The Protectors (TV Series) The First Circle (1973) User Reviews

The First Circle

[Prismark10 · 6/10 · 20 June 2023]

A very brave episode of the Protectors. There was still direct US involvement in the Vietnam war when this was broadcast back in 1973.

Colonel John Hunter (Ed Bishop) has gone berserk. Tormented by Post-traumatic stress disorder after his experiences in Vietnam

At a disused air base, Hunter has killed security guards imagining them to be Vietcong.

Surrounded by the police led by the ever hungry Inspector Slade (John Collin.) Harry Rule arrives, contacts some men at the top and puts on an American army uniform in order to get through to Hunter.

Only Hunter is prepared to go out in a blaze of glory armed with grenades. Slade may well be left to literally pick up the pieces.

Certainly a dark story and what a contrast with the previous broadcast story. Ed Bishop certainly sells Hunter's state of mind. It is just a shame that the episode looked cheap. You never once believed it was surrounded by the police.

"War here! Remember that!"

[ShadeGrenade · 10/10 · 3 March 2010]

Colonel John Hunter ( Ed Bishop ) has lost his mind and is convinced he is still fighting the Vietnam War. In reality, he is on a disused air base in the south of England. He is armed. When a security guard yells at him for trespassing, he sees him as one of the Vietcong and shoots him dead on the spot.

The police call on Harry Rule ( Robert Vaughn ) to get him to quietly give himself up. Rule puts on a military uniform and approaches the deranged Colonel. But what will the consequences be?

An excellent episode this, rather out of character for 'The Protectors'. Neither the Contessa De Contini ( Nyree Dawn Porter ) nor Paul Buchet ( Tony Anholt ) appear, though both are credited as usual. Bishop had played 'Colonel Ed Straker' in Gerry & Sylvia Anderson's 'U.F.O.', and here gives another tremendous performance. We get to see what is going on in his head, hence he barks orders at men who are not there and the police have become 'the enemy'. At the end, he drives a jeep incredibly fast down a runway thinking he is trying to get a plane off the ground. He is not a villain in the conventional sense, just a good man whose connection to reality has snapped.

In a series whose plots mainly revolved around Prime Ministers' kidnapped daughters and missing microdots, this Tony Barwick-scripted story is very dark by its usual standards.

After Hunter has been killed, a police officer ( John Collin ) asks Rule: "You knew him?". Rule says simply: "Yeah, I knew him." and the picture fades to black. No wise cracks or opening of champagne bottles. A simple yet effective end to a strong story.

Excitingly directed by the great Don Chaffey.