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The Troubleshooters Character Biographies
N.B. These profiles are based on details published in the Radio Times, January 26, 1967, however the last three entries are written from scratch.

Peter Thornton (Operations Manager)
Age: 39
Background: Wildest member of a Queensland small-town family
Education: Brisbane Grammar
Pre-Mogul: Roamed around the world after leaving school. Served with the Australian army in Korea before he joined Mogul

With Mogul: Began as a "roughneck" (driller) on a Middle East rig, then moved to offshore drilling in the Caribbean. By the end of the 1950s he had worked in most of the world's oilfields and had become a senior drilling supervisor in charge of the Muscat area. Then he was sent by Mogul to study mineralogy in California. His most recent jobs with the company have been as Operations Manager in charge first of the search for oil and gas under the North Sea and then in the Caribbean. He knows a lot about new American drilling techniques. His technical knowledge is greater than Stewart's.
Remarks: His trip to California sophisticated him a good deal although he is still something of a rough diamond. Plenty of energy and ability, and has a knack of getting on with almost everyone. Can talk too much. His marriage broke up last year after ten years. His wife couldn't stand the oil company way of life and left him. He now seems to have a fairly settled ménage in South Kensington with Julie Serres.

Alec Stewart (Principal Assistant to the Managing Director)
Age: 42
Background: Comfortable middle-class father - father a Scot, mother from Stoke-on-Trent
Education: Downside; Cambridge (where he took a good law degree)
Pre-Mogul Career: Fighter pilot in the later years of the Second World War - won D.F.C and Bar. Demobbed with rank of Squadron Leader. Successful career in big business as a company lawyer

With Mogul: Brought in as one of Stead's assistants. Now Stead's principal assistant and used by him mainly as a negotiator
Remarks: Has "clean hands" - and relatively little experience of operational work. Technical knowledge suspect. But his skill as a negotiator is of a high order. Has a slightly affected manner which conceals real toughness. Some people call him "Smart Alec Stewart". Does not play on his good war record. Very ambitious. His home life is conventional. He is a practicing Roman Catholic, is happily married, and has just bought a new house off the King's Road. His home life matters to him intensely; he would fight to the death for it. This is his second marriage, his first wife having died five years previously. But is his present wife, Roz, getting into deep financial waters with her fashion boutique in Chelsea? It doesn't seem to be doing too well. Alec Stewart was portrayed by actor Robert Hardy.

Roz Stewart (Alec Stewart's Wife)
Age: 28
Daughter of an Air Vice-Marshal. An independent woman who is concerned both with being a good wife to Alec and with running her fashion boutique in Chelsea. She has financed it with her own money which she saved up during her career as a model. Now that her stepson Geoffrey is away at school, Roz devotes more and more time to the shop. But recently business has hit a trough and Roz becomes increasingly worried during the series. This puts a strain - for the first time - on an otherwise happy marriage. Roz Stewart was portrayed by actress Deborah Stanford.

Julie Serres (Peter Thornton's Girlfriend)
Age: 23
A real "cookie" who has brains as well. She is the daughter of a Dutch diplomat who married an Englishwoman. Although she is now very much attached to the "scene" in London, she is completely at home in almost any European capital. She does odd jobs - working in art galleries, helping out at escort agencies and the like, but she has enough money of her own not to need to work. She values her independence, and living with Peter Thornton suits her very well. She likes the free-and-easy nature of the arrangement. Julie Serres was played by actress Virginia Wetherall.

Brian Stead (Managing Director)
Age: 55
Background: Ordinary Midlands middle class
Education: Leicester Grammar School
Pre-Mogul Career: None

With Mogul: He joined Mogul from school. Basically an operations man. He survived apprenticeships in Maracaibo, Sarawak, and the Persian Gulf and made his name with a big pipeline project in the Middle East. Seconded during the war to the Ministry of Supply and then put into uniform to direct the Army's petrol supplies in Germany. Since 1945 he has moved from one major job to another in Mogul. He is now Managing Director and is the dynamo in Mogul's executive suite. He has a mind like a geological system - layer upon layer laid down by thought and experience. There are almost always unrevealed depths of understanding in the decisions he makes with such apparent casualness. He now knows almost everything and everybody worth knowing, not only in Mogul, but in the world oil trade. Someone once summed him up by saying of him: "He has a heart of gold, an IQ of 140, and he's soaked in the oil business like an old rag". He is a widower and lives with an unmarried sister in Sussex. During the week he stays in the company flat in Park Lane. But more often than not he is globetrotting - always going off to New York or Kuwait, Venezuela, or Borneo. In a way he has no home, and despite the number of people he meets he knows no one really well. His relaxations - when time permits - are tennis and squash. Stead has one son, John, who has worked until recently in the Foreign Office. Now he has joined Mogul and during the first story he faces his first big test.

Claire Cooke (Secretary to the Managing Director)
Age: 26
She has replaced Jane Webb - who has married a Frenchman - as Stead's secretary. Educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College, and is English through and through. She is intelligent and efficient and has enough spirit to be well able to resist any attempts at bullying by Stead or his colleagues. Red-headed and attractive, she is very good at dealing with advances from men. When anybody wants to take care of her she explains that for some time she has been looking after not only herself but other people as well.

Eileen O'Rourke (Public Relations Officer)
A feisty young Scottish woman, Eileen O'Rourke knows how to play the games inherent in the man's world of oil. Whilst not equal in stature to Peter Thornton or Willy Izard, she knows how to diplomatically handle and maneuver both men to serve her own ends. She works closely with Brian Stead to ensure that Mogul's victories are highly publicized, and the mistakes make along the way (particularly by loose-cannon, Alec Stewart) remain undisclosed. She is a determined young woman with a mind of her own, and whilst counseled by Stead she will not be lead by him when she believes a better result can be achieved via her own means. Eileen O'Rourke was played by actress Isobel Black.

Doctor Ginny Vickers (Personal Assistant to Alec Stewart)
The female equivalent of Peter Thornton, Doctor Ginny Vickers is Alec Stewart's Personal Assistant and general dogsbody. She is a bright girl with a first from Oxford University, and a Ph.D from Yale. She is primarily responsible for keeping Stewart's head above water during his power struggle with Brian Stead. Her ability to exploit her feminine wiles to aid his cause is fully exploited by Stewart, who uses Vickers as readily as he does other members of Mogul staff in his bid for the Mogul Managing Directorship. Ginny Vickers was played by actress Jayne Sofiano.

James Langley (Deputy Chairman of Mogul Oil)
Introduced in the final series of The Troubleshooters as the Deputy Chairman of Mogul Oil, James Langley, is diametrically opposite to Managing Director Brian Stead. A liberal humanitarian, he can recognize the strengths of Stead's ruthless leadership of the firm, but is cognizant of the human costs associated with big business. He injects an air of decency into Mogul's affairs, much to the chagrin of Stead who sees his interference as an unnecessary complication in the smooth-running of "his" company. Langley uses his position within Mogul to pressure Stead into making the right decisions, not necessarily the most commercially-viable ones, and the two men are often brought into conflict with one another. James Langley was played by actor John Carson.