Series 1 – Episode 6
|
Marker
Paul Obukwe Marion Hordern Father Obukwe Amanda Arthur Hordern Mrs Hordern Luke Obukwe John Embers Sue Kate Charles Pearl |
Alfred Burke
Clifton Jones Judy Parfitt Charles Hyatt Leoni Forbes Derek Francis Joan Heath Dan Jackson John Humphry Magda Miller Kate Lansbury Louis Mahoney Nina Baden-Semper |
Uncredited cast:
Thugs People at party People at meeting hall |
Raschidi Onikoyi, Steve Emerson 3 male and 3 female extras 11 male and 11 female extras |
Production
Series based on an idea by Roger Marshall & Anthony Marriott
Theme Music composed by Robert Earley Story Editor: Richard Bates Floor Manager: Bill Lawford |
Stage Manager: Dennis Redwood
Production Assistant: Christine Thomas Designed by Brian Eatwell Producer: Don Leaver Directed by Laurence Bourne |
Rehearsed from 10.30am on Friday 30 October 1964 at Steadfast Hall, Riverside, Kingston upon Thames
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 11 November 1964 at Studio 1, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Recorded on Wednesday 11 (VTR insert) and from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Thursday 12 November 1964 at Studio 1, Teddington
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 11 November 1964 at Studio 1, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Recorded on Wednesday 11 (VTR insert) and from 6.30pm to 7.30pm on Thursday 12 November 1964 at Studio 1, Teddington
TV World Synopsis
Tuesday 4.30: Mr. Hordern – ‘po-faced’ pillar of society – won’t call spade a spade – anonymous letters re: daughter – very urgent, or the neighbours might find out!!
Click here for detailed synopsis
Click here for detailed synopsis
Transmission
Saturday 27 February 1965, 9.10pm (ABC Midlands, ABC North, Southern and Ulster)
Saturday 15 May 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Tuesday 13 July 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Sunday 29 August 1965, 11pm (Scottish)
Saturday 18 September 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Tuesday 28 September 1965, 10.40pm (TWW)
Saturday 15 May 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Tuesday 13 July 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Sunday 29 August 1965, 11pm (Scottish)
Saturday 18 September 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Tuesday 28 September 1965, 10.40pm (TWW)
Archive
Rehearsal script – held in the BFI Special Collections
Story Notes
The writer of this episode, John William Emms (1930–1993), was born in Australia, but subsequently relocated to the UK. He left home at an early age to join the Royal Navy, then moved to London to teach English and drama, while earning additional income as an author of short stories. Emms was eventually able to leave teaching to write full-time, including for television. He was a couple of years into his television career when he was commissioned to write for Public Eye, having recently contributed to ABC’s Redcap and the BBC’s The Indian Stories of Rudyard Kipling. His subsequent work included episodes of the BBC soap opera The Newcomers, the corporation’s educational series Walter and Connie Reporting and its long-running police procedural Z Cars, the medical dramas Emergency Ward 10 (ATV) and Owen, M.D. (a spin-off from the BBC’s The Doctors), the BBC Customs and Excise-based action-adventure series The Revenue Men, the gritty ABC/Thames espionage drama Callan and Thames’s children’s fantasy serial Ace of Wands. However, Emms’s best-known work is the 1965 Doctor Who serial Galaxy 4, a morality tale about not judging by appearances that was given a new lease of life in 2021 via the animation of its missing episodes. Later submissions for the BBC science-fiction programme during the 1960s and 1980s did not come to fruition, and Emms lost interest in television, choosing to focus instead on publishing, while also returning to teaching. In 1986, he novelised Galaxy 4 for Target Books and reused elements from one of his unmade stories, The Imps, in Mission to Venus, part of Severn House’s Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who range of gamebooks.
The rehearsal script for this episode is entitled Checkerboard and the series title on the first page of the script proper (after the cast and sets list) is given as The Public Eye. The wording of the episode’s revised title, But the Joneses Never Get Letters, does not appear anywhere within the rehearsal script, so it must have been incorporated into the dialogue at a later stage. In the detailed synopsis presented on this website, I have made a guess as to when and by whom these words might have been spoken – by Marker, in Act One, when discussing the subject of neighbours with Mr Hordern.
The minor character of Kate, one of the guests at Marion’s party at the beginning of the episode, is not named in the script – she is simply “Girl 1”. The actress who played her was Kate Lansbury (1940–2018), so it may be that the production team named the character after the actress. Coincidentally, another party guest, Embers, also shares his first name with the actor who portrayed him – in the script, Marion calls him John, and the actor who would be cast in the role was John Humphry (1927–2007).
Marion’s father is named Arthur in the dialogue, but the character was billed simply as “Mr Hordern” in TV listings. When they share a scene in Act One, the names of Mr and Mrs Hordern are abbreviated to “Mr” and “Mrs” in the speech prefixes. In other scenes, the prefix “Hordern” is used for Mr Hordern.
Marker uses the N-word during his first scene, when he tries to elicit a reaction from the reticent Mr Hordern. He later uses another racial slur, towards the end of Act Two, when he tells Hordern about his attackers: “The men were spades – both of them.” These lines of dialogue have been omitted from the story summary on this website. I have retained the words “coloured” and “negro” within quoted dialogue, but not in any of the descriptive text, where I have favoured the terms “black” and “non-white” instead. I have endeavoured to strike a balance between presenting an accurate account of a tense story about race relations as it was written in 1964, without causing offence to any present-day readers.
In speech prefixes within the script, Father Obukwe is sometimes referred to as “Father” and sometimes as “Obukwe”.
It is possible that an earlier version of the script contained an additional scene at the church meeting hall. The rehearsal script’s second meeting hall scene starts by stating that “Father Obukwe is still on the dais,” but this is the only reference to the dais in the script. It may be that material involving Obukwe addressing the congregation had been deleted.
The rehearsal script for this episode is entitled Checkerboard and the series title on the first page of the script proper (after the cast and sets list) is given as The Public Eye. The wording of the episode’s revised title, But the Joneses Never Get Letters, does not appear anywhere within the rehearsal script, so it must have been incorporated into the dialogue at a later stage. In the detailed synopsis presented on this website, I have made a guess as to when and by whom these words might have been spoken – by Marker, in Act One, when discussing the subject of neighbours with Mr Hordern.
The minor character of Kate, one of the guests at Marion’s party at the beginning of the episode, is not named in the script – she is simply “Girl 1”. The actress who played her was Kate Lansbury (1940–2018), so it may be that the production team named the character after the actress. Coincidentally, another party guest, Embers, also shares his first name with the actor who portrayed him – in the script, Marion calls him John, and the actor who would be cast in the role was John Humphry (1927–2007).
Marion’s father is named Arthur in the dialogue, but the character was billed simply as “Mr Hordern” in TV listings. When they share a scene in Act One, the names of Mr and Mrs Hordern are abbreviated to “Mr” and “Mrs” in the speech prefixes. In other scenes, the prefix “Hordern” is used for Mr Hordern.
Marker uses the N-word during his first scene, when he tries to elicit a reaction from the reticent Mr Hordern. He later uses another racial slur, towards the end of Act Two, when he tells Hordern about his attackers: “The men were spades – both of them.” These lines of dialogue have been omitted from the story summary on this website. I have retained the words “coloured” and “negro” within quoted dialogue, but not in any of the descriptive text, where I have favoured the terms “black” and “non-white” instead. I have endeavoured to strike a balance between presenting an accurate account of a tense story about race relations as it was written in 1964, without causing offence to any present-day readers.
In speech prefixes within the script, Father Obukwe is sometimes referred to as “Father” and sometimes as “Obukwe”.
It is possible that an earlier version of the script contained an additional scene at the church meeting hall. The rehearsal script’s second meeting hall scene starts by stating that “Father Obukwe is still on the dais,” but this is the only reference to the dais in the script. It may be that material involving Obukwe addressing the congregation had been deleted.
Production Notes
The director, Laurence Bourne (1936–2012), was a former actor who had also worked on Redcap and whose previous ABC credits included the arts programme Tempo, the music show Hullabaloo, The Avengers and The Protectors. His later work would include episodes of ABC’s science fiction-cum-crime drama Undermind and three further instalments of Public Eye (all in Series 1). For the BBC, he directed episodes of the fantastical adventure series Adam Adamant Lives!, the hugely popular oil industry saga The Troubleshooters and the long-running medical drama Dr. Finlay’s Casebook.
The opening party scene was pre-recorded on Wednesday 11 November 1964 as VTR/ABC/4165A. Three pieces of library music were heard during this sequence, all of them from the 1964 De Wolfe LP Guitars in Motion (DWLP 2853): Twisted Up, by Keith Papworth; The Second Girl, by Wayne Hill; and Soft and Glow, also by Hill.
The opening party scene was pre-recorded on Wednesday 11 November 1964 as VTR/ABC/4165A. Three pieces of library music were heard during this sequence, all of them from the 1964 De Wolfe LP Guitars in Motion (DWLP 2853): Twisted Up, by Keith Papworth; The Second Girl, by Wayne Hill; and Soft and Glow, also by Hill.
Charles Hyatt (1931–2007, pictured above left with Alfred Burke as Marker), who was cast as Father Obukwe, was only six years older than one of his screen sons, Clifton Jones (born 1937, pictured at the top of the page with Judy Parfitt as Marion Hordern), and six years younger than the other, Dan Jackson (1925–2004, pictured above right with Burke). Hyatt was made up to appear older.
At the meeting hall social and in other scenes involving West Indian characters, the background music came from numerous Blue Beat recordings: Blue Beat Spirit, by Prince Buster, from a 1964 single (BB 211); Madness, by Prince Buster, from a 1963 single (BB 170); Corn Bread and Butter, by the Eric ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Morris Drumbago All Stars, from a 1961 single (BB 53); Toothache, by the Prince Buster All Stars (the B-side to Madness); and Humpty Dumpty (the A-side to Corn Bread and Butter). In the second act of the rehearsal script, Paul Obukwe listens to jazz “coming quietly from a radio on the table beside him.” There is no record of a jazz-based music cue being used in this episode, but the instrumental Toothache is similar in style and may have been played in at this point.
For the attack upon Marker in Act Two, William Emms’s script makes use of diegetic sound for dramatic effect. As Marker leaves the meeting hall, the music from within “still booms out.” Then, as Marker prepares to defend himself, “The music gradually gets louder.” A similar device was suggested in Roger Marshall’s script for Nobody Kills Santa Claus (but not retained in the final production), with the sound of shaken dice from upstairs coming up loud in the aftermath of a punch-up at the end of Act Two. Emms keeps the fight in But the Joneses Never Get Letters off screen. As the altercation begins, “The frame spins and we mix to” the next scene, in which Amanda tends to the injured Marker some time later.
Following the recording of this episode, there was a break of almost a fortnight before the production team reunited to begin rehearsals on My Life, That’s a Marriage on Thursday 26 November 1964.
From 28 September 1965, Public Eye was relegated to Tuesday nights at 10.40pm on TWW in place of the decade-old American half-hour anthology series Douglas Fairbanks Presents.
At the meeting hall social and in other scenes involving West Indian characters, the background music came from numerous Blue Beat recordings: Blue Beat Spirit, by Prince Buster, from a 1964 single (BB 211); Madness, by Prince Buster, from a 1963 single (BB 170); Corn Bread and Butter, by the Eric ‘Humpty Dumpty’ Morris Drumbago All Stars, from a 1961 single (BB 53); Toothache, by the Prince Buster All Stars (the B-side to Madness); and Humpty Dumpty (the A-side to Corn Bread and Butter). In the second act of the rehearsal script, Paul Obukwe listens to jazz “coming quietly from a radio on the table beside him.” There is no record of a jazz-based music cue being used in this episode, but the instrumental Toothache is similar in style and may have been played in at this point.
For the attack upon Marker in Act Two, William Emms’s script makes use of diegetic sound for dramatic effect. As Marker leaves the meeting hall, the music from within “still booms out.” Then, as Marker prepares to defend himself, “The music gradually gets louder.” A similar device was suggested in Roger Marshall’s script for Nobody Kills Santa Claus (but not retained in the final production), with the sound of shaken dice from upstairs coming up loud in the aftermath of a punch-up at the end of Act Two. Emms keeps the fight in But the Joneses Never Get Letters off screen. As the altercation begins, “The frame spins and we mix to” the next scene, in which Amanda tends to the injured Marker some time later.
Following the recording of this episode, there was a break of almost a fortnight before the production team reunited to begin rehearsals on My Life, That’s a Marriage on Thursday 26 November 1964.
From 28 September 1965, Public Eye was relegated to Tuesday nights at 10.40pm on TWW in place of the decade-old American half-hour anthology series Douglas Fairbanks Presents.
Home and Away
The rehearsal script contains a single, brief exterior sequence, for the attack on Marker during Act Two, taking in the street outside the meeting hall (referred to as the “CLUB” in the scene heading) and the street by Marker’s car at night. The script indicates that these scenes should be recorded in the studio rather than shot on location. The scene headings specify “STUDIO. EXT.” (as opposed to “STUDIO. INT.” for interior scenes) and the list of sets at the front of the script includes “STREET LOCATION.”
Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?
On Thursday 25 February 1965, Television Today confirmed that ATV London had finally scheduled the “off-beat detective series” to commence its run on Saturday 10 April. The item, entitled London showing for ABC series (see left), also revealed that Londoners would get to see Public Eye’s sister show Redcap – courtesy of Rediffusion – from Thursday 20 May.
ABC’s press release for But the Joneses Never Get Letters noted that Jamaican actor Clifton Jones, who played Paul Obukwe, honed his craft at London’s Italia Conti School, and “made his name in West End theatre productions of Billy Budd, Green Pastures and A Taste of Honey.” Meanwhile, his screen wife, Judy Parfitt, “who comes from Sheffield, got her first big break in ABC’s Armchair Theatre play The Birdcage, which led to many more TV roles, including two Avengers stories for ABC.” The Armchair Theatre episode was actually titled Girl in a Birdcage. Parfitt’s two Avengers appearances to date had been in 1962’s Bullseye and 1964’s The White Elephant – she would return to the series in Escape in Time (1967) and Whoever Shot Poor George Oblique Stroke XR40? (1968). “Now she has moved into a new flat at Little Venice on the Regent’s Canal in London,” the press release concluded. The programme billing in TV World (27 February–5 March 1965) was promoted with a photograph of Marion Hordern and Paul Obukwe having breakfast, and another shot of Marion raging at Marker while Paul looks on. The magazine also carried a substantial feature entitled When Actions Should Speak Louder Than Words, which examined the already impressive career of Clifton Jones. |
Public Eye was again among Peter Forth’s recommendations for the evening’s viewing in his Forth’s Choice column in the Western Daily Press on Tuesday 28 September, when this episode was transmitted by TWW. However, he got the title wrong, referring to this case concerning “the effect of some anonymous communications upon the life of a suburban family with fixed ideas about what is ‘nice’” as But the Joneses Never Get Better.
Nobody Wants to Know
In Act One, Marion misquotes the English poet, courtier, scholar and soldier Sir Philip Sidney (1554–1586) when she tells Paul, “Your necessity was greater than mine.” Mortally wounded while facing a Spanish cavalry charge during the Battle of Zutphen on 22 September 1586, the knight rode painfully back to camp, where he called weakly for water. It is reported that, as he raised the bottle to his lips, he caught sight of another injured soldier. Without hesitation, Sir Philip gave his water to the other man, stating, “Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.”
It appears that Marker made his entrance even later in this episode than he did in Nobody Kills Santa Claus. His first scene in the rehearsal script for But the Joneses Never Get Letters commences on page 21 (of 79). By comparison, his first appearance in Nobody Kills Santa Claus takes place on page 22 (of 82), which is one page later, but bear in mind that Nobody Kills Santa Claus’s three-page opening sequence was cut during rehearsals. Adjusting for this deletion, the figure for Nobody Kills Santa Claus would be page 19 (of 79), suggesting that Marker entered the story about a minute later in But the Joneses Never Get Letters, approximately 12 minutes into the episode.
In Act Three, Marion offensively likens Father Obukwe’s church socials to a minstrel show and the work of Al Jolson. Al Jolson (1886–1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor and vaudevillian, who frequently performed wearing blackface make-up. This was a widespread theatrical convention at the start of the 20th century, having developed from the minstrel show, an American form of racist theatrical entertainment that had arisen early in the previous century. A typical minstrel show would consist of comic skits, variety acts, dancing and musical performances that depicted people of African descent, mostly portrayed by white people in blackface make-up. Minstrel shows caricatured black people as dim-witted, lazy, cowardly, superstitious and happy-go-lucky. Blackface musical performances were popular for a time in the UK as well, as exemplified by The Black and White Minstrel Show, a BBC light entertainment programme that ran from 1958 to 1978. The programme had been on air for six years by the time But the Joneses Never Get Letters was recorded, so Marion may have been referring to this series when she mentions “the Minstrel Show”. It has been argued that early blackface performers, Jolson in particular, helped to introduce African-American musical innovations such as jazz, ragtime and the blues to white audiences, paving the way for black performers including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Ethel Waters. Certainly, blackface singing was a more overt, and therefore arguably more honest, form of cultural appropriation than, say, Elvis Presley’s repackaging of music of black origin. However, by the end of the 20th century, the use of blackface make-up was falling out of favour and it is no longer considered acceptable.
During the same angry rant, Marion also mentions the Mason–Dixon line, a boundary separating four American states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia (which was part of Virginia until 1863). It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as part of the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware in colonial America. From the 1820s, the largest, east-to-west portion of the Mason–Dixon line, along the southern Pennsylvania border, became known informally as the frontier between the Southern slave states (where slavery was legal) and the Northern free states (where slavery was prohibited). In the script, the name of the demarcation line is misspelled “Mason Dixie” – the writer appears to be referring, either accidentally or intentionally, to Dixie (also known as Dixieland or Dixie’s Land), a nickname, quite possibly derived from Jeremiah Dixon, for all or part of the Southern United States.
It appears that Marker made his entrance even later in this episode than he did in Nobody Kills Santa Claus. His first scene in the rehearsal script for But the Joneses Never Get Letters commences on page 21 (of 79). By comparison, his first appearance in Nobody Kills Santa Claus takes place on page 22 (of 82), which is one page later, but bear in mind that Nobody Kills Santa Claus’s three-page opening sequence was cut during rehearsals. Adjusting for this deletion, the figure for Nobody Kills Santa Claus would be page 19 (of 79), suggesting that Marker entered the story about a minute later in But the Joneses Never Get Letters, approximately 12 minutes into the episode.
In Act Three, Marion offensively likens Father Obukwe’s church socials to a minstrel show and the work of Al Jolson. Al Jolson (1886–1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jewish singer, comedian, actor and vaudevillian, who frequently performed wearing blackface make-up. This was a widespread theatrical convention at the start of the 20th century, having developed from the minstrel show, an American form of racist theatrical entertainment that had arisen early in the previous century. A typical minstrel show would consist of comic skits, variety acts, dancing and musical performances that depicted people of African descent, mostly portrayed by white people in blackface make-up. Minstrel shows caricatured black people as dim-witted, lazy, cowardly, superstitious and happy-go-lucky. Blackface musical performances were popular for a time in the UK as well, as exemplified by The Black and White Minstrel Show, a BBC light entertainment programme that ran from 1958 to 1978. The programme had been on air for six years by the time But the Joneses Never Get Letters was recorded, so Marion may have been referring to this series when she mentions “the Minstrel Show”. It has been argued that early blackface performers, Jolson in particular, helped to introduce African-American musical innovations such as jazz, ragtime and the blues to white audiences, paving the way for black performers including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Ethel Waters. Certainly, blackface singing was a more overt, and therefore arguably more honest, form of cultural appropriation than, say, Elvis Presley’s repackaging of music of black origin. However, by the end of the 20th century, the use of blackface make-up was falling out of favour and it is no longer considered acceptable.
During the same angry rant, Marion also mentions the Mason–Dixon line, a boundary separating four American states, forming part of the borders of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and West Virginia (which was part of Virginia until 1863). It was surveyed between 1763 and 1767 by Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon as part of the resolution of a border dispute involving Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware in colonial America. From the 1820s, the largest, east-to-west portion of the Mason–Dixon line, along the southern Pennsylvania border, became known informally as the frontier between the Southern slave states (where slavery was legal) and the Northern free states (where slavery was prohibited). In the script, the name of the demarcation line is misspelled “Mason Dixie” – the writer appears to be referring, either accidentally or intentionally, to Dixie (also known as Dixieland or Dixie’s Land), a nickname, quite possibly derived from Jeremiah Dixon, for all or part of the Southern United States.
With thanks to Jonny Davies, Andrew Pixley, Barbara Toft, 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.