The Troubleshooters episode guide season 4

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Episode Guide

SEASON FOUR
Originally transmitted between 9:05pm and 9:55pm on Friday nights.

Dragon By The Tail

TX : 13th October 1967
Director : Moira Armstrong
Script : Anthony Read
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Lucille Soong (Suzie), Kristopher Kum (Mang Hing Chung), John Bailey (Richard Short), Ahmad Zulkiflee (Hotel Room Boy), Tsai Chin (Esther Ho), Lian-Shin (Singer), Arnold Lee (Junk Skipper) and Robert Lee (Ho Man Chin).

Synopsis : Peter Thornton is sent to Hong Kong to make contact with a top oil-scientist who is about to escape from China. He meets a young Chinese girl who involves him in her personal tragedy, and soon he is caught up in a web of international intrigue, to the dismay of Managing Director Brian Stead and Company Secretary Willy Izard.

Radio Times publicity :October 5, 1967 - The Troubleshooters: Back tonight the award-winning series which went looking for trouble - and found it - as producer Peter Graham Scott explains. At thirty-thousand feet the pressurized cabin was pleasantly cool. Across the aisle a businessman from Manchester ordered more champagne. The countryside below was green and luxuriant. Only the cotton-wool puffs of artillery fire reminded us it was Vietnam. With me were Ray Barrett, director Moira Armstrong, story editor Anthony Read, and South African cameraman Ernest Christie. Behind us lay the riot-torn streets of Hong Kong. Ahead lay India with its terrible famine and more riots, and Arabia and the Middle East only barely recovering from a major war. Filming on location is never easy, but for the new Troubleshooters series we had chosen the hardest places of all to work in. Oil is a crucial factor in the international power-struggle, and The Troubleshooters of Mogul Oil always find adventure in the trouble-spots of the world. This is why we had made our trip to the Far East to film in the streets of Kowloon and Hong Kong, with Ray Barrett and Tsai Chin, for the first episode of the new series, "Dragon By The Tail", by Anthony Read. Through the summer our units have been filming all over the world. In Thailand, in New Delhi, and at the Taj Mahal, in the Lebanon, and in Canada at Expo 67. Ray Barrett, who plays Peter Thornton, must be one of the hardest-worked actors in the business. On Friday, April 14, he finished recording the last Troubleshooters of the previous series at 9:30pm, dashed to the Lyceum to pick up the Weekend magazine Silver Star Award for the Best Television Series from Jimmy Savile, and caught the plane to Hong Kong at 11 o'clock the following morning. Some weeks (and about seventeen countries) later, he reappeared in London for rehearsal after a brief holiday in Spain. Now he is lucky to get one day off a week. Most of the regulars will be reappearing in the new series. Brian Stead (Geoffrey Keen) and Willy Izard (Philip Latham) will be making occasional sorties from the executive suite into the world of action. We shall also see something of Alec Stewart (Robert Hardy) and Roz (Deborah Stanford) in their new home in America. A new Public Relations girl, Eileen O'Rourke, will be Isobel Black's glamorous contribution, and two young men, a Canadian, Mike Szabo (David Barron), and a very correct Englishman, Charles Grandmercy (Edward de Souza) will emerge as the series progresses. Our first story tonight shows how Thornton is sent to Hong Kong to make contact with a top oil-scientist who is about to escape from China. He meets a young Chinese girl who involves him in her personal tragedy, and soon he is caught up in a web of international intrigue, to the dismay of Managing Director Brian Stead and Company Secretary Willy Izard. Filmed among the teeming crowds of Hong Kong streets, in the sampans and floating shacks of Hong Kong's Aberdeen, and in the rat-infested shanty-town near Kowloon, "Dragon By The Tail" is one of the most exciting episodes in the new series. But there is much more excitement, drama, and surprise in store.

The Daring Young Man

TX : 20th October 1967
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : John Elliot
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), David Bauer (Andrea Szabo), John Horsley (Cardew), Barry Keegan (Pringle), Jayne Sofiano (Virginia-Ann Straker), David Baron (Mike Szabo), Robert Pitt (Driller) and Mirabelle Thomas (Mogul Secretary).

Synopsis : "Find this man and bring him here," Stead orders Peter Thornton. But the man is crossing the Sahara - and doesn't want to return.

Where The Carpet Ends

TX : 27th October 1967
Director : Moira Armstrong
Script : John Elliot
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Marion Mathie (Gladys West), David Baron (Mike Szabo), Susan Lefton (Ann Rendell), Eveline Garratt (Miss Tate), James Appleby (Bourton), Michael Rose (MacFarlane), Simon Lack (George West), John Breslin (Ralph Pengilly) and Geoffrey Chater (Charles du Cros).

Synopsis : No synopsis available at present.

Radio Times publicity : October 19, 1967 - Isobel Black has played almost everything from a spy in Vendetta to the girl who liked robots and is rapidly becoming a very familiar face on television. In the last series of The Troubleshooters she made a brief appearance as Eileen O'Rourke the public relations officer and so impressed producer Peter Graham Scott that she has got a regular part. She becomes P.R.O to Brian Stead and specializes in hushing things up. "Stead's personal hush puppy," to quote Peter Graham Scott. With other Troubleshooters stars Isobel has been globe-trotting and future episodes take her to Saudi Arabia, the Sudan, and New York .

Winner Lose All

TX : 10th November 1967
Director : James Gatward
Script : Ian Kennedy Martin
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Alan Rowe (Dino Marinetti), Matthew Long (English Mechanic), Patrick Barr (Sir John Savory), Barbara Barnett (Secretary), Sarah Atkinson (Liz Savory), Shay Gorman (Joe Traynor), John Barcroft (Giles Craig), Barrie Cookson (Pearsall) and Geoffrey Lewis (Commentator).

Synopsis : Against the background of an international power-boat race in which Mogul has an interest, Peter Thornton is faced with an impossible choice.

Radio Times publicity : November 2, 1967 - Experts In Oil: The men behind The Troubleshooters as well as the men on the screen as experts in oil. Most television production offices look pretty much like what they are. Stills from past programmes decorate the walls, cans of film and draft scripts lie about on the desks, but one such office in the Television Centre, London, looks as if it is at least half concerned with another kind of production entirely. Abstruse technical journals dealing with the international oil business are in evidence, there is a library of books with titles like Chemicals From Petroleum and Oil And Petroleum Year Book and the walls display large maps showing North Sea concession areas and all the world's oilfields. This is the office occupied by Anthony Read, story editor since the outset of the award-winning series The Troubleshooters, and of its predecessor Mogul. One of the most important aspects of his job is to ensure that the reputation for strict technical accuracy that the series has achieved is maintained, and to do this he has had to turn himself into a very fair imitation of a real troubleshooting oil executive. So much so that on one occasion - that of the loss of the offshore drilling-rig Sea Gem in the North Sea - he found himself being interviewed on radio not as an expert on drama but as an authority on this type of oil operation. In a way, he and his colleagues in The Troubleshooters team regret that, by luck and judgement, the series met an almost impossibly high standard of authenticity right at the start. "Our very first episode told of gas being discovered in one specific area of the North Sea," he recalls, "shortly after we recorded it, gas was found - precisely at the spot that Mogul found it". There are other disadvantages about stickling for accuracy. "we have several times had to scrap completed scripts because subsequent events, political and otherwise, have shown them to be too close to the truth for comfort, the last occasion being the Israeli-Arab war," Read says, "and one story that was in fact transmitted caused a certain oil company boss to start a full-scale enquiry among his staff into what he was convinced was a deliberate leak of confidential information". Read insists that The Troubleshooters is much more about people than it is about oil. "But by getting the background right we make the people that much more believable" and tonight's episode, called "Winner Lose All", underlines his point. The background is an international power-boat race in which Mogul has an interest, and this is as meticulously researched as ever; but the story is about a very human situation with Peter Thornton (Ray Barrett), confronted with a choice.

A Nice White Girl - Is She For Sale?

TX : 17th November 1967
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : David Weir
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), David Barron (Mike Szabo), Peter Wyngarde (Sheik Mohammed bin Falik), John Bloomfield (Snow), Cleo Sylvester (Karima), Gertan Klauber (Kulator), Selma Vaz Dias (Malissa), Donald Hoath (Captain Mead), Salmaan Peer (Ajibba) and Noel Howlett (Sir Thomas Hewitt).

Synopsis : A desert Sheik tries to buy Eileen O'Rourke. But Szabo thinks this is too high a price to pay for an oil concession.

Radio Times publicity : November 9, 1967 - A Nice White Girl, Is She For Sale?: Tonight Eileen O'Rourke becomes a negotiable asset. Here we meet the girl who plays her, Isobel Black. A student of present show-business form could probably write out the names of all the pretty, talented young actresses who might, just might, achieve international stardom - and the total wouldn't exceed a handful. Certainly, that handful would include the name of Isobel Black. She is twenty-four and has been acting for nearly a decade, starting with schoolgirl appearances in The Invisible Man and Sir Francis Drake. Her father was script editor for both television series. Isobel, despite her distinctive good looks, has never come close to being type-cast, which perhaps explains why she's seldom lacked work and why she has so far not been conspicuously identifiable. She's played assorted foreigners as well as variously accented British girls. (Her own voice is pure and slightly actressy except for an occasional `Och!' when roused in argument; she was born in Edinburgh and her great-uncles were Scottish clergymen). Simplicity and sophistication, comedy and tragedy, sexiness and innocence are all within her professional range. For instance, she has been seen as a seemingly sweet girl with a secret problem (vampirism) in a horror picture; the girl friend of both Likely Lads; and currently she is the smart, efficient P.R.O for Mogul in The Troubleshooters. Also, she has shown charm and easy talkativeness as a television "personality" during three appearances on Juke Box Jury, a show she describes as "great fun - though I have no special knowledge of pop, but do love music". Naturally, the suggestion that international stardom could be within her grasp is music to her ears. "If it came I would welcome it," she comments, "because I am ambitious for things I want to do that seem to me of value I'd love to do films. I found a very exciting atmosphere during the making of the few films I've been in. I loved getting up at 5:30 and driving to Pinewood! And it's a pleasure to keep a character in your mind for three months". Her mother used to be a well-known actress (Anne Brook) until the demands of family-raising took over. Isobel has a younger sister and brother; both are thinking about theatrical careers. "I've always liked painting, sculpting, and writing, but acting claimed me before I left school. I went to see Robert Atkins at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre to ask if he was doing A Midsummer Night's Dream and could I be a fairy? He replied `No, I'm doing the Tempest, you can read for Miranda'. I got the part, even though I had to miss some rehearsals to take my A-level examinations in Art". After this stupendously easy start (her only previous experience was those television films: she has never been to drama school), Isobel moved on when she left grammar school to Manchester repertory where, after one audition, she was hired for six months. Back in London, she got a good agent and has worked fairly steadily for the last six years. "If you are competent, adaptable and enjoy your work, it seems to come. I was not encouraged by my parents (though their criticisms were helpful) and I gave myself a year in which to make a go of acting. Within that year I had bought a car and was paying for my keep, I've been lucky and always optimistic - I just know things in life work out". She owns an old Swedish yacht which she keeps on the Thames, is saving up to buy a country cottage, and intends to invest any big future earnings in property and antiques. Apart from acting, she hopes to make money from writing. She's written, and sold, a few articles (including one to Punch on the tribulations of an actress being photographed), and has just submitted, under a false name, a romantic comedy to BBC Television. It's in no way based on fact ("the whole story just happened in my head while I was lying in bed") for, as she admits, she hasn't had much time for real-life romance!

Mr Know-How

TX : 24th Novenber 1967
Director : Ian MacNaughton
Script : Roy Russell
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Trevor Martin (Colin Maddox), Bernard Lee (Bernard Halt), John Steiner (Lord Flavell), Kate O'Mara (Kim Hart), Margaret Ward (Joan Izard), David Barron (Mike Szabo) and Walter Swash (GPO Tower Attendant).

Synopsis : Willy Izard tries to repay a debt to his former boss. But loyalty can cloud a man's judgement - as Willy learns to his cost.

Trivia : At 8:20pm, Edwin Apps and Pauline Devaney's evangelical sitcom All Gas And Gaiters returned for a second season, with Derek Nimmo (who was appearing in Charlie Girl at the Adelphi Theatre, London) featuring as The Reverend Mervyn Noote.

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down

TX : 1st December 1967
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : John Lucarotti
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Zara Tait (Mother), Kenneth Kendall (Newsreader), Camilla Brockman (Claire Cooke), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Imogen Hassall (Nancy Clucas), Bruno Barnabe (Doctor Giuseppe Casale), Derren Desbitt (Lanyon), Michael Godfrey (Commandante Bekkat), John Savident (Francis Pearce), Geoffrey Palmer (Jeremy Martin), Brian Wilde (Hodges), Christopher Carlos (Abdul Djarda) and Ali Hassan (Sergeant).

Synopsis : "It took an earthquake to get him," Brian Stead mourns when Peter Thornton disappears in a Moroccan disaster. But for Stead and his new assistant, this is only the start of Mogul's troubles.

Good Lord, No, It's Illegal

TX : 8th December 1967
Director : Raymond Menmuir
Script : David Weir
Cast :Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Tsai Chin (Mei San), James Maxwell (Ian Palmer), Richard Armour (Doctor Green), Frank Gatliff (Heston), Jennifer Clulow (Miss Clarkson), Robert James (Barry), Wanda Ventham (Moira) and David Nettheim (Doctor Meyer).

Synopsis : One man's journey blocks Mogul's plans in Singapore. Brian Stead sets out to destroy him, but finds himself torn by personal problems.

Thanks For Nothing

TX : 15th December 1967
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : David Weir
Cast : Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Deborah Stanford (Roz Stewart), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Griffith Jones (Brian Winstanley), Stuart Cooper (Chris Davis), Grant Taylor (Al Viner), Helen Horton (Lois Winstanley), Bee Duffell (Mary Ann Viner) and Bill Nagy (Douglas).

Radio Times publicity : December 7, 1967 - Mogul's Man In New York: Since Troubleshooter Alec Stewart became Director of Mogul's New York office he has been heard of only infrequently. Robert Hardy explains why he prefers Stewart not to be permanently on show: "I think I can contribute better if I am not there constantly, and I must get back to the theatre from time to time". However, tonight's episode crosses the Atlantic to where Alec and Roz have been settling in over the Mogul offices in Manhattan. The local manager (played by Griffith Jones) does not seem quite up to his job and Alec ruthlessly seeks a way to unseat him. Furthermore, secrets from New York are being leaked to Mogul's rival, Zenith, and Brian Stead sends Charles Grandmercy to find out what is going on. A clash of personalities ensues…

Rest You Merry

TX : 22nd December 1967
Director : Peter Cregeen
Script : Eve Martell
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Julian Battersby (Ken Roach), James Fitzgerald (Mike McCormick), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Jennifer Clulow (Miss Clarkson), Harry Towb (Calvin McQuitty), Dermot Tuohy (Charlie Woods), Rio Fanning (Harry Cobbett), Wanda Ventham (Moira), Gerard Heinz (Doctor Freimann) and Edward Malin (Dan).

Synopsis : Fire in a refinery mars Mogul's happy Christmas. For Peter Thornton, duty conflicts with friendship, while Brian Stead finds a business deal threatened by the arrival of his grandchildren.

Trivia : Following directly after The Troubleshooters at 9:55pm, Drive Or Drink? (a fifteen minute programme) was hailed in the Radio Times as follows: "It is ten weeks since police began using the breathalyzer to test drivers' breath for drink. Tonight, on the eve of the Christmas holiday, outside broadcast cameras examine the effect of the new law. Are there fewer road accidents? How many drivers have refused to take the breathalyzer test? How big is the loss of business for public houses, hotels, and restaurants?". Perhaps inebriated viewers switched over to The Andy Williams Show on BBC-2 …

Who Buys Who?

TX : 29th December 1967
Director : James Gatward
Script : Ray Jenkins
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Angela Browne (Penny), Bob Hornery (Boatman), Valerie Ann Fisher (Secretary), Peter Egan (Reporter), Jack Watson (Big Gally), Eileen Way (Saroya), Ivor Danvers (Simon Fairlie), Felicity Gibson (Connie), Donald Pickering (Dee), Walter Horsbrugh (Tudor Of Gwent), Eric Dobson (Gemmell), Derek Ware (Man) and Jonathan Adams (Doctor).

Synopsis : Peter Thornton risks his job when he refuses to threaten an old friend for Mogul. But the friend faces greater dangers from others.

The Deeper You Dig

TX : 5th January 1968
Director : Brian Parker
Script : Hugh Forbes
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Edward Davies (Blake), John Hussey (Denning), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Barbara Shelley (Joan Maple), Joan Crane (Annabel), Frederick Treves (Hopkins), Alan Gifford (Harriman), James Appleby (Reg), Rex Robinson (Alec), James Ottaway (Cox), Tony Wall (Tanker) and Peter Dennis (Television Interviewer).

Synopsis : Peter Thornton learns a hard lesson from a glamorous woman MP when he fights the British Government over new plans for the Channel Tunnel.

Kitchener Knew It Well

TX : 12th January 1968
Director : Raymond Menmuir
Script : Eve Martell
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Kenneth Watson (Macfarlane), Jennifer Clulow (Secretary), Michael Goodliffe (Ivor Brangwyn), Vera Fusek (Helena), Thomas Baptiste (Osman Yussif), Bari Jonson (Abdul Khamsin) and Kevin Brennan (Zanetti).

Synopsis : Returning to the Sudan arouses forgotten memories for Brian Stead. But Peter Thornton and Eileen O'Rourke are faced with saving a tanker from shipwreck.

Radio Times publicity : January 11, 1968 - Mogul's Impact On The World Of Oil: The Troubleshooters - Like any other big business concern Mogul is controlled from an executive suite - with Brian Stead and Willy Izard at the helm. But Mogul's business is OIL. And oil affects the lives of people at all levels and all over the world. Mogul, of course, exists only in the world of television fiction; whereas oil itself is real enough and makes headline news every day. Not surprisingly the makers of The Troubleshooters on BBC-1 turn to life for their raw material - sometimes even predicting the future - as Gay Search has been finding out. Black Gold - Oil, That Is: It comes out of the ground thick, black and smelly. It could finish up as a nylon nightdress or tarring the surface of a motorway, burning in a paraffin heater in Birmingham, or powering a supersonic airliner. It is pumped from the middle of the Sahara desert, or from the bottom of the North Sea. It keeps hinges from squeaking and controls the balance of power in the Middle East. OIL. And that's what Mogul, the fictional company on which The Troubleshooters centres, sends it employees right round the world to find. The series is set in the world of really big business - the world of high-powered executives like Mogul's Brian Stead, or jet-set globetrotters like Peter Thornton. But the fact that it's oil that they're dealing in, not tinned fruit or aeroplanes, is crucial. As Torubleshooters story editor, Anthony Read, says, there's no end-product to mock up - no tins of fruit, no selections of aeroplane fuselage. We see all the trappings, the petrol pumps, the oil derricks, but we don't need to see the oil itself. But more important is the fact that oil enters so many areas of life. The industry operates on an almost unbelievably vast scale. One of the major seven oil companies - Mogul likes to think of itself as the eighth - has a yearly turnover of one-thousand-five-hundred-million-pounds - which is more than the total income of many small countries. And oil is one of the only truly international commodities. It is found in America, Russia, Venezuela, the Middle East, and China. The first episode of the current series, "The Dragon's Tail", centred around the only known oilfield in China, at Taching, and pretty well all the knowledge that the Western powers have about it was revealed in that script. The amount of power wielded by oil companies is enormous. Oil in this century has become one of the major factors in world politics. Witness the effect of the Arab-Israeli war, where one of the first reprisals the Arab states took against Britain was to cut off our supply of oil. It is not until times of crisis like this, as Anthony Read pointed out, that we realize quite how important a commodity oil is. Without it, trains, cars, planes, ships could not move, much heavy industry would grind to a halt. Everybody is affected by oil. Since their very beginning, Mogul and now The Troubleshooters have been highly praised for their technical authenticity, not only by the public and the critics, but by the men in the know - real oil company executives. The original team behind the series, John Elliot, Peter Graham Scott, and Anthony Read, soaked themselves in the details of oil and its production and they have nothing but praise for the oil companies. For once the phrase "without whose help this series could never have been made" really rings true. Wherever they can, the companies cooperate, and offer the production teams what facilities they can. They allow film crews aboard tankers, but as it would be very expensive to delay one of these monster fuel transports in port a moment longer than is necessary, the crew has to be ready to go on board the minute the tanker arrives, film while she's unloading, and be off before she is ready to sail. And of course, they have to use clockwork cameras. The consequences of one stray, electric spark amid all those thousands of tons of oil, are too enormous to contemplate. Unfortunately the Troubleshooters team have never managed to get out to a North Sea drilling rig. The arrival of cameras, technicians, and actors would hold up operations and cost thousands of pounds. Had this been possible, they would have had to take an all-male team out there. One of the very few oilmen's supersititions - they've too hard-headed for many - is that women on rigs are extremely unlucky, and a woman is therefore persona non grata. One enterprising woman journalist smuggled herself out to a rig on board the company's helicopter. But she was spotted the moment she tried to step out on to the rig platform, picked up and dumped bodily back into the helicopter. On all the technical aspects of the oil business, The Troubleshooters production team can't be faulted. Some of this knowledge rubs off onto the actors, not surprisingly. Ray Barrett who plays Peter Thornton finds that in most episodes it's he how has to explain any technicalities that need explaining. "I can't learn a script until I understand how whatever I'm trying to explain works," says Ray. "I must be the only actor who learns his lines by drawing diagrams!" Ray feels that he's now got a pretty good grasp of the workings of various pieces of oil machiner, "though for heaven's sake don't expect me to know what to do if anything goes wrong". And it gives him a degree of authority that conveys itself to viewers. He really does seem to know what he's talking about. The head of trade relations in one of the "big seven" gives Troubleshooters top marks for technical accuracy, but has some reservations about the picture of management it presents. "As far as I can see," he says, "Mogul is run by Brian Stead, Willy Izard, and Peter Thornton single-handed. I've got six thousand people working in this building alone. But no doubt the Mogul boys are a lot smarter than we are!" The production team would be the first to agree that they've condensed the jobs of lots of people into those done by the three main characters. They've had to. No Managing Director would have the time to take such a personal interest as Brian Stead does in the day-to-day affairs of a company the size of Mogul. But it would be impossible, dramatically, to keep track of twenty or so top executives, let alone remember from week to week exactly who was who! The necessary condensation apart though, the main characters are pretty recognizable oil executive types. Geoffrey Keen who plays Brian Stead was invited to an oilmen's dinner, and during a conversation someone asked him: "Which company did you say you were with?". "Mogul," replied Geoffrey. "Ah, yes," said his questioner, "of course. How silly of me to forget" - and went away quite satisfied. Characters like Peter Thornton, who start their oil careers on rigs as "tool pushers" and then move into head-office jobs, are not all that common, but they do exist. "After all," Anthony Read points out, "most tool-pushers earn far too much money on the rigs to make the promotion worth their while". While The Troubleshooters follows the oil industry very closely in all things technical, the series has a knack - a very uncomfortable one in some quarters - of forecasting happenings in the world of oil. The most famous and much quoted example of the first big strike of gas in the North Sea coming in the same week that the episode dealing with that very subject was shown, is only one of many. Another episode to be seen later this year ("Just A Bunch Of Arabs In Kilts") tells the story of an oil strike off the coast of Scotland, and the subsequent, very real problems caused by an upsurge of Scottish nationalism. This episode was recorded the week before the first Scottish Nationalist M.P for over twenty years swept the board at the Hamilton by-election. The Troubleshooters are always highly delighted when their "prophecies" come true, but they find it a trifle galling that the relevant episode isn't seen till after the event and everyone thinks they took the idea from fact. In the twentieth century, there has been more oil used than during our whole history, but it still doesn't look as though supplies are running out. Oil has been found at a place called Athabasca, in Canada, in quantities that equal the rest of the world's current total output. The only problem has been to separate it from the sand with which it is mixed, and that is fast being solved. And, naturally, Mogul will be there …

The Sharp End Of The Wedge

TX : 19th January 1968
Director : James Gatward
Script : Ian Kennedy Martin
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), John Stratton (Dowding), Jack Le White (Paris Agent), Artro Morris (Harry), Alex Marchevsky (Grimaud), Yuri Borienko (Intruder), Joss Ackland (Considine), Diana Ashley (Car Hire Girl), Bloke Modisane (Chief Okani) and Eldridge Griffiths (Okani's Aide).

Synopsis : Peter Thornton gets involved with gun-runners when he is sent to Europe to find the secret of an African power struggle.

Just A Bunch Of Arabs In Kilts

TX : 26th January 1968
Director : James Gatward
Script : George Byatt
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Corbet Woodall (Newscaster), Fulton Mackay (MacKenzie), Alec Ross (Argyll), Margaret Leslie (S.R.A Girl), Willie Joss (Janitor), Yvonne Gilan (Allison MacKenzie), John Cazabon (Campbell), Jennifer Clulow (Stead's Secretary), Harvey Scott (Commissionaire) and Dominic Allan (Police Inspector).

Synopsis : Mogul strike oil off Scotland. But when Peter Thornton disappears, Brian Stead discovers there can be more problems at home than in the desert.

Not For My Friend - He's Driving

TX : 9th February 1968
Director : James Gatward
Script : John Lucarotti
Cast : Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Derek Sydney (Jaime Escardo), Alan Hass (Driver), Maxwell Shaw (Alfredo Ramerez), Juan Moreno (Carlow), Kenneth Farrington (Jimmy Saxon), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Yole Marinelli (Teresa Estoban), Louis Negin (First Official) and Frederick Schiller (Mine Superintendent).

Synopsis : Personal conflict flares when Alec Stewart and Charles Grandmercy try to carry a dangerous cargo into Venezuelan jungle.

Stop It, You're Breaking My Heart

TX : 16th February 1968
Director : Alan Gibson
Script : John Lucarotti
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Roddy McMillan (Angus Miller), Brian Blessed (Eddie Barnaby), Phil McCall (Jimmy McIntyre), Peter Baldwin (Doctor), Michael Graham Cox (Yuri Konchalovsky), Olive McFarland (Nina Kapler), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Paul Grist (Kalgarov), Joseph Furst (Zaluchin) and Paul Dawkins (Sir Edward Ridley).

Synopsis : A Russian rig starts drilling for oil in a Mogul North Sea area. Brian Stead needs all his wits and strength to get them out. But Stead is not well.

Radio Times publicity :February 8, 1968 - Brian's The "Hard Case" Type: Making a welcome appearance in tonight's The Troubleshooters is Brian Blessed, best known as Fancy Smith of the early Z Cars days and more recently as Porthos in The Further Adventures Of The Three Musketeers. Appearing with Brian in "Stop It, You're Breaking My Heart" will be most of the Mogul regulars. With one notable exception - Peter Thornton. At the time this story was recorded, Ray Barrett, who plays Peter Thornton, was stuck on Formentera, a tiny island off the coast of Spain, with a broken arm … so writer John Lucarotti and Troubleshooters story editor, Anthony Read, set to work and re-wrote the script in one day. Brian Blessed was brought in to play the new character they had written in - a rig boss. Blessed describes him as "a younger version of Peter Thornton, without the rough edges knocked off". Rough and tough parts seem to be Blessed's speciality. "If you're typed," he says bluntly, "then you've got to admit it". But having admitted it, he finds it much less of a problem than he'd feared. "Audiences are so sophisticated now; they tend to think of you as an actor - a good or bad one - not as the character you play. I rarely got letters starting, Dear Fancy Smith, they were all started, Dear Brian, or Dear Mr Blessed".

A Girl To Warm Your Feet On

TX : 23rd February 1968
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : David Weir
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Trevor Bannister (Bob Plater), Nicola Pagett (Christina van der Hoep), Paul Anil (Narai), Anthony Chinn (Thai Minister) and George Roubicek (Ed Wilson).

Synopsis : Peter Thornton takes a chance in Thailand - and lands Mogul in trouble.

Trivia : At 8:20pm on BBC-1, Richard Waring's sitcom Not In Front Of The Children returned for a second, eight-part series. This programme featured Ronald Hines (who had previously appeared as Derek Prentice in Mogul) and Wendy Craig (who was yet to make an appearance in The Troubleshooters).

Give Me The Simple Life

TX : 1st March 1968
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : John Lucarotti
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Ronan O'Casey (Lawrence), Rosemarie Reed (Libby), Deborah Stanford (Roz Stewart), Peter Madden (Senator Kersten), Blain Fairman (Jed Boliska), Robert O'Neil (Henderson), Bernard Horsfall (Peter), David Bauer (John) and Jane Jordan Rogers (Kirstie).

Synopsis : Alec Stewart clashes bitterly with Willy Izard and Brian Stead when the biggest project in the world threatens the homes of a hundred simple people.

Trivia : This episode was postponed from its original transmission date of February 2nd, 1968.

A Slight Problem With The Press

TX : 8th March 1968
Director : James Gatward
Script : Ian Kennedy Martin
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Justine Lord (Steve Thornton), Martin Benson (Major General Hassef), Yashar Adem (Major Atami), Bruno Barnabe (Tariq), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Patrick Westwood (Hossein), Baron Omidi (Dasar), Patrick Newell (Donald Keynes), Joan Alcorn (Keynes' Secretary), Elizabeth MacLennan (Lara Kastal) and Frank Middlemass (Mr Berans).

Synopsis : A false newspaper story brings trouble for Peter Thornton and Willy Izard in Iraq. But who started the story? Brian Stead and Eileen O'Rourke find the answer is very complicated.

Never The Twain

TX : 15th march 1968
Director : Raymond Menmuir
Script : Anthony Read
Cast : Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Saeed Jaffrey (Sunil Seth), Joss Ackland (Lewis), Faith Kent (Mrs Lewis), Rani Dube (Miss Kapur), Jennifer Clulow (Miss Clarkson), Jaron Yaltan (Tandor), Donald Pickering (Rawlings), Marne Maitland (Ramu Menon), Bakshi Prem (Minister) and Laurence Herder (Hertzman).

Synopsis : Willy Izard is the newly-appointed chairman of Mogul's Indian subsidiary company. His conscience is pricked by the sufferings of the starving people in Bihar. "We have an obligation to help" he says - but providing help proves more difficult than he imagines…

Radio Times publicity : March 7, 1968 - "It's Hard Work Being A Good Guy" says Troubleshooter Philip Latham: Philip Latham arrived at The Troubleshooters rehearsal room looking every inch the part of the Mogul director Willy Izard. The managing director Brian Stead immediately collared him and asked him if he'd done his duty yet. He hadn't As we sat in two armchairs, Philip explained that his "duty" was to make sure a table was booked for lunch. Next to us an actor fed his fruit machine winnings back into the hungry contraption, and another actor stood in a corner mumbling his lines to himself. Philip is a quiet, mild-mannered man. He admires the "good guy" Willy Izard because he is a gentleman and full of integrity. A newspaper columnist wrote of Alan Browning who has left the cast of The Newcomers that me made "decency interesting". That, says Philip Latham, is the sort of epitaph he would like when he leaves The Troubleshooters. Not that he has any plans to leave. "I enjoy it enormously, and I don't think the potential of the series has really been tapped yet," he says. "Oil encompasses everything, the capital is enormous and the business spans the world. One can't help being excited about it. You just try to write a series about boiled sweets …". Philip lives with his wife and two young children in Westcliff-on-Sea; he's lived there all his life. Nearby are two large oil refineries, though he is delighted that he cannot see them from his house. "I have a smattering of knowledge about what is going on in the oil world, but no more," he says. About his work on The Troubleshooters he says: "I don't want to be soft about it. I have got to work hard at it. It is my living". I asked him what he would wish for himself in an ideal world. He said: "It would be perfect to work without worrying about it. If one knew that one could achieve anything one was offered … that would be ideal".

Cut Off Whose Nose

TX : 22nd March 1968
Director : Viktors Ritelis
Script : John Gould
Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Eddy Stacey (Reporter), Terry Wright (Reporter), Jack Gwillim (Chairman), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Patrick Westwood (Hassud), Norman Florence (Marghen), Michael Godfrey (Feruz Khan), Irene Hamilton (Sarah Malet), Harvey Spencer (Officer), Richard Hampton (Gavin Malet), Mavis Villiers (Mrs Wilcox) and Kurt Christian (Maud Babari).

Trivia : At 7:30pm on BBC-1, the 100th episode of the popular American television series, The Man From U.N.C.LE, was transmitted. The episode, The Gurnius Affair, involved Thrush financing neo-NAZIs in a bid to direct a mind-control ray at Washington directly prior to a speech delivered by the President to a joint session of Congress. By comparison to a plot like this, Peter Thornton attempting to extricate a Mogul operative from a delicate political situation in Iraq in The Troubleshooters at 9:05pm seems like a return to sanity.

Radio Times publicity :March 14, 1968 - Gavin Malet, a geologist, and his wife Sarah are working as Mogul advisers in Iran. News reaches Brian Stead in London that they have been arrested and thrown into jail. Troubleshooters Peter Thornton and Charles Grandmercy, trying to get the couple released, find that the facts are far from straightforward - the Malets have been mixed up in negotiations far removed from Mogul activities. However, in order to free them Stead threatens to withdraw Mogul in toto from Iran. In the oil world, this is a threat which amounts to committing commercial suicide. But Stead probably has his reasons…

The Day The Sea Caught Fire

TX : 29th March 1968
Director : Alan Gibson
Script : John Lucarotti
Cast : Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Marki Marseilles (Bruno), John Horton (Johnny Sawchuk), Paul Armstrong (Umberto), Jennifer Clulow (Claire Clarkson), Zakes Mokae (Joshua Macey), Jack Gwillim (Sir Charles Bliss), Ania Marson (Angelica), James Caffrey (Luigi Porto), John Atkinson (Commander Reddington), Paul Hardwick (Giovanni Coltroni) and Arthur Pentelow (Newspaperman).

Synopsis : When the gas bubble exploded in the North Sea recently, every newspaper called The Troubleshooters' office. They knew the series' reputation for forecasting events. Was anything similar planned? The answer, inevitably, was: "We received the script last week". Once again Mogul got there first! In tonight's story, however, the explosions in the Mediterranean are much bigger. And it is only the start of Mogul's headaches. While Brian Stead copes with the international repercussions, Peter Thornton is sailing a relief rig through a Caribbean hurricane and Willy Izard faces trouble of a different sort in Sicily. They are all backed by some spectacular real-life film never before seen by the public.

The Dispossessed

TX : 5th April 1968
Director : James Gatward
Script : Roy Clarke

Cast : Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Christopher Carlos (Minister), Terence Lodge (Salah), Ronald Fraser (Wallace Nichols), Geula Jeffet (Sophie), Ahmed Nagi (Safi), Dennis Bernard (Arab Inspector), Brian Coburn (Hassan), Barbara Alleyn (Jane), John Ringham (Arthur), James Bree (Winbush), Sharon Young (Girlfriend) and Jack Le White (Timothy).
Synopsis : The man's impossible. He's a relic of Empire …" "They threw him on the heap. In the right spot he was a good man …" "I'm afraid that for people like him all the right spots have gone. The world's moved on half a turn. They've been left behind". What happened to men like Wallace Nichols? Mogul's top brass find the answer is by no means easy. The regular Mogul stars are joined tonight by Ronald Fraser in a brilliant performance which is both immensely funny and deeply tragic.

Trivia : This episode not only marked the first television script penned by Roy Clarke, but also paved the way for the popular Associated Television (ATV) series The Misfit. Dennis Vance and Roy Clarke recognized the potential of the character Wallace Nichols from this episode and approached Lew Grade with a treatment for a series which would feature Ronald Fraser (who had played Nichols in The Troubleshooters) in the title role - as the re-named Basil Allenby-Johnson.

The Wrecking Of The Sierra Nevada

TX : 19th April 1968
Director : Alan Gibson
Script : Michael Winder
Cast : Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Deborah Stanford (Roz Stewart), Peter Layock (First Officer Scott), Jerold Wells (Captain Thomas), Kynaston Reeves (Sir Peter Gibbon), Larry Cross (Senator Clarke), Anton Diffring (Hans Daniels) and David Healy (Smiley).

Synopsis : As Britain reeled under the recent gales Ray Barrett, director Alan Gibson and his crew were anxiously watching the shipping forecasts. They were due to sail aboard an oil tanker to film for tonight's episode. In the event, the gale at sea was a mere force eight. Cold and tough - but not unsuitable. For the action features an approaching hurricane. It centres around the efforts to save a giant Mogul tanker aground off Florida with cargo of one hundred thousand tones of crude oil. Peter Thornton, acting for Brian Stead, wants to bomb the ship, but Alec Stewart has his own reasons for refusing. And he is backed by a swashbuckling salvage expert, played by Anton Diffring, who is seen for once in a sympathetic role through a truly expensive situation.

The Minister Of The Crown … And The Very Compromising Photograph

TX : 3rd May 1968
Director : Roger Jenkins
Script : David Weir
Cast : Robert Hardy (Alec Stewart), Geoffrey Keen (Brian Stead), Ray Barrett (Peter Thornton), Philip Latham (Willy Izard), Isobel Black (Eileen O'Rourke), Jack Gwillim (Sir Charles Bliss), Clifford Evans (The Right Honourable Matt Mathias), Joan Newell (Helen Mathias), Deborah Stanford (Roz Stewart), Edward de Souza (Charles Grandmercy), Donald Bisset (Sir Richard Costello), Geoffrey Palmer (Jeremy Martin) and The Earl of Arran (Television Personality).

Synopsis : Brian Stead and Alec Stewart reach the final stage of their battle for power when Mogul is threatened by a senior Cabinet Minister.

The Troubleshooters Season Three episode guide

The Troubleshooters Season Five episode guide