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Callan: You Should Have Got Here Sooner (1967)
Callan Only for Lonely...
Sadly, only the first and last of six episodes of the first series of 'Callan' survive, but we can at least be glad that 'You Should Have Got Here Sooner', in which the character of Lonely (played by Russell Hunter) takes centre stage, is one of them. As with the first, this episode survives only in a poor quality 405-line recording made by pointing a video camera at a monitor of the broadcast, with the plenty of the attendant video wobble and ghosting this causes.
The episode begins in Lonely's humble abode with events arising from his most recent burglary of a well-appointed London flat. Lonely has unwittingly come away from the flat in question with two dangerous things. One is a glimpse of the face of the man who interrupted him at his work, the other is a secret concealed in one of the items he took. When these things put Lonely's safety at risk, Callan is determined to solve the mystery, all the more so when he discovers his latest replacement Meres is involved.
We are shown a little more of the nature of the relationship between Callan and Lonely in the course of events. There must be reasons for such closeness between two otherwise determinedly antisocial creatures, even if one is perhaps only a mutual recognition of what they are and what their roles are in the world they inhabit. Nevertheless, the shared bachelor intimacy of Callan's allowing Lonely to take a bath at his flat suggests there is something more to it than that. (Poor Lonely, remember, develops body odour as a result of nerves, from which he perpetually suffers, and smells even when he has indeed recently taken a bath.)
As a series closer, the episode makes more than satisfactory use of Callan's former colleagues Hunter (Ronald Radd) and Meres (Anthony Valentine). In fact, this was to be Radd's final appearance as Hunter, for when the show returned for a second series in 1969 (now produced by Thames Television) the role was recast with prolific film and television actor Michael Goodliffe in the role.
With the relationship of Callan and Lonely at the heart of the episode and a decent - if formulaic - spy intrigue for a plot, this is a neat little thriller brought in under the 50-minute mark. Edward Woodward is once again convincing and dominating as former spook David Callan, and the rapport between Woodward and Russell Hunter appears strong and well-established. Maybe, as is often the case, the actors' rapport was the spark of the original idea for this episode. The first series of 'Callan' was written entirely by creator James Mitchell with the exception of the now lost Episode 2, contributed by Robert Banks Stewart.
With only two episodes of Series 1 to choose from after the pilot, this would easily be my choice over the repetitious opener. If it lacks anything, it's in the impact made by the characters of Pollock (Jon Laurimore), his girlfriend Sue (Pinkie Johnstone) and her mother (Anne Blake), and Service henchman Loder (the underrated Derek Newark). In a brisk episode, there isn't quite enough room for these characters to make an impact, although they serve the plot very well all the same. The poor video quality of the surviving recording is the one other mark against it, but all the same in any 'Callan' list this episode is a must-watch.
Not Only... But Also: Episode #1.6 (1965)
Pete, Dud and Peter Sellers - a rediscovered comedy classic!
Rediscovered - in America, I believe - since the BBC issued its various TV, VHS and DVD version of 'The Best Of... What's Left Of... Not Only... But Also...' in 1990, this classic 1965 episode is essential viewing for the Pete and Dud fan who thinks they've seen everything. Currently it's only available to view on YouTube, with a 'BBC Motion Gallery' watermark across the centre of the screen and a very hissy unrestored audio track, but it's still a must-see.
As a complete show, this provides a welcome jazz interlude from the Dudley Moore Trio, 'I Love You Samantha' (a number they also recorded and released on LP for Decca in 1966 as the first track of 'Genuine Dud'). But the real treats, of course, are the three main comedy sketches - two with Peter Sellers and a "lost" Pete and Dud dialogue.
The Sellers sketches are both laid-back affairs, and that's their charm. Sellers, by now a major international movie star as a result of his recent roles in 'The Pink Panther' and 'Dr Strangelove' and looking in fine fettle after his eight heart attacks (!) earlier the previous year, just wants to lark about on British telly, and that's clearly exactly what Pete and Dud have invited him onto the show to do.
The better rehearsed and better written sketch is probably the first. Sellers is a boxer-turned-painter, Cook the ubiquitous interviewer, while Moore gives good giggle value as Sellers' attentive trainer. Sellers unsurprisingly has a lot of trouble keeping a straight face, not least when Dud tries to hide behind him in a desperate effort to conceal his laughter.
Nearly as good - and actually I think may prefer it for its looseness and zaniness - is a bonkers skit called 'The Gourmets', in which Cook interviews Moore and Sellers as a pair of unlikely restaurant critics. Sellers is clearly enamoured of Moore's turn in this, and though he seems to have been crowbarred into an existing Pete-n-Dud two-hander he looks more than happy to be there.
The Pete and Dud 'Dagenham Dialogue' in between is a dark and unusual exploration of the occult, just a little closer to their 1970s Derek and Clive personas than most of their other 1960s dialogues. It has some good lines but, sadly, no Dud breaking up into giggles to lift it from the ordinary. Still, there is no Dagenham Dialogue one can't be happy to see recovered, and Cook's business with the teapot at the start of the sketch - necessary to cover Moore's costume change after the end of the jazz number - is very funny indeed.
One day, this episode will undoubtedly make it to a proper release - maybe a BBC iPlayer collection, or (please!) a compilation of Sellers' guest turns in this, 'Sykes' and other shows - but my advice is don't wait, visit YouTube and watch it today.
Callan: The Good Ones Are All Dead (1967)
Callan and the Nazi
The first episode of 'Callan' recaps the premise established in the superior pilot, 'A Magnum for Schneider' (an episode of 'Armchair Theatre' broadcast earlier in 1967), but with added Nazi power. Alongside Edward Woodward, Ronald Radd and Russell Hunter also return from the pilot as, respectively, Callan's spymaster Hunter and trusty but unwashed black-marketeer 'Lonely'.
The exposition of Callan's relationship with the Service is badly rushed here, but it is at least completely consistent with the ending of 'A Magnum for Schneider'. In Hunter's colour-coded files, where yellow means a target is being watched and red means they're a danger and should be killed, Callan's own records have been transferred from a yellow file to a red one. His relationship with Hunter continues as before - there is advantage to both in continuing to work together, but each would happily see the other dead. In the series Anthony Valentine replaces Peter Bowles as Hunter's new right-hand man, still keeping an eye on the unreliable Callan.
It's slightly harder to understand this time why Callan would instinctively show any compassion towards a Nazi war criminal, especially once his investigations have unearthed some fairly gruesome evidence of the truth. It's perhaps similarly more difficult to see why Hunter still feels confident to use him for another case after the events of the pilot episode - perhaps it would be safer just to have him killed. Nevertheless, the ending of this episode reinforces that of the pilot, that Callan has a need to understand his target, such that to the end he is evaluating whether or not the target has a right to live or die.
Viewing this episode of 'Callan' isn't easy. Like all the surviving episodes, it has been released on DVD by Network in the UK, but it is one of the episodes which has really only just survived at all. Recorded off-air by the quaint back-up method of pointing a video camera at a TV monitor screen, it survives in a motley 405-line version (compare scenes in Hunter's office or Callan's flat with similar scenes in the superior 625-line quality of the pilot). As a direct consequence of this, the episode suffers from terrible image ghosting throughout - you can still see the countdown screen several seconds after the episode has in fact begun to play, and the shadow of one actor's head and shoulders across a shot of another. However, you get used to it after the first few minutes, and a strong audio rack compensates for some very fuzzy shots and flurries of videotape lines across the screen.
This series episode clearly didn't have the same budget as the pilot, and lighting and sound issues arise throughout. There are a number of particularly annoying studio bangs, alongside some rather jerky camera-work towards the denouement of the episode, which make one particularly aware of the limitations of the "as live" studio recording methods of 1967. Presumably there just wasn't time to reshoot this final sequence, nor were there resources to drop in short re-record sequences in post-production editing.
All in all, it's a solid first episode, but I'd have to recommend the pilot 'A Magnum for Schneider' over this, and would even suggest that having watched that you might dispense with this altogether and move on to other episodes which have something new to offer.
Libel (1959)
Convoluted courtroom drama with double the Dirk...
This 1959 film for MGM is a British production with an American star. In its pairing of Hollywood legend Olivia de Havilland, in one of only half-a-dozen roles she played in the 1950s, and Rank's leading man Dirk Bogarde, 'Libel' might seem to promise the same twin-star power of Bogarde's later pairing with Judy Garland in 1963's 'I Could Go On Singing'. Or, at least, that's what I was hoping for.
Adapted from a courtroom drama, and a fairly convoluted one at that, the film is somewhat bogged down by its lengthy central courtroom scenes and obligatory flashbacks. Nevertheless, there is much of merit to enjoy in the production, especially for fans of British film actors of the 1950s and 1960s.
Paul Massie (who played Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde for Hammer) gives an energetic performance as a Canadian airman who suspects a fellow prisoner-of-war of being an impostor. He carries the first part of the film with strong support from a young Millicent Martin (of 'That Was The Week That Was' fame) as a girl whom he befriends because she owns a television he wants to use to watch Dirk Bogarde. Well, after all, who wouldn't want to watch Dirk Bogarde on TV?
Bogarde "greyed up" in other films, notably 1961's 'Victim', and here he does so in order to appear with dark hair as his younger self in flashback, but his measured performance as an older man is nonetheless a drag on the action until Massie arrives at his stately home to challenge his identity. And so it's off to court we go. Is Bogarde really Sir Mark Loddon the 7th Baronet, or is he in fact an actor by the name of Frank Welney?
Those with sufficient experience of how to plot a courtroom drama will be able to follow every step and predict the vast majority of them. Olivia de Havilland wrestles with a difficult part and loses by two falls and a submission. I'm sure I spotted at least one moment where she was channelling a schlock Joan Crawford, while at other times she joins Bogarde in a performance so measured it's boring.
At least there's plenty of Dirk on the screen, but in truth even his best efforts can't make the character of Sir Mark Loddon all that convincing. All the same, fans of Bogarde - myself included - will enjoy watching him try. Probably his finest moments, however, are in flashback as frustrated thespian Frank Welney, where Dirk gives us just a whismy of luvviness by way of contrast with upper-crust Sir Mark. In the first flashback scene, he's also particularly well served by some ambitious trompe-l'oeil special effects - judicious use of the pause button is recommended to help you work out how it's done.
The film features several judicious supporting turns from Robert Morley, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Richard Wattis as counsel for the prosecution, defence counsel and judge respectively. There is also a pair of marvellous cameos for star-spotters, which I won't spoil other than to tell you which characters to look out for. See if you can name two very different actors both making early film appearances playing nosy newspaper photographers.
I was able to see this film on a DVD imported from Spain. It boasts a crisp but unrestored 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen black-and-white print and good clear audio, with the exception of a few momentary dropouts at certain scene breaks, one of which did interrupt a good line of dialogue from Paul Massie. Massie unfortunately drifts into the background in the second half of the film as the Dirk flashbacks get going in earnest.
There just aren't enough truly first-rate courtroom drama movies, and so the second-rate ones are always worth a look for aficionados. I'm certainly glad to have seen 'Libel', and as a Bogarde fan I'll probably keep it in my collection now that I have a copy, but it could be quite a while before I decide to dust it off for a second viewing.
Armchair Theatre: A Magnum for Schneider (1967)
Classic television play from 1967, the pilot for 'Callan'
'A Magnum for Schneider' is a taut 55-minute TV play produced for ABC's 'Armchair Theatre' in 1967 and starring Edward Woodward. David Callan is a sharp-shooting British spy who has been sidelined to a humdrum desk job after displaying too much sympathy for his victims. However, when his spymaster requires the speedy disposal of a German arms-dealer in the next-door office to his, it seems as if Callan may literally have a shot at redemption.
The play delivers all you might expect from its lone-wolf spy-with-a-conscience premise. No one trusts anyone, and no one is to be trusted. Callan's boss wants that old chestnut, deniability, and so Callan must achieve the kill unaided and unarmed. Enter Russell Hunter as 'Lonely', an unsavoury acquaintance of Callan's adept at acquiring black-market guns but less skilled at the art of washing. Lonely was to become a regular in the 'Callan' series which followed.
Peter Bowles, a staple of 'Armchair Theatre' and many other TV dramas of the period, plays Callan's self-confident replacement, while the magnificent Joseph Furst portrays his target, with whom Callan unexpectedly finds he has something in common. You may recognise Furst's distinctive face - his film appearances include 'The Brides of Fu Manchu' and 'Diamonds are Forever', and both he and Hunter also boast Doctor Who appearances on their CVs, Hunter as Uvanov in the classic Tom Baker serial 'The Robots of Death' and Furst as Professor Zaroff in the now largely lost Patrick Troughton serial 'The Underwater Menace'.
The inevitable showdown manages to raise genuine life-or-death tension, and the intriguing plot is given space to breathe plus a satisfying resolution in a phone-box coda. In fact, the whole production impresses, bearing in mind that it is entirely studio-bound and recorded more-or-less as live with minimal editing and re-shoots. The sets are well designed and allow for a couple of scenes with business outside windows, while the acting is uniformly strong.
'A Magnum for Schneider' is available in the UK from Network on the DVD compilation 'Callan - The Monochrome Years'. The transfer shows plenty of film dust and dirt as well as the odd video flicker, but although it's had a hard life it still provides clear picture and sound.
Don't expect the slicker production values of the 1970s colour era and you'll be well rewarded. Woodward is excellent in what would become a signature role for him, and this rates well both as a one-off 'Armchair Theatre' and as the introduction to the 'Callan' series. If you have a taste for tales of the lonely life of a misunderstood spy, then this is just the fodder for you.