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Network is thrilled to premiere four new remasters of long-unseen but notable series from the early days of ITV and courtesy of two enterprising American based in the UK, the Danziger brothers.
‘Mark Saber’, played by Donald Gray, who later found renewed fame as the voice of Colonel Gray in ‘Captain Scarlet’, was the unlikeliest of tv detectives, his distinguishing feature that he had only one arm - the most unusual pitch for a fledging national television station seeking to fill its schedules with bold new programmes. Saber’s detective skills are a given but never really qualified. His skills at driving a Porsche around Parliament Square, on the other hand…
Saber features in two of our releases: firstly in his own and most famous series ‘Saber of London’ and then as a part of an anthology of crime thrillers which preceded it aimed primarily at the lucrative US market, ‘The Vise’, unseen in the UK under that title for obvious reasons.
Bookended by Ron Randell, these neat little crime stories dating from 1954, became a breeding ground for actors, writers and directors eagerly awaiting a break in what was, with the advent of ITV, suddenly a burgeoning talent market. The shows provided early work for, among many, Ray Austin, Michael Caine, Patrick McGoohan, Richard Lester and Francis Matthews. One episode even features an appearance by Shaw (Police 5) Taylor on the wrong side of the law.
The penultimate Danziger series, ‘The Cheaters’, with a decent enough premise of insurance investigation made in 1961, became slightly more ambitious. Led by American actor John Ireland the 39 episodes made great use of the streets of London and featured a jazzy soundtrack by Bill le Sage. All good ingredients, you might think, for a successful run yet the series had a fragmented screening history on ITV and it isn’t as well remembered as it perhaps should be, despite its worthy credentials. The last record of it being seen anywhere is in the Channel and Westward tv regions in the early 70s so a re-evaluation is long overdue.
The final release of our initial quartet is long-awaited ‘Richard the Lionheart’. An obvious, if rather too late, competitor to ITC’s swashbuckler range that were so successful in the late 50s, you could be forgiven for thinking that the series was the inspiration for ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ but, again, the production values didn’t prevent it attracting the very best from Britain’s acting profession or it being a big hit on ITV in 1963.
Network acquired the entire Danziger library in 2020 and has been carefully researching and remastering its films and television series. Not everything has survived and some of it has been rescued from the elements just in time but we’re now at a stage where we can begin re-acquainting ourselves with a forgotten chapter of British television history.
Other Danziger series ‘Calling Scotland Yard;’ and ‘The Man From Interpol’ together with a host of feature films will follow in due course.
There is a chance for a sneak preview of four episodes from across the series, all early efforts from the pen of Brian Clemens at the Cinema Museum on Saturday 2 April. The presntation comes with contemporary ad breaks for the full retro experience.
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