Series 2 – Episode 2
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Frank Marker
Donald Scott Karen Scott Mrs Jessup Soutar Mrs Corby Angie Gordon Mrs Muncaster Rodney Tessa Woman at window |
Alfred Burke
Roy Dotrice Virginia Stride Pauline Delaney Paul Dawkins Sheila Raynor Diana Beevers Audrey Noble David Craig Jane Bond Janet Whiteside |
Uncredited cast:
Landlord and wife Children in schoolyard (including one named Kevin) Children in school (including one named Julian) |
Mr and Mrs Skolar 6 children 4 children |
Production
Series based on an idea by Roger Marshall and Anthony Marriott
Theme Music composed by Robert Earley Floor Manager: Patrick Kennedy Stage Manager: Shirley Cleghorn |
Production Assistant: Marian Lloyd
Designed by Richard Harrison Edited & Produced by Richard Bates Directed by Kim Mills |
Rehearsed from 10am on Thursday 24 March 1966 at Rehearsal Room 3A, ABC Television Studios, Broom Road, Teddington, Middlesex
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 6 April 1966 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded on Wednesday 6 (VTR insert) and from 6.10pm to 8pm on Thursday 7 April 1966 at Studio 1, Teddington
Camera rehearsed from Wednesday 6 April 1966 at Studio 1, Teddington
Recorded on Wednesday 6 (VTR insert) and from 6.10pm to 8pm on Thursday 7 April 1966 at Studio 1, Teddington
TV World Synopsis
Monday 9.00 a.m.: Find a new office – then wait for the phone to ring. Wonder what Birmingham has to offer a newcomer like me?
Transmission
Monday 4 July 1966, 8pm (Rediffusion)
Friday 8 July 1966, 8pm (Anglia, Border, Channel, Grampian, Southern, Tyne Tees and Westward)
Saturday 9 July 1966, 9.10pm (ABC Midlands, ABC North and Ulster)
Sunday 10 July 1966, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Thursday 25 August 1966, 10.40pm (Teledu Cymru and TWW)
Ratings: 4,850,000 (=17th)
Friday 8 July 1966, 8pm (Anglia, Border, Channel, Grampian, Southern, Tyne Tees and Westward)
Saturday 9 July 1966, 9.10pm (ABC Midlands, ABC North and Ulster)
Sunday 10 July 1966, 11.05pm (Scottish)
Thursday 25 August 1966, 10.40pm (Teledu Cymru and TWW)
Ratings: 4,850,000 (=17th)
Archive
Digital Betacam videotape taken from 16mm monochrome film recording
Rehearsal script (one page missing) – held in the BFI Special Collections
Rehearsal script (one page missing) – held in the BFI Special Collections
Story Notes
This episode sees Marker settling into his new office in Birmingham, situated above his landlord (an estate agent named Soutar) and overlooking Kane’s Timber Yard (referred to as Ford’s Timber Yard in the rehearsal script).
There are numerous differences between how certain characters were billed in the script, in the episode’s end credits and in contemporary TV listings magazines. Donald Scott was listed as Mr. Scott in the script, as Scott on screen and as Donald in TV listings. Karen Scott was listed as Mrs. Scott in the script. In the script and on screen, Angie Gordon was listed by her first name only. The woman at the upstairs window was listed as Woman in the script and was not credited in TV listings.
The story seems to be set in 1965, since July 1962 (when Donald Jessup left his wife) is said to have been around three years ago. The time of year appears to be summer – most likely June. The opening scenes with Marker and Soutar take place not long after the events of All the Black Dresses She Wants, which is also set in summer. Karen Scott has a jug of daffodils on her desk (daffodils usually bloom between February and May, but some varieties flower in June). Donald Scott says he will be taking the lower sixth form to Paris for a week in August, which suggests that August is at least two months away (if it were just one month away, he would be more likely to say “next month”). As a result of concocting her ananas frappé, Angie says her kitchen “smells like the canal in July”, which indicates that it is not currently July. In a deleted location scene set outside Mrs Corby’s house, the rehearsal script states that it is evening but “still quite light”.
Click here for deleted scenes
There are numerous differences between how certain characters were billed in the script, in the episode’s end credits and in contemporary TV listings magazines. Donald Scott was listed as Mr. Scott in the script, as Scott on screen and as Donald in TV listings. Karen Scott was listed as Mrs. Scott in the script. In the script and on screen, Angie Gordon was listed by her first name only. The woman at the upstairs window was listed as Woman in the script and was not credited in TV listings.
The story seems to be set in 1965, since July 1962 (when Donald Jessup left his wife) is said to have been around three years ago. The time of year appears to be summer – most likely June. The opening scenes with Marker and Soutar take place not long after the events of All the Black Dresses She Wants, which is also set in summer. Karen Scott has a jug of daffodils on her desk (daffodils usually bloom between February and May, but some varieties flower in June). Donald Scott says he will be taking the lower sixth form to Paris for a week in August, which suggests that August is at least two months away (if it were just one month away, he would be more likely to say “next month”). As a result of concocting her ananas frappé, Angie says her kitchen “smells like the canal in July”, which indicates that it is not currently July. In a deleted location scene set outside Mrs Corby’s house, the rehearsal script states that it is evening but “still quite light”.
Click here for deleted scenes
Production Notes
Don’t Forget You’re Mine was the first episode of Series 2 to go into production, with rehearsals kicking off with a read-through at 10am on Thursday 24 March 1966.
Roy Dotrice had a beard at the beginning of the rehearsal period, as shown in a surviving on-set photograph (see left). He shaved it off prior to recording.
The scene in which Soutar shows Marker the cluttered, disused office was pre-recorded on Wednesday 6 April. This scene is denoted (PRE V.T.R.) in the script. The set was then redressed overnight for the main recording session on Thursday 7 April. Two recording breaks were scheduled. The first of these occurred in Act One, in between Marker looking up Mrs Jessup’s address on his wall-mounted street guide and his arrival at 18 Worsley Road, to allow Alfred Burke to move from one part of the set to another. The second break took place in Act Two, after the scene in which Soutar gives Marker Donald Jessup’s address, as the next scene required Marker to immediately arrive at Angie Gordon’s flat. |
This was the opening episode of Series 2 as far as Channel and Westward viewers were concerned. The two ITV regions joined the Friday night transmission feed a week late, on 8 July 1966, by deferring All the Black Dresses She Wants until the end of their run.
Don’t Forget You’re Mine faced competition from a revised BBC1 schedule on certain nights. Friday evenings saw Marker up against the American spy spoof Get Smart!, followed by athletics coverage, while comic actor Harry Worth, in his sitcom Here’s Harry, replaced Pete and Dud in the line-up against ABC’s Saturday night broadcast.
Public Eye remained in the national television charts, ranking equal 17th. In London, Don’t Forget You’re Mine was the third most watched programme of the week, boasting a TAM audience share of 43.
The surviving film recording of this episode was discovered in the late 1980s by Chris Perry of the television preservation group Kaleidoscope, during an inspection of holdings belonging to Weintraub Entertainment Group (the then owner of the ABC archive) at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. In a Facebook post on Monday 17 April 2023, Perry described Public Eye as “A wonderful, wonderful series that I am privileged enough to have found an episode from.” This happened during “The first trip I ever did to Pinewood, where the ABC archives had ended up with Weintraub,” Perry recalled. “1989, from memory.” The print had been returned from Filmbond Services, a company that specialised in warehousing film and videotape, and was found sitting among numerous shelves of uncatalogued material.
On Saturday 8 August 1992, Don’t Forget You’re Mine was screened at a Kaleidoscope event entitled The Box of Delights, which was held in the market town of Stourbridge in the West Midlands. The episode was shown again at the organisation’s Two of a Kind festival on Saturday 11 September 2004, as part of a line-up that also included Series 1’s Nobody Kills Santa Claus, Series 4’s My Life’s My Own, its Armchair Theatre prequel Wednesday’s Child, Series 5’s Shades of White, Series 6’s The Windsor Royal and Series 7’s Nobody Wants to Know.
Don’t Forget You’re Mine was presented as a special feature on Public Eye: The Complete 1971 Series, issued by Network DVD on Monday 13 December 2004. The release also featured a gallery of images from Series 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6, plus PDF materials including original ABC promotional literature for Series 2. The episode was re-released, together with the other four surviving ABC episodes, on Monday 27 August 2012, in Public Eye: The ABC Years. Network’s entire Public Eye DVD range was then compiled into a boxed set, Public Eye: A Box Named Frank, published on Monday 12 November 2012. This was subsequently reissued by popular demand as Public Eye: Complete Surviving Episodes Collection on Monday 15 May 2023. Because the boxed sets reproduce the exact disc contents of The ABC Years and The Complete 1971 Series, Don’t Forget You’re Mine appears twice in each collection.
Don’t Forget You’re Mine faced competition from a revised BBC1 schedule on certain nights. Friday evenings saw Marker up against the American spy spoof Get Smart!, followed by athletics coverage, while comic actor Harry Worth, in his sitcom Here’s Harry, replaced Pete and Dud in the line-up against ABC’s Saturday night broadcast.
Public Eye remained in the national television charts, ranking equal 17th. In London, Don’t Forget You’re Mine was the third most watched programme of the week, boasting a TAM audience share of 43.
The surviving film recording of this episode was discovered in the late 1980s by Chris Perry of the television preservation group Kaleidoscope, during an inspection of holdings belonging to Weintraub Entertainment Group (the then owner of the ABC archive) at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire. In a Facebook post on Monday 17 April 2023, Perry described Public Eye as “A wonderful, wonderful series that I am privileged enough to have found an episode from.” This happened during “The first trip I ever did to Pinewood, where the ABC archives had ended up with Weintraub,” Perry recalled. “1989, from memory.” The print had been returned from Filmbond Services, a company that specialised in warehousing film and videotape, and was found sitting among numerous shelves of uncatalogued material.
On Saturday 8 August 1992, Don’t Forget You’re Mine was screened at a Kaleidoscope event entitled The Box of Delights, which was held in the market town of Stourbridge in the West Midlands. The episode was shown again at the organisation’s Two of a Kind festival on Saturday 11 September 2004, as part of a line-up that also included Series 1’s Nobody Kills Santa Claus, Series 4’s My Life’s My Own, its Armchair Theatre prequel Wednesday’s Child, Series 5’s Shades of White, Series 6’s The Windsor Royal and Series 7’s Nobody Wants to Know.
Don’t Forget You’re Mine was presented as a special feature on Public Eye: The Complete 1971 Series, issued by Network DVD on Monday 13 December 2004. The release also featured a gallery of images from Series 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6, plus PDF materials including original ABC promotional literature for Series 2. The episode was re-released, together with the other four surviving ABC episodes, on Monday 27 August 2012, in Public Eye: The ABC Years. Network’s entire Public Eye DVD range was then compiled into a boxed set, Public Eye: A Box Named Frank, published on Monday 12 November 2012. This was subsequently reissued by popular demand as Public Eye: Complete Surviving Episodes Collection on Monday 15 May 2023. Because the boxed sets reproduce the exact disc contents of The ABC Years and The Complete 1971 Series, Don’t Forget You’re Mine appears twice in each collection.
Home and Away
OB location work for this episode was carried out in Birmingham on Thursday 31 March and Friday 1 April 1966.
The first day of shooting covered the climactic scenes towards the end of the story, showing Marker descending a set of steps in the vicinity of the Rotunda during his search for Karen Scott, before checking the bus station (presumably Digbeth Coach Station – see Nobody Wants to Know, below) and finally locating the missing woman at New Street railway station. The Midland Hotel, which is briefly glimpsed as Marker alights from a taxi on Stephenson Street before dashing into the station, is now known as the Macdonald Burlington Hotel.
At the time, New Street station was in the process of being rebuilt. This posed something of a problem for the camera crew, as reported by Dennis Barker in The Guardian on Wednesday 22 June 1966 (see All the Black Dresses She Wants for the full article). “The trouble was that the station looked different when the cameras came to film it than when the preliminary sorties were made, and cameramen tended to lose their way,” the journalist explained. The building work was written into the action, with Marker taking a shortcut through an open area that was still under construction, splashing through puddles and dodging around scaffolding to get to Mrs Scott.
Also captured on the first day was the scene in which Marker obtains Donald Jessup’s address from his former landlord in Act Two, while the landlord’s wife watches Marker through a downstairs window.
The second day found Marker visiting Cedars Road Junior School to interview Mrs Muncaster in Act One and talking to a landlady through her open upstairs window in Act Two.
An additional location scene set just prior to this may have been planned, showing Marker calling at yet another of Jessup’s previous addresses, but this was ultimately not included in the finished programme. Another omitted OB sequence was scripted to take place during Act Three. This would have seen Donald Scott and Marker emerging from Mrs Corby’s house to look for Karen. Finding no sign of her, they hurry away to search the airport, coach depot and railway stations. The dialogue was rewritten as an extension to the previous interior scene. Conversely, an earlier establishing shot of Marker arriving outside Mrs Corby’s house near the end of Act Two was recorded on location and was included in the completed episode, even though it may have been intended as a studio scene. See Deleted Scenes for further details about the rewrites.
The first day of shooting covered the climactic scenes towards the end of the story, showing Marker descending a set of steps in the vicinity of the Rotunda during his search for Karen Scott, before checking the bus station (presumably Digbeth Coach Station – see Nobody Wants to Know, below) and finally locating the missing woman at New Street railway station. The Midland Hotel, which is briefly glimpsed as Marker alights from a taxi on Stephenson Street before dashing into the station, is now known as the Macdonald Burlington Hotel.
At the time, New Street station was in the process of being rebuilt. This posed something of a problem for the camera crew, as reported by Dennis Barker in The Guardian on Wednesday 22 June 1966 (see All the Black Dresses She Wants for the full article). “The trouble was that the station looked different when the cameras came to film it than when the preliminary sorties were made, and cameramen tended to lose their way,” the journalist explained. The building work was written into the action, with Marker taking a shortcut through an open area that was still under construction, splashing through puddles and dodging around scaffolding to get to Mrs Scott.
Also captured on the first day was the scene in which Marker obtains Donald Jessup’s address from his former landlord in Act Two, while the landlord’s wife watches Marker through a downstairs window.
The second day found Marker visiting Cedars Road Junior School to interview Mrs Muncaster in Act One and talking to a landlady through her open upstairs window in Act Two.
An additional location scene set just prior to this may have been planned, showing Marker calling at yet another of Jessup’s previous addresses, but this was ultimately not included in the finished programme. Another omitted OB sequence was scripted to take place during Act Three. This would have seen Donald Scott and Marker emerging from Mrs Corby’s house to look for Karen. Finding no sign of her, they hurry away to search the airport, coach depot and railway stations. The dialogue was rewritten as an extension to the previous interior scene. Conversely, an earlier establishing shot of Marker arriving outside Mrs Corby’s house near the end of Act Two was recorded on location and was included in the completed episode, even though it may have been intended as a studio scene. See Deleted Scenes for further details about the rewrites.
Many a Slip
The timings that follow are based on the episode as presented on Disc 1 of the Network DVD releases Public Eye: The ABC Years, Public Eye: A Box Named Frank and Public Eye: Complete Surviving Episodes Collection. Timings from other sources may vary.
The name of the estate agent is spelled Soutar in TV listings and in the episode’s end credits, as well as in most instances within the rehearsal script, but the lettering on his door and window reads “SOUTER & Co”. It is possible that the latter spelling had been used in an earlier draft of the script. The rehearsal script contains a single instance of “SOUTER”, which is used as a speech prefix when the estate agent asks Marker whether he wants to rent a block or a floor.
Marker wears glasses when examining an abstract painting in Mrs Jessup’s lounge. However, in the (appropriately titled) Series 6 episode Many a Slip, he would ask an optician’s receptionist for an eye test, claiming that he has never had such a test before.
7 minutes and 28 seconds into Don’t Forget You’re Mine, the shadow of a boom mic briefly encroaches upon Alfred Burke’s face as Marker talks to Mrs Jessup. It passes over the back of Burke’s head and neck later in the same scene, 9 minutes and 46 seconds in.
The microphone casts more unwanted shadows during the Scotts’ scene towards the end of Act One, moving briefly over Virginia Stride’s head at 13 minutes and 47 seconds, and faintly over Roy Dotrice 15 minutes and 49 seconds in.
Donald Scott’s creaky chair is another recurring nuisance in this episode, most noticeably at 17 minutes and 11 seconds, when it rather undermines the drama of Scott’s suddenly quiet and sober mood at the end of the first act.
21 minutes and 13 seconds in, a member of the production crew is briefly seen to the right of the frame as Marker picks up a bottle of milk outside the door to Angie’s flat.
At 24 minutes and 3 seconds, the boom mic shadow passes faintly over Diana Beevers, as Angie turns to address Marker. A few seconds later, Alfred Burke walks through the shadow, as Marker approaches Angie.
24 minutes and 54 seconds in, as Angie’s scene comes to an end, there is a visual disturbance followed by a strange noise, possibly due to the camera encountering an obstacle.
At 30 minutes and 20 seconds, instead of sarcastically asking, “How do you know we’re not?”, why doesn’t Mrs Scott simply tell Mrs Corby that she and Donald Scott are married? If necessary, she could produce their marriage certificate by way of proof. (Hopefully, Marker would have thought of this following the conclusion of the case and used that evidence, together with his own testimony, to persuade Mrs Corby to let the Scotts stay.)
Mrs Jessup refers to Scott’s previous school as Cedar Road, whereas Marker, on two previous occasions, had named it as Cedars Road or Cedars Road Junior. In the rehearsal script, the school is called Cedar Road.
The restaging of the Scotts’ final scene (which had been written to begin at the dinner table – see Deleted Scenes) makes for an awkward moment 33 minutes and 22 seconds in. Mrs Scott is in tears when the doorbell rings (she isn’t crying in the script). Scott is lying partially on top of her, on the bed. So why does Scott let his wife answer the door rather than offer to do it himself? Instead, he just lifts himself out of her way so that she can do it. Men!
At 37 minutes and 8 seconds, the boom is back, this time casting its shadow against the wall behind Roy Dotrice.
Another awkward rewrite takes place at the end of the scene. In order to advance the plot in the absence of a cancelled location sequence that would have seen Marker and Scott looking around the garden for Mrs Scott (see Deleted Scenes), Marker decides that he will go outside to have a word with the woman alone. Before he goes, he tells Scott, “You get a coat on and follow me down, because if she’s not in that garden, we’ve got to start searching. Bus depot. Stations. Everywhere!” Marker seems strangely certain that Mrs Scott will not be there. As Marker himself had said, rather suspiciously, to Scott earlier in the scene, “You sound very sure.”
In reality, it would not have been very logical for Marker to pass the Rotunda before heading to the coach station and then the train station, since both Moor Street and New Street railway stations are closer to the Rotunda than Digbeth Coach Station. But then he is new to Birmingham and it does make for a visually exciting sequence!
42 minutes and 55 seconds in, the balustrade wobbles slightly as Pauline Delaney hurries downstairs to answer the door.
At 45 minutes and 27 seconds, right at the end of the story, another shadow – cast by the camera this time – partially obscures the final close-up of Delaney’s face.
The name of the estate agent is spelled Soutar in TV listings and in the episode’s end credits, as well as in most instances within the rehearsal script, but the lettering on his door and window reads “SOUTER & Co”. It is possible that the latter spelling had been used in an earlier draft of the script. The rehearsal script contains a single instance of “SOUTER”, which is used as a speech prefix when the estate agent asks Marker whether he wants to rent a block or a floor.
Marker wears glasses when examining an abstract painting in Mrs Jessup’s lounge. However, in the (appropriately titled) Series 6 episode Many a Slip, he would ask an optician’s receptionist for an eye test, claiming that he has never had such a test before.
7 minutes and 28 seconds into Don’t Forget You’re Mine, the shadow of a boom mic briefly encroaches upon Alfred Burke’s face as Marker talks to Mrs Jessup. It passes over the back of Burke’s head and neck later in the same scene, 9 minutes and 46 seconds in.
The microphone casts more unwanted shadows during the Scotts’ scene towards the end of Act One, moving briefly over Virginia Stride’s head at 13 minutes and 47 seconds, and faintly over Roy Dotrice 15 minutes and 49 seconds in.
Donald Scott’s creaky chair is another recurring nuisance in this episode, most noticeably at 17 minutes and 11 seconds, when it rather undermines the drama of Scott’s suddenly quiet and sober mood at the end of the first act.
21 minutes and 13 seconds in, a member of the production crew is briefly seen to the right of the frame as Marker picks up a bottle of milk outside the door to Angie’s flat.
At 24 minutes and 3 seconds, the boom mic shadow passes faintly over Diana Beevers, as Angie turns to address Marker. A few seconds later, Alfred Burke walks through the shadow, as Marker approaches Angie.
24 minutes and 54 seconds in, as Angie’s scene comes to an end, there is a visual disturbance followed by a strange noise, possibly due to the camera encountering an obstacle.
At 30 minutes and 20 seconds, instead of sarcastically asking, “How do you know we’re not?”, why doesn’t Mrs Scott simply tell Mrs Corby that she and Donald Scott are married? If necessary, she could produce their marriage certificate by way of proof. (Hopefully, Marker would have thought of this following the conclusion of the case and used that evidence, together with his own testimony, to persuade Mrs Corby to let the Scotts stay.)
Mrs Jessup refers to Scott’s previous school as Cedar Road, whereas Marker, on two previous occasions, had named it as Cedars Road or Cedars Road Junior. In the rehearsal script, the school is called Cedar Road.
The restaging of the Scotts’ final scene (which had been written to begin at the dinner table – see Deleted Scenes) makes for an awkward moment 33 minutes and 22 seconds in. Mrs Scott is in tears when the doorbell rings (she isn’t crying in the script). Scott is lying partially on top of her, on the bed. So why does Scott let his wife answer the door rather than offer to do it himself? Instead, he just lifts himself out of her way so that she can do it. Men!
At 37 minutes and 8 seconds, the boom is back, this time casting its shadow against the wall behind Roy Dotrice.
Another awkward rewrite takes place at the end of the scene. In order to advance the plot in the absence of a cancelled location sequence that would have seen Marker and Scott looking around the garden for Mrs Scott (see Deleted Scenes), Marker decides that he will go outside to have a word with the woman alone. Before he goes, he tells Scott, “You get a coat on and follow me down, because if she’s not in that garden, we’ve got to start searching. Bus depot. Stations. Everywhere!” Marker seems strangely certain that Mrs Scott will not be there. As Marker himself had said, rather suspiciously, to Scott earlier in the scene, “You sound very sure.”
In reality, it would not have been very logical for Marker to pass the Rotunda before heading to the coach station and then the train station, since both Moor Street and New Street railway stations are closer to the Rotunda than Digbeth Coach Station. But then he is new to Birmingham and it does make for a visually exciting sequence!
42 minutes and 55 seconds in, the balustrade wobbles slightly as Pauline Delaney hurries downstairs to answer the door.
At 45 minutes and 27 seconds, right at the end of the story, another shadow – cast by the camera this time – partially obscures the final close-up of Delaney’s face.
Who Wants to Be Told Bad News?
Ahead of the launch of Series 2, on Thursday 9 June 1966 Television Today ran a photograph (see below left) of Jane Bond as Tessa in Don’t Forget You’re Mine, which was scheduled for transmission on Friday 8 or Saturday 9 July (depending on the region). The character, who was actually the secretary of Marker’s new landlord Soutar, was inaccurately described as “office assistant to ABC’s private eye Frank Marker”.
The three ladies were mentioned again on Thursday 23 June, when Television Today published images of Marker meeting all of them, as played by Diana Beevers, Pauline Delaney and Virginia Stride (see above). The caption joked that “Being a ‘down-at-heel inquiry agent’ (as ABC describe the hero of Public Eye) has its compensations evidently!”
A week later, on Thursday 30 June, the Coventry Standard featured another trio of Public Eye actresses – this time posing in bikinis against the spires of Coventry (see above). They were Carmen Dene (who had already recorded her role as a barmaid in It’s a Terrible Way to Be), Jane Bond (who would soon appear as Tessa in Don’t Forget You’re Mine) and Gillian Wray (alias Heather Bowen in the forthcoming You Can Keep the Medal). “The series stars Alfred Burke, who, as seedy inquiry agent Frank Marker, has left his London garrett for a dingy attic in Birmingham,” announced the accompanying text, which also promised, “Many Midlands landmarks will be seen in future location scenes.”
The show’s return in the Westward region was heralded in the local listings magazine Look Westward (3–9 July 1966) by a full-page feature, Marker Has a New HQ (see right), in which Ian Brown noted that “Marker has a new beat this time. He will operate from the back room of a Birmingham estate agent instead of his London office.” The article summarised syndicated quotes from Alfred Burke, who had been sporting a beard between series of Public Eye and was sad to see it go. “A beard is a useful prop for an actor,” he commented. “You can change its shape, comb it one way or the other, or even down the middle. I grew it for my part in As You Like It in the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre (incidentally, I’m a lot tougher now after playing in the open air during last year’s summer) and I grew to like it. So did my wife. I was sorry to have to shave it off.” Of the programme’s new location, he declared, “I’m sure there is as much scope for a private eye in Birmingham as there is in London.” The piece also touched upon the Burke family’s love of music, and the actor’s plans for a holiday in France once he had completed work on the new series. After that, he was looking forward to returning to Shakespeare, but said he would be quite happy to go on playing Frank Marker forever. The feature was illustrated with images from All the Black Dresses She Wants, which would not be seen by Westward viewers until the end of the series. |
Following the London transmission of Don’t Forget You’re Mine, Kenneth Eastaugh’s assessment of Last Night’s TV in the Daily Mirror found him comparing Public Eye favourably with another returning series, the Rediffusion sitcom Our Man from St. Mark’s. “I can’t believe that it is easier to produce an accomplished programme about a private eye than it is to make one about a cleric,” wrote the reviewer on Tuesday 5 July, in a piece entitled A Sad Return for the Archdeacon. “But that’s the impression I got from seeing on ITV the smoothly entertaining private detective series Public Eye and the painfully pathetic codswallop Our Man from St. Mark’s. Not only Alfred Burke as the star, but the script and production of Public Eye make it an enjoyable eyeful indeed. Burke plays a tec called Marker and wears the role with the relaxed relish of an old dressing gown. Last night he had just moved his business to Birmingham. They should make him the Lord Mayor… for what follows immediately after him is definitely after-the-Lord-Mayor’s-Show stuff.”
On Thursday 7 July, Television Today congratulated story editor/producer Richard Bates on “TWO new ‘babies’ in a week last week” – the new run of Public Eye and the birth of his daughter, Lydia Catherine.
On Thursday 7 July, Television Today congratulated story editor/producer Richard Bates on “TWO new ‘babies’ in a week last week” – the new run of Public Eye and the birth of his daughter, Lydia Catherine.
Elsewhere in the trade paper (see above), it was revealed that a new ABC thriller series, called Intrigue, would take over from Frank Marker in the autumn, with the first episode being recorded that very day. With the subject matter of industrial espionage, the new show was based on an idea by screenwriter Tony Williamson, story edited by Ken Levison (who had recently joined ABC from the BBC’s drama department) and produced by former ABC story editor Robert Banks Stewart. Writers announced by Television Today included past and future Public Eye scribes William Emms, Richard Harris and Anthony Skene. Of these, only Skene’s script (Small World, Big Deal) would make it to the screen, though Robert Holmes would also pen an episode (Fifty Million Taste Buds Can’t Be Wrong). Directors assigned to the series included Public Eye’s Jonathan Alwyn, Bill Bain, Quentin Lawrence, Kim Mills and Robert Tronson.
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The story was picked up by local newspapers including the Lincolnshire Echo (see above centre) on Thursday 7, the Grimsby Evening Telegraph on Friday 8, the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express and Hull’s Daily Mail (see above right) on Saturday 9, the Derby Evening Telegraph on Monday 11 and the Lincolnshire Echo (again) on Thursday 14 July. The latter three examples, all written by Jean Woodhams, were variations on the version that appeared in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, attributed to Contrast. Multiple accounts contained an assurance from ABC that Intrigue would not be just another boardroom drama, like ATV’s The Power Game or the BBC’s The Troubleshooters. “Nor will it be a saga of ‘who pinched the secrets of the laboratory?’ We plan to cover the widest possible canvas of business life in an era when we are all both workers and consumers.” In the initial Lincolnshire Echo coverage, producer Robert Banks Stewart elaborated: “In the age of the Common Market, the international consortium, the world-travelling executive, the million-pound wheeler-dealer, the mushrooming Hilton Hotels, and the ever-faster jet, each of us is affected in some degree by the juggernaut expansion of Big Business.” Unlike Public Eye, and more in common with Redcap, there would be an international flavour to the investigations. “Many of the stories will range beyond Britain to the Continent, Scandinavia and the Middle East,” added the ABC source.
Edward Judd would star in the new series as Gavin Grant, whom Television Today described as “a successful and highly-paid freelance specialist in industrial espionage,” alongside Caroline Mortimer as Val Spencer, “a Paris-educated university graduate who works as an interpreter and translator for firms with overseas business.” The articles by Contrast and Jean Woodhams referred to Val more patronisingly as “a girl interpreter”, while Bill Amos in the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express explained that “Caroline Mortimer will play the girl who takes [Gavin Grant’s] fancy and ends up helping him in his work.” The earlier Lincolnshire Echo piece suggested that the two leads were “powerful and interesting players new to TV,” but Contrast/Woodhams pointed out that “Edward Judd is no newcomer to television,” having played more than a hundred parts, including a well-received film role as a journalist in the 1961 British science-fiction disaster movie The Day the Earth Caught Fire, while Caroline Mortimer was about to notch up her third Armchair Theatre appearance, in The Wager. Intrigue would not be renewed for a second series and none of its 13 episodes are known to exist today.
Cyclops, the reviewer for Television Mail, a weekly trade publication for the British television industry, turned his gaze upon Public Eye on Friday 8 July. He found the series “has style, pace and an unromantic toughness in the Raymond Chandler vein that does duty for realism”, while Marker “is an odd mixture of anti-hero and hero; he might well have been a flat, cardboard figure with its angles deliberately created by the scriptwriters. Alfred Burke has made him, however, one of the most alive figures in the shadowy TV world; a character to whom one slowly warms with the realisation that Burke-Marker is something like a human being. I hope that the trip to Birmingham will be a success; that great city is overdue for dramatic attention.”
Edward Judd would star in the new series as Gavin Grant, whom Television Today described as “a successful and highly-paid freelance specialist in industrial espionage,” alongside Caroline Mortimer as Val Spencer, “a Paris-educated university graduate who works as an interpreter and translator for firms with overseas business.” The articles by Contrast and Jean Woodhams referred to Val more patronisingly as “a girl interpreter”, while Bill Amos in the Liverpool Echo and Evening Express explained that “Caroline Mortimer will play the girl who takes [Gavin Grant’s] fancy and ends up helping him in his work.” The earlier Lincolnshire Echo piece suggested that the two leads were “powerful and interesting players new to TV,” but Contrast/Woodhams pointed out that “Edward Judd is no newcomer to television,” having played more than a hundred parts, including a well-received film role as a journalist in the 1961 British science-fiction disaster movie The Day the Earth Caught Fire, while Caroline Mortimer was about to notch up her third Armchair Theatre appearance, in The Wager. Intrigue would not be renewed for a second series and none of its 13 episodes are known to exist today.
Cyclops, the reviewer for Television Mail, a weekly trade publication for the British television industry, turned his gaze upon Public Eye on Friday 8 July. He found the series “has style, pace and an unromantic toughness in the Raymond Chandler vein that does duty for realism”, while Marker “is an odd mixture of anti-hero and hero; he might well have been a flat, cardboard figure with its angles deliberately created by the scriptwriters. Alfred Burke has made him, however, one of the most alive figures in the shadowy TV world; a character to whom one slowly warms with the realisation that Burke-Marker is something like a human being. I hope that the trip to Birmingham will be a success; that great city is overdue for dramatic attention.”
TV World (9–15 July 1966) promoted the ABC broadcast of Don’t Forget You’re Mine with a small item about Diana Beevers in the Women section of the magazine.
On the day itself, Saturday 9 July, Hull’s Daily Mail included a photograph (see left) taken during rehearsals for Act Three, with Alfred Burke as Marker confronting Virginia Stride and a bearded Roy Dotrice as Mr and Mrs Scott. “For the recording of this episode,” the caption pointed out, “Roy sacrificed his beard.” Meanwhile, Staffordshire’s Evening Sentinel once again described the programme’s main character as a “laconic, down-at-heel inquiry agent who takes a Robin Hood attitude to the foibles of rich clients”. Possibly confusing the name of the actor with that of the part he played, the item continued: “Alfred Burke is the name, the off-beat detective who combines a strong social conscience with a wry sense of humour. Don’t Forget You’re Mine sees Burke settled in his new Midlands location.” |
“Public Eye’s move to Birmingham was a wise one,” declared Linda Dyson, in her review of Don’t Forget You’re Mine for The Birmingham Post on Saturday 16 July. “Alfred Burke plays an unromantic, very ordinary sort of hero, who is somehow suited to the Birmingham background.” Dyson described the episode itself as “the first television drama about a private detective I have seen which admitted that most of an agent’s job consists of tedious, unsavoury divorce inquiries. The unexpected twist at the end of this story did not detract from the everyday authenticity and the occasional dry humour which crept into the script. In fact, it was a pretty good ending.”
However, certain Brummagem viewers had concerns about accent authenticity. “As a Brummie born and bred (and still commuting each day), I’m sure the average businessman in the second city sounds nothing like the estate agent (played by Paul Dawkins) in last week’s excellent episode of Public Eye,” wrote P.C. Mills of Stourbridge in the Your View column of TV World (30 July–5 August 1966). “The best accent was undoubtedly that of Diana Beevers as Angie, but if you want the real broad twang, just listen to Marilyn in Crossroads,” added Mills, referring to the waitress played by Sue Nicholls in the ATV soap opera.
For the second time in as many weeks, “That very human private detective (British version) Frank Marker” was one of Peter Forth’s choices from the viewing on offer in the South West, as noted in the Western Daily Press on Thursday 25 August.
However, certain Brummagem viewers had concerns about accent authenticity. “As a Brummie born and bred (and still commuting each day), I’m sure the average businessman in the second city sounds nothing like the estate agent (played by Paul Dawkins) in last week’s excellent episode of Public Eye,” wrote P.C. Mills of Stourbridge in the Your View column of TV World (30 July–5 August 1966). “The best accent was undoubtedly that of Diana Beevers as Angie, but if you want the real broad twang, just listen to Marilyn in Crossroads,” added Mills, referring to the waitress played by Sue Nicholls in the ATV soap opera.
For the second time in as many weeks, “That very human private detective (British version) Frank Marker” was one of Peter Forth’s choices from the viewing on offer in the South West, as noted in the Western Daily Press on Thursday 25 August.
Nobody Wants to Know
During the opening scene, Marker mentions Kelly’s Directory, a trade directory that listed all businesses, tradespeople, landowners, charities and other facilities in a particular city or town. It was, in effect, an early equivalent of the Yellow Pages (which itself started out as a classified section in the Brighton telephone directory in 1966, before being rolled out across the UK in 1973). The directory was named after Frederic Festus Kelly, who, in 1835 or 1836, became the chief inspector of letter-carriers (his exact title varied over the years) for the Post Office. Kelly also took over publication of the Post Office London Directory, which had been in print since 1799 and whose copyright was in private hands. Founding Kelly & Co, he and various family members expanded the company over the next several decades, producing directories for an increasing number of UK counties and buying out, or putting out of business, various rival publishers of directories. For a short time in the early 21st century, Kelly’s existed online as Kellysearch, a directory similar to Yell, the web-based successor to the Yellow Pages.
After some haggling with Soutar, the furnished rent for Marker’s new office is agreed at £4 a week. Marker’s new telephone number is given as North 3899 (revised in later episodes to Northern 3899).
When attempting to track down Donald Jessup, Marker claims that he is trying to collect two years’ worth of outstanding subscription fees to the British Legion. Founded on Sunday 15 May 1921, the British Legion, now known as the Royal British Legion (RBL), is a charity that provides financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as others in need. Unlike in Don’t Forget You’re Mine, service in the Armed Forces is no longer a requirement of Legion membership. In the rehearsal script, the value of the outstanding fees is said to be 11 shillings. The amount is not specified in the finished programme.
Birmingham’s Rotunda is a 265-foot (81-metre), 25-storey cylindrical high-rise building, which was completed in 1965. It was originally designed as an office block, by architect James A. Roberts, who was also involved in the original Bull Ring Shopping Centre (see All the Black Dresses She Wants). The podium (lower portion) of the building had shops and its own work of art, The Rotunda Relief, a circular mural designed by John Poole, though plans for a cinema and a revolving top-floor restaurant were abandoned. The construction method used was unique at the time, possibly due to a lack of space – the Rotunda was mostly built at ground level, then ‘jacked up’ one floor at a time. Though initially much derided and regarded as a “dead building”, suggestions in the 1980s that the Rotunda should be demolished met with hostility from the local populace. It was granted Grade II listed building status on Wednesday 9 August 2000. Between 2004 and 2008, the Rotunda was refurbished and partially converted for residential use by property developer Urban Splash and Glenn Howells Architects. The redevelopment created 232 luxury apartments, including six penthouse suites on the 20th floor.
Digbeth Coach Station (now known as Birmingham Coach Station) is a major bus and coach interchange in Digbeth, Birmingham. National Express, the largest scheduled coach service provider in Europe, has its UK headquarters on the site. The original interchange was built in 1929 as a bus depot by bus operator Midland Red, and was later converted into Digbeth Coach Station. The building was dark and dingy, as can be seen when Marker dashes through it in Don’t Forget You’re Mine, as it was not originally intended for passenger use. In the 1990s, plans were drawn up for a new station on Great Charles Street, as Digbeth was considered an “undesirable” location by National Express and its station was “universally hated” by passengers. However, following the completion of the new Bullring & Grand Central shopping centre, it was decided to demolish the old structure and build a new coach station on the same site. The old station closed in November 2007. During reconstruction, National Express used a temporary site on Oxford Street, on the opposite side of Digbeth High Street, called Birmingham Central Coach Station. The new Birmingham Coach Station, with its sweeping copper canopy, open-plan concourse, 16 coach bays and numerous retail outlets, was officially reopened on Friday 18 December 2009 by the then England national football team manager Fabio Capello.
Birmingham New Street railway station is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, and a central hub of the British rail network. Around 80% of train services to Birmingham go through New Street. The original New Street station was built by the London and North Western Railway between 1846 and 1854. It was formally opened on Thursday 1 June 1854, replacing several earlier rail termini on the outskirts of the centre. The station was completely rebuilt in the 1960s, as part of a modernisation programme for the West Coast Main Line. Demolition of the old station began in 1964 and was not completed until 1966. The rebuilt New Street station was designed by Kenneth J. Davies, the lead planner for British Rail London Midland Region, and opened on Monday 6 March 1967 to coincide with the introduction of electric expresses on the West Coast Main Line. The new station had sold its air rights (the property interest in the building space above ground), leading to the construction of the Pallasades Shopping Centre (then known as the Birmingham Shopping Centre) over the station between 1968 and 1970. The station and the Pallasades were partly integrated with the Bull Ring Shopping Centre via elevated walkways above Smallbrook Queensway. As an enclosed station, with buildings covering most of its span, and with passenger numbers rising to more than twice the level for which it had been designed, the 1960s station was not popular with its users. The concrete construction was also widely criticised for being ugly. A £550 million redevelopment of the station and the Pallasades, called Gateway Plus, opened in September 2015, boasting a much larger concourse, a new exterior façade and a new entrance on Stephenson Street.
After some haggling with Soutar, the furnished rent for Marker’s new office is agreed at £4 a week. Marker’s new telephone number is given as North 3899 (revised in later episodes to Northern 3899).
When attempting to track down Donald Jessup, Marker claims that he is trying to collect two years’ worth of outstanding subscription fees to the British Legion. Founded on Sunday 15 May 1921, the British Legion, now known as the Royal British Legion (RBL), is a charity that provides financial, social and emotional support to members and veterans of the British Armed Forces, their families and dependants, as well as others in need. Unlike in Don’t Forget You’re Mine, service in the Armed Forces is no longer a requirement of Legion membership. In the rehearsal script, the value of the outstanding fees is said to be 11 shillings. The amount is not specified in the finished programme.
Birmingham’s Rotunda is a 265-foot (81-metre), 25-storey cylindrical high-rise building, which was completed in 1965. It was originally designed as an office block, by architect James A. Roberts, who was also involved in the original Bull Ring Shopping Centre (see All the Black Dresses She Wants). The podium (lower portion) of the building had shops and its own work of art, The Rotunda Relief, a circular mural designed by John Poole, though plans for a cinema and a revolving top-floor restaurant were abandoned. The construction method used was unique at the time, possibly due to a lack of space – the Rotunda was mostly built at ground level, then ‘jacked up’ one floor at a time. Though initially much derided and regarded as a “dead building”, suggestions in the 1980s that the Rotunda should be demolished met with hostility from the local populace. It was granted Grade II listed building status on Wednesday 9 August 2000. Between 2004 and 2008, the Rotunda was refurbished and partially converted for residential use by property developer Urban Splash and Glenn Howells Architects. The redevelopment created 232 luxury apartments, including six penthouse suites on the 20th floor.
Digbeth Coach Station (now known as Birmingham Coach Station) is a major bus and coach interchange in Digbeth, Birmingham. National Express, the largest scheduled coach service provider in Europe, has its UK headquarters on the site. The original interchange was built in 1929 as a bus depot by bus operator Midland Red, and was later converted into Digbeth Coach Station. The building was dark and dingy, as can be seen when Marker dashes through it in Don’t Forget You’re Mine, as it was not originally intended for passenger use. In the 1990s, plans were drawn up for a new station on Great Charles Street, as Digbeth was considered an “undesirable” location by National Express and its station was “universally hated” by passengers. However, following the completion of the new Bullring & Grand Central shopping centre, it was decided to demolish the old structure and build a new coach station on the same site. The old station closed in November 2007. During reconstruction, National Express used a temporary site on Oxford Street, on the opposite side of Digbeth High Street, called Birmingham Central Coach Station. The new Birmingham Coach Station, with its sweeping copper canopy, open-plan concourse, 16 coach bays and numerous retail outlets, was officially reopened on Friday 18 December 2009 by the then England national football team manager Fabio Capello.
Birmingham New Street railway station is the largest and busiest of the three main railway stations in Birmingham city centre, and a central hub of the British rail network. Around 80% of train services to Birmingham go through New Street. The original New Street station was built by the London and North Western Railway between 1846 and 1854. It was formally opened on Thursday 1 June 1854, replacing several earlier rail termini on the outskirts of the centre. The station was completely rebuilt in the 1960s, as part of a modernisation programme for the West Coast Main Line. Demolition of the old station began in 1964 and was not completed until 1966. The rebuilt New Street station was designed by Kenneth J. Davies, the lead planner for British Rail London Midland Region, and opened on Monday 6 March 1967 to coincide with the introduction of electric expresses on the West Coast Main Line. The new station had sold its air rights (the property interest in the building space above ground), leading to the construction of the Pallasades Shopping Centre (then known as the Birmingham Shopping Centre) over the station between 1968 and 1970. The station and the Pallasades were partly integrated with the Bull Ring Shopping Centre via elevated walkways above Smallbrook Queensway. As an enclosed station, with buildings covering most of its span, and with passenger numbers rising to more than twice the level for which it had been designed, the 1960s station was not popular with its users. The concrete construction was also widely criticised for being ugly. A £550 million redevelopment of the station and the Pallasades, called Gateway Plus, opened in September 2015, boasting a much larger concourse, a new exterior façade and a new entrance on Stephenson Street.
With thanks to Jonny Davies, Chris Perry, Andrew Pixley, Barbara Toft, 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.