispatched to look over this company.
Garry, with the help of Giulietta — the daughter of the padrone at the pensione where he's staying — learns more about the theft and then visits Dherio's laboratory. Dherio is with his animals: test rabbits housed in 20 cages, marked A to J. Dherio's assistant [a girl in the novelisation, a man on TV] says, in Italian that Garry doesn't understand, that the rabbits in Batch J died [on screen, it is Batch 3]. But Dherio tells Garry, in English, that the rabbits in Batch J are fine, having been transferred elsewhere while their cage is being cleaned.
Vicky visits Harford, Logue and Company and meets the relatively young Mr Logue who had recently taken charge of the firm and has bold ambitions.
Garry returns to the pensione where Nigel Fox and Jumbo Wiles are waiting. As he already knows, their latest instructions are to collect an envelope in Nigel's name from the main Post Office in Rome; the key inside will open a particular locker at Central Station in which they'll find the next canister to be smuggled back to England. But while Garry was out, he collected both the envelope and the canister himself. He now tells Nigel and Jumbo to go to the Post Office and cause a fuss when the envelope can't be found there. He'll keep watch to see what happens next.
Concerned that everything goes smoothly so that he won't face further wrath from da Rica, the Personnel Officer is at the Post Office to observe Nigel and Jumbo collect the envelope. When they complain, loudly, that it has gone missing, it draws undue attention. The Personnel Officer decides to intercede and takes the two men to da Rica. Nigel and Jumbo introduce themselves to the Spider — this is the first time they've met in person. Luigi tells da Rica that this is not the Nigel Fox he met in England but Nigel recounts their meeting (having been given details by Garry). Da Rica says "with great sweetness" that anyone who can explain this strange mix-up will be gifted with their life.
Vicky, Bill and Les break into the laboratories at Harford, Logue where they find an old man who yawns repeatedly and then dies, with no sign of what may have killed him. But Vicky realises that this is Logue, the relatively young man she met earlier the same day.
[There's no Logue listed in the credits of the TV episode; perhaps the character was only seen in the next episode, but under the name "Henry Gardner".]
5. The Secret of Batch 3 (5.25 pm, Saturday 4 March 1961) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Peter Myers (Les); David Lander (Dherio); Norman Pitt (Henry Gardner); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter); Anthony Bate (Sergeant Jones); Fred Ferris (Inspector Butterfield); Hamilton Dyce (Meg's father); Jill Thompson (Meg)
Summary (based on the fifth chapter of the novelisation, "The Secret of Batch J"): Having seen Nigel Fox and Jumbo Wiles escorted from the Post Office (to go and meet da Rica), Garry returns to the pensione to wait. Jumbo comes to find him, with a gun-totting Luigi. While Nigel has opted to help Garry battle the villains, Jumbo has in fact not switched sides. Luigi wants the canister that Garry took from the locker in the Central Station. Garry doesn't have it on him and wonders aloud whether Luigi's fingerprints are on it. This causes Luigi some concern. Garry says he will swap the canister, fingerprints and all, in exchange for the safe return of Nigel. Luigi reluctantly agrees.
From England, Bill calls Garry and tells him all that has transpired. Garry thinks that Logue apparently ageing to death must be related somehow to the drug reputed to prevent ageing. He goes to see Dherio, who admits that the rabbits in Batch J died of old age. Dherio assures Garry that this particular experimental batch has not been released to the public but Garry points out that material was stolen from the lab. When Dherio realises that this includes material from Batch J, he agrees to provide the English authorities with an antidote to the effects of BDM — whether good or bad.
Bill tries to warn the UK authorities of the deadly risk from smuggled BDM. In the novelisation, Garry's friend Inspector Potter is away and there's a new Assistant Commissioner [Potter, played once more by Edward Jewesbury, is in the cast list of the TV episode]. Dherio then calls Scotland Yard from Rome and confirms the story. A grave warning about BDM is issued on BBC and ITV news every hour.
A young woman called Meg and her unnamed, elderly father don't have a television and the radio isn't on. Meg's father, who takes BDM regularly, thinks it must be made from monkey glands. He plans to take his next dose and then turn on the radio. As he and Meg talk, they miss the broadcast warning. But then, when they turn on the wireless set, the warning is repeated — so they are saved just in time.
Luigi arrives at the garden of the pensione to exchange Nigel for the consignment of BDM. It seems da Rica is keen to ensure Nigel is returned with all his possessions; Jumbo Wiles gives him back his overnight bag. When the exchange has been made without hiccup, Garry comments that he expected some trick, asking Nigel if he might have a bomb in his pocket. Nigel is suddenly conscious of the overnight bag. He runs out of the garden with it, shouting for everyone to keep back... and is killed in the ensuing explosion.
[In the broadcast version, Nigel doesn't die and remains a regular character in Garry Halliday for the rest of its run on TV.]
6. A Fall From Power (5.25 pm, Saturday 11 March 1961) - Genome/Radio Times
Guest cast: Hal Dyer (Waitress); Wilfrid Grantham (Italian police inspector)
Summary (based on the sixth chapter of the novelisation, "A Cure for What Ails You"): Vicky is numb with shock at the death of her brother. Garry coolly says that they now have a chance to get ahead of the crooks. He won't ask Giulietta to lie to the police about what's just happened, but if anyone else should enquire, he wants her to say that Garry, Vicky and Bill were all killed in the blast as well.
Sure enough, the Personal Officer [Berhman] arrives, posing as a journalist from the Milwaukee Courier who just happens to be passing. Giulietta tells him that three English men and one woman have been killed in an explosion. Garry and his friends listen in. When Giulietta says the police have been called, the Personal Officer hurries away. Garry and Bill follow him to the "tall building" off Piazza Navona where da Rica is based.
Vicky remains at the pensione, her job to explain to the police all that really happened. From a cafe with a view of da Rica's building, Garry and Bill phone Vicky to share what they have discovered — but she doesn't answer. Jumbo Wiles has arrived at the pensione and takes Vicky away at gunpoint. When the police arrive at the pensione soon after this, Giulietta is left to explain what little she knows. It doesn't sound very convincing. When Garry calls again, the inspector answers and becomes increasingly suspicious as Garry tries to explain. Realising this, Garry puts the phone down on him.
Bill and Garry then see Jumbo Wiles escort Vicky into da Rica's building. Inside, Vicky tells da Rica, Luigi and the Personnel Officer that her brother Nigel, Garry and Bill were all killed in the explosion. Da Rica thinks they should kill Vicky, too. The nervous Personnel Officer objects. Vicky then reveals that Mr Logue in England is also dead. The phone rings, the Personnel Officer answers — but it is a wrong number.
In fact, Garry made the call from the cafe across the road to confirm which office in the building da Rica and recognised the voice of the journalist from the Milwaukee Courier. Soon, Garry and Bill burst into da Rica's office, wielding guns. When Luigi tries to pull out his own gun, Bill shoots him in the wrist. But da Rica presses the button that releases his web — the huge net — on Garry, Bill and Vicky. Jumbo takes Garry's gun.
The boastful da Rica says he can't be beaten. He won't be like other noted criminals such as Al Capone who grew old and were superseded. Da Rica isn't just smuggling BDM; he is taking it himself.
Garry yawns. He continues to yawn as he explains what happened to Logue: the stolen BDM included some from Batch J, which killed the test rabbits by speeding up the ageing process. Bill confirms that Logue aged to death and that the old man was yawning.
Da Rica yawns. When his henchpeople react in horror, he tries to protest — and yawns again. The Personnel Officer yawns. Garry tells them to turn on the radio. The Personnel Officer tunes into the BBC, just in time for the hourly news. They hear the news announcer repeat the warning about the dangers of BDM. Da Rica is now convinced he is dying. Garry produces a small phial which he says contains the antidote, which he trades for the villains' guns.
The waitress at the cafe is able to tell the police inspector where Garry and Bill went. The police arrive at da Rica's office to find him held at gunpoint by Garry. In fact, da Rica was never really poisoned; Garry explains that yawning is infectious. Da Rica and his people are taken away. Jumbo Wiles goes to prison.
On the last page of the novelisation we learn that Sonya Delamere (who hasn't featured much in this story) is "tired of adventures", so she and Bill Dodds leave the charter airline and go off to be married. Garry is left with a vacancy for a stewardess. But after all she's gone through, Vicky doesn't know if she'd like to take the job. She asks for time to think it over. Garry is left pondering his relationship with Vicky, and supposes that if he were to get married he'd have to give up his adventures, too.
"... and he wasn't sure he could do that." (p. 120)
Production notes
As detailed in the entry on the previous serial, producer Richard West recalls in his memoir The Reluctant Soldier & Greasepaint and Girls that Rome was chosen as the setting for the fifth Garry Halliday story quite by accident.
Probably around the spring of 1960, West had taken advantage of the relationship that the Garry Halliday team had built up with Silver City Airways over the preceding year to fly a small crew to Tripoli. As well as West himself, there was star Terence Longdon, Silver City's press officer Anthony Good acting as cameraman, writer Jeremy Bullmore and West's assistant Jean Hart. The idea was to capture some atmospheric shots as they came to hand, from which Bullmore and co-writer John Bowen would then devise a story.
When this trip was abruptly cut short, West and his team hastily arranged flights home via stop-offs in Malta and then Rome, with a night spent in the latter.
"Our hotel was near the Piazza di Spagna and the Spanish Steps, a very Roman landmark that we thought most suitable for filming. I telephoned the BBC Rome representative to tell him of our intentions. He said that he had no prior warning of our arrival (not surprisingly), and that it was absolutely impossible to film in Rome without prior notice."
West went ahead anyway, his guerrilla unit quickly grabbing what shots they could during the morning before the flight back to London that afternoon.
"We set up the camera on the Spanish Steps, and got excellent footage of Halliday running down them, running up them, and looking suspicious in a local trattoria. All of which, Jeremy Bullmore said he could weave into a script." (Kindle ref. 3302-06)
As the memoir makes clear, West knew Rome very well. He first visited while serving in the army during the war, where he met and courted an English woman working in the theatre there who became his first wife (Kindle ref. 1486). His memoir cites numerous visits to the city in subsequent years. Given this, I suspect that the Garry Halliday filming was a little more planned than he makes out in his memoir, even if the correct permissions weren't in place.
As detailed in the previous entry, once back in England writers Bowen and Bullmore spent the summer of 1960 working on storylines and scripts for what was now a double-length series of Garry Halliday, comprising a seven-episode story partly set in Tripoli to be followed immediately by a six-episode story partly set in Rome. At the same time, they wrote a novelisation of the first Garry Halliday serial, published by Faber & Faber on 21 October. They also submitted ideas for a further 13-episode run on TV.
A report in the Kentish Express in April 1960 says that Garry Halliday was due to begin its new run on TV that October. If so, this double-length series was initially scheduled for the 13 weeks up to the end of the year, where it would have been something of a fixture in the schedule. With a second extended run in the offing, too, we can see why Anthony Good, who'd been part of the trips to Tripoli and Rome, felt confident enough in the future of Garry Halliday to quit his job as publicity officer at Silver City Airways to become "technical adviser" on the TV series. (Source: "Leaving Silver City Airways", Kentish Express, 14 October 1960, p. 10.)
Unfortunately, things didn't work out as planned. As we saw last time, when Bowen and Bullmore delivered their scripts for the fourth Garry Halliday story, probably in August, staff in the BBC script department didn't feel the dialogue was of sufficient quality. The writers were instructed to stop work on the fifth story altogether; in-house writer Richard Wade would instead write up the six scripts from their storyline. By 8 September, it had been agreed that Bowen and Bullmore would complete the six scripts themselves, for a full fee, but that the BBC (ie Wade) would then be free to rewrite them as they wished. (Source: memos as referenced in previous entry, but especially RG Walford, Head of Copyright, to Gareth Wigan, Esq, 8 September 1960, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
By the time this had been agreed, Richard Wade seems to have completed rewrites on the first three episodes of the fourth story, as it was now agreed that he would receive 30 guineas per script for rewriting episodes 4-7. The plan was to then pay him at the same rate for rewrites on the fifth story once Bowen and Bullmore delivered their scripts. (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)
The rewritten fourth story was in production by the end of October and began transmission on 5 November. Six days later, BBC script organiser Robin Wade confirmed receipt from Bowen and Bullmore of scripts for episodes 8 to 13 of the fourth series — that is, the Rome-set fifth 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)
The following week, Robin Wade proposed that another BBC staff writer, David Whitaker, be engaged to co-write with Richard Wade the 13 episodes of the fifth series — that is, the sixth and seventh Garry Halliday stories, to be produced 1961-62. The first of these new adventures was to be based on a storyline already purchased from Bowen and Bullmore, while the second would be an original scenario devised by Whitaker and Richard Wade. Robin Wade forwarded a copy of this memo to producer Richard West, with 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, a copy also held in Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
That note suggests that rewrites were still under way on the seventh and final episode of the fourth story. This was very late in the day. If, as on previous Garry Halliday serials, episodes were pre-recorded in the same week of broadcast, the fourth episode of the story was in production that same week. But things may have been even more advanced, as the opening episode of the fifth story was recorded almost four weeks ahead of broadcast (see memo of 10 January 1961, below). Whatever the case, writer Richard Wade was clearly under considerable pressure to complete his rewrites on the fourth story, and then had a further six-part serial still awaiting his attention. At some point, responsibility for rewriting the fifth Garry Halliday adventure was passed to Whitaker, the sole credited writer on the episodes when broadcast.
David Whitaker (1928-80) had been an actor in rep and on radio. After more than a year of submitting ideas to the BBC, he sold a play especially written for television: A Choice of Partners, broadcast in June 1957. By the end of that year, he'd taken a three-month contract in the script department and was still there three years later. His duties included reading submissions from would-be writers, revising work to make it suitable for production, ensuring copies of scripts were retained by the BBC's internal library, and writing his own work. As with a lot of staff writers, that work was prolific and wide-ranging. At the time he wrote for Garry Halliday, Whitaker was script editor of the BBC's light entertainment output, writing continuity scripts for the hosts of numerous variety shows, as well as his own one-off broadcast plays and pitches and pilot scripts for unmade series. I've written a biography about him: David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television (Ten Acre Films, 2023).
Little paperwork survives, so we don't know exactly when Whitaker took over from Richard Wade on the fifth Garry Halliday story or how extensive his rewrites might have been. As we can see from the synopses given above, the titles of the six episodes as broadcast are very similar to the chapter titles in the novelisation, suggesting that the outline was broadly the same. But cast lists for the TV episodes include several characters not featured in the novelisation at all, and the novelisation kills off Nigel Fox when on TV he remained one of the regular cast members in subsequent stories.
Some changes were made for practical reasons: the 20 cages of rabbits labelled Batches A to J in the novelisation became a less costly three batches on TV. According to the BBC paperwork quoted above, the perceived need for rewriting was due not to the storyline but to the quality of dialogue. It's ironic, then, that Bowen and Bullmore duly criticised the quality of Whitaker's work.
On 31 December 1960, Bullmore wrote a stiffly worded letter to producer Richard West that is no longer known to survive but is referred to in later correspondence (see below). My guess is that this letter voiced dissatisfaction at the broadcast version of the fourth story, rewritten by Richard Wade, which concluded on TV on 17 December, as Bowen and Bullmore did not receive Whitaker's rewritten scripts for the fifth story until 9 January 1961.
But the receipt of these scripts only compounded their dissatisfaction, not least because they were given no time to object. The first episode was pre-recorded using the BBC's Ampex system on Tuesday, 10 January, the day after those scripts were received. That means the writers were probably sent the final "camera" scripts, after amendments to dialogue and staging had been made in the process of rehearsals. Bowen and Bullmore quickly phoned Richard West to ask for their name (ie "Justin Blake") to be taken off the credits. West told them that the credits could not be amended without re-ampexing the episode but agreed to have a correction spoken over the credits during broadcast. The writers sent a formal complaint in writing to Owen Reed, the Head of the Children's Department for BBC Television. (Source: Jeremy Bullmore to Mr [Owen] Reed, 10 January 1961, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File, WAC T48/103/1)
Donald Wilson, the Head of Script Department, responded to this. In a letter to Bowen and Bullmore's agent, he pointedly said he would not comment on Bullmore's letter to Richard West of 31 December or comments made elsewhere, suggesting that there had been other, heated things said. Instead, Wilson focused on the practical ways forward from this point. The two writers would be paid for the storylines they'd supplied for the next 13 episodes / two stories, though Wilson said it was unlikely that either of these would now be used. New storylines would be sent to Bowen and Bullmore in due course and they could then decide on the appropriate credit. Wilson also admitted that work on the fifth story had been carried out in something of a rush and referred to it by the title The Flying Foxes. (Source: Donald Wilson, Head of Script Department, Television, to Gareth Wigan, Esq at John Redway & Associates, 12 January 1961, John Bowen Drama Writer’s File T48/103/1)
Up until the end of this story, all episodes were broadcast as "Garry Halliday" followed by an individual title for that particular instalment. But Wilson's letter shows that, internally, the BBC used overall titles for each distinct story of six or seven episodes, and these these match the titles used on the later novelisations.
Production continued on The Flying Foxes. If a new episode was recorded every week, episode 2 was recorded on Tuesday, 17 January and continued until recording of episode 6 on Tuesday, 14 February. We know from other TV productions of the time that the rehearsal process could often entail small changes to dialogue and staging, which would be approved by the producer and script editor on behalf of the writer. Apart from producer Richard West, who oversaw this on The Flying Foxes?
It may not have been Richard Wade. On 13 January, permission was given for David Whitaker, as an in-house staff member based in room 4016 of Television Centre, to co-write a new, seven-episode Garry Halliday story with Richard Wade, for broadcast in the autumn. Whitaker was to be paid 60 guineas per episode. Wade was described as an "outside contributor", ie not on staff at the BBC. (Source: AG Finch, Television Establishment, to Script Organiser [Robin Wade] through Ch.P.O.Tel, "'GARRY HALLIDAY': MR DAVID WHITAKER (B/74624)", 13 January 1961, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
That may mean Wade's experience on the fourth story had led to him leaving his staff job. In that case, perhaps David Whitaker oversaw the rehearsal period, both as the writer of these episodes and in his capacity as script editor for light entertainment at the BBC, where his remit included some drama.
Alternatively, there may have been some confusion over exactly who was involved in the new story. When this new commission was ultimately broadcast a year later, it was credited to Whitaker and another outside contributor, Michael Harald — who was in the cast of The Flying Foxes. He was credited as "script associate" on later episodes of Garry Halliday; perhaps he took some version of that role, without credit, at this early stage.
Harald was, by turns, an actor, director and tour guide. In the latter role, he'd lived and worked in Rome and escorted American tourists across Europe. His time as an "aircraftman" during the war was also good experience to bring to Garry Halliday. While stationed in Alexandria, he'd taken the leading role in Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams, where producer Richard West first met him. After the war, West employed Harald as actor and director in repertory productions in Newquay (where the cast included a young Kenneth Williams) and Scarborough; in the latter, Harald played the Devil in Tobias and the Angel. West's memoir provides a vivid sense of the man and his busy love life.
"He subsequently married a nymphette typist from the office. He wrote plays for television. The first two were successfully screened, but the third, which dealt with the fall of Mussolini, was thrown out of a train window by the enraged nymphette." (Kindle ref. 2406)
West cast Harald in two roles in the fifth Garry Halliday story: the newspaper boy seen in episode 4 and the BBC radio announcer heard warning of the effects of BDM in episodes 5 and 6. Presumably, once he was part of the company Harald heard from his friend the producer about the woes involved in scripts and offered to help deal with the crisis. Yet, given the impression we get of Harald from the memoir, he hardly seems the most appropriate candidate to bring order to proceedings.
He wasn't the only old friend West cast in this story. The sense is of a repertory company, like the ones where West had been director of programmes after the war, with the same actors playing different roles each week. Audrey Nicholson and Frederick Treves had both been in the serial St Ives, directed by West and broadcast in the summer of 1960. Treves had also played a character called Andre in three episodes of the second Garry Halliday serial.
Edward Jewesbury reprised the role of Inspector Potter for a single episode. Hamilton Dyce, playing Meg's father in one episode, had been Henry Riggs in the first Garry Halliday serial and Sir Charles Logan in the second. Richard Dare, as Berhman, had previously played Jakob in the first serial, a clerk in the second and Professor Mundt in the third. John Harrison, here as Baristow, had been a passenger in the first serial, Sergeant Eustace and a schoolmaster in the second, a police sergeant in the third and a passenger (again) in the fourth story. Peter Myers as Les, Jill Hyem as Vera Staple and Peter M Elrington as the cab driver had been, respectively, Smith-Clayton, the Swiss clerk and Mappin in the third serial.
Howard Lang, playing the villainous da Rica, was a new member of the Garry Halliday company, with the unenviable task of replacing Elwyn Brook-Jones as the Voice. Lang was brought up in the East End of London, left school at 14 and was expected to become a cabinet maker but instead went to RADA where, in 1942, he won a gold medal for his acting. The 35 year-old, blond and young-looking actor was not an established name. A month after completing work on Garry Halliday, he appeared in an episode of the BBC arts programme Monitor, which featured his work as a tutor to acting students at the Central School of Speech and Drama. This, said one newspaper, made him "a TV personality overnight". The same piece noted that Lang also wrote and produced plays, had collaborated on a book ignored by critics, and had recently returned from India where he'd been teaching on behalf of the British Council. (Source: "Monitor put 'dunce' on road to top", Evening Telegraph, 14 April 1961, p. 8.) This all implies Lang wasn't already a known quantity. Another report suggested he was known to the public because of his role in Garry Halliday, noting how different his appearance on Monitor had been to the "particularly nasty drug smuggler". (Source: "About Mr Lang the teacher..." Hampstead News, 14 April 1960, p. 18.)
That, at least, suggests he was a memorable and effective villain. But going from the novelisation, da Rica isn't particularly chilling, not least because he makes a series of threats that then seem to be forgotten. The net that falls from the ceiling of his office is a fun gimmick but not one that bears much repeating. The real tension in the story, I think, comes from Nigel and Vicky Fox as largely good people caught up in something bad, and the switching loyalties of their partner Jumbo Wiles.
Hector Ross, as the untrustworthy Jumbo, may have been the suggestion of writer David Whitaker — Ross had taken the lead role of Harry Ashworth in Whitaker's first script for television, A Choice of Partners. Perhaps the name of shopkeeper Mr Sharples owed something to Whitaker's close friend of the time, comedy writer Dick Sharples, though the name also appears in the novelisation so may have originated with Bowen and Bullmore. As "Ruth Weyland" in two episodes of the TV version — and not featured in the novelisation at all — Jennifer Schooling was surely Whitaker's suggestion. They seem to have been romantically involved at the time and Whitaker at some point "got engaged to Justine Lord", the name by which Schooling was later known. (Source: interview with Whitaker's first wife June Barry in Jeremy Bentham, Doctor Who — The Early Years (WH Allen, 1983), p. 60)
Given this connection, Whitaker may well have attended rehearsals and studio recording, where he would probably have encountered assistant floor manager Douglas Camfield. The two men would work together again on Doctor Who.
The novelisation may also provide some hints about the production of this story. On page 83, the garden of the pensione in Rome is described as having "a smack of Eastbourne" about it, which may be an in-joke about where these scenes were really filmed. What's more, Bowen and Bullmore provide a brief but vivid sense of life inside the BBC. When Bill Dodds arrives at Television Centre for his interview, he is quickly ushered into a waiting room:
"Life in the Centre seemed to be mainly a matter of moving from room to room" (p. 64).
He's then taken to Lime Grove Studios, where Garry Halliday itself was recorded, and briefed by a nervy interviewer and,
"a worried young woman (because they all seemed to worry [in the studio]; they lived in it like fish in a tank)" (p. 65).
Everyone at the BBC, we're told, drinks gin and tonic; when Bill asks for lager, they have to send out for it. Besides noting the nervy, boozy nature of live TV production, Bill spies the real-life Cliff Michelmore across the Tonight studio. Perhaps Michelmore made an uncredited cameo in the episode as broadcast, or perhaps this is another in-joke about him not appearing on screen.
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| Radio Times preview 2 February 1961, p. 5. |
"A new serial in six episodes by DAVID WHITAKER Based on characters created by JUSTIN BLAKE" (Source: Radio Times, 2 February 1961, p. 5)
“The title of the serial is Garry Halliday and the Flying Foxes and during location filming, Longdon enjoyed a new experience—underwater swimming with mask and flippers. What he did in this outfit will be seen in episode two.” (Source: The ‘Mail’ Man, "Adventures of a charter pilot", Birmingham Evening Mail, 2 February 1961, p. 34.)
The Evening Post featured a photo of new guest star Audrey Nicholson to promote the first episode. (Source: "Looking and Listening with AJ Webber", Evening Post, 4 February 1961, p. 6.) The Newark Advertiser noted that star Terence Longdon had been a pupil at nearby Southwell Minister Grammar School (Source: "NAMES in the NEWS', Newark Advertiser, 8 February 1961, p. 16.) It referred to Longdon's local connection again later the same month, this time in relation to him playing Drusus in the new movie Ben Hur, but with a mention of Garry Halliday, too. (Source: "NAMES in the NEWS", Newark Advertiser, 22 February 1961, p. 16.)
Oddly, the previews don't mention the story being set in Rome, whereas location filming abroad had been part of the sell of previous adventures. Indeed, it's odd that Rome doesn't feature at all in the opening episode, with the previews instead citing Garry's swim in a lake in Kent (in episode 2).
No film cameraman or editor were included in listings for the final episode of the story, which may suggest it did not feature any pre-filmed inserts. However, there's also no listing for designer Stewart Marshall, so the absence may just be due to lack of space on this particular page of Radio Times.
Tantalisingly, something of the location filming survives. The BBC Film Library holds four sequences of black-and-white 35mm film, all titled "Rome: Architecture" in its internal catalogue, all lasting 9m 15s and all with the same programme number, "SFLP056W". The repetition suggests that these are four versions of the same film material, though the description for each item in the catalogue lists different shots of Roman buildings and street scenes. As with other surviving film clips, these seem to be fragments without star Terence Longdon or specific to the plot, retained for reuse in other programmes.
The descriptions mention both Garry Halliday from 1960 (ie from this story) and also "Christopher Wren", broadcast 4 July 1961. The latter is a reference to a documentary film, The Miracle of Youth, but it's not clear whether what's held is surviving footage from both Garry Halliday and the documentary or material shot for Garry Halliday that was then reused in the documentary.
Another surviving sequence, again listed as relating to Garry Halliday, is an undated shot of the undulating sea, which lasts for some minutes. My best guess is that, from all of Garry Halliday to choose from, this might have been used at the end of the third episode of this story, when Bill Dodds is left in an inflatable raft on the North Sea. It may be that the closing credits rolled over this sequence.
Sadly, from this point onwards, Garry Halliday is a lot less tangible. There are no further novelisations from which to lift the plots of these missing episodes. There's less BBC paperwork to help us make sense of production. It's all much harder to piece together the story...
Further reading
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