Series 1 – Episode 8
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Marker
Robert Spanier Judith Spanier Teddy Booram Jenny Lloyd Donald Halston Mrs Sutton-Piper Carol Hyatt Hubert Eileen Osborne Connie Maguire Dennis Whiting Noel GPO clerk |
Alfred Burke
John Carson Patricia Haines David Nettheim Maggie McGrath Geoffrey Palmer Madge Ryan Hilary Tindall Henry McGee Vivienne Martin Eileen Murphy Martin Friend Edward Rees Frank Mills |
Wine waiter
Hilda Thug |
Ray Marioni
Pauline Barker Walter Henry |
Uncredited cast:
John Tucker, Brian Porritt, Katy Petit and Eileen Matthews played unknown roles, possibly as customers in the Crown restaurant (one of whom is partially visible in a surviving still)
John Tucker, Brian Porritt, Katy Petit and Eileen Matthews played unknown roles, possibly as customers in the Crown restaurant (one of whom is partially visible in a surviving still)
Production
Series based on an idea by Roger Marshall & Anthony Marriott
Theme Music composed by Robert Earley Story Editor: Richard Bates Floor Manager: William Lawford |
Stage Manager: Shirley Cleghorn
Production Assistant: Christine Thomas Designed by Richard Harrison Producer: John Bryce Directed by Laurence Bourne |
Rehearsed from 10.30am on Monday 1 February 1965 at Rehearsal Room 3A, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 10 February 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Thursday 11 February 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 10 February 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded from 5.30pm to 6.30pm on Thursday 11 February 1965 at Studio 1, Teddington
TV World Synopsis
Wed: Light lunch. Halston, solicitor, at 2.30 p.m. Wealthy client being blackmailed: nasty word – nasty business.
Click here for detailed synopsis
Click here for detailed synopsis
Transmission
Saturday 13 March 1965, 9.10pm (ABC Midlands, ABC North, Southern and Ulster)
Saturday 10 July 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Tuesday 27 July 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Saturday 4 September 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Sunday 26 September 1965, 11pm (Scottish)
Tuesday 12 October 1965, 10.37pm (TWW)
Saturday 10 July 1965, 10.10pm (ATV London, Border, Channel and Westward)
Tuesday 27 July 1965, 10.35pm (Grampian)
Saturday 4 September 1965, 10.10pm (Tyne Tees)
Sunday 26 September 1965, 11pm (Scottish)
Tuesday 12 October 1965, 10.37pm (TWW)
Archive
Rehearsal script – held in the BFI Special Collections
Story Notes
Writer Robert Holmes (1926–1986) was born in Tring, Hertfordshire, as Robert Colin Holmes. In 1944, at the age of 18, he lied about his age to join the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders regiment during the Second World War, becoming the youngest commissioned officer in the British army. After the war, Holmes decided to join the police. He trained at Hendon Police College, graduating at the top of his year, and joined the Metropolitan Police, serving at Bow Street Police Station. It was at this time that Holmes developed an interest in writing, having noticed journalists at work when he was giving evidence in court. He taught himself shorthand during his spare time and quickly found work as a news and sports reporter for both local and national newspapers, initially in London and later in the Midlands. In the late 1950s, he wrote and edited short stories for magazines, and became the final editor of John Bull, a patriotic magazine combining articles and fiction. Then, as television took its toll on the publishing industry, Holmes decided to try his hand at writing for the new medium. He got his first break in television in 1959, submitting scripts to the Granada adventure series Knight Errant. Occasionally writing under pseudonyms such as William Hood and Robin Baker, he also contributed to ATV’s department store-based Harpers West One, the Granada legal drama Family Solicitor and the BBC’s Dr. Finlay’s Casebook. It was while working on another medical drama, the ATV hospital soap opera Emergency Ward 10, for which he authored more than 50 episodes, that Holmes met fellow writer Roger Marshall, who considered Holmes an obvious choice when scripts were being commissioned for Public Eye. “A lynch pin on that sort of series,” Marshall told Andrew Pixley in July 2012, “as an ex-copper himself, he was ideal for Public Eye.” Story editor Richard Bates was similarly delighted with submissions from Marshall’s old friend and colleague, stating, “Bob was very good. He was good news.” Holmes would ultimately write six episodes for the show – two for each of the first three series. In 1965, he made his first forays into science fiction, a genre that would come to dominate his writing career. He storylined the alien incursion film Invasion (which was developed into a screenplay by Roger Marshall), supplied two scripts for ABC’s Undermind and submitted an idea for a standalone science-fiction thriller to Shaun Sutton, the BBC’s Head of Serials. At Sutton’s suggestion, Holmes approached the Doctor Who production office, having reworked his idea into a storyline entitled The Trap. Nothing came of the serial at the time, and Holmes instead concentrated on commissions for Public Eye and other down-to-earth series, including the police dramas No Hiding Place (for Associated-Rediffusion) and Mr. Rose (for Granada), and the ATV soap opera Market in Honey Lane. In 1968, Holmes was clearing out some old files when he came across his unused storyline. Feeling it still had some merit, he resubmitted it to the Doctor Who production office, now retitled The Space Trap, prompting it to be reworked again, this time with guidance from assistant script editor Terrance Dicks, and finally broadcast as The Krotons. It proved to be the first of many commissions for Doctor Who, and Holmes went on to become one of the show’s most popular and prolific authors, writing more than 70 episodes (again, sometimes under pen names, this time including Stephen Harris and Robin Bland) and script editing many more. His final, unfinished, work for the series was Part Thirteen of The Trial of a Time Lord in 1986, which had to be completed by script editor Eric Saward when Holmes succumbed to hepatitis and passed away. Holmes’s other television work included episodes of Fraud Squad and General Hospital for ATV, and Blake’s 7 and Bergerac for the BBC.
The working title of this episode, as shown on the rehearsal script, was Shakedown – another word for extortion.
In speech prefixes within the script, Mrs Sutton-Piper’s name is frequently abbreviated to “Mrs. S-P”.
In the script, the solicitor Donald Halston is called Donald Hollister. He wears horn-rimmed spectacles and is pacing up and down when we first meet him in Marker’s office. However, a surviving photograph (available from the stock image agency Alamy) reveals that the character did not wear glasses in the final production. Rather than pacing around, he is sitting down in the photograph, casually smoking a cigarette. The same image shows Marker eating a ready meal from a foil tray. These details have been incorporated into this site’s story summary.
The working title of this episode, as shown on the rehearsal script, was Shakedown – another word for extortion.
In speech prefixes within the script, Mrs Sutton-Piper’s name is frequently abbreviated to “Mrs. S-P”.
In the script, the solicitor Donald Halston is called Donald Hollister. He wears horn-rimmed spectacles and is pacing up and down when we first meet him in Marker’s office. However, a surviving photograph (available from the stock image agency Alamy) reveals that the character did not wear glasses in the final production. Rather than pacing around, he is sitting down in the photograph, casually smoking a cigarette. The same image shows Marker eating a ready meal from a foil tray. These details have been incorporated into this site’s story summary.
From what can be seen of its neon sign in another surviving still (see left), it appears that the name of the hotel was changed from its scripted designation, the Bristol Hotel. However, not enough of the lettering is visible to be able to tell what the name is.
In the script, chambermaid Eileen Osborne pours her and Marker’s drinks into toothbrush mugs, but the image shows them drinking out of beige teacups. During the same scene, Marker carries cigarettes and matches. His character does not usually smoke, so it is presumed that he carries these items for the benefit of people he encounters whom he may wish to interview. It is possible that Marker’s cigarettes and matches were written out during rehearsals, but this seems unlikely, as Eileen can be seen holding a cigarette in the photograph. |
Halston and Marker’s game of darts does not feature in the script, but is suggested by another photograph, which shows Marker holding a set of darts while Halston uses Marker’s telephone. On the window ledges behind the two men can be seen the pair of Toby Jugs mentioned in Nobody Kills Santa Claus.
When the script introduces Judith Spanier, towards the end of Act Two, “she is pouring herself about half a pint of gin into a long glass.” However, surviving stills indicate that she and Marker drank whisky in the completed episode.
During Judith’s second scene, near the end of the episode, the script states that she is “in a dress today”. However, photographic evidence suggests that she wore a purple blouse and orange jeans. Alternatively, actress Patricia Haines might not have been in costume when these photographs were taken.
When the script introduces Judith Spanier, towards the end of Act Two, “she is pouring herself about half a pint of gin into a long glass.” However, surviving stills indicate that she and Marker drank whisky in the completed episode.
During Judith’s second scene, near the end of the episode, the script states that she is “in a dress today”. However, photographic evidence suggests that she wore a purple blouse and orange jeans. Alternatively, actress Patricia Haines might not have been in costume when these photographs were taken.
Production Notes
‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was a late replacement for a script by Eric Paice with the working title The Drug Merchants, which was due to start rehearsals at 10.30am on Thursday 28 January 1965 at Rehearsal Room 3A at Teddington. The substitute story was set to begin rehearsals at 10.30am on Friday 29 January at the same venue, but this was postponed until Monday 1 February. However, the recording date (Thursday 11 February) and tape number (VTR/ABC/4353) remained the same as had been planned for The Drug Merchants.
Two pieces of library music were used in this episode: Mark Time by Paul Lewis, from the Inter-Art release Military Visions (Set 2) (IA 368); and Swing the Blues by Sten Clift, from a Mozart Edition release (ME 817). It is not known in which scenes this music was played – though the rehearsal script indicates that Jenny Lloyd’s escort agency has a club in its basement, from which “Canned music floats up”.
Though this was the first Robert Holmes Public Eye episode to be transmitted, it was the second one to be produced. Holmes’s other contribution to Series 1, You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always a Rabbit, had been recorded almost five months before ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’, but was broadcast by ABC two weeks after it. Following the recording of ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’, production of the series was stood down for a week.
Scottish Television concluded its first run of Public Eye with this episode on Sunday 26 September. Marker was replaced the following week by ABC’s chat and music programme The Eamonn Andrews Show. The channel had shown a truncated run of just thirteen episodes, omitting You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always a Rabbit and You Should Hear Me Eat Soup.
After ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was transmitted by TWW on Tuesday 12 October, Public Eye was pre-empted by documentaries for a couple of weeks, before returning on Tuesday 2 November with A Harsh World for Zealots.
Two pieces of library music were used in this episode: Mark Time by Paul Lewis, from the Inter-Art release Military Visions (Set 2) (IA 368); and Swing the Blues by Sten Clift, from a Mozart Edition release (ME 817). It is not known in which scenes this music was played – though the rehearsal script indicates that Jenny Lloyd’s escort agency has a club in its basement, from which “Canned music floats up”.
Though this was the first Robert Holmes Public Eye episode to be transmitted, it was the second one to be produced. Holmes’s other contribution to Series 1, You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always a Rabbit, had been recorded almost five months before ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’, but was broadcast by ABC two weeks after it. Following the recording of ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’, production of the series was stood down for a week.
Scottish Television concluded its first run of Public Eye with this episode on Sunday 26 September. Marker was replaced the following week by ABC’s chat and music programme The Eamonn Andrews Show. The channel had shown a truncated run of just thirteen episodes, omitting You Think It’ll Be Marvellous – But It’s Always a Rabbit and You Should Hear Me Eat Soup.
After ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was transmitted by TWW on Tuesday 12 October, Public Eye was pre-empted by documentaries for a couple of weeks, before returning on Tuesday 2 November with A Harsh World for Zealots.
Home and Away
This story necessitated only two brief exterior scenes: establishing shots of Spanier’s offices at the beginning of the episode; and Marker rummaging in the dustbin outside Judith’s house towards the end. The rehearsal script indicates that both of these sequences should be realised in the television studio. The latter scene required only a dustbin and a small section of wall to be in shot.
Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?
ABC promotional material for this episode of Public Eye included an intriguing story about Eileen Murphy, the 20-year-old Dublin actress for whom the role of former escort Connie Maguire marked her first appearance on English television. It was reported that, upon her arrival in London, Murphy “walked straight into a personal adventure which might have made a story for the series. Although ABC cannot reveal the details, Miss Murphy found herself quite accidentally involved in inquiries for one of the more sensational cases currently occupying the headlines, and was exposed to some personal danger.” The press release noted that Murphy had first come to London two years earlier as part of a touring production of Stephen D, an adaptation, by Hugh Leonard, of James Joyce’s autobiographical novels Stephen Hero and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The piece also mentioned a common factor that united guest actor John Carson (alias Robert Spanier) and Alfred Burke, in that both had eight-year-old twins: “Richard and Christopher Carson have a four-year-old sister, Katie, but Jacob and Harriet Burke can claim another set of twins in the family: five-year-old Kelly and Louisa.”
Public Eye was again chosen as a Pick of the Week for Saturday in the Liverpool Daily Post on Saturday 13 March 1965, sharing the limelight on this occasion with the musical entertainment offered by BBC1’s Billy Cotton Band Show. However, this time editor Priscilla Hodgson was more cautious in her selection, having apparently been let down by some of Marker’s previous investigations. “Sometimes the Public Eye stories live up to their titles”, she wrote, “perhaps this will apply to ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’, which deals with blackmail”.
The episode was also one of Peter Forth’s choices in the Western Daily Press on Tuesday 12 October, when ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was screened by TWW. The columnist described Marker as “the very efficient, kind-hearted, shabbily-dressed private detective. A minimum of violence and a maximum of human problems distinguish this series.”
The episode was also one of Peter Forth’s choices in the Western Daily Press on Tuesday 12 October, when ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ was screened by TWW. The columnist described Marker as “the very efficient, kind-hearted, shabbily-dressed private detective. A minimum of violence and a maximum of human problems distinguish this series.”
Nobody Wants to Know
Marker uses Cockney slang when addressing Jenny Lloyd at the end of Act One. He refers to a place in Smith Square as “that carsey”. Carsey is a variant of the more familiar spelling khazi, and refers to an outhouse or lavatory. It is a euphemistic corruption of the Italian word “casa”, meaning house. Marker also threatens to inform “the linens”. Linen draper (or linen and draper) is Cockney rhyming slang for newspaper.
The backstory regarding the incident in Smith Square and the old man who was subsequently found dead in the Embankment Gardens (presumably the nearby Victoria Embankment Gardens) would be adapted into a major plot point in Series 3’s It’s Learning About the Lies that Hurts, which was also written by Robert Holmes.
In Act Two, Carol Hyatt and Dennis Whiting make use of a Roneo machine, a brand of hand-operated rotary stencil duplicator, or mimeograph machine, a forerunner of the modern photocopier. Stencil duplication, or mimeography, was a low-cost printing method that worked by forcing ink through a stencil on to paper. “Roneo” is a portmanteau word derived from Rotary Neostyle, the name of a mimeograph manufactured by the US-based Neostyle Co in 1899. The Rotary Neostyle duplicator was one of the best-selling machines of its kind and its name became a generic term for such devices. Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, were common technologies used for printing small quantities of documents, such as office work, classroom materials and community newsletters. Early fanzines were printed in this way because the machines and supplies were widely available and inexpensive. The stencils were made from a variety of materials, from metal foil to waxed paper. The more affordable paper stencils tended to have a limited lifespan, being prone to stretching and tearing through repeated use, and would usually need to be replaced after producing a few hundred copies. Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, photocopiers gradually replaced mimeographs, spirit duplicators and hectographs.
A little later in the script, Mrs Sutton-Piper refers to “the Harrington Ward’s tombola evening”. The Harrington Ward might be a hospital ward or an electoral subdivision. The latter interpretation seems less plausible, given that Edingford is said to be a small town and Harrington is the name of a couple of real-life English villages – one in Northamptonshire, the other in Cumbria. It is perhaps more likely that Harrington-Ward is a double-barrelled surname, in which case the phrase should have been punctuated as “the Harrington-Wards’ tombola evening”.
In the next scene, Marker gives his telephone number as MACaulay 2810. This number can also be seen in the opening titles for Series 1.
The title of this episode is a misquotation from the traditional nursery rhyme Old King Cole. There are numerous modern versions of the rhyme, most of which begin with the merry old King Cole calling for his pipe (which may be a musical instrument or a tobacco pipe), his bowl (a drinking vessel) and his fiddlers three. Some variants of the rhyme then describe the musicians making a “Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee” sound, but the version to which Judith Spanier appears to refer in Act Two goes as follows: “Now, every fiddler had a fine fiddle and a very fine fiddle had he. / Fiddle fiddle dee, fiddle dee, went the fiddlers, ‘Very fine men are we!’”
The backstory regarding the incident in Smith Square and the old man who was subsequently found dead in the Embankment Gardens (presumably the nearby Victoria Embankment Gardens) would be adapted into a major plot point in Series 3’s It’s Learning About the Lies that Hurts, which was also written by Robert Holmes.
In Act Two, Carol Hyatt and Dennis Whiting make use of a Roneo machine, a brand of hand-operated rotary stencil duplicator, or mimeograph machine, a forerunner of the modern photocopier. Stencil duplication, or mimeography, was a low-cost printing method that worked by forcing ink through a stencil on to paper. “Roneo” is a portmanteau word derived from Rotary Neostyle, the name of a mimeograph manufactured by the US-based Neostyle Co in 1899. The Rotary Neostyle duplicator was one of the best-selling machines of its kind and its name became a generic term for such devices. Mimeographs, along with spirit duplicators and hectographs, were common technologies used for printing small quantities of documents, such as office work, classroom materials and community newsletters. Early fanzines were printed in this way because the machines and supplies were widely available and inexpensive. The stencils were made from a variety of materials, from metal foil to waxed paper. The more affordable paper stencils tended to have a limited lifespan, being prone to stretching and tearing through repeated use, and would usually need to be replaced after producing a few hundred copies. Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing into the 1970s, photocopiers gradually replaced mimeographs, spirit duplicators and hectographs.
A little later in the script, Mrs Sutton-Piper refers to “the Harrington Ward’s tombola evening”. The Harrington Ward might be a hospital ward or an electoral subdivision. The latter interpretation seems less plausible, given that Edingford is said to be a small town and Harrington is the name of a couple of real-life English villages – one in Northamptonshire, the other in Cumbria. It is perhaps more likely that Harrington-Ward is a double-barrelled surname, in which case the phrase should have been punctuated as “the Harrington-Wards’ tombola evening”.
In the next scene, Marker gives his telephone number as MACaulay 2810. This number can also be seen in the opening titles for Series 1.
The title of this episode is a misquotation from the traditional nursery rhyme Old King Cole. There are numerous modern versions of the rhyme, most of which begin with the merry old King Cole calling for his pipe (which may be a musical instrument or a tobacco pipe), his bowl (a drinking vessel) and his fiddlers three. Some variants of the rhyme then describe the musicians making a “Twee tweedle dee, tweedle dee” sound, but the version to which Judith Spanier appears to refer in Act Two goes as follows: “Now, every fiddler had a fine fiddle and a very fine fiddle had he. / Fiddle fiddle dee, fiddle dee, went the fiddlers, ‘Very fine men are we!’”
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.