Dr Brent's Casebook
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FREE PREVIEW RICHARD McGINLAY and ALAN HAYES Illustrated by Shaqui Le Vesconte HIDDEN TIGER DR BRENT’S CASEBOOK - AN UNAUTHORISED GUIDE TO POLICE SURGEON by Richard McGinlay and Alan Hayes (Free Preview) © 2017 Richard McGinlay and Alan Hayes All rights reserved This publication is unauthorised and is not endorsed by StudioCanal or other rights holders of Police Surgeon. No link to any such organisation is claimed. The rights of Richard McGinlay and Alan Hayes to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the publisher. A Hidden Tiger Book www.hiddentigerbooks.co.uk www.facebook.com/HiddenTigerBooks Other Hidden Tiger Titles: Two Against the Underworld – The Collected Unauthorised Guide to The Avengers Series 1 by Richard McGinlay, Alan Hayes and Alys Hayes Avengerworld – The Avengers in Our Lives A Charity Anthology edited by Alan Hayes Requiem for Sherlock Holmes by Paul Stuart Hayes The Theatrical Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle with William Gillette Fury From The Deep – A Relic of the Old Time by Alan Hayes BOOK CONTENTS (Items in red are featured in this Free Preview) Preface – Police Surgeon “A low-key show about social misfits!” – The Rise of Police Surgeon Police Surgeon Episode Guide Dr Brent’s Quick Prescription Episode 1 – Under the Influence…? Episode 2 – Lag on the Run Episode 3 – Easy Money Episode 4 – Sunday Morning Story Episode 5 – Smash But No Grab Episode 6 – You Won’t Feel a Thing Episode 7 – Wilful Neglect Episode 8 – A Home of Her Own Episode 9 – Three’s a Crowd Episode 10 – Diplomatic Immunity Episode 11 – Man Overboard Episode 12 – Operation Mangle Episode 13 – The Bigger They Are ABC Christmas Pantomime: Alice Through the Looking Box “You just can’t win, can you?” – The Fall of Police Surgeon “Give the police surgeon the night off” – The Legacy of Police Surgeon Police Surgeon Appendices Appendix I – Merchandise Guide Appendix II – Chronology Acknowledgements Dr Brent’s Casebook contains 14 illustrations by Shaqui Le Vesconte “I’m only here as your doctor… The legal rights or wrongs don’t concern me. There may be other questions to be answered, but mine are strictly medical. I don’t call the police – the police call me.” GEOFFREY BRENT ‘Operation Mangle’ by F. Woodlands PREFACE POLICE SURGEON In the space of a few short months in 1960, Police Surgeon was created, produced, transmitted and then cancelled before the year was out. Today, it is referred to, almost without fail, in terms of its position as predecessor and progenitor of The Avengers rather than being looked at with regard to its own merits. Its single surviving episode, Easy Money, which was repeated in the United Kingdom on 28th March 1992 as part of Channel 4’s TV Heaven strand and released on home video as a special feature on an Avengers DVD set in 2009, contains sufficient promise to suggest that the series was distinctive and almost certainly worthy of a longer run than it was granted. The authors of this book have spent eight years researching the first year of the British television series The Avengers, which, due to its poor representation in the archives, had long been a mystery to fans of the show, most of whom had never seen the greater majority of its episodes. Our investigations led to the publication of two books: The Strange Case of the Missing Episodes, which was released in 2013 and reconstructed the narratives of the lost Series 1 episodes, and With Umbrella, Scotch and Cigarettes, which looked at the same series from the perspectives of production, transmission and response and was issued in 2014. These books were deleted in November 2015 and reissued as a single volume entitled Two Against the Underworld (now in its second edition following the unexpected recovery in 2016 of a previously lost episode, Tunnel of Fear). During our researches for the second book, we inevitably looked into Police Surgeon for reasons exclusively due, we are sorry to say, to its association with The Avengers. However, this modest little series, about which so little was known, began to fascinate us. It seemed to be exactly our sort of thing – a neglected show that was mostly shrouded in mystery apart from that repeated first episode – and we quickly realised that it was deserving of more attention than it had hitherto received. As the information we amassed about the series grew and grew, far beyond our expectations, it became clear to us that Police Surgeon merited a book of its own. Hence we present Dr Brent’s Casebook, with apologies to Dr Finlay! Dr Brent’s Casebook comprises five sections, the first of which details the series’ birth. This essay documents the events that began with the creation of Police Surgeon and ended with the broadcast of its debut episode. The largest section in the book concerns the episodes of Police Surgeon themselves, with the continuing production process being dealt with in relation to their transmission. As a ‘lost show’ with only one of its original thirteen episodes surviving, it is not always possible to present information in as much depth as with better represented series – but we have endeavoured to incorporate as much detail as we can. Much of this information has not seen the light of day since the programmes were originally broadcast. The guide is presented in production order, which is quite different from the sequence in which the series was transmitted. This section concludes with a chapter on Alice Through the Looking Box, a programme which aired on Christmas Day 1960, and featured the final television appearance of Ian Hendry in his guise as police surgeon Dr Brent. Following the guide format used in Two Against the Underworld, we present cast and production credits, air dates, working titles and other information for each episode. Within this section you will also find the following subsections: • Incident Report… A detailed plot description is provided for each instalment. The narratives of eleven of the thirteen episodes of Police Surgeon are presented in depth, as scripts for these are known to exist and have been consulted during the writing of this volume. It is worth noting that these scripts are rehearsal scripts – the version of the script that was prepared for the actors and production team to work with when rehearsals began. They are therefore probably not as accurate a representation of the final productions as camera scripts or as- broadcast scripts would have been. Our comparison of the surviving episode Easy Money to its own rehearsal script reveals just how much a story could change during its rehearsal process. Occasionally, we have deviated from the script when evidence from sources such as photographs or TV listings indicates that a change took place. Such revisions are noted within the episode guide. The remaining two episodes and Alice Through the Looking Box, the content of which can only be gleaned from brief descriptions in contemporary listings, press coverage and, in the latter case, a familiarity with the works of Lewis Carroll, are reported on in as much detail as is possible in the absence of more comprehensive surviving materials. • Archive… This is where we list the materials that are known to survive for each episode in terms of scripts and film elements. In each instance, we note the organisations which hold these materials. It is worth noting that the scripts held by the BFI can be viewed by appointment at the BFI Southbank. • Production Brief… From pre-production planning and rehearsals through to recording, transmission and beyond, this subsection has all the hard facts about how the shows were put together. • Field Report… Though the episodes under discussion were largely videotaped, studio-based productions, there is evidence that the cast and crew did on rare occasions venture out of doors to shoot material on location. Such excursions are detailed here. • Personnel File… Under this heading, we present biographical information or notes pertaining to behind-the-scenes movers and shakers and notable performers. • Matters Arising… This is where we state our observations regarding the episode in question and raise various points of interest, such as the historical context in which the stories took place and thematic links between them. • Mentioned in Dispatches… We also make reference to coverage in the press and wider media, either in terms of reportage and reviews concerning specific episodes, or promotional features published to tie in with the show’s transmission. • Collateral Damage… Sometimes things did not turn out quite according to plan, and while we hold Police Surgeon in great esteem, we can’t ignore its occasional shortcomings. Timings given for the surviving episode are based upon the British DVD edition issued by Optimum Releasing – readers with videos or DVDs from other sources may notice a small variation. Of course, many production gaffes have been wiped from the records along with the shows themselves, though the scripts for the missing episodes also contain occasional howlers of their own. • Verdict… Each chapter is rounded off with a brief review of the episode. We would ordinarily also report on the programme’s viewing figures, as recorded by Television Audience Measurement (TAM). However, despite claims being made in the press that Police Surgeon performed well in this respect, the series never broke into the regional or national Top Tens. In the absence of data regarding positions outside these charts, we have chosen to report generally rather than on an episode-by-episode basis.