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ACTION
TV ONLINE EPISODE GUIDE
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Director : Paul Bernard Script : Nicholas Palmer Cast : Cyril Luckham (Theodor Green), Patience Collier (Princess Katerina), Margo Andrew (Poll Green). Synopsis : Virgin travels to the Northwest Frontier in a bid to thwart the plans of Karl Von Brauner to topple the Indian Empire. Notes : Transmission dates are for the ATV Midlands area.
Director : John Sichel Script : Basil Dawson Cast : Michael Coles (Prince Rouvaloff), Gabrielle Drake (Countess Kolinsky), Desmond Llewellyn (Count Kolinsky). Synopsis : Virgin once more thwarts Von Brauner on a mission to St Petersburgh.
Director : Paul Bernard Script : Betty Lambda Cast : Frederick Peisely (Duke of Albany), Rober Crewson (Prince Frederick), Katherine Schofield (Cigarette). Synopsis : Virgin foils an attempt to kill the Duke of Albany and finds himself captured by Chinese white slave traders.
Director : Paul Bernard Script : Ted Willis Cast : John Collin (Omar Hassin), John Horsley (Akba Governor), Mark Corlleano (Abu). Synopsis : In Arabia Virgin is captured and tortured by Von Brauner and his sidekick Striebeck.
Director : Robert D Cardona Script : Basil Dawson Cast : Sean Lynch (Manuel), Tom Kempinski (Atahualpa), Ken Haward (Peterson), John Welsh (Dermot O'Rourke), Elizabeth Murray (Sheila O'Rourke), Kate Binchy (Bridget O'Rourke), Liz Davis (Kitty O'Rourke), Pamela Miles (Lady Pamela), Elizabeth Digby-Smith (Duchess of Didcot), Frank Singuineau (Karakoan), Peter Diamond (Indian/Inca Guard) Publicity : This episode was trailed in the TV Times with a full page article concentrating on the actresses who played the O'Rourke sisters: Captain Robert Virgin finds the three O'Rourke sisters more than a handful when he encounters them near the head waters of the Amazon in this week's story of Virgin Of The Secret Service called "The Amazons."For a start, they have been brought up like sons by their strict father, but when Virgin appears their female instincts take over. Here they are: Elizabeth Murray (who plays Sheila O'Rourke), Liz Davis (Kitty O'Rourke) and Kate Binchy (Bridget O'Rourke). Liz and Kate, appropriately, are both Dubliners. Elizabeth, inappropriately (but that's show business), comes from Glasgow. Elizabeth, 26, lives in a luxurious flat in St. John's Wood, London where the big, airey rooms are painted white to show off her collection of oil paintings and watercolours. "If I could afford it," she says "I'd love to cover every available inch with paintings." Brown-eyed Liz Davies (sic), 24, is a "placid easy-going, serious sort of person" who has a flat in London's Shaftesbury Avenue, though she spends most of her time in her native Dublin. "I'm better known there: a local girl. In London, I'm just a small fish in a big pond." Kate Binchy, also 24, was sent as a child to a convent school in Seville run by Irish nuns. She says her part in the story has given her a taste for South America. "What I'd like to do now," she says, "is to visit the old Inca dwellings. I love walking and exploring, and it would be marvellous climbing the mountians up to those fascinating ruins." Synopsis : Captain Robert Virgin fights his way through the jungles of Brazil, and finds himself caught up in plot to drive out the British and seize the Inca gold.
Director : John Sichel Script : Anthony Steven and Vincent Tilsley Cast : Rodney Bewes (Rajah), Jennie Linden (Maud La Motte), Roger Delgaldo (Vizier). Synopsis : Virgin must stop a plot to entomb a British Regiment alive in the valley of Sindra-Lal.
Director : Robert D Cardona Script : Ted Willis Cast : Norman Scace (Chu Chen Yu), Michael Lees (Professor Lemaire), Marji Lawrence (Mrs Cherry White). Synopsis : Virign is subjected to Chinese water torture as he attempts to prevent a terrifying invention that could turn the whole world into a province of China.
Director : Paul Bernard Script : Anthony Steven Cast : Eugene Deckers (Bobo le Mec), George Innes (Domino), Tommy Godfrey (Gandolfio), Julie Mendez (Paola), Austin Baptiste (Zafrini), Yuri Borienko (Ziegler), Felicity Gibson (Fleurette), Ralph Nossek (Grand Duke Pavlacek-Falkenberg), Michael Hall (Kaiser), Peter Boyes (Ticket Collector). Synopsis : Captain Robert Virgin hunts down the brilliant French marksman Bobo le Mec who is suspected of planning to assassinate King Carol of Croatia.
Director : Jospehine Douglas Script : Ted Willis Cast : Georgina Hale (Shung Si), Edward Brayshaw (Yuente), Ewen Solon (The Oracle). Synopsis : Virgin is captured and held prisoner in a cage above a raging fire. Only Doublett can save his life, but he is captured too.
Director : Robert D Cardona Script : Basil Dawson Cast : Lisa Daniely (Lady Clea Merrion), Peter Birrel (Major Zaki), William Kendall (Lord Merrion), Paul Darrow (Sayid), Johh Gill (Col. Blake Travers), Wilfred Grove (Ali), Peter Madden (Sheik Abdul Amir), Peter Maycock (Egyptian Sergeant), Geoffrey Denton (Col. Cookson), Julie Mendez and Katya Nadia Birsen (Dancers), Austin Baptiste (Drummer). Synopsis : Captain Virgin investigates strange disappearances of seven British officers in Cairo. Can the beautiful Lady Merrion help him, or do her loyalties lie with the Anti-British Brotherhood? Publicity : The change in transmission times for the series prompted a response from one young fan in the TV Times letter page for this week: "Achtung! Vill you put ze silly Captain Virgin on at 8pm, British time! For I am missing my glorious victories. If you do not do as I command, you vill recieve a bomb through ze post, and I will blow all of ITV sky high. Ah, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" KARL VON BRAUNER (Alias Master Jeffery Spain, aged 11)
Director : Heinrich Hirsch Script : Stuart Douglas Cast : Oscar Quitak (Pell), Sean Lynch (Stikow), Michael Wynne (Vlakon), Kenneth Edwards (Constable), John Scott (Prime Minister), Geoffrey Colville (Geoffrey). Synopsis : Bomb plots and assissination attenpts threaten the very core and foundation of British rule. Captain Virgin exposes an arch enemy's diabolical greedy scheme.
Director : Robert D Cardona Script : Nicholas Palmer Cast : David Bauer (Big Jack), Al Mancini (Jesse), Carlton Hobbs (Professor Whitestone). Synopsis : Virign comes face to face with Big Jack, a Texas gunslinger, when he tries to free a captured Englishman.
Director : Robert D Cardona Script : John Roberts Cast : John Grieve (Lord Of Glencraig), Ian White (Prince Luigi), Milton Reid (Taro). Synopsis : In Scotland Virign comes up against his deadliest enemy yet - the diabolical Lord Glencraig. |
 Veronica Strong and Clinton Greyn.. Ted Willis, esteemed creator of Dixon Of Dock Green, was the creative force behind this rather peculiar thirteen-part series, transmitted between March and June in 1968, and featuring the exploits of Royal Dragoon Captain Robert Virgin of the British Secret Service. Welshman
Clinton Greyn portrayed the titular hero of the programme, Britain's
top secret agent fighting the enemies of the British Empire in
1907. Each week, assisted by his batman Doublett (John Cater)
he would protect the honour of the country, save the life of his emancipated
fiancée Mrs Virginia Cortez (Veronica Strong) or be asked
to put his life in danger by his commanding officer Colonel Shaw-Camberley
(Noel Coleman). His regular nemesis was the evil German masterspy
Karl Von Brauner (Alexander Dore) and his demented aide Klaus
Striebeck (Peter Swannick) who would stop at nothing to either kill,
capture or torture Virgin. The series saw Virgin globetrotting around the world in his mission to thwart the enemies of Britain. Exotic locations including India, Arabia, Brazil, St Petersburg, Texas and Croatia where realised in the ATV studios in a bid to give the series a glamorous and cosmopolitan feel, echoing the international settings for James Bond and the blossoming of the spy genre in the 60s. In many ways the series was a tongue in cheek spoof of both the Bond films and period dramas with the comic strip storylines and characters also shadowing the escapades of the gentlemen adventurer Adam Adamant with a sprinkling of The Avengers thrown in for good measure. Greyn, a sadly underused actor, excelled as the heroic Virgin and was well supported by Veronica Strong (one time wife of scriptwriter Jeremy Burnham) as the feisty and independent Cortez. Peter Swannick, who was sadly only a few months away from an untimely and premature death, efficiently played the evil Striebeck. The series also benefited from a strong array of guest stars including Cyril Luckham, Patience Collier, Gabrielle Drake, Desmond Llewellyn, Roger Delgaldo, Jennie Linden, Georgina Hale and Rodney Bewes to name but a few. The programme did not benefit from a network transmission, and instead the various ITV areas opted to schedule the show on different days and at different times. A chance of establishing a regular audience was finally destroyed by further fiddling with the transmission slot by the various broadcasters. The final half of the series was moved to a 6:30 pm Tuesday teatime slot by Associated Rediffusion, whilst the London area had the final episodes zipping all over the place with transmission on Tuesdays ranging from 6:30 pm to a graveyard 11:00 pm broadcast. Virgin
Of The Secret Service is not often recalled these days and has been
sonsigned to the shelf marked "interesting attempt, that failed
to catch on." However, all the episodes apparently still exist
so a commercial release could one day be a possibility.
The series was created by Ted Willis and produced by Josephine Douglas. The series was edited by Nicholas Palmer. The theme tune was composed by Larry Adler. Text © Andrew Screen, 2005. Many thanks to Nick Gilbert and Andrew Pixley for supplying valuable info from the TV Timess.
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