Series 1 – Episode 1
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Marker
Detective Sergeant Leith Station Sergeant Dave Jarrott Dick Stone Joey Stone Valerie Stone Detective Inspector Grant Toddy Stewart Acland Detective Constable Roberts Constable Smith Constable Clayton Len Williams Sergeant Barnes |
Alfred Burke
John Collin Edward Evans Griffith Davies Jack Smethurst Pauline Munro Ernest Clark Richard Klee Bernard Goldman Richard Owens Christopher Coll Stanley Walsh Artro Morris Julian Strange |
Uncredited cast:
The rehearsal script also called for a cleaner at the police station, plus an unspecified number of constables (including a patrol officer named Arthur), youths and men for the ID parade, none of whom were credited in TV listings
Uncredited cast:
The rehearsal script also called for a cleaner at the police station, plus an unspecified number of constables (including a patrol officer named Arthur), youths and men for the ID parade, none of whom were credited in TV listings
Production
Series based on an idea by Roger Marshall & Anthony Marriott
Theme Music composed by Robert Earley Story Editor: Richard Bates Floor Manager: Harry Locke |
Stage Manager: Peter Llewellin
Production Assistant: Marian Lloyd Designed by Stan Woodward Producer: Don Leaver Directed by Kim Mills |
Rehearsed from Friday 1 January 1965 at Rehearsal Room 3A, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 13 January 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded on Thursday 14 January 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 13 January 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded on Thursday 14 January 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
TV World Synopsis
Tuesday: H.P. recovery for Parkhill Finance. One green van. Purchaser Joseph Stone. Sum owing £76.13.8d. Routine – if I can find Stone.
Click here for detailed synopsis
Click here for detailed synopsis
Transmission
Saturday 23 January 1965, 9.10pm (ABC Midlands, ABC North, Southern and Ulster)
Saturday 10 April 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward – unscheduled, replacing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot)
Saturday 3 July 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Saturday 24 July 1965, 9.50pm (TWW)
Tuesday 3 August 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Sunday 15 August 1965, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Saturday 10 April 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward – unscheduled, replacing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot)
Saturday 3 July 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Saturday 24 July 1965, 9.50pm (TWW)
Tuesday 3 August 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Sunday 15 August 1965, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Archive
Rehearsal script – held in the BFI Special Collections
Story Notes
The character of Detective Sergeant Leith was a variation on an overworked Northern CID officer created by Roger Marshall for a 1964 episode of the hard-hitting ABC Television military police drama Redcap. This was revealed in a press release issued by ABC in the days leading up to the transmission of All for a Couple of Ponies. The document explained how the Redcap episode Misfire had “introduced a detective inspector called Paish, who took a tough line with criminals. Yorkshire actor John Collin made such a strong impression in the part that Roger Marshall wrote the same character, now called Detective Inspector [sic] Leith, into this week’s Public Eye. John Collin, who comes from Burley-in-Wharfdale in The West Riding, again takes the part. This time the victim of his attacking investigations is none other than the hero – or perhaps one should say anti-hero – of Public Eye – Frank Marker, played by Alfred Burke.”
Before the name Leith was settled upon, the disgruntled detective sergeant was to have been called Smart, as evidenced by occasional references to that name in the rehearsal script. These appear to have been accidentally retained from an earlier draft of the script. Similarly, Detective Inspector Grant is once referred to as Woods and Station Sergeant Jarrott is once referred to as Jeffrey. On another occasion, Grant addresses Len Williams as “Dave”, though this may have been an error on the part of the writer, as Dave is also given as Jarrott’s first name in the character list on the second page of the script. It is possible that Leith/Smart’s rank was originally going to be that of detective inspector, as the press release cited above suggests, because at one point in the script, Marker appears to refer to him as “Inspector”.
Scenes in which Marker is interviewed, first by Jarrott and then by Leith, were written so as to introduce the inquiry agent to television viewers. When questioned, Marker states that he lives alone at 118 Clapham Hill, is unmarried and that his father was a grocer. He reveals that he served in the Navy for three years, where he attained the rank of petty officer, and is not registered with “the Association” (i.e. the Association of British Detectives – see Nobody Wants to Know, below) because it would be “more of a hindrance than a help. Certain doors wouldn’t open. People wouldn’t talk.”
Marker also tells Jarrott that he is “not known round here”, which may indicate that his move to Birmingham at the beginning of Series 2 is not the first time he relocates in pursuit of gainful employment. However, given the number of characters in Series 1 who already know Marker, either professionally or personally, in episodes such as Nobody Kills Santa Claus, Dig You Later and Protection is a Man’s Best Friend, his comment to Jarrott may simply mean that this is the first time he has carried out an investigation in this particular part of London.
Before the name Leith was settled upon, the disgruntled detective sergeant was to have been called Smart, as evidenced by occasional references to that name in the rehearsal script. These appear to have been accidentally retained from an earlier draft of the script. Similarly, Detective Inspector Grant is once referred to as Woods and Station Sergeant Jarrott is once referred to as Jeffrey. On another occasion, Grant addresses Len Williams as “Dave”, though this may have been an error on the part of the writer, as Dave is also given as Jarrott’s first name in the character list on the second page of the script. It is possible that Leith/Smart’s rank was originally going to be that of detective inspector, as the press release cited above suggests, because at one point in the script, Marker appears to refer to him as “Inspector”.
Scenes in which Marker is interviewed, first by Jarrott and then by Leith, were written so as to introduce the inquiry agent to television viewers. When questioned, Marker states that he lives alone at 118 Clapham Hill, is unmarried and that his father was a grocer. He reveals that he served in the Navy for three years, where he attained the rank of petty officer, and is not registered with “the Association” (i.e. the Association of British Detectives – see Nobody Wants to Know, below) because it would be “more of a hindrance than a help. Certain doors wouldn’t open. People wouldn’t talk.”
Marker also tells Jarrott that he is “not known round here”, which may indicate that his move to Birmingham at the beginning of Series 2 is not the first time he relocates in pursuit of gainful employment. However, given the number of characters in Series 1 who already know Marker, either professionally or personally, in episodes such as Nobody Kills Santa Claus, Dig You Later and Protection is a Man’s Best Friend, his comment to Jarrott may simply mean that this is the first time he has carried out an investigation in this particular part of London.
Production Notes
Following a week’s break for the festive period, work resumed on Public Eye with a read-through and rehearsals for All for a Couple of Ponies, which commenced on Friday 1 January 1965. (New Year’s Day would not become a bank holiday in England until Tuesday 1 January 1974.)
The front cover of the rehearsal script indicates that this is Episode 9, its position in recording order.
The director of this and many other episodes was Kim Mills (1930–2006). The nephew of Lord Chesham, Mills was born in London, and worked as an actor and stage manager with a Scottish repertory company and then as an assistant director in the film industry before joining ABC Television in 1960. There he became a director on family programmes such as the science-fiction serial Plateau of Fear (alternating episodes with Guy Verney, who also produced) and its sequels City Beneath the Sea and Secret Beneath the Sea (which Mills directed in their entirety), as well as episodes of the crime series The Avengers and The Protectors. Prior to Public Eye, he collaborated with Roger Marshall on the Avengers episode Death of a Batman (recorded in August 1963) and the two men quickly formed a good working partnership. During his career, Mills directed and produced more than 100 television dramas, including anthology series such as Mystery and Imagination, Armchair Theatre and Shadows of Fear, and period crime dramas such as The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder and The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. However, his contributions to The Avengers (for which he directed ten episodes) and Public Eye (for which he directed 15 episodes and produced seven – the whole of Series 4) remain his best-known work.
In view of the cold weather in this story, the wardrobe department gave Alfred Burke’s character a thick overcoat to wear (see top of page) instead of his customary off-white mac. However, the distinction would have been lost on the majority of viewers at the time of transmission, because in most ITV regions (with the exception of Grampian and Scottish, which opened the series with The Morning Wasn’t So Hot) All for a Couple of Ponies would be viewers’ first sight of Marker.
Public Eye made its first appearance at 9.10pm on Saturday 23 January 1965 as a replacement for ABC’s Redcap. The series was also relayed to viewers of Southern Television, again replacing Redcap, as well as Ulster, where it replaced ITC’s Scotland Yard-based crime drama Gideon’s Way. Anglia Television was scheduled to join the feed at the same time, and the local edition of TV Times (23–29 January 1965) carried a listing for All for a Couple of Ponies. Ultimately, however, Anglia chose to screen the ITC espionage series Danger Man instead, and viewers in the East of England never got to see the first series of Marker’s investigations. ATV London, meanwhile, decided not to take Public Eye at this time, and instead continued to show another ITC film series, starring Roger Moore as the dashing adventurer The Saint. Meanwhile, BBC1 was running the American film series The Rogues (concerning a family of con artists) at 8.35pm, followed by the scientific research drama R3 at 9.25pm.
When Public Eye finally made its London debut at 10.10pm on Saturday 10 April, replacing the ATV legal drama The Sullavan Brothers, the original plan had been that ATV, along with Border, Channel and Westward, would receive the episode being screened by ABC on that date: The Morning Wasn’t So Hot. However, the subject matter of that episode proved to be a little too hot, and so ultimately the series opened in those regions with All for a Couple of Ponies, while ABC viewers saw The Morning Wasn’t So Hot.
Public Eye reached the North East of England on Saturday 3 July, with All for a Couple of Ponies replacing ABC’s psychological drama The Human Jungle on Tyne Tees Television at 10.10pm. BBC1 had also changed its Saturday night line-up for the summer. Its hotel-based drama The Flying Swan was scheduled at 9.40pm, overlapping the start of Public Eye. This was followed by the news at 10.25 and then light entertainment from The Andy Williams Show at 10.35.
In Wales and the West of England, TWW commenced its run of the series with All for a Couple of Ponies on Saturday 24 July at 9.50pm, as a replacement for Gideon’s Way.
The front cover of the rehearsal script indicates that this is Episode 9, its position in recording order.
The director of this and many other episodes was Kim Mills (1930–2006). The nephew of Lord Chesham, Mills was born in London, and worked as an actor and stage manager with a Scottish repertory company and then as an assistant director in the film industry before joining ABC Television in 1960. There he became a director on family programmes such as the science-fiction serial Plateau of Fear (alternating episodes with Guy Verney, who also produced) and its sequels City Beneath the Sea and Secret Beneath the Sea (which Mills directed in their entirety), as well as episodes of the crime series The Avengers and The Protectors. Prior to Public Eye, he collaborated with Roger Marshall on the Avengers episode Death of a Batman (recorded in August 1963) and the two men quickly formed a good working partnership. During his career, Mills directed and produced more than 100 television dramas, including anthology series such as Mystery and Imagination, Armchair Theatre and Shadows of Fear, and period crime dramas such as The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder and The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes. However, his contributions to The Avengers (for which he directed ten episodes) and Public Eye (for which he directed 15 episodes and produced seven – the whole of Series 4) remain his best-known work.
In view of the cold weather in this story, the wardrobe department gave Alfred Burke’s character a thick overcoat to wear (see top of page) instead of his customary off-white mac. However, the distinction would have been lost on the majority of viewers at the time of transmission, because in most ITV regions (with the exception of Grampian and Scottish, which opened the series with The Morning Wasn’t So Hot) All for a Couple of Ponies would be viewers’ first sight of Marker.
Public Eye made its first appearance at 9.10pm on Saturday 23 January 1965 as a replacement for ABC’s Redcap. The series was also relayed to viewers of Southern Television, again replacing Redcap, as well as Ulster, where it replaced ITC’s Scotland Yard-based crime drama Gideon’s Way. Anglia Television was scheduled to join the feed at the same time, and the local edition of TV Times (23–29 January 1965) carried a listing for All for a Couple of Ponies. Ultimately, however, Anglia chose to screen the ITC espionage series Danger Man instead, and viewers in the East of England never got to see the first series of Marker’s investigations. ATV London, meanwhile, decided not to take Public Eye at this time, and instead continued to show another ITC film series, starring Roger Moore as the dashing adventurer The Saint. Meanwhile, BBC1 was running the American film series The Rogues (concerning a family of con artists) at 8.35pm, followed by the scientific research drama R3 at 9.25pm.
When Public Eye finally made its London debut at 10.10pm on Saturday 10 April, replacing the ATV legal drama The Sullavan Brothers, the original plan had been that ATV, along with Border, Channel and Westward, would receive the episode being screened by ABC on that date: The Morning Wasn’t So Hot. However, the subject matter of that episode proved to be a little too hot, and so ultimately the series opened in those regions with All for a Couple of Ponies, while ABC viewers saw The Morning Wasn’t So Hot.
Public Eye reached the North East of England on Saturday 3 July, with All for a Couple of Ponies replacing ABC’s psychological drama The Human Jungle on Tyne Tees Television at 10.10pm. BBC1 had also changed its Saturday night line-up for the summer. Its hotel-based drama The Flying Swan was scheduled at 9.40pm, overlapping the start of Public Eye. This was followed by the news at 10.25 and then light entertainment from The Andy Williams Show at 10.35.
In Wales and the West of England, TWW commenced its run of the series with All for a Couple of Ponies on Saturday 24 July at 9.50pm, as a replacement for Gideon’s Way.
Home and Away
The rehearsal script contains no exterior scenes. However, surviving photographs show that the studio set for the police station included a small area of the street outside, complete with traditional blue lamp. In one image, it appears that Marker’s final exchange with Leith took place on this part of the set.
Many a Slip
In the rehearsal script, Marker swallows his medicinal gargle, but it’s safer to spit it out. Fortunately, on a contact sheet of images taken during rehearsals, he appears to do the latter.
When Valerie visits Dick towards the end of the script, she is surprised to learn that he is aware of her affair with Joey. “How did you know?” she asks, astounded. “Marker,” explains Dick, adding, “Gets around, doesn’t he?” “He said he hadn’t told you,” claims Valerie. This is despite the fact that in an earlier scene with Valerie and Marker at the Gala Hotel, Marker said, “I told him.” Presumably one of these two conversations would have been amended before the episode was committed to videotape, but it is not known which one.
When Valerie visits Dick towards the end of the script, she is surprised to learn that he is aware of her affair with Joey. “How did you know?” she asks, astounded. “Marker,” explains Dick, adding, “Gets around, doesn’t he?” “He said he hadn’t told you,” claims Valerie. This is despite the fact that in an earlier scene with Valerie and Marker at the Gala Hotel, Marker said, “I told him.” Presumably one of these two conversations would have been amended before the episode was committed to videotape, but it is not known which one.
Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?
At this point in time, each ITV region had its own listings magazine tailored to its particular area and readership. While many regions had the TV Times in various forms, in the Midlands between September 1964 and September 1968, ABC and ATV jointly issued a lavish publication entitled TV World. This magazine’s billing for All for a Couple of Ponies (in the 23–29 January 1965 edition) was illustrated with a photograph of Alfred Burke as Marker and Pauline Munro as Valerie Stone, while a one-page feature entitled Meet a Very Public Private Eye appeared in the Series & Serials section. This set the scene for the new show, explaining that Marker would be very different to “a glamorous crime-buster like his American counterpart Mike Hammer.” Meanwhile, story editor Richard Bates described the provenance of the programme’s plotlines: “Some of the stories are actual case histories, others are adapted and some we devise ourselves.”
A variant piece in the Northern edition of TV Times attributed to Trudi Pacter was entitled Private Detective in the Public Eye (see above left). “If you open the diary of Frank Marker, hero of the new ABC Television Saturday night series Public Eye”, the article began, “this is what you might find”. The diary entries that followed were actually edited versions of programme billings issued by ABC for the upcoming episodes Dig You Later, Nobody Kills Santa Claus and You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always a Rabbit. “But”, warned Pacter, “make sure Marker’s not around. He doesn’t like people poking their noses into his affairs. He’s a private detective … very private. That’s what he gets paid for.” Alfred Burke then offered his take on the character: “If there are 15 men on his tail, out to get him, Marker runs for it. That way, he lives to run away another day.” The text described Burke as having “a villainous look about him”, with “a hollow face and small, hard eyes peering suspiciously at a hostile world”, explaining that, for much of his previous career, the actor had been cast as baddies. “The reason Alfie was chosen for the part,” added Roger Marshall, “is that he doesn’t look like a private detective. If you saw him in a pub or a supermarket, you wouldn’t single him out for attention. He’s just another face in the crowd.” The story went on to describe the inquiry agent’s decidedly unglamorous lifestyle: “Marker isn’t rich – or particularly handsome. His wardrobe is strictly functional. One pair of shoes – and if they don’t get to the mender on time, he avoids puddles. A dirty white mac; a couple of pairs of slacks; an odd sports jacket. His favourite tie’s got an egg stain on it. And his main worry is not where to park his car – if he had one – but whether he can meet his income-tax demands. He’s a loser. If there’s a fight – Marker’s the man who collects the punch.”
Other editions of the magazine carried a slightly abbreviated version of the article, omitting the opening diary entries and the quote from Alfred Burke. In the Southern edition, the feature lacked a byline, while in the London edition (marking the show’s arrival on ATV on Saturday 10 April) it was credited to W. O. Court (see above right). All iterations of the article drew upon previous ABC publicity material, explaining that Marker “sees his clients in a pokey attic office above Clapham Junction. Millionaires and taxi-drivers. Bankers and bookies. All different, but with a common bond. Trouble. They need Marker.” Accurately reflecting the tone of forthcoming episodes, and eerily predicting the end of the third series, the piece continued: “But he has no friends. Nobody thanks him for solving their problems; nobody sends him flowers for finding the truth. They pay him … and turn their backs. But a man like Marker, operating in the precarious no-man’s-land between the underworld and the arm of the law, must cover his tracks. For if the thugs don’t get him, the police are sure to.” The text then revealed how long Marker had been operating as an inquiry agent: “Though after six years, they haven’t yet. And they won’t – as long as he stays fast on his feet.” The article concluded in atmospheric fashion: “Marker … anonymous in a grubby mac, trudging a suburban street. Marker … alone, in an all-night, do-it-yourself laundry, washing his shirts. Marker … sitting next to you on a bus. Marker … Everywhere. Next time you hear footsteps on a dark night, don’t look round. He’s right behind you.”
The programme billing in the Southern edition of TV Times was accompanied by a photograph of Alfred Burke as Marker and another of Jack Smethurst as Joey Stone.
Other editions of the magazine carried a slightly abbreviated version of the article, omitting the opening diary entries and the quote from Alfred Burke. In the Southern edition, the feature lacked a byline, while in the London edition (marking the show’s arrival on ATV on Saturday 10 April) it was credited to W. O. Court (see above right). All iterations of the article drew upon previous ABC publicity material, explaining that Marker “sees his clients in a pokey attic office above Clapham Junction. Millionaires and taxi-drivers. Bankers and bookies. All different, but with a common bond. Trouble. They need Marker.” Accurately reflecting the tone of forthcoming episodes, and eerily predicting the end of the third series, the piece continued: “But he has no friends. Nobody thanks him for solving their problems; nobody sends him flowers for finding the truth. They pay him … and turn their backs. But a man like Marker, operating in the precarious no-man’s-land between the underworld and the arm of the law, must cover his tracks. For if the thugs don’t get him, the police are sure to.” The text then revealed how long Marker had been operating as an inquiry agent: “Though after six years, they haven’t yet. And they won’t – as long as he stays fast on his feet.” The article concluded in atmospheric fashion: “Marker … anonymous in a grubby mac, trudging a suburban street. Marker … alone, in an all-night, do-it-yourself laundry, washing his shirts. Marker … sitting next to you on a bus. Marker … Everywhere. Next time you hear footsteps on a dark night, don’t look round. He’s right behind you.”
The programme billing in the Southern edition of TV Times was accompanied by a photograph of Alfred Burke as Marker and another of Jack Smethurst as Joey Stone.
The Northampton Chronicle & Echo took a special interest in Public Eye when Ian Mayes reported on the show’s launch on Saturday 23 January: “Well over a year ago, Northampton scriptwriter Roger Marshall – then at work on ABC’s The Avengers – told me about an idea he and fellow writer Tony Marriott had for a new television series. A little later, ABC took an option on the series, and now, with the title The Public Eye, it is being made in their Teddington studios with Marshall the principal script-writer.” The reporter attended a dress rehearsal for All for a Couple of Ponies and was pictured on set (see above) with Marshall, Alfred Burke and story editor Richard Bates, “son of Northamptonshire author H. E. Bates”. Mayes remained in the dark about the real-life inspiration behind Public Eye’s down-to-earth storylines, but Marshall explained that his anonymous source got involved in such fantastic situations that, if they were translated straight to the screen, no one would believe them. “To begin with,” said Marshall, “he carries a swordstick – whoever heard of such a thing? If we gave Frank Marker a swordstick, people would probably think it was too ridiculous for words.” Other incredible anecdotes included the mystery man turning up on set (where he was sometimes called upon to give advice) with his arm in a sling, having put his shoulder out during a running street battle with three strong-arm men. On another occasion, while tracking down a woman who had failed to keep up her HP payments, he stumbled upon a back-street abortion racket. “After watching the dress rehearsal for tonight’s story,” continued Mayes, “I forecast a big success for the series (a bit risky, perhaps, on the strength of one show) – and a big success for Alfred Burke, who plays the detective, Frank Marker (and I don’t consider that forecast at all risky). I can see Alfred Burke’s down-to-earth, slightly seedy, honest but unorthodox detective providing a more than welcome change from the glossy, suave, Martini-drinking private eyes that television seems so keen on. Frank Marker, as played by Alfred Burke, is completely un-glossy; and just to emphasise the point (that here at last is a human detective), he carries a running cold with him through this first episode.” Mayes confidently concluded that “Mr Marker will be worth watching.”
Max North, on his Telereview page in the Manchester Evening News on the same day, also focused on the star of Public Eye, in an article entitled Happy days now for Alfred, the shabby sleuth. “Say what you like about actors,” the piece began, “they can be infuriatingly egotistical and absurdly self-opinionated, but the majority are honest – generally a shade more than other people.” However, noted North, “Alfred Burke is the most honest actor I’ve met.” Working from recent ABC press releases, the columnist observed that Burke “is very much like the character he will play in his first TV series … As the small-time private detective Frank Marker, he will portray an undemonstrative and unconventional man with a slightly grim sense of humour and an aura of cynical incorruptibility.” Noting that the “thin, shabby, middle-aged” anti-hero was “No James Bond figure”, the article also included biographical information about Burke, as previously issued by ABC.
Max North, on his Telereview page in the Manchester Evening News on the same day, also focused on the star of Public Eye, in an article entitled Happy days now for Alfred, the shabby sleuth. “Say what you like about actors,” the piece began, “they can be infuriatingly egotistical and absurdly self-opinionated, but the majority are honest – generally a shade more than other people.” However, noted North, “Alfred Burke is the most honest actor I’ve met.” Working from recent ABC press releases, the columnist observed that Burke “is very much like the character he will play in his first TV series … As the small-time private detective Frank Marker, he will portray an undemonstrative and unconventional man with a slightly grim sense of humour and an aura of cynical incorruptibility.” Noting that the “thin, shabby, middle-aged” anti-hero was “No James Bond figure”, the article also included biographical information about Burke, as previously issued by ABC.
Commercial channel begins two new series, announced The Coventry Evening Telegraph (see above left). Again relying heavily on ABC promotional material, the article noted that Public Eye would often take its main character “into the world of moneyed people. But he will never be part of that world. Instead, his appearance and his attitude will make an unspoken comment on the people among whom he has to move. There are times when he gets a kind of grim enjoyment out of playing Robin Hood with rich clients.” These characteristics would become more apparent during the second episode, Nobody Kills Santa Claus, though Marker does make light-hearted use of the alias Robin Hood in All for a Couple of Ponies. The other ITV series being launched that night was Bachelors’ Night Out, a variety show hosted by the popular music group The Bachelors.
The Leicester Mercury ran a similar story, entitled Now the New Realistic Private Eye (see above right), though it managed to get both the title of the episode and the name of the broadcaster wrong, claiming that “All for a Couple of Pomies” [sic] would be “starting on ATV tonight”.
The Leicester Mercury ran a similar story, entitled Now the New Realistic Private Eye (see above right), though it managed to get both the title of the episode and the name of the broadcaster wrong, claiming that “All for a Couple of Pomies” [sic] would be “starting on ATV tonight”.
An article in Staffordshire’s Evening Sentinel was similarly themed. In common with much of the reportage that day, Realistic Life of Inquiry Agent (see right) noted that the central figure in ABC’s new series would be “a rather shabbily-dressed middle-aged man with a wry sense of humour”.
The TV and radio listings of the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express included an image from Act Three of the episode (see above centre) showing Marker standing in the identification parade being inspected by Acland (Bernard Goldman). Public Eye was Saturday’s choice in the Pick of the Week column on the Magazine in Miniature page of the Liverpool Daily Post. Editor Priscilla Hodgson noted that Alfred Burke would be playing “a new kind of unglamorous down-at-heel private detective”. |
Meanwhile, the Belfast Telegraph marked the show’s debut transmission in the Ulster region with a photograph of Valerie and Joey Stone, in a happy moment before their relationship turns sour (see above right).
Laurence Shelley’s Television page, which appeared in The Chester Chronicle as well as its sister publications The Crewe Chronicle and The Nantwich Chronicle, briefly heralded the “new, off-beat thriller series featuring Alfred Burke as an inquiry agent in a down-at-heel office with no glamorous secretary and even less ambition” on Saturday 23 January. If that sounds disparaging, the journalist’s review of All for a Couple of Ponies, which appeared the following Saturday, was even more dismissive. He felt that the new series, “featuring Alfred Burke as a seedy-looking inquiry agent, dim-witted enough to leave his fingerprints all over some stolen cameras, got off to a fairly promising start. There was plenty of keyhole-peeping, including one deliciously comic sequence inside a police station where the sergeant had his eye to a spyhole communicating directly with the cells.” The keyhole-peeping sequence is not mentioned in the rehearsal script, and presumably involved either Station Sergeant Jarrott or Detective Sergeant Leith while Marker and Dick were sharing a police cell at the end of Act Two, or took place just before Jarrott informs Dick that he has a visitor near the end of the episode. However, Shelley “couldn’t help feeling the Police were being got at,” comparing the depiction of the officers unfavourably with a couple of highly successful BBC police procedurals, and finding Leith’s behaviour particularly reprehensible: “they didn’t come out of this first episode at all well, much of the good work done by Dixon of Dock Green, and to a lesser extent Z Cars, being sabotaged by a detective playing the cop you love to hate. This unwholesome character was exhibiting every sign of galloping paranoia, reviving all my latent fears about strong-arm tactics and rhino whips.”
Public Eye is something down to earth, declared the front page of Television Today, a pull-out supplement in the trade paper The Stage dedicated to broadcasting news and features, on Thursday 8 April. This was in the wake of a press screening to launch Public Eye on ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward the following Saturday. The piece opened with the news that the four new regions would, in fact, kick off with a different episode to the one seen by the critics, with All for a Couple of Ponies replacing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot. “This was the original first episode,” the article explained, “written by Roger Marshall, who, with Anthony Marriott, first put up the idea for Public Eye.” Marriott himself was quoted from the preview event: “The idea behind this series was to do something entirely different from The Avengers. Whereas that depends on fantasy, we wanted something which was down to earth. The stories concern the sort of things that can happen to anyone. In fact, all the cases are based either in part or wholly upon the real-life experiences of a real private eye who – for obvious reasons – has to remain anonymous.” Though unnamed here and in earlier coverage by the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, the private eye in question was Chalky White, whom Marriott had met while working on magazine programmes for the BBC Home Service and whose career provided the inspiration for Public Eye.
Laurence Shelley’s Television page, which appeared in The Chester Chronicle as well as its sister publications The Crewe Chronicle and The Nantwich Chronicle, briefly heralded the “new, off-beat thriller series featuring Alfred Burke as an inquiry agent in a down-at-heel office with no glamorous secretary and even less ambition” on Saturday 23 January. If that sounds disparaging, the journalist’s review of All for a Couple of Ponies, which appeared the following Saturday, was even more dismissive. He felt that the new series, “featuring Alfred Burke as a seedy-looking inquiry agent, dim-witted enough to leave his fingerprints all over some stolen cameras, got off to a fairly promising start. There was plenty of keyhole-peeping, including one deliciously comic sequence inside a police station where the sergeant had his eye to a spyhole communicating directly with the cells.” The keyhole-peeping sequence is not mentioned in the rehearsal script, and presumably involved either Station Sergeant Jarrott or Detective Sergeant Leith while Marker and Dick were sharing a police cell at the end of Act Two, or took place just before Jarrott informs Dick that he has a visitor near the end of the episode. However, Shelley “couldn’t help feeling the Police were being got at,” comparing the depiction of the officers unfavourably with a couple of highly successful BBC police procedurals, and finding Leith’s behaviour particularly reprehensible: “they didn’t come out of this first episode at all well, much of the good work done by Dixon of Dock Green, and to a lesser extent Z Cars, being sabotaged by a detective playing the cop you love to hate. This unwholesome character was exhibiting every sign of galloping paranoia, reviving all my latent fears about strong-arm tactics and rhino whips.”
Public Eye is something down to earth, declared the front page of Television Today, a pull-out supplement in the trade paper The Stage dedicated to broadcasting news and features, on Thursday 8 April. This was in the wake of a press screening to launch Public Eye on ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward the following Saturday. The piece opened with the news that the four new regions would, in fact, kick off with a different episode to the one seen by the critics, with All for a Couple of Ponies replacing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot. “This was the original first episode,” the article explained, “written by Roger Marshall, who, with Anthony Marriott, first put up the idea for Public Eye.” Marriott himself was quoted from the preview event: “The idea behind this series was to do something entirely different from The Avengers. Whereas that depends on fantasy, we wanted something which was down to earth. The stories concern the sort of things that can happen to anyone. In fact, all the cases are based either in part or wholly upon the real-life experiences of a real private eye who – for obvious reasons – has to remain anonymous.” Though unnamed here and in earlier coverage by the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, the private eye in question was Chalky White, whom Marriott had met while working on magazine programmes for the BBC Home Service and whose career provided the inspiration for Public Eye.
By contrast, the response from The Sunday Times on 18 April, just over a week after the ATV transmission of All for a Couple of Ponies, was far from glowing. Maurice Wiggin’s verdict was that “ITV’s new series Public Eye simply adds to the heaped-up squalor and detritus of Saturday night.”
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On Thursday 15 April, Television Today ran a review of All for a Couple of Ponies. Entitled A welcome change from violence (see left), the article described the episode as a “quiet beginning to the wider showing of this series.” Reviewer Kari Anderson noted that “Its naturalistic style, in the manner of a documentary, marks a departure in tenor and content for the production team, basically the same one that was responsible for The Avengers. Frank Marker (ably played by Alfred Burke), promises to be an interesting character, a down-at-heel private investigator, slow and quiet but dogged, the antithesis of the slick detective. Suffering from a severe cold, Marker carried in his pocket, instead of a handkerchief or tissues, a roll of soft toilet paper. He’s a practical man who has to watch the pennies.” Marker’s use of toilet tissue is not mentioned in the surviving script, so this bit of business must have been added during rehearsals. Taking a more positive view than Laurence Shelley had done in the Cheshire local papers, Anderson felt that the police station scenes were clearly influenced by Z Cars, “although the friction among the men was much more bitter and acrimonious than that between Barlow and his colleagues. Young Constable Smith could have stepped right out of the Z Cars’ cast; the desk sergeant (Edward Evans) was more disillusioned, less amicable than Blackie. The bad apple was the Detective-Sergeant (John Collins), whose ambition and ruthlessness could be only partially controlled by his chief, the Inspector (Ernest Clark).” The small-time crooks played by Griffith Davies and Jack Smethurst were considered “a pitiful pair”. Mixing up the names of the two brothers, the reviewer remarked that “Joey’s admiration for Dick was pathetic, and one could quite understand why his wife, Val (Pauline Munro) should go to the dominant one, and then leave him when she found him as feckless as Joey.” Val’s role “just managed to avoid sentimentality” and the low-key writing was aided by Munro’s performance, which was “so quiet and straightforward as to make Val believable.” On the production side, Stan Woodward’s sets “contributed ably to the realism of the whole, especially with the shabby ugliness of the hotel room. Kim Mills’s direction was unforced, nicely paced. On the whole, a welcome change from the frenetic and violent cops and robbers shows so prevalent on the small screen.”
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The London launch of the series was even reported across the pond, despite the fact that Public Eye never aired outside of the UK. “This sleuth skein has been running for some months in ABC-TV’s Midlands region, and now gets London networking,” noted the American weekly entertainment magazine Variety within its Foreign TV Reviews section on 28 April. “Its hero is the brusque Frank Marker, a private investigator on hire to anyone in need, and he’s played by Alfred Burke with much toughness and a lack of enchantment. In fact, the chief fault of the segment caught was that it failed to provide any point of sympathy, for Burke, while fearless and forceful, is hardly endearing and lacks the surface coating of glamour to make his surliness impressive.” The show’s low-key style was evidently not to the liking of the reviewer, who found the love triangle involving Dick, Joey and Valerie Stone lacking in emotional pull. “The writing, indeed, erred on the side of curtness and a jaundiced view of character that verged on the parody end of the idiom. Thus one cop wasn’t against faking the evidence to convict Marker, against whose freelance activities he had some animus, and the plot was thus too intent on being downbeat to provide much uplift. The thesps were crisp, with John Collin making something of his ruthless cop and Pauline Munroe having her moments as the straying spouse. Kim Mills’ direction was swift and sure, but couldn’t do much with a storyline that was sparing of suspense.”
When Public Eye came to the Tyne Tees region, local listings magazine The Viewer (3–9 July 1965) published the article True-to-Life Private ’Tec by Bill Evans, which again drew heavily upon earlier ABC press releases.
When Public Eye came to the Tyne Tees region, local listings magazine The Viewer (3–9 July 1965) published the article True-to-Life Private ’Tec by Bill Evans, which again drew heavily upon earlier ABC press releases.
TV Weekly (24–30 July 1965), the listings magazine covering Wales and the West of England, ran a feature on Public Eye when the show made its first appearance in the region with All for a Couple of Ponies. Accompanied by photographs from the episode, the article considered that the “new off-beat thriller series is bound to catch on.”
Bristolian newspaper the Western Daily Press (see right) also announced Marker’s arrival. “Make a special note to switch to TWW at 9.50 tonight for the first of a new series, Public Eye, which stars Alfred Burke as a private detective,” wrote Peter Forth, in his Highlights of your week-end viewing column on Saturday 24 July, which was illustrated with a photograph of Burke. Having evidently had enough of American imports, Forth added, “It promises to be a down-to-earth thriller series with, thank goodness, British actors and British backgrounds.” Subsequent episodes in the series would frequently be recommended in the Forth’s Choice panel alongside the newspaper’s TV listings. The Saturday 31 July edition, promoting the next TWW transmission, The Morning Wasn’t So Hot, referred back to the debut episode, noting that “The first story in this new series last Saturday was a bit on the sordid side.” Well, if he thought All for a Couple of Ponies was sordid… |
In addition to TV and radio listings, and features from the editorial team, the centre spread of Glasgow’s Sunday Mail published readers’ letters about the previous week’s programming. Following the transmission of All for a Couple of Ponies on Scottish Television, the 22 August edition of the newspaper included the opinion of one G. Fraser of Alexandria, who wrote: “Good enough entertainment, but a little far fetched, especially that identification parade when Detective Sergeant Leith tipped the witness off that Marker was No. 5. But Marker switched to No. 1 and the wrong man was picked. Could never happen in real life, I hope.” In the rehearsal script, Marker is initially fourth in line and Leith shows Acland four fingers, so unless G. Fraser was mistaken, this must have been changed during rehearsals.
Nobody Wants to Know
The title of this episode refers to the initial sum of money offered by the fence Toddy for the cameras stolen by Joey and Dick Stone: “half a ton,” suggests Toddy, before paraphrasing, “Couple of ponies. Not bad for a night’s work.” Both of these slang terms equate to £50. A ton is £100, owing to the fact that a ton is a measurement of 100 cubic feet of capacity (for storage, loading, etc). The origin of “pony”, meaning £25, is harder to explain. It has been proposed that it relates to the typical price paid for a small horse. This seems unlikely, however, as the term dates back at least as far as the late 18th century, when £25 would have been a high price to pay for a pony. An appealing theory is that the term was coined by British soldiers returning from India, where the 25 rupee banknote bore a depiction of a pony. The subcontinent is indeed the source of much British slang, but, unfortunately, though Indian currency has featured images of many animals, the 25 rupee note has never had a pony on it. Another claim is that the word might derive from the Latin phrase “legem pone”, meaning “payment of money, cash down”, from the title in the Anglican prayer book of the psalm appointed for Matins on the 25th of the month. The term was consequently associated with 25 March, a quarter day in the old financial calendar, when payments and debts were due. The phrase appears at the beginning of verse 33 of Psalm 119 and translates literally as “teach me” rather than having any monetary meaning. Other suggestions connecting the word pony with money include the Old German word “poniren”, meaning “to pay”, or a shortening of the Cockney rhyming slang “pony and trap”, rhyming with crap, meaning “of little worth”.
The registration number of Joey Stone’s van is GMC 560B. He had bought it the previous summer, on 23 August, from a garage in Kingston upon Thames, entering into a hire-purchase agreement with Parkhill Finance Ltd.
The Association, mentioned by Sergeant Jarrott in Act One, began its existence in 1913 as the British Detectives Association. In 1946, following the end of the Second World War, a second association representing investigators, then commonly referred to as private inquiry agents or private detectives, was formed. This was the Association of British Detectives. In 1953, the two organisations merged under the title the Association of British Detectives. Since 1970, the organisation has been known as the Association of British Investigators.
The sexually explicit novel that Constable Clayton describes to Constable Smith during Act One is Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence. At the time that this episode was recorded, the book had only fairly recently become available in an unexpurgated form in the UK. Having won the case in a landmark obscenity trial, Penguin Books published the complete text, the last of three versions written by Lawrence, in November 1960. The Marlon Brando film that Constable Smith refers to in the same scene is The Men, a 1950 American drama in which Brando (making his movie debut) plays a soldier who is wounded in action and paralysed from the waist down as a result. Confined to a wheelchair, he struggles to come to terms with his disability.
While interrogating Marker in Act Two, Detective Sergeant Leith quotes Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, completed in 1804 by William Wordsworth. Having been told by Dick Stone that Marker was involved in the robbery, Leith gloats, “Your first job, according to him. ‘Shades of the prison-house’, eh, Marker?” In Wordsworth’s poem, the verse continues, “Shades of the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing Boy”, so as well as invoking the threat of incarceration, Leith is referring to Marker’s supposed loss of innocence in having committed a crime. In the poem, “Shades of the prison-house” does not refer literally to imprisonment, but more figuratively to the transition from childhood into adulthood, with all its cares and responsibilities.
Later in the same scene, the drunken Acland quotes The White Man’s Burden, a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899. It concerns the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) and encourages the American annexation and colonisation of the Philippine Islands, which had been conquered by the USA in the three-month Spanish–American War (1898). In the script, Acland sings part of the opening verse, before Grant manages to shut him up.
In a way, the ABC era of Public Eye begins as it would end, with Marker falling foul of the law. This time he is completely innocent of the crime of which he is accused and is exonerated. At the end of the third series, in Cross That Palm When We Come to It, he would not be so lucky…
The registration number of Joey Stone’s van is GMC 560B. He had bought it the previous summer, on 23 August, from a garage in Kingston upon Thames, entering into a hire-purchase agreement with Parkhill Finance Ltd.
The Association, mentioned by Sergeant Jarrott in Act One, began its existence in 1913 as the British Detectives Association. In 1946, following the end of the Second World War, a second association representing investigators, then commonly referred to as private inquiry agents or private detectives, was formed. This was the Association of British Detectives. In 1953, the two organisations merged under the title the Association of British Detectives. Since 1970, the organisation has been known as the Association of British Investigators.
The sexually explicit novel that Constable Clayton describes to Constable Smith during Act One is Lady Chatterley’s Lover, by D. H. Lawrence. At the time that this episode was recorded, the book had only fairly recently become available in an unexpurgated form in the UK. Having won the case in a landmark obscenity trial, Penguin Books published the complete text, the last of three versions written by Lawrence, in November 1960. The Marlon Brando film that Constable Smith refers to in the same scene is The Men, a 1950 American drama in which Brando (making his movie debut) plays a soldier who is wounded in action and paralysed from the waist down as a result. Confined to a wheelchair, he struggles to come to terms with his disability.
While interrogating Marker in Act Two, Detective Sergeant Leith quotes Ode on Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood, completed in 1804 by William Wordsworth. Having been told by Dick Stone that Marker was involved in the robbery, Leith gloats, “Your first job, according to him. ‘Shades of the prison-house’, eh, Marker?” In Wordsworth’s poem, the verse continues, “Shades of the prison-house begin to close / Upon the growing Boy”, so as well as invoking the threat of incarceration, Leith is referring to Marker’s supposed loss of innocence in having committed a crime. In the poem, “Shades of the prison-house” does not refer literally to imprisonment, but more figuratively to the transition from childhood into adulthood, with all its cares and responsibilities.
Later in the same scene, the drunken Acland quotes The White Man’s Burden, a poem written by Rudyard Kipling in 1899. It concerns the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) and encourages the American annexation and colonisation of the Philippine Islands, which had been conquered by the USA in the three-month Spanish–American War (1898). In the script, Acland sings part of the opening verse, before Grant manages to shut him up.
In a way, the ABC era of Public Eye begins as it would end, with Marker falling foul of the law. This time he is completely innocent of the crime of which he is accused and is exonerated. At the end of the third series, in Cross That Palm When We Come to It, he would not be so lucky…
With thanks to Jonny Davies, Alan Hayes, Andrew Pixley, Jaz Wiseman, the BFI Special Collections, the British Newspaper Archive, Network Distributing and Vortis Press.
The Missing Markers is a not-for-profit fan website written and edited by and copyright © Richard McGinlay. All rights reserved.
Public Eye (the ABC years) is copyright © StudioCanal. No attempt to infringe this copyright is intended.
The Missing Markers is a not-for-profit fan website written and edited by and copyright © Richard McGinlay. All rights reserved.
Public Eye (the ABC years) is copyright © StudioCanal. No attempt to infringe this copyright is intended.