Series 1 – Episode 11
|
Marker
Pete Shoemaker Willy Gans ‘Bubbles’ Kiley Ben Heuston Nancy Heuston Patsy Nipper King Lola Jenkins Betty Shoemaker |
Alfred Burke
Griffith Jones Morris Perry Derren Nesbitt Reginald Marsh Margaret Whiting Brian Rawlinson Jack Rodney Toni Palmer Ria Mills |
Uncredited cast:
People at gym/People at betting shop |
Colin Hopkins, Ben Davies, Bernard Barnsley, Robert Wilson, Peter Brayham, Roy Powell, Clive Rogers, Trevor Lawrence |
The rehearsal script also called for a police sergeant and the non-speaking characters of Bobby Shoemaker, Nolan, a thug and a police constable – the adult roles may have been performed by the extras named above
Production
Series based on an idea by Roger Marshall & Anthony Marriott
Theme Music composed by Robert Earley Story Editor: Richard Bates Floor Manager: Patrick Kennedy |
Stage Manager: Michael Pearce
Production Assistant: Trixie Brown Designed by Stan Woodward Producer: John Bryce Directed by Laurence Bourne |
Rehearsed from 10.30am on Thursday 18 March 1965 at Rehearsal Room 2A, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Camera rehearsed from Tuesday 30 March 1965 at Studio 2, Teddington
Recorded from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday 31 March 1965 at Studio 2, Teddington
Camera rehearsed from Tuesday 30 March 1965 at Studio 2, Teddington
Recorded from 6pm to 7pm on Wednesday 31 March 1965 at Studio 2, Teddington
TV World Synopsis
Thurs. 8.30 a.m.: Work-out at the gym. Then see Nancy Heuston. She sounded worried – wonder if it’s about her husband’s new betting-shop? Lot of nasty people muscling in on that business nowadays.
Click here for detailed synopsis
Click here for detailed synopsis
Transmission
Saturday 3 April 1965, 10.10pm (ABC Midlands and ABC North)
Saturday 17 April 1965, 10.10pm (Ulster)
Saturday 24 April 1965, 9.10pm (Southern)
Saturday 3 July 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Saturday 28 August 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Sunday 19 September 1965, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Tuesday 9 November 1965, 10.37pm (TWW)
Saturday 17 April 1965, 10.10pm (Ulster)
Saturday 24 April 1965, 9.10pm (Southern)
Saturday 3 July 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Saturday 28 August 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Sunday 19 September 1965, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Tuesday 9 November 1965, 10.37pm (TWW)
Archive
Rehearsal script – held in the BFI Special Collections
Story Notes
Protection is a Man’s Best Friend was written by playwright Mike Watts, who had authored numerous single dramas for television including a 1960 Play of the Week entitled The Pot Carriers. A comedy-drama set in Wandsworth prison and based on Watts’s own experiences in jail, The Pot Carriers was adapted into a successful feature film in 1962. Watts also penned episodes of the long-running police procedurals No Hiding Place (for Associated-Rediffusion) and Z Cars (for BBC1), Rediffusion’s 1967 children’s journalistic drama Send Foster and the 1969–1970 Yorkshire Television soap opera Castle Haven, which was set in and around two Victorian seaside houses that had been converted into flats and bedsits. His final television credit was as the writer of another police drama, a 1975 episode of the BBC’s Dixon of Dock Green.
The episode’s title wording does not appear in the dialogue within the rehearsal script and was presumably worked in later. For the detailed synopsis presented on this website, I have made a guess as to when and by whom the words might have been spoken – by ‘Bubbles’ Kiley, when trying to persuade Ben Heuston to pay protection money during Act One.
In the rehearsal script, Ben and Nancy Heuston are called Fred and Nancy Binns. The bookmaker’s name is given as Fred Heuston in the ABC press release for Protection is a Man’s Best Friend (see Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?, below), perhaps indicating a halfway stage in the renaming of the character.
The first name of Pete Shoemaker’s son is spelled variously in the script as Bobbie and (less frequently) Bobby. The latter form is the correct spelling for a boy’s name and is used in this site’s detailed synopsis.
The episode’s title wording does not appear in the dialogue within the rehearsal script and was presumably worked in later. For the detailed synopsis presented on this website, I have made a guess as to when and by whom the words might have been spoken – by ‘Bubbles’ Kiley, when trying to persuade Ben Heuston to pay protection money during Act One.
In the rehearsal script, Ben and Nancy Heuston are called Fred and Nancy Binns. The bookmaker’s name is given as Fred Heuston in the ABC press release for Protection is a Man’s Best Friend (see Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?, below), perhaps indicating a halfway stage in the renaming of the character.
The first name of Pete Shoemaker’s son is spelled variously in the script as Bobbie and (less frequently) Bobby. The latter form is the correct spelling for a boy’s name and is used in this site’s detailed synopsis.
Marker’s bandaged hand is not mentioned in the rehearsal script, but can be seen in surviving stills of Alfred Burke with Jack Rodney as Nipper King in Act Two (see above left) and with Reginald Marsh as Ben Heuston in Act Three (see above right).
Production Notes
In addition to the roles played by background artists as people at Nipper King’s gym and people at Ben Heuston’s betting shop (see Uncredited cast, above), the rehearsal script called for the characters of Bobby Shoemaker, Nolan, an unnamed thug, a police sergeant and a police constable. Nolan is a boxer who trains in the gym in Act One, so this part was probably included within “People at gym”. The thug, who works with Kiley and Patsy, first appears in the betting shop in Act One, so his role was probably covered by “People at betting shop”. Two of the named extras could have doubled up to play the policemen, who enter Kiley and Lola’s council flat in Act Three, or these roles may have been cut from the final version of the episode. The police sergeant has only one short speech in the script, as he leads Lola away near the end of the episode: “Right. Come on, let’s have you.” The other unbilled characters are non-speaking.
Protection is a Man’s Best Friend was videotaped just three days prior to transmission by ABC on Saturday 3 April 1965. From this week, ABC pushed the series back an hour to 10.10pm, swapping it with the second series of The Human Jungle, in readiness for ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward joining the network feed the following week. This meant that, in the Midlands and the North, Frank Marker was now up against the end of The Rogues, the news and sport at 10.15pm, and the satirical sketch show Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life at 10.30pm on BBC1. However, Southern retained the 9.10pm placing, as did Ulster for one week only. No longer receiving the network feed from ABC, Southern and Ulster took the opportunity to air the episodes in a different order for the remainder of Series 1, with Southern broadcasting You Should Hear Me Eat Soup and Ulster showing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot at 9.10pm on Saturday 3 April.
Some listings state that Channel and Westward aired ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ on Saturday 3 July at 10.10pm and Protection is a Man’s Best Friend the following Saturday at the same time, whereas other sources indicate that ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was broadcast on both dates. This suggests that, although the original plan was for Channel and Westward to transmit ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ before Protection is a Man’s Best Friend, ultimately they followed the same broadcast order as ATV London and Border.
Protection is a Man’s Best Friend concluded TWW’s run of Series 1 episodes on Tuesday 9 November at 10.37pm. Public Eye was replaced by further gangland action in the form of the American organised crime drama The Untouchables.
Protection is a Man’s Best Friend was videotaped just three days prior to transmission by ABC on Saturday 3 April 1965. From this week, ABC pushed the series back an hour to 10.10pm, swapping it with the second series of The Human Jungle, in readiness for ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward joining the network feed the following week. This meant that, in the Midlands and the North, Frank Marker was now up against the end of The Rogues, the news and sport at 10.15pm, and the satirical sketch show Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life at 10.30pm on BBC1. However, Southern retained the 9.10pm placing, as did Ulster for one week only. No longer receiving the network feed from ABC, Southern and Ulster took the opportunity to air the episodes in a different order for the remainder of Series 1, with Southern broadcasting You Should Hear Me Eat Soup and Ulster showing The Morning Wasn’t So Hot at 9.10pm on Saturday 3 April.
Some listings state that Channel and Westward aired ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ on Saturday 3 July at 10.10pm and Protection is a Man’s Best Friend the following Saturday at the same time, whereas other sources indicate that ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was broadcast on both dates. This suggests that, although the original plan was for Channel and Westward to transmit ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ before Protection is a Man’s Best Friend, ultimately they followed the same broadcast order as ATV London and Border.
Protection is a Man’s Best Friend concluded TWW’s run of Series 1 episodes on Tuesday 9 November at 10.37pm. Public Eye was replaced by further gangland action in the form of the American organised crime drama The Untouchables.
Home and Away
This episode was realised entirely within the television studio. The rehearsal script contains just two brief exterior scenes, both in Act Two. The first of these saw Marker arriving at Pete Shoemaker’s front door, which was composite with (i.e. connected to) the sets for Shoemaker’s entrance hall and living room. The other exterior scene took place in a poorly-lit back alley at the end of the act.
Many a Slip
In Act Three of the script, the package delivered to Shoemaker by Lola Jenkins contains a sheet of paper as well as Bobby and Betty’s school blazers. However, subsequent dialogue indicates that no note was included on this occasion. “What about the note?” asks Marker, “Wasn’t there a note this time?” “No,” replies Shoemaker, indicating the jackets, “just these.”
It is unclear from the script who summons the police towards the end of the story. Perhaps the officers accompanied Nancy when she visited Kiley and Patsy’s accomplice (who is presumably the individual who divulges the address where the kidnapped children are being held) and waited outside Kiley and Lola’s council flat until Marker got there. Alternatively, Marker may have brought the policemen with him – though this seems less likely, given the fact that he doesn’t phone the police before leaving Shoemaker’s place and the short length of time that Nancy has to hold her own in the council flat before Marker arrives. The council flat scene may have been rewritten for clarity prior to recording.
It is unclear from the script who summons the police towards the end of the story. Perhaps the officers accompanied Nancy when she visited Kiley and Patsy’s accomplice (who is presumably the individual who divulges the address where the kidnapped children are being held) and waited outside Kiley and Lola’s council flat until Marker got there. Alternatively, Marker may have brought the policemen with him – though this seems less likely, given the fact that he doesn’t phone the police before leaving Shoemaker’s place and the short length of time that Nancy has to hold her own in the council flat before Marker arrives. The council flat scene may have been rewritten for clarity prior to recording.
Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?
ABC promotional literature for Protection is a Man’s Best Friend drew attention to guest star Derren Nesbitt, “the up-and-coming young actor who plays Kim Novak’s husband in Moll Flanders.” This referred to the 1965 British historical comedy film The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders, which was based on the 1722 novel Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe. “Mr Nesbitt was almost born in the traditional theatre basket,” the piece went on, “because his parents were both music hall artists, his father being Harry Nesbitt, the well-known comedian. As a child, Derren travelled the world with his parents, spending some time both in Australia and South Africa.” The press release then switched its focus to actress Margaret Whiting, “who for the second time in recent months has found herself rehearsing at ABC’s Teddington Studios alongside her husband, National Theatre star Colin Blakely. The first time, Miss Whiting was in Edna O’Brien’s [1965 Armchair Theatre] play The Keys of the Cafe and her husband in Redcap [the 1964 episode A Regiment of the Line]. This time, he is rehearsing an Armchair Theatre play [Ready for the Glory, which would be transmitted in January 1966] with Ann Todd.”
The Programme choice column in Torbay’s Herald Express on Saturday 3 April 1965 (see left) announced the imminent arrival of Public Eye in the Westward region in one week’s time. “The image conjured up in American and British private eye films is of a smooth character who always outwits the police and is inevitably first to detect the criminal,” said the article. Drawing upon earlier ABC publicity material, it promised that the new series would “shatter all these images. It spotlights the work of over 500 enquiry agents working in Britain today, who, according to producer Don Leaver, are not men in Saville Row suits hovering over debutantes at cocktail parties.” The piece also disclosed that the first story would be The Morning Wasn’t So Hot – an episode produced by John Bryce rather than the quoted Don Leaver. However, the instalment that Westward viewers would actually see the following Saturday was one of Leaver’s, All for a Couple of Ponies, proving that sometimes two wrongs do make a right.
The programme billing in the Southern edition of TV Times (24–30 April 1965) included a photograph of Nancy Heuston (Margaret Whiting) tending to Marker’s injuries. |
On Saturday 10 April, the news that Public Eye had “caught the private eye” of Lincolnshire Chief Constable John Barnett made the front page of the Lincolnshire Echo. Barnett was also the chairman-designate of the Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association (soon to be known as the National Viewers’ and Listeners’ Association), which was then in the process of being formed. It was in his latter capacity that Barnett had sent a telegram to Lord Hill, chairman of the Independent Television Authority, asking him “to censor the programme and cut out anything likely to corrupt or offend the public”. The episode that Barnett had objected to was Protection is a Man’s Best Friend. “The first session of the programme dealt with protection and bookmakers,” he told the Echo, in an article entitled One in the Eye From Police Chief. “There was too much violence in it. Not only was the bookmakers’ shop smashed up, but in one scene someone was attacked with a cycle chain, which is a vicious weapon.” Barnett added that it was the considered opinion of a number of specialists in both the UK and the USA that the depiction of violence on TV was liable to do harm to young people. “In 1964, we kept a record in Lincolnshire, and there were 14 instances in which we were satisfied that broadcast programmes had some adverse effect on young people in the commission of crime. I have forwarded this finding to the TV Research Committee set up by the Home Secretary two years ago.” The bicycle chain referred to does not appear in the rehearsal script – in the transmitted episode, it may have been used against Ben Heuston during the first betting shop scene, or against ‘Bubbles’ Kiley in his final scene. For more on Lord Hill, the ensuing “clean-up campaign” and a “banned” episode of Public Eye, see The Drug Merchants.
Nobody Wants to Know
Mike Watts’s script opens with a panning shot “across a series of posters establishing most of the great names in British post-war boxing”. These “great names”, referred to by surname only in the script, are as follows:
Gilt and gelt are slang terms for money. Both are used in the script, by the different characters. In Act One, Nipper King says of ‘Bubbles’ Kiley, “He’s got the gilt. Splashes it round the clubs.” In Act Three, Kiley says of himself and Pete Shoemaker, “I go out and do all the graft and he gets all the gelt.”
When intimidating Ben Heuston in the betting shop in Act One, Kiley threatens the bookmaker’s wife with “a chivving”. Chiv is an alternative form of shiv, meaning a blade used as a weapon, or the stabbing or slicing action made using such a weapon. On a similar note, both Kiley and Shoemaker threaten to “stripe” people. Striping is a form of gangland retribution whereby disfiguring cuts are inflicted upon an enemy, usually to the face.
The Heustons are on the same Clapham telephone exchange as Marker – in Act Three, Nancy gives their telephone number as MACaulay 1983.
- Terry Downes BEM (1936–2017), a middleweight boxer, occasional film actor and businessman, who was nicknamed ‘the Paddington Express’ for his aggressive fighting style. After retiring from the sport, Downes acted occasionally between 1965 and 1990, usually appearing as a thug, villain or bodyguard. One of his more prominent roles was in Roman Polanski’s 1967 comedy horror film The Fearless Vampire Killers, in which he played the hunchbacked servant Koukol.
- Turpin – a reference to one of two boxing siblings. Dick Turpin (1920–1990) was a British and Commonwealth middleweight champion, and reputedly the first black fighter to win a British boxing title. He was the elder brother and trainer of the more famous middleweight and light heavyweight Randolph Adolphus (Randy) Turpin (1928–1966), also known as ‘the Leamington Licker’.
- Sir Henry Cooper OBE KSG (1934–2011), a heavyweight boxer famed for the power of his left hook, which became known as ’Enry’s ’Ammer. He was undefeated in British and Commonwealth heavyweight championship contests for 12 years and held the European heavyweight title for three years. During the 1960s, Cooper appeared in several public information films promoting road safety. Following his retirement from boxing in 1971, he maintained a public profile with appearances in the BBC quiz show A Question of Sport and numerous advertisements, most famously those for Brut aftershave.
- David Fraser (Dave) Charnley (1935–2012), a lightweight boxer considered to be one of the greatest British fighters in his weight class. Nicknamed ‘the Dartford Destroyer’, the left-handed Charnley enjoyed a ten-year career from 1954 to 1964.
- Frederick Percival (Freddie) Mills (1919–1965), also known as ‘the Bournemouth Bombshell’ and ‘Fearless Freddie’, the world light heavyweight champion from 1948 to 1950. When he retired from the ring, Mills moved into boxing management and promotion, and pursued a career in entertainment, working in radio, on television (notably as a co-presenter of the BBC TV music show Six-Five Special from 1957 to 1958) and on the stage, as well as playing roles in a number of films between 1952 and 1965.
- Bruce Woodcock (1920–1997), a light heavyweight and heavyweight boxer from Doncaster. He held the British and Empire heavyweight titles from 1945 to 1950, and was the European heavyweight champion from 1946 to 1949.
- Howard Winstone MBE (1939–2000), a Welsh world champion boxer, born in Merthyr Tydfil and nicknamed ‘the Welsh Wizard’. As an amateur, Winstone won the Amateur Boxing Association bantamweight title in 1958, and a Commonwealth Games Gold Medal at the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff.
Gilt and gelt are slang terms for money. Both are used in the script, by the different characters. In Act One, Nipper King says of ‘Bubbles’ Kiley, “He’s got the gilt. Splashes it round the clubs.” In Act Three, Kiley says of himself and Pete Shoemaker, “I go out and do all the graft and he gets all the gelt.”
When intimidating Ben Heuston in the betting shop in Act One, Kiley threatens the bookmaker’s wife with “a chivving”. Chiv is an alternative form of shiv, meaning a blade used as a weapon, or the stabbing or slicing action made using such a weapon. On a similar note, both Kiley and Shoemaker threaten to “stripe” people. Striping is a form of gangland retribution whereby disfiguring cuts are inflicted upon an enemy, usually to the face.
The Heustons are on the same Clapham telephone exchange as Marker – in Act Three, Nancy gives their telephone number as MACaulay 1983.
With thanks to Jonny Davies, Andrew Pixley, the BFI Special Collections, the British Newspaper Archive and Network Distributing.
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.