Crane

The View from Daniel Pike

1971

The View from Daniel Pike is a 1971–73 Scottish TV drama series created and written by Edward Boyd, and starring Roddy McMillan as Daniel Pike, a hard-boiled private detective based in Glasgow. A few of the stories were later adapted into book form.

Ace of Wands

1970

Ace of Wands is a fantasy-based British children's television show broadcast on ITV between 1970 and 1972, created by Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale and produced by Thames Television. The title, taken from the name of a Tarot card describes the principal character, called "Tarot" who combined stage magic with supernatural powers. Tarot has a pet Owl named Ozymandias, played by Fred Owl. The series ran for two seasons of thirteen episodes and a third season of twenty, with fourteen story arcs, in a similar manner to early Doctor Who. Many, if not all, of the first 26 episodes are believed to have been wiped, although the final season is intact.

Orlando

1965

Orlando is a British young adult detective thriller series transmitted for four series between 1965–1968. Produced by Associated-Rediffusion for ITV, it stars Sam Kydd in the title role, which he reprises from the adult television series Crane. Orlando O'Connor is an ex-Foreign Legionnaire who has picked up a magic talisman, the 'Gizzmo'. Following the dissolution of his boat building firm, he travels to London's Docklands to meet an old Navy comrade Tony, seeking work, only to find Tony has been killed. He links up with siblings David and Jenny, who have inherited a detective agency from their uncle. Of the 76 produced episodes, only four are believed to survive.

Mark Saber

1954

A half-hour 1950s detective television series that took different forms and titles during its run. From October 1951 to June 1954, ABC Mystery Theater stars Tom Conway as the titular character, a plainclothes English detective working with the NYPD Homicide Division. The Vise (seasons 1–4): Donald Gray portrays Saber as a one-armed private detective based in London. Broadcast on ABC from October 1954 to June 1957. Saber of London (seasons 5–7): Gray reprises his role in this final iteration, broadcast on NBC from September 1957 to May 1960.

The Quatermass Experiment

1953

Set in the near future against the background of a British space programme, the story of the first crewed flight into space, supervised by Professor Bernard Quatermass of the British Experimental Rocket Group.

The Val Doonican Music Show

1977

Out of the Unknown

1965

Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.

The Vital Spark

1965

The Vital Spark is a British television comedy set in the western isles of 1930s Scotland, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. Starring Roddy McMillan as Peter 'Para Handy' MacFarlane, captain of the puffer Vital Spark, the series followed its adventures around the coastal waters of west Scotland and the various schemes that Para Handy would get himself and his crew involved in. The programme first broadcast in August 1965 as an episode of Comedy Playhouse. Two series, of six and seven episodes respectively, were commissioned by BBC Scotland and transmitted in early 1966, and autumn 1967, in black-and-white. In March 1973, an hour-long TV special was made, in colour, featuring the same cast. After the success of this, a further six episodes (essentially remakes of previous scripts but in a more contemporary setting) were commissioned, broadcast in the autumn of 1974.