Broadcast live on Saturdays, 24 February — 31 March 1962; repeated on Mondays, 5 November — 10 December 1962.
The Voice frames Garry and his friends so that they appear to be smuggling guns to rebels in the middle-eastern country of Talaat. In getting to the truth, the trail takes our heroes to Trieste... and the opera.
Regular cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter, eps 1-4, 6); Richard Dare (Heidrich, ep 1-4, 6); Simone Lovell (Maid, ep 2; Simonetta, eps 4 and 6); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano, eps 2-4); Roland Brand (Hoover, eps 4-6)
Crew: Richard Wade (writer); Justin Blake (characters created by); Leonard Newson (film cameraman); Ron de Mattos (film editor, eps 1-3); Ken Cooper (film editor, eps 4-6); Stewart Marshall (designer); Richard West (producer); Paul Machell aka Paul Ciappessoni (director, eps 2-3, 5); Michael Harald (script associate, eps 3-6).
Uncredited crew: Douglas Camfield (floor manager).
Flying and airport sequences by courtesy of Skyways Ltd.
1. Down to Earth (5.25 pm, Saturday 24 February 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Alan Tilvern (General Hasheme).
Cast in order of appearance: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Alan Tilvern (General Hasheme); Ian Fairbairn (Officer); Tom Gill (Mr Pennington); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Richard Dare (Heidrich).
Crew: Terry Baker (fight arranged by).
Summary:
“Everything now seems nice and peaceful,” Eddie Robbins remarks to Garry Halliday as they fly towards Aden with a cargo of radio parts. Suddenly they find themselves being buzzed by a strange aircraft. Garry attempts to veer away, but to no avail. He is forced to land in a small, hot, Middle-Eastern country—Talaat. On top of this he finds himself accused of carrying guns to rebels in that country. Naturally he protests. Then he discover that his aircraft has been loaded with gun and not radio parts... He really is in difficulty. (“Garry and the Gun-runners” (preview), Radio Times #1998, 22 February 1962, p. 3.)
Following a fight (arranged by Terry Baker), Garry and Eddie are placed in a cell with a Mr Pennington. When a guard comes in, Garry grabs his gun. Garry and Eddie escape — but are apprehended by General Hasheme, toting a revolver. (Source: opening moments of the script for the next episode.)
2. On the Hook (5.25 pm, Saturday 3 March 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano); Alan Tilvern (General Hasheme).
Cast in order of appearance: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Tom Gill (Mr Pennington); Alan Tilvern (General Hasheme); Ian Fairbairn (Officer); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Richard Dare (Heidrich); Simone Lovell (Maid); Gerald Turner (Mike Henry); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano).
Summary (based on surviving rehearsal script kept by actor Ian Fairbairn):
- TK1: Pre-filmed sequence played in on tele-cine (referred to on paperwork as “TK”), in this case the opening titles, with caption faded up to show title of the episode.
- Scene 1. Int. Studio: Night — The prison cell at Talaat
Garry, Eddie and Pennington are in the cell. A guard comes in; Garry jumps him and grabs his gun, which he gives gun to Pennington. Pennington will remain in the cell while Garry and Eddie leave to “find the man who filled my aircraft full of guns” - Scene 2. Int. Studio: Night — Passage outside cell (1)
As Garry and Eddie emerge from the cell, they are stopped by General Hasheme, behind them with an automatic. Garry grabs Hasheme’s gun and puts him in the cell. Hasheme says he will shoot down their aircraft if they try to escape, but Garry and Eddie will risk it. - TK 2: Garry and Eddie exit the airport building at night, sneak to their aircraft, jump a guard “before he has a chance to say Arab Republic” and get onboard, Eddie removing the chocks.
- Scene 3. Int. Studio: Night — Flight deck of Garry's plane (1)
Garry readies the plane in darkness, using his cigarette lighter to check instruments. - Scene 4. Int. Studio: Night — Passage outside cell (2)
The officer (Ian Fairbairn) releases General Hasheme from the cell. Hasheme wants Garry’s aircraft shot down but the officer hands him a telegram bearing the instruction “Let them escape.” - Scene 5. Int. Studio: Night — Flight Deck (2)
Garry and Eddie take off. - TK 3: Garry’s aircraft takes off (at night).
- Scene 6. Int. Studio: Night — Flight Deck (3)
Garry and Eddie and relieved to be in the air. Eddie asks if this sort of thing is normal. Garry replies that it used to be, when he dealt with The Voice. He’d thought those days were over. Now he’s not so sure. - Scene 7. Int. Studio: Night — Garry’s Office [in England] (1)
Nigel and Vicky Fox, and Inspector Potter, want to help Garry and Eddie. To do so, the Foxes will fly the charter company’s other plane to Trieste (where the guns apparently came from) and then to Talaat. Unseen by the others, Nigel takes a revolver with him. - Scene 8. Int. Studio: Voice’s Control Room (1)
The Voice issues commands to “Russ” [as scripted; late in the day, Maurice Kaufmann continued his role as Adolph Traumann from the preceding story] and Heidrich, both seen on monitors. Dialogue in the script says Russ has not previously encountered Garry, which may have been changed to fit Traumann. - Scene 9. Int. Studio: Day — A hotel room in Trieste (1)
A long scene, lasting almost 12 pages of script. A maid shows Garry and Eddie into their room. Garry calls home but gets no answer, whereupon the Foxes walk in. After a happy reunion, the maid returns, now with Inspector Romano who thinks they’re all gun-running to rebels in Taalmat. Romano shows them an unloaded, distinctive-looking gun, one of 52 found in a box delivered to Trieste the previous afternoon and addressed to Garry. Then consignment also contained rifles and ammunition. Romano warns Garry and his friends to leave Trieste and not return, then exits. Garry deduces that someone is behind all of this effort to frame him: the Voice was not killed when the temple exploded (at the end of the previous story). To continue their investigations, Garry and Eddie will return to England; the Foxes remain in Trieste. - Scene 10. Int. Studio: Voice’s Control Room (2)
The Voice instructs Russ [ie Traumann] to go to Trieste and do something to ensure Garry has to return there — he has Garry “on the hook.” - TK 4: Garry’s aircraft in flight.
- Scene 11. Int. Studio: Flight Deck (4)
Eddie draws, from memory, the odd gun Romano showed them which he thinks was specially made. Garry is still convinced that the Voice involved in all this. - TK 5: Russ [ie Traumann] emerges from Trieste airport, gets into cab; the cab arrives at the hotel.
- Scene 12. Int. Studio: Evening — Hotel Room (2)
Nigel Fox heads out to investigate local warehouses and haulage firms that may be involved in this business. Vicky is left alone in the hotel room. Russ [ie Traumann] arrives, grabs her. The last line of the episode is his threat: “You’re going to take a sea voyage.” - TK 6: Closing credits.
3. A Drop in the Ocean (5.25pm, Saturday 10 March 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano).
Cast in order of appearance: Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter); Fred Ferris (Mr Chamberlaine); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Mike Hall (Ted); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Jane Cavendish (Waitress); Gerald Turner (Mike Henry); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano); Richard Dare (Heidrich).
Summary: Unknown.
4. Unhappy Landing (5.25 pm, Saturday 17 March 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano).
Cast in order of appearance: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Hugh Latimer (Inspector Romano); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Richard Dare (Heidrich); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Michael J Harrison (Policeman); Penelope Lee (Receptionist); Roland Brand (Hoover); Simone Lovell (Simonetta); Michael Harald (First mechanic); Norman Hartley (Second mechanic); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter).
Uncredited supporting roles: Sheila Dunn (walk-on supporting artist).
Summary: Unknown.
5. A Box at the Opera (5.25 pm, Saturday 24 March 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann).
Cast in order of appearance: Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Sandra Skermer (Receptionist); Roland Brand (Hoover); Roy Purcell (Gustav); Dennis Harkin (Hans).
Crew: Terry Baker (fight arranged by).
Summary: Unknown.
6. Finale (5.25 pm, Saturday 31 March 1962) — Genome / Radio Times
Top-billed cast: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann).
Cast in order of appearance: Terence Longdon (Garry Halliday); Frederick Treves (Nigel Fox); Maurice Kaufmann (Traumann); Roland Brand (Hoover); Elwyn Brook-Jones (The Voice); Richard Dare (Heidrich); Audrey Nicholson (Vicky Fox); Bill Kerr (Eddie Robbins); Edward Jewesbury (Inspector Potter); Simon Lovell (Simonetta); Dennis Harkin (Hans); Kevin Barry (Austrian inspector).
Summary: Unknown.
Production notes:
This has been the most difficult of the Garry Halliday stories to piece together. What sources I can find prompt further questions — and I’ve only partial answers.
As we’ve seen, in autumn 1960 Richard Wade seems to have been working in-house at the BBC as uncredited script editor on Garry Halliday. In mid-September, series creators John Bowen and Jeremy Bullmore (working under the pseudonym Justin Blake) delivered their scripts for the fourth Garry Halliday story, The Sands of Time, which Wade reworked ahead of the start of production; the first episode was probably recorded on 1 November.
By 17 November, Bowen and Bullmore had also delivered scripts for the fifth Garry Halliday story, The Flying Foxes. In September, the plan had been for Wade to revise these as well, for a fee of 30 guineas per script. This fee, over and above his staff salary, was acknowledgement that the revisions would be pretty extensive; it was 50% of the fee he’d later be paid for writing episodes from scratch.
Perhaps because his work on the fourth story proved more extensive and time-consuming than expected, responsibility for the fifth story was handed to another in-house writer, David Whitaker. The plan was then for Wade and Whitaker to co-write the next two Garry Halliday stories: one based on a storyline already accepted from Bowen and Bullmore, the other of their own devising. (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)
A formal commission for this original story was issued on 14 December, with Wade and Whitaker to be paid 30 guineas each per instalment of the seven-episode story. Although the brief does not survive, it is referred to in a latter memo confirming that the first half of the fee was being issued to the two writers. (Source: Miss DL Ross, Copyright Department to Script Organiser [Robin Wade] in room 5055 TC, “GARRY HALLIDAY — 5TH SERIES”, 29 December 1960, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
But then, on 31 December, Jeremy Bullmore wrote a stiffly worded letter to Garry Halliday producer Richard West, and just over a week later objected to Whitaker’s rewrites on the fifth story in a formal complaint to Owen Reed, Head of Children’s Television. Bullmore (and Bowen) did not want to be credited as writers on the story as revised but the credits for at least the first episode had already been recorded. The producer agreed to have a voiceover announcement correct the credit during broadcast: the story would now be credited solely to David Whitaker, based on characters created by Blake. (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 (and Whitaker’s boss), responded to this complaint in a letter to Bowen and Bullmore’s agent, confirming the revised credit. But he also said it was now unlikely that the storylines that the authors had submitted for further Garry Halliday adventures (suggesting they provided more than one) would be used. Instead, entirely new storylines would be sent to Bowen and Bullmore in due course, whereupon they could decide on an appropriate credit. (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)
The result of all this was, first, a discrepancy in the credits. Fourth story The Sands of Time, broadcast between 5 November and 17 December 1960 — that is, before the complaints from Bullmore — was credited solely to Justin Blake, with no credit for Richard Wade who revised the scripts. But fifth story The Flying Foxes, written by Blake and then revised by David Whitaker, was credited solely to Whitaker.
Secondly, Wade and Whitaker were now devising two new Garry Halliday stories. The obvious way forward was for them to take one each — but things weren’t quite so simple in practice.
One issue was that the BBC faced criticism for too often commissioning in-house writers, referred to as “shopping down the corridor” by the Screenwriters’ Guild (now the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain). (Source: p. 28 of Robin Wade, “Where the Difference Began — Some developments in scripts and script sections in BBC Television, 1936-74”, BBC Television Script Unit, 1975; held at BFI Conservation Centre ref. 654.197-82)
To address this, staff needed formal approval to contribute to programmes beyond their full-time capacity, and there were fixed limits on how many such contributions they could make in a given year. The day after Wilson wrote to Bowen and Bullmore’s agent, permission was given for Whitaker, as an in-house member of staff, to co-write with Wade a single seven-episode story for broadcast in the autumn. Notably, Wade was described as an “outside contributor", ie no longer on staff at the BBC. (Source: AG Finch, Television Establishment, to Script Organiser [Robin Wade], “‘GARRY HALLIDAY’: MR DAVID WHITAKER (B/74624)”, 13 January 1961, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
Whitaker wrote the first two episodes of the new serial himself, then co-wrote episodes 3-7, all of which had been delivered by 5 February. (Source: Senior Establishment Assistant, Programmes, Television [CS Mortimer] to Television Accountant, “‘GARRY HALLIDAY’: MR DAVID WHITAKER (B/74624)”, “5 January” 1961 but surely 5 February as it refers to events of 13 January, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
But I don’t think he co-wrote them with Richard Wade; when Garry Halliday and the Secret of Omar Khayyam was broadcast in 1962, it was credited to Whitaker and Michael Harald, an actor friend of producer Richard West, who was in the cast of the fifth story, The Flying Foxes, at exactly the time when the new story was being written.
Richard Wade was instead responsible for the other new story and, as the BBC’s Script Organiser acknowledged later that year, he never really collaborated with Whitaker at all. But while Whitaker delivered his scripts within weeks of the commission, Richard Wade didn’t deliver his full set of scripts until September.
That month, Script Organiser Robin Wade wrote to Owen Reed, the Head of the Children’s Department, to suggest they attempt to renegotiate the contract agreed with Richard Wade’s agent. David Whitaker was, he said, keen to dissolve a relationship that had never really existed and for each to be responsible for their own scripts — suggesting Whitaker had been left with some responsibility for Wade’s story as uncredited script editor. One awkwardness, says the memo, was that Richard Wade had originally been commissioned for a seven-part story but this had been cut down to six. The memo concluded that a decision could be made on 16 September, once they saw what Richard Wade ultimately delivered. (Source: Script Organiser, Television [Robin Wade] to H.C.P.Tel [ie Owen Reed, Head of Children's Programmes], “GARRY HALLIDAY: RICHARD WADE”, 5 September 1961, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
The sense is of multiple frustrations: Richard Wade annoyed that his commission had been cut back by an episode, in favour of Whitaker, who had succeeded him as script editor; Whitaker annoyed by the ongoing association when Wade hadn’t delivered his scripts. I’m not sure what else was going on in Richard Wade’s life at the time to explain the delay though he has no credits listed on IMDB for the whole of 1961. But it doesn’t help tracing things that around this time another Richard Wade (born 1938) started at the BBC, who rather eclipsed him in the record; this Richard Wade was later executive producer on Tomorrow's World and in a senior position at Radio 4.
Reed, in reply to Robin Wade, acknowledged Whitaker’s “embarrassment” and suggested one practical solution: that they swap the order of the two new stories, with Whitaker’s going first into production. As well as Whitaker having delivered his scripts, he had a good relationship with the producer, said Reed, who also agreed with the proposal to renegotiate contracts to be fair to all parties. Notably, Reed concluded that when they finally received Wade’s scripts — suggesting that they were overdue — these would come under David Whitaker’s purview as the script department’s representative on the series. (Source: Head of Children’s Programmes, Television [Owen Reed] to S.O.Tel [Robin Wade, Script Organiser, Television], “GARRY HALLIDAY: RICHARD WADE”, 13 September 1961, Whitaker, David, Copyright File 1, 1958-1962, WAC RCONT1)
So, Whitaker wanted to be disentangled from Richard Wade but, at this point, the plan was that he would still script edit Wade’s scripts. I can see why Whitaker would not have been keen on this, given that his last revisions to someone else’s Garry Halliday script had ended up with them taking their names off the episodes.
How much did Whitaker actually do on Wade’s scripts when they eventually came in? As an in-house script editor, he was never going to be credited on the episodes he worked on. But listings for episodes 3-6 include a credit for “script associate” Michael Harald; perhaps Whitaker readied the first two scripts for production and was then able to leave the series by handing over to Harald, with whom he’d co-written the sixth serial.
Alternatively, perhaps Whitaker was allowed to leave the project before this, given all the embarrassment, with Harald replacing him in the editorial role on both stories. If so, Harald reworked The Secret of Omar Khayyam so that it could go first into production and the was considered substantial enough work for him to be granted a credit as co-writer. He then did some editorial work on The Gun-Runners for which he was credited as script associate on the latter episodes. The discrepancy in the way Harald was credited on the two stories is striking. Perhaps, in renegotiating the contract with Richard Wade, the BBC agreed to correct the perceived injustice in the way The Sands of Time and The Flying Foxes had been credited.
Sadly, there’s nothing in surviving paperwork to tell us.
Even so, swapping the order created some anomalies. That The Gun-Runners was originally planned to go first explains its setting. Presumably, the fictional middle-eastern state of Talaat would have been — or would have been revealed to be close to — Balakesh, the fictional state where the Voice was “killed off” at the end of The Sands of Time.
Yet the story with which it switched places, The Secret of Omar Khayyam, is also set in the Middle East. Always before, the sell of a new Garry Halliday story had been a different foreign location. One possibility is that The Gun-Runners was originally set mostly in Trieste (as per the surviving script) but would reveal to the viewer that the Voice was still alive in Balakesh; Omar Khayyam would then have seen Garry and his friends trying to find him there. Switched round, the Voice is revealed to be in the Middle East in one story and then, once thwarted, he uncharacteristically stays there rather than flees.
Whatever the case, the scripts were revised and readied for production. Robin Wade’s memo of 13 September suggests that production was to begin on Omar Khayyam in November, initially with pre-filming of location and stunt sequences. We don’t know how far in advance of broadcast the episodes were recorded in studio: as we’ve seen, on previous stories that could be either days or weeks in advance.
We at least know that these episodes were pre-recorded because the Radio Times listing for each episode of Omar Khayyam includes the words “BBC recording”. But those words don’t appear in listings for The Gun-Runners, even though broadcast followed directly on from Omar Khayyam. As we’ll see, surviving paperwork shows that the fourth episode of The Gun-Runners, Unhappy Landing, was broadcast live on 17 March 1962; the implication is that this entire story was broadcast live.
This means that the regular cast and crew rehearsed and recorded for seven consecutive weeks on Omar Khayyam, and then had some days or perhaps weeks off before rehearsing and performing live for six consecutive weeks. Why change the way the programme was made and have a gap in the middle?
On Wednesday 7 February, between the broadcast of episodes 5 and 6 of Omar Khayyam, actors Terence Longdon and Bill Kerr were at the BBC’s Television Film Studios in Ealing to pre-film sequences for The Gun-Runners. Things didn’t go quite to plan:
“Australian actor Bill Kerr receives treatment after fracturing his right arm during a fight sequence with two stunt men at the BBC’s Ealing Film Studio. Kerr was playing the role of Eddie Robbins in the children's drama Garry Halliday and the Secret of Omar Khayyam. Looking on is actor Terence Longdon (left) and director Paul Machell.” (Source: Alamy photo G7BEBR, dated Wednesday 7 February 1962, between broadcast of episodes 5 and 6)
Another account of this made front-page news. Quoting Kerr himself, it said he’d broken his elbow:
“I had to crawl through a window in a cell block on the set,” Mr Kerr said last night. “I was being given a lift up to the window on a man’s hands when everything collapsed and I fell. ... My right elbow was hurting, but I carried on. It was pointless to stop at that stage, and at the time I didn't know anything was broken.” (Source: “Actor injured in film adventure”, Liverpool Daily Post, 8 February 1962, p. 1.)
Photographs published with these accounts and others (“Garry Halliday calls...”, Derby Evening Telegraph, 20 February 1962, p. 13; Northern Daily Mail, 20 February 1962, p. 10; Nottingham Evening News, 20 February 1962, p. 4; Herald Express, 23 February 1962, p. 8.) show Kerr with his arm in a sling. That surely gave the production team two choices: either rewrite scripts to explain his injury or delay production of the episodes until he’d recovered. The longest that they could delay production, to allow him maximum time to recover, was to broadcast live. I think that’s what they did.
The remainder of the pre-filming may also have been delayed due to Kerr’s accident. We know that at least some filming took place on The Gun-Runners more than a fortnight after the accident, and after the final episode of Omar Khayyam had been broadcast on 17 February. On the following Tuesday, a newspaper reported that stars Terence Longdon and Bill Kerr had visited nine year-old Johnny Probyn at his home in Bexhill in Surrey,
“during a break in filming on the South Coast for their TV series.” (Source: “Garry Halliday calls”, Derby Evening Telegraph, 20 February 1962, p. 13.)
The boy had been wounded in an explosion and Kerr was able to commiserate given his own injury.
The accident wasn’t the only press coverage the new story merited. In advance of the first episode, Radio Times boasted a preview, as quoted above in the summary for episode 1. This meant that Radio Times promoted both stories in the 13-episode run; although BBC paperwork speaks of the 13 episodes as a single “serial”, breaking it up into two distinct stories gave it two distinct “opening nights”, allowing for a second wave of publicity. When, the following year, Garry Halliday was succeeded by a series of serials running for a whole year, Radio Times continued this system and devoted space to preview each new Doctor Who story.
The Radio Times preview of The Gun-Runners included a one-paragraph profile of Kerr, who “really is Australian”. “I am a fourth-generation Australian,” Kerr was quoted as saying. The piece said he was brought up in Wagga Wagga and made his first stage appearance at just ten weeks-old, sitting on his mother’s knee. It cited his wide-ranging work from radio series The Flying Doctor to TV sitcom Citizen James. (Source: “Garry and the Gun-runners” (preview), Radio Times #1998, 22 February 1962, p. 3.)
Rehearsals for the studio performance of the first episode of The Gun-Runners probably began on Tuesday 20 February, at the Remembrance Hall on Flood Street in Chelsea, London SW3 — which producer Richard West says in his memoir The Reluctant Soldier & Greasepaint and Girls was the usual haunt for Garry Halliday (Kindle ref. 3369). On Saturday 24 February, cast and crew moved to Studio D at Lime Grove for the live broadcast of the first episode, which was recorded for possible repeat transmission. (Indeed, it was repeated later that year.)
The cast of The Gun-Runners included several recurring characters: as well as the main heroes and villains from the previous story, Edward Jewesbury was back as Inspector Potter, a role he’d played since The Sands of Time. Richard Dare as Heidrich had been Berhman in The Flying Foxes. Hugh Latimer, playing Inspector Romano from episode 2 onwards, had been Temhani in Omar Khayyam. Jane Cavendish as the waitress in episode 3 had been Ruth in The Sands of Time and Giulietta in The Flying Foxes, and so on...
Ahead of rehearsals on the second episode, beginning Tuesday 27 February, actors were issued with rehearsal scripts that only listed actors in the regular roles (Garry, Eddie, Voice and the Foxes), with supporting cast still to be confirmed. We know this because Ian Fairbairn, cast as the “officer” in episodes 1 and 2, kept his script for the second episode, which I’ve been able to see.
The script is 27 pages long, plus title page (with cast list) and running order. A note from writer Richard Wade suggests that the opening scene, in the cell, should either be pre-filmed or tele-recorded as part of episode 1 to save on a set that otherwise does not reappear in this episode. Here, the Voice is assisted by “Russ”, a character replaced by Traumann in the broadcast version, with Maurice Kaufmann continuing the role introduced in Omar Khayyam. Likewise, the script makes no mention of Mike Henry, the character played by Gerald Turner introduced in the last two episodes of that story and credited in Radio Times listings for episodes 2 and 3 of this one.
The surviving script includes some handwritten corrections, presumably by Ian Fairbairn, to the officer’s dialogue: the officer lost his line “General — a telegram! General!”, which became the general commanding, “Open this door, guard!” We don’t know what other lines were tweaked or changes made during the rehearsal process, and so how accurate a record this script is of the episode as broadcast.
The script also reveals some of the mechanics of production: the 340 m2 of useable floor space in Studio D at Lime Grove had to accommodate five sets — six if the prison cell was included. Most of these would have been small: a passage outside the prison cell, the flight deck of Garry’s aircraft and the Voice’s control room. Garry’s office was probably a little larger, but the predominant set was the hotel room in Trieste, given the lengthy scene that would have comprised about a third of the episode.
Given this, I think we can speculate a bit about what that set might have been like. There was no pre-filmed footage of Trieste in the episode, so the set had to convey the glamour of this foreign location. The easiest way to do so was through stylish furnishing and props, plus a window showing a suitably impressive view (provided by a photographic backdrop). Something similar, I think, can be seen in the 1968 Doctor Who story The Invasion, in the large, modern office of Tobias Vaughan with its commanding view showing (a photo of) London. The director of The Invasion had been floor manager on The Gun-Runners.
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On Thursday 8 March, while rehearsals were under way on the third episode of The Gun-Runners, the Guardian profiled fight arranger and stuntman Terry Baker, surely referring to his recent work on Garry Halliday even if the series went unnamed.
“Mr Baker sometimes takes part in a brawl which he has been engaged to arrange. Only a few weeks ago, in a television serial, he collected a shiner from actor Bill Kerr whose punch went wide of the mark and into his eye.”
It’s not clear if this accident took place on Omar Khayyam (on which Baker was credited on episodes 4-6) or The Gun-Runners (on which he was credited on episodes 1 and 5). But the piece revealed that the stuntman was paid 30 guineas for “a three-minute scrap between two to ten people” on a TV serial, and quoted Baker saying that some actors “haven’t a clue how to move in a free-for-all and you have to do some clever work with the camera.” (Source: Geoffrey Moorhouse, “Fighting business”, Guardian, 8 March 1962, p. 9.)
On Saturday 10 March, the Manchester Evening News briefly mentioned Garry Halliday because former star Terence Alexander was now appearing in The Six Proud Walkers, a serial written by Donald Wilson (the BBC’s Head of Script Department) and originally broadcast eight years previously. It was being remounted to fill the break between seasons of “flagging” police series Dixon of Dock Green. The piece also referred to another serial, “Tim Frazer”. (Source: Max North, “Thrills and spills with a new look for Lana [Morris]”, Manchester Evening News, 10 March 1962, p. 5.)
This was The World of Tim Frazer (1960-61), by thriller writer Francis Durbridge, with an 18-week run of episodes comprising three distinct stories. The sense is of television drama moving ever more from the one-off play to formats for ongoing series; this was the context in which Garry Halliday was being produced. The World of Tim Frazer was being repeated in full when this Manchester Evening News article was published and Durbridge also wrote a novelisation, published by Hodder in both hardback and paperback editions in 1962. Just as with Garry Halliday, a successful format could be further exploited in other media.
A week after this newspaper article, the live recording of episode 4 of The Gun-Runners included a small on-screen role for script associate Michael Harald as one of two mechanics. There was also an uncredited role as a “walk-on” for actress Sheila Dunn, booked via her agent Michael Williams Ltd of 1 Wardour Street. We know this from the last-known surviving document relating to this story.
According to the “TELEVISION (Walk-ons)” slip that Dunn kept, post-dated 19 March 1962 (ref. 35/PWM-C), she was paid £3.5.0d per day “to walk on as arranged” at rehearsals held in the Remembrance Hall on Flood Street from 11 am on Friday 16 March and then at Lime Grove Studio D the following day from 10.30 am, ahead of the live broadcast at 5.25. The programme number for the episode was CH62/1804.
Dunn kept this form but not a script for the episode, which may mean she was never sent one; instead (as per the form), she arrived at rehearsals and was told what to do for the episode, presumably by floor manager Douglas Camfield. Dunn later said:
“All I can remember of Douglas at the time of our very first meeting is that he was just a ‘call-boy’, and his ambition was to direct TV — and to do this, you have to become a PA [production assistant], then go on to the Director’s course at the Beeb…” (Source: Michael Seely, Directed by Douglas Camfield, p. 9.)
According to biographer Michael Seely, Camfield was employed as a floor manager for the BBC’s Productions Management department, where he was assigned to children’s programmes and frequently worked with Garry Halliday producer Richard West. We know, for example, that Camfield worked on the second Garry Halliday story, where he first met his lifelong friend Walter Randall.
Some months after completing work on The Gun-Runners, Camfield applied for a promotion to PA in the BBC’s Drama department; in doing so, he argued that while working as floor manager on children’s programmes, he had effectively acted as PA anyway. His work on Garry Halliday therefore helped get him the job as PA, which he had taken by the end of 1962.
Dunn got to know Camfield better in 1963 when he was a PA on Z-Cars; they married in 1965, by which time he was a director. But before all of that, Camfield wrote an episode of the eighth and final run of Garry Halliday...
Written by and (c) Simon Guerrier. Thanks to Paul Hayes, Andydrewz, Michael Seely, the BBC's Written Archives Centre, the British Newspaper Archive and Macclesfield Library.
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