Dennis Spooner
 The late Dennis Spooner (Photo kindly supplied by Anne Frost ©Anne Frost and Paul Franks) | Randall & Hopkirk (deceased). The new series of Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) has finished showing on BBC1. I enjoyed the first episode, overall, in spite of the fact that it was a little weak scriptwise, and that it seemed in desparate need of a director. It has been pointed out to me, however, that the credits completely failed to mention Dennis Spooner as the original creator of R&H. I found this astonishing. Dennis Spooner, sometimes with Monty Berman or Richard Harris, gave us, as well as the original Randall & Hopkirk (deceased), The Champions, Man in a Suitcase and Department S, was script editor or executive story consultant for Jason King and Doctor Who, and also found time to write episodes of Fireball XL5, Stingray, Thunderbirds, UFO, The Avengers and The New Avengers. Recently, you could see some of his scripts in the repeat showings of Bergerac on BBC1 on weekday afternoons. Funnily enough, the name of Phillip Broadley also came up at times as a writer. He was another of the ITC stalwarts. This page is in three sections: If anyone else has anything they would like to contribute to this page, please e-mail me. As long as it is not merely a repeat of the information already here, I will happily put more information up with an appropriate link and/or credit, whichever you wish. For the contributions so far, my thanks to Anne Frost, Daniel Bolton and Bob Furnell. |
From an ITC press release:
Born in Tottenham, England, in 1932, Dennis Spooner has been one of the best, and most successful, scriptwriters in the British TV industry. After leaving school at the age of 13, Spooner worked in a variety of jobs, from being a postman, clerk, window-cleaner, factory worker and a importer-exporter. He was drafted into the Royal Air Force, it was during this period when he found his calling in life. While stationed in Egypt, he was involved in radio programmes, meeting many entertainers and after completing his national service, went into theatre as a comedian. Though he wasn't successful as a comedian, he found he was quite competent in writing his material. Eventually he realised that writing, rather than performing, was where his future looked most promising.He soon came into the TV industry, writing drama, rather than comedy. He wrote episodes for The Avengers, No Hiding Place, Coronation Street and other series. He met Gerry Anderson, who would teach him more about scriptwriting than any other person did before. Spooner wrote episodes of Fireball XL-5, Stingray and the Thunderbirds. He also worked on Dr. Who, becoming a script editor on the series for a year. Spooner, in collaboration with Richard Harris, devised the Man in a Suitcase series together.
ITC offered him a contract to write ten scripts a year, and wrote many episodes of The Baron, before creating The Champions with Monty Berman.
The following piece has been kindly prepared by Dennis' sister, Anne Frost, and is reproduced with her permission:
Dennis was born on 1st December 1932 in Tottenham, North London, the eldest of three children. He had 2 sisters. After primary education and secondary modern senior school, he left school and at 14 became a telegram boy for the Post Office. He worked in offices and even played professional football for Leyton Orient for a while. At this time he was also a boy scout and this was how he got the taste for show business, always being included in Ralph Reader's Gang Shows.
1950 brought National Service, and he served his with the RAF. He was stationed in Suez, during which time he joined their "concert party". After National Service he went back to office work where he met and married his wife in 1954, and they had three children during the 60s and 70s.
Soon after he married, he decided he wanted to try a career in show business, and met Leslie Garbon. They worked on a double act like Morecambe " Wise, and although they got work, realised it would not be enough for them to succeed in this field. They did manage to play the London Palladium for a time when there was a variety show being staged there.
Dennis wondered if his talent lay in writing rather than performing, and wrote a half hour script for Harry Worth, who sent him £5 for it. Harry screened Dennis' comedy (which went down very well) and he wrote and asked Dennis for more, which is how he got started.
He then wrote and submitted other episodes for programmes, ie: 1 for Coronation Street in the 60s, which were always accepted, and he attended the show business functions he was invited to, where he met future contacts who approached him for contributions. Behind the scenes he was beginning to become known.
Between the 60s and 80s he wrote episodes for Bergerac, The Professionals, Dr Who, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, The Avengers and countless others, as well as having ideas of his own which his how all his series Randall & Hopkirk (deceased), Man in a Suitcase, The Champions, Department S, Jason King etc... came about. Along the way he made great friends with Gerry & Sylvia Anderson and Brian Clemens, who in later years he worked with almost exclusively.On various series he was asked to be script editor and had an office at Elstree Studios. During this time he learned how to play bridge and used to enter tournaments. One day, having no-one to partner him and finding one other who needed a partner, ended up playing more than one competition with Omar Sharif, and then went on to write one or two books about Bridge also.
Producers in America heard and saw his talents via The Avengers and in the early 80s he was invited three or four times per year for about 6 weeks at a time to the USA, to work on Dempsey & Makepeace scripts, often staying with Patrick McNee who he'd made friends with during filming of his "The Avengers" scripts.
As if this wasn't enough, he also used to play occasional football for the Showbix XI when asked. His most successful play was The Sting in the Tail, which is still being shown at times world-wide, including the USA. Dennis still loved theatre work, and his last performance was with Watford Rep Company as President Roosevelt in their production of "Annie".
I always remember Dennis telling me that one of the nicest people he ever met was William Conrad who used to be "Cannon", "a real gentleman" was how Dennis described him.
Dennis died suddenly, "dropped dead" you might say, of a heart attack on Saturday evening 20 September 1986, 11 months after his mother. He was aged 53. He was a very kind, quiet, generous man who liked his own company, but always had an air of comedy. He could always find something amusing in every situation. His work never affected him, he always remembered his background and roots, and it is true what Brian Clemens said of him, that he was as happy talking to a dustman as a Duke.
An article on the original Randall & Hopkirk (deceased) from the Jigsaw website.
©Bob Furnell
Don't worry Jeff - Jeannie
can't see or hear me. Nobody can.Only you Jeff! Only you!
The
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
Exposé
If you asked any British television viewer to name at least 3 ITC series from the sixties, no doubt you'd get replies like The Saint, Dangerman, Department S, The Champions, The Baron and a host of others. And even more likely than not, those same individuals would probably cite Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Created by Dennis Spooner, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ran for 26 episodes on the ITV network from September 1969 to March 1970.
The Early Days
By 1967, Dennis Spooner was a well known and respected television writer with numerous credits behind him. Monty Berman was a well known television producer and the two individuals met in 1967. They soon found they shared like-minded goals and ideas and decided to form Scoton Productions which would eventually go on to produce The Champions in 1968. The Champions had proved to be a hit with viewers at home and abroad and even before the series production came to a close, ITC president Lew Grade promised the two money to produce another series. The two got to work drafting ideas of what they liked to do next, but even before they got any of their ideas down on paper, Lew Grade changed his mind and asked them to produce 2 new series instead of the one. These would eventually become Department S and Randall and Hopkirk.Wanting to do something slightly different from their last production, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was born out of Dennis Spooner's interest in the paranormal and his love of such classic movies as Topper and Here Comes Mr. Jordan. As Berman and Spooner worked on the concept for the new series, they eventually decided that it would take the format of a detective series, which would give them a wide range of storylines involving two main characters - two detectives, but one of which was a ghost. Berman and Spooner took the series proposal to Lew Grade and he didn't like it. He wasn't convinced that it would be a success, especially with North American audiences, and that it lacked an American actor in one of the lead roles. Berman & Spooner were dejected. Now what were they going to do? They felt they had a hit on their hands, but without Lew Grade's blessing, they didn't have a hope.
Somehow, Ralph Smart, who was a well known and respected writer, producer, director, got a hold of the series proposal and he immediately fell in love with the series and wanted to write the pilot story.
"Ralph Smart was a sort of father of film and television as far as ATV went. He saw the proposal and thought it was terrific. He wanted to write the pilot (and) I was delighted that he wrote the pilot because that convinced Lew (Grade) that we should make the series."
-Dennis Spooner
Well if Ralph Smart thought it was a good idea, then it was good enough for Grade. Grade was convinced that the show was worth producing.
Pre-Production
As with previous productions, Monty Berman became the series Producer, while Dennis Spooner became Executive Story Consultant, which would give him a large say in the overall production. Veteran ITC director Cyril Frankel was given the role of Creative Consultant - a post that was specially created for him. Frankel would be responsible for the look and style of the show as well as being the in-house director.
In choosing writers for Randall and Hopkirk, Dennis Spooner chose to stick with those writers he had confidence in, could get the job at hand done and had worked previously with him on The Champions. Six writers were chosen to handle the task of writing for this unique series, with the bulk of the 26 episodes being written by Tony Williamson and Donald James.
Berman secured the services of several seasoned and respected directors such as Roy Ward Baker, Jeremy Summers and Leslie Norman to direct episodes alongside relative newcomers Ray Austin, Paul Dickson and Robert Tronson.
Jeff, Jeannie and Marty - Casting
Unlike The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) did not feature an American actor in one of the lead roles to ensure a quick sale to the U.S. Instead, the main cast would be made entirely up of British actors. The lead role of Jeff Randall was originally created as a vehicle for comedian Dave Allen, but Allen proved to be unavailable and the producers had to go with their second choice.
Mike Pratt played Jeff Randall, the craggy looking down-at-heel and usually broke private detective. Pratt was already a well known actor featuring in many guest shots in many of the ITC shows of the sixties. Pratt played Jeff perfectly, bringing the right characterizations to the roll and today its hard imagining anyone else in the role. Pratt was also a film scriptwriter - he co-wrote the episode A Disturbing Case - a songwriter and musician.
Marty Hopkirk was played by Kenneth Cope and was chosen after a mostly unsuccessful search for a suitable actor to play the part. Cyril Frankel was at dinner one night and sat across from Cope in a restaurant and thought he'd be right for the part, and suggested him to Monty Berman the next day. Cope was asked to film a screen test with Annette Andre and was immediately thereafter given the part. Cope had an extensive background in tv work in such shows as The Adventures of Robin Hood and Coronation Street.
Annette Andre was chosen to play Jean Hopkirk, Marty's widow. She was trained as a ballerina and gained extensive acting experience guest starring in series such as The Saint, The Baron, The Prisoner, Emergency Ward 10 and The Avengers. She was originally one of the finalist for the role of Sharon Macready in The Champions, but lost out to Alexandra Bastedo and was given the role of Jean Hopkirk in consolation.
Scripts and Stories
While the production staff was being recruited, the writers had been busy at crafting the 26 stories for the new series. As previously detailed, Ralph Smart wrote the series pilot episode, My Late Lamented Friend And Partner, which would introduce audiences to the 3 central characters. In this first episode we are introduced to Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk, who run a small, struggling private detective agency. They are not only partners, but close friends - until the day Marty is run down by a car and killed when he is mistaken for Jeff. An accident? So it seems until after the funeral Jeff receives a number of mysterious phone calls from someone who he assumes is pretending to be Marty. However, enticed to Marty's grave, Jeff encounters the completely white-attired spiritual Marty. Marty insists that he was murdered, probably in connection with a divorce case the two were working on for a lady called Fay Sorenson. Together they decide to bring Sorenson to justice. However, Marty discovers that he is forced to make a tremendous sacrifice. In assisting Jeff's determined efforts to gain evidence, he reluctantly fails to return to his grave before daylight. Thus he violates an ancient curse, and consequently finds himself trapped as a ghost on Earth for a period of one hundred years.
Afore the sun shall rise on you,
Each ghost unto his grave must go.
Cursed the ghost who dares to stay
And face the awful light of day.
Ye shall not to the grave return
Until a hundred years be gone.
Each ghost unto his grave must go.
Cursed the ghost who dares to stay
And face the awful light of day.
Ye shall not to the grave return
Until a hundred years be gone.
Naturally as Jeff is primarily the only person who can see him, Marty decides to continue their partnership, creating a formidable, if erratic, combination.
Other episodes included a variety of plots - in Whoever Heard Of A Ghost Dying clairvoyant Cecil Purley tells a criminal called Hellingworth that Jeff is in contact with Marty's ghost - and so false information about robberies is fed to Jeff and Inspector Large via an ill Marty, which enables the real thefts to be executed. To ensure success, it is also necessary for Purley to exorcise Marty's ghost for good. In That's How Murder Snowballs, Jeff and Jeannie visit the music hall on the night when the 'Russian Roulette' part of a mind reading act goes wrong - and the assistant, Abel, shoots the Great Fernandez with a real bullet instead of a blank. With Marty's unseen help, Jeff goes undercover at the theatre as another mind reader to track the killer and prove Abel's innocence. But, the murderer doesn't turn out to be who everyone thinks it is. And in, Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave, Marty is astounded to find his own grave being desecrated one night, and when he summons his partner to investigate, Jeff is knocked out by two men in 17th Century garb. After another attack by the men - whom nobody else sees - Jeannie and her sister Jennifer lead Jeff to be committed to a psychiatrist, from which he escapes to take on the post of guardian to an aggrophobic hippy painter, the son of Lord Mandrake.
No matter how unique the stories were that the writers came up with, they had to ensure they bided by Spooner's one major request. He insisted that the writers had to come up with ingenious ways of Marty saving Jeff in moments of peril. Some of these "tricks" ran from the unique to the bizarre to the mundane. For example in the episode For The Girl Who Has Everything, Jeff is locked away in a priest hole and can't escape. Marty in his ghostly state can't help him either and Marty embarks upon a desperate search to find someone he can pass a message on to. This turns up in the form of Mrs. Pleasance who not only can communicate with Marty but can see him as well. In You Can Always Find A Fall Guy, Jeff is being interrogated by three thugs in a room when Marty appears and tells Jeff that the guards and the dogs are on the other side of the house. Marty insists that his partner escapes right away, and he assists Jeff by blowing a gale force wind through the open window, throwing the room into turmoil as Jeff escapes.
A Problem Or Two?
Dennis Spooner had always envisioned Randall and Hopkirk being more in a jokey, amusing, humorous fantasy vain. When some ITC executives had seen some completed early prints, they noted that they were quite serious, and asked if the production team could inject more humour into the series. This delighted Spooner as well as Kenneth Cope. Cope had basically played his ghostly scenes for laughs which caused some friction between him and Creative Consultant Cyril Frankel, who along with Monty Berman, saw the show in a more dramatic vein with comical moments. The series 26 episodes seemed to alternate between these two styles, where today, Randall and Hopkirk is best remembered for the episodes featuring fake spiritualist, ghost hunters, haunted houses, etc.
"I started off with certain intentions which became somewhat lost as the series progressed, largely due to Kenneth Cope, who is essentially more of a comic than comedy actor. When I wasn't around he was apt to make his scenes more comic than comedy and that led to a little friction between us. My idea was to make the series fairly realistic with this afterlife fantasy element, and the comedy was suppose to come from the ghost, while Monty (Berman) wanted a private detective side of things as serious as Humphrey Bogart. I think I got all that in the pilot... The episodes became more amusing and bizarre as the series went one. It was a different style of comedy..."
-Cyril Frankel on his involvement in Randall & Hopkirk
"Lights, Camera, Action!" - Filming
Filming began on the series near the end of May 1968 with the pilot/first episode, My Late Lamented Friend And Partner and was directed by television veteran Cyril Frankel. This episode was shot on location throughout London with several scenes filmed at Hanover Square, Brook Street, and Fore Street. Other episodes were filmed in and around the London area or around the film studio's were the series was made.
Each episode averaged a 14 day production schedule which was standard for the majority of tv productions of the time. On occasion production over-ran and unfinished work would be picked up at the beginning of the next production block. The entire 26 episode season took fourteen months to complete. Each actor had numerous doubles which were utilized in long shots while the actor was away doing scenes for another story.
As Marty was suppose to be a ghost dressed entirely in white, 5 white suits were made for Kenneth Cope, which he continuously changed into a fresh new clean one after a series of takes. The costume department even went as far as putting felt on the soles of his shoes to stifle any sound as he walked.
Several permanent sets were erected for regular use - they were Jeff's apartment, Jeannie's apartment and the Randall & Hopkirk offices. The windows used forced perspective photographic backgrounds to give the illusion of London city views, with each being able to be lit up to give the impression of night scenes. The outside of the Randall & Hopkirk offices were actually the offices of Adam's Furniture Fabrics in Harrow, which sadly no longer exists. Other sets were erected when needed or were used from stock.
Ghostly Apparitions
Marty's ability to walk through walls was achieved by using an old industry trick known as "Pepper's Ghost". This was achieved by having the cameraman shoot footage of the set including Mike Pratt, through an angled sheet of glass. KennethCope would then stand beside the camera on a black velvet background set which was harshly lit. Thus his reflection in the glass showed up in a clear, but ghostly fashion. To achieve the trick of walking through walls, all he had to do was walk behind a screen and disappear.
Marty's other ghostly tricks of rattling cups, throwing objects across the room, etc were achieved with fine wires and a wind machine.
Cue Theme Music, Roll Credits - The Opening Sequence
"Two versions of the opening credits were made for the UK market. The original version intercut with location footage of Marty's burial with Jeff and Jean at the graveside and Marty turning up to say, 'Don't worry Jeff. Jeanie can't see or hear me. Nobody can. Only you Jeff! Only you!' This was in fact part of the screen test with the three principles, and contradicts the action seen in the pilot episode. The regulars names were then superimposed over this sequence. However all prints seen since the mid-seventies, including those in Australia and America, and episodes loaned by ITC for private showings have featured the other less memorable opening titles.
The other version has no dialogue, but shows Jeff coming out of the exterior office door, lighting a cigarette, then moving off. Marty then fades into view - courtesy of optical printing - and follows. Finally, Jeannie walks in front of the door and pauses. In each case, the crediting caption is superimposed. Both versions end on the office nameplate which is now amended to read 'DECEASED' with Hopkirk's name crossed out. These titles and closing credits were devised by Chambers and Partners, an outside company who had been responsible for previous ITC title sequences on Department S and The Baron, although these days this part of the business is no more..."
The other version has no dialogue, but shows Jeff coming out of the exterior office door, lighting a cigarette, then moving off. Marty then fades into view - courtesy of optical printing - and follows. Finally, Jeannie walks in front of the door and pauses. In each case, the crediting caption is superimposed. Both versions end on the office nameplate which is now amended to read 'DECEASED' with Hopkirk's name crossed out. These titles and closing credits were devised by Chambers and Partners, an outside company who had been responsible for previous ITC title sequences on Department S and The Baron, although these days this part of the business is no more..."
-from Timescreen, Revised #6
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) premiered in September 1969 on the ITV network a few weeks prior to the introduction of colour tv. However, a few of those lucky enough to have purchased colour tv sets were able to see the series in full colour.
Screening times varied from ITV region to region ranging from Fridays at 7:30pm to Sundays at 7:25pm. One region cancelled the show after 21 episodes, while one waited a whole year before screening the series. The series was seen in the occasional repeat until 1976 and did not reappear again until 1986 and was most recently screened this past winter (1994/95) on BBC-2. Randall and Hopkirk aired in Canada in the early seventies (exact airdates and network are unknown, although its likely it was aired on CBC) and was screened on the NBC network in USA as My Partner The Ghost.
"Since the conclusion of the series in 1970, the series stars went onto other projects and kept busy. Sadly Dennis Spooner died in 1986 whilst working on the unmade series Courier; Mike Pratt who brought Jeff Randall to life died in July 1976, and Ivor Dean who played the recurring role of Inspector Large has also passed away."
"Kenneth Cope (Marty) went on to do episodes of The Avengers and Doctor Who, whilst Annette Andre married American producer Arthur Weingarten and currently divides her time between Australia, Britain and the USA."
-from Timescreen, Revised #6
Article & Research by Bob Furnell
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