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A BBC Television Drama Production for BBC-1 devised and created by John Elliot.
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THE TROUBLESHOOTERS PRODUCTION NOTES
© Matthew Lee, 2003.
The second season of The Troubleshooters was granted a Radio Times coverAfter thirteen weeks, Mogul had failed to muster a solid audience appreciation, and whilst the ratings figures were encouraging, no one at BBC Television seemed all that keen for the programme to continue. Requests for more from one quarter were met with silence from the other, and the futures of John Elliot and Peter Graham Scott, and the creation over which they had exerted so much creative talent, rested solely in the hands of Head of Drama Serials, Andrew Osborn, and BBC Television Controller, Michael Peacock. Whilst the series had been entertaining, many at the BBC considered its content to be more akin with "the other side" and preferred to direct their energies towards the popular This Man Craig, a BBC Scotland drama serial which was rapidly acquiring steady audience figures on the same evening Mogul was originally broadcast.

John Elliot observed that "a rumour went round the circular passages of Television Centre that, at the eleventh hour, Mogul had found its feet and its form" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot), but the uncertainty was not lifted until Elliot's agent contacted him to reveal: "It transpired during lunch with Sydney Newman today that he (Michael Peacock) values your series very highly, realizes the time lag in the event of an American co-production deal, wants to continue the series in spite of very disappointing audience figures, and says that he (Elliot) will have to do some very hard selling to Michael Peacock in view of the comparative lack of public interest" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Towards the end of August 1965, "Peter Graham Scott had managed to get a Hollywood film subsidiary of the Associated Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) of America interested in the possibility of making a new version of Mogul for the States. Two executives of the company flew to London, saw some of our recordings and were lunched by the higher echelons of the BBC. There was some discussion of co-producing the series to cover both countries, but nothing came of it". (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot).
As Mogul reached the end of its recording run, Peter Graham Scott was lured to This Man Craig in the capacity of producer. Scott, Osborn and the cast were keen for the series to continue, and whilst Peacock had his reservations, he too could recognize the programme's potential. However, Elliot feared that "it seemed more and more likely that Mogul would retreat into the shadowy margins of television history as just another once-only summer filler. If so, the sooner we all forgot about it the better" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Elliot turned his hand to writing a novel whilst his wife, Elizabeth, collaborated with him on the BBC's Eugenie Grandet, an adaptation in three forty-five-minute episodes. He adapted CP Snow's Corridors Of Power for the on-going Play Of The Month series, and basically ran on "auto-pilot" whilst the future of Mogul remained up in the air. In early October 1965, Scott and Elliot learned that Osborn had "cornered Michael Peacock into agreeing to another run of Mogul the following year, provided it was more generally popular and given a new title. There were to be twenty-six episodes, and recording was to start in March 1966 for transmissions beginning in May" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Scott was commissioned to a three-year contract to produce the revised series, which would require his tenure with This Man Craig to be abruptly cut short. Elliot opened dialogues with Osborne, Scott and Anthony Read as the team prepared a new direction for the second series of Mogul, provisionally entitled Tampico. Whilst the original series had contained individual episodes loosely connected by virtue of content and performers, the new requirement for a "much more tightly-knit and conventionally designed series centred round a small, easily identifiable group of character" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot) would prove more hard-going in practice than in theory.

Peter Graham Scott left This Man Craig early in the production of its first series, and met with Elliot and Read to discuss the direction the series would take. Whilst the essential shape of the characters and programme had been formed, the twenty-six episodes for the second season would enable the team to flesh out the characters and explore more elaborate set-pieces. Brian Stead and Willy Izard were to remain in the new series, but it was originally decided that there would be only two regular troubleshooters rather than three. Scott identified the budgetary restrictions under which the series would be produced, and recommended the primary cast be reduced. Ronald Hines' character, Derek Prentice, was the first character to be dismissed. Deemed as far less actively involved in the first series than either Stead, Izard or Peter Thornton, it was considered the duties of the Personnel Manager could be transferred to Thornton so as to heighten the dramatic capabilities inherent in the character as a roving troubleshooter. Elliot believed that Prentice was a character full of potential and could be firmly fleshed out in the new series, but he was overruled. Barry Foster's character, Robert Driscoll, was also abandoned - partly because it was considered that the Public Relations Officer should be a role which could be changed at the start of each potential series, and partly owing to the fact that Foster wanted to break free from the confines of television and return to stage and cinematic work. Elliot and Scott devised a replacement character for Prentice and Foster in the shape of Alec Stewart, the perfect foil for Brian Stead: "We christened him Alec Stewart, and Peter Graham Scott, whose drive and enterprise seemed undiminished after months of uphill work, persuaded the Shakespearean actor Robert Hardy - known on closer acquaintance as Tim - to play the part" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot).

Scott elected to change the programme's title back to Mogul, considering Delta to be a weaker equivalent and one which would fail to capture the spirit of the show. Whilst Scott had been captivated by Elliot's vision for the series, he was forced to deal with the production on a more practical level and draw upon his own experience in honing and defining the direction the programme would take: "The show had to move fast. Oil was about movement, pressure, speed. Scenes would have to start in the middle where the meat was without actors drifting through doors, and cut straight to the next on the last word of the climax. I needed dynamic camera angles. Television cameramen were getting awfully lazy, offering up loose head-and-shoulder shots when asked for tight close-ups. On Mogul we would insist on tight shots and more camera movement". (British Television: An Insider's History by Peter Graham Scott).
Scott recalled that "We created a new executive, Alec Stewart, ruthless and smooth, secretly waiting for Stead's job" (British Television: An Insider's History by Peter Graham Scott), and this central premise would fuel the character and the dramatic interplay between himself and Brian Stead throughout the seasons which were to follow. Philippa Gail, who had portrayed Stead's assistant Jane Webb in the final episode of Mogul, was to return as a permanent fixture of the new series, and Alec Stewart's wife, Roz, was created to counterbalance his fierce ambition. She would be equally ambitious, but a far more humane character on the whole (Deborah Stanford would later be cast in the role). Finally, it was decided that Justine Lord would reprise her character of Thornton's wife so as to provide a dramatic hook upon which the new series could be connected (the disintegration of their marriage). It was agreed that a concerted effort to give the female characters real character in the new production. The financial constraints of the new series meant that Scott would need to utilize his leading performers as sparingly as possible, with Thornton and Stewart appearing in alternate episodes and very rarely together so as to ensure there was enough money left to cover the vast location footage which would be at their disposal: "Our conflicts could now bet set anywhere in the world, in Saigon or New York, Cairo or Copenhagen, the clashes and triumphs were directed by Stead from the London office - a unique opportunity for a dramatic reflection of contemporary life in mid-1960s Britain" (British Television: An Insider's History by Peter Graham Scott). Elliot could recognize the potential of devoting entire episodes to the primary cast members, and with Thornton and Stewart appearing in separate episodes, he hopes that Stead and Izard would be afforded the same dramatic opportunities.

The ground rules now having been set, the team set to work on a list of possible subjects for the content of this new series, as outlined by Elliot himself: "1: Thornton and Stewart compete for promotion when an oil strike in the Caribbean promises a new field for Mogul. 2: Stewart investigates an airliner crash for which Mogul fuel is blamed. 3: Thornton, on a super-tanker, is involved in the problems created by allowing senior officers' wives on board. 4: Stewart, as a new field supervisor, gets a baptism of fire, coping with a rig blaze in the Middle East. 5: Thornton fights to save an off-shore drilling-rig in the path of a Caribbean hurricane. 6: Stewart takes part in a manhunt when a competitor in a Mogul car rally is killed. 7: Thornton, revisiting his home in Australia, becomes involved in local oil politics and divorces his wife. 8: Stewart, as host to a senior management course in London, has to bail out an old friend. 9: Thornton intervenes in a shipyard conflict over the building of an ocean tanker. 10: Stewart supervises a Mogul-sponsored world water-speed record attempt. 11: Thornton joins an expedition to the Antarctic and is stranded with it" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Elliot was pleased that all of the stories provisionally dreamt up reached the screen as programmes, even more so when the events which played out in the episodes fell dangerously close to reality, and the series itself obtained a reputation of prophesizing events in advance (a reputation which would be eerily consolidated throughout the history of the series as events transpired either just before or shortly after the transmission of episodes).

Elliot highlighted some of the major events portrayed in the series which became a reality: "The water speed-record story, for instance, involved the death of the contestant. We used the library film of Cobb's death, and at almost the same time Donald Campbell was killed in a similar way. Biafra broke away from Nigeria, as we had said it would. A marine rig perished in the North Sea soon after Mogul's did. More happily, we anticipated the British oil finds in Alaska, the new Canadian pipe-line, and the British take-over of petrol retail chains in the U.S.A. The affairs of big organizations are fairly predictable and somehow, mainly by luck, we managed to keep a week or so ahead of the news" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Elliot withdrew from his primary involvement with the series, becoming a part-time contributor to the programme and primarily a script consultant who would provide storylines for the writing team and would comment on scripts submitted by other writers. It was decided that Anthony Read and himself would meet at the start of each season, devise provisional storylines and asses the direction the new series would take, provide suggestions for the introduction of other characters and then set the writing team about its business. That team, which consisted of Anthony Read, John Lucarotti, James Mitchell, Kenneth Ware, Ian Kennedy Martin, Vincent Tilsley, David Weir and Ray Jenkins, would produce powerful and gripping stories as set down from Elliot's guidelines..

Ray Barrett broods as Peter Thornton for a Radio Times coverDavid Weir, poached from ITV's The Plane Makers (the very series upon which Elliot had based his BBC Television equivalent), was considered by Scott as "some who could write wittily and with authority about the devious machinations of business and government. To him we owed the best of the new Alec Stewart episodes, particularly when we transferred the ambitious executive to the United States". Weir would ultimately be responsible for some of the best episodes the series was capable of producing, but this was to be in the future, and the programme makers were steadily mapping out the progress of the second series of The Troubleshooters. As a means of retaining the shape and style of the series, Anthony Read provided writers with a guideline of six main points to which they would be required to adhere: "1. Every episode in the Mogul series should be a personal contribution from the individual writer, capable of standing on its own as a television play. 2: Our function in this series is to be storytellers - we want strong stories about people - not about an oil company. 3: Our stories must have depth … In so far as there is a running theme throughout the series, it is the conflict of loyalties between personal loife and the demands of the company. On a larger scale we are concerned with the sometimes conflicting responsibilities of the company to itself and to society. 4: Style - as before, only more so! We use direct, fast cuts within and between scenes. The mix and the fade are banned unless there is an overwhelming reason for their use. 5: Our film effort is normally that of the ordinary series. But we have the bonus of a wealth of wonderful material from the oil companies. 6: Finally - please remember that this is basically an adventure series" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot).

BBC Television had succeeded in exporting the series to the United States and Australia, and a decision had been made to retain the title of Mogul for export sales whilst deliberations continued on the new title for the programme in the United Kingdom. Tampico, the series originally devised in the team's first meeting to discuss the programme's new directions and possibilities, was considered almost as weak as Delta. Whilst the team still affectionately referred to the series as Mogul, and whilst the team fought against the BBC hierarchy (and in particular Michael Peacock) to retain the programme title, they were adamant that a change must be executed. Arguments flew back and forth between the production team and Peacock, but the latter was adamant and Elliot eventually wrote a letter to Scott: "Harvey Unna agrees with me that it would be a great shame to change the title of `Mogul'. However, if you are all finally determined to, may I suggest an alternative? As the new series is likely to be preceded on the air by `The Power Game' and `Corridors Of Power', I think it would help if we emphasized that this is nothing to do with the closed world of ersatz boardroom and ministry office sets, melodramatic tycoons and phoney politicians, but that it's an out-and-out series - set in the world at large with lots of exotic and exciting film - So, if you must change the title, why not: THE TROUBLESHOOTERS …" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot).

Elliot went still further in his objections to the change of programme title, writing an impassioned final plea (ultimately unsuccessful) to Peacock: "When hard pressed, I reluctantly suggested `The Troubleshooters' as a possible alternative; but since then `The Spies', `The Newcomers' and `The Rat Catchers' have been added to the long string of similar titles - `The Avengers' and so on. The new name now will not only look an admission of failure, but be almost indistinguishable from the rest. `Mogul' remains distinct and arresting. I realize you are worried about the audience figures associated with the `Mogul' title, but last summer's series was a trial run in a difficult placing, in which we were frankly experimenting week by week with a series which was, I hope, refreshingly different, and trying to get the pitch of all those millions of tiny hall … This year we think we've got the pitch and are hoping for a popular success from the start: please do not take from it the one thing which viewers will remember clearly … Banish the Trouble-catchers, banish the Rat-men, banish all the rest: but for sweet `Mogul', true `Mogul', valiant `Mogul', and therefore more valiant, being, as he is, old `Mogul', banish not him thy company…" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). Jayne Sofiano in The Troubleshooters

Peacock remained unmoved, the series retained its title of The Troubleshooters, Elliot abandoned his further protestations and the series commenced production shortly thereafter. The twenty-six episodes were a potent mixture of character studies, action, adventure and boardroom battles, some closely linked to actual events and others pure entertainment for the masses. The series became BBC Television's top-rating drama production, cultivating large audiences and proving more than a match for its competitors on "the other side". But it was not all smooth-sailing. Scott recalled a situation were art imitated reality very uncomfortably: "Saddest of all was the coincidence of an episode which began with the crash of a British Vanguard at London Airport. The main news, which preceded our weekly episode of The Troubleshooters, opened with a real-life crash almost identical to the one we had staged and filmed weeks earlier. I rang Andy Osborn immediately, and although it was impossible to arrange an alternative programme, he managed to get a short explanatory announcement before our episode. Nevertheless, many people wrote in to complain as what they saw as an error of taste" (British Television: An Insider's History by Peter Graham Scott). This ability to uncannily predict events would be turned to the programme's advantage in the future, as it attained a sense of realism amongst audiences and critics alike, much to credit of all concerned with the production.

The Troubleshooters was awarded a BAFTA for Best Television Drama Series in November 1966, underlining the successful transition from the relatively ordinary Mogul to its audience-pleasing successor. The sheer popularity of the second ratings-busting season came at a high price, when BBC Television recommissioned a further thirteen episodes in Winter 1967, a mere two months after the end of the second series. This resulted in filming on the new season transpiring almost immediately upon the conclusion of the previous run, a habitual situation which would plague the production unit until the final series in 1971. However, despite the pressure the team may have been under to delivery more episodes of the high-popular drama, the finished product remained as excellent as ever, and took the serious to lavish worldwide locations along the way. John Lucarotti became employed as a regular contributor to the series, providing powerful and emotive depictions of the harsh conditions under which oilmen conduct business, whilst at the same time fleshing out the characters in more detail than ever before (his trilogy of stories centering on Peter Thornton's test of endurance in Alaska and Australia remains one of the most popular of the programme), raised not only the profile of the series but also his capabilities as a writer.
After three successful years under the mantle of producer, Peter Graham Scott handed over the reigns to script editor Anthony Read (who would go on to produce another ninety-seven episodes). Scott reflected on his time with the programme as: "The Troubleshooters was part of the BBC's most adventurous period in the 1960s, with Hugh Carleton Greene at the helm, Wheldon, Peacock, Newman, and Osborn gave producers the right to fail, or to attempt and sometimes achieve miracles. Within our strict dramatic framework, we were free to create controversy, provoke thought, challenge political attitudes, scrutinize big business, question solely profit-seeking motives, and argue for human values of tolerance, trust, and friendship. Throughout, our characters were recognizable as men and women of that decade - optimistic, ambitious, compassionate, and credible. It is unlikely that a drama series as bold and far-reaching would even be considered today, certainly not by today's BBC. One of whose uncaring bureaucrats ordered most of the original tapes of this historic show to be wiped (for `reuse!'). It may be a long time before a finer television series is on offer" (British Television: An Insider's History by Peter Graham Scott).

Under Read's stewardship, the series would consolidate its strengths (the tension between Brian Stead and Alec Stewart, which would culiminate in a fierce battle for the manging directorship which would take its toll on both parties) and push the boundaries of the programme to its very limits (both in terms of the production obstacles to be overcome in a wide variety of exotic locations, and in terms of implementing strong female characters in a male-dominated environment). The introduction of a rival corporation, Zenith, and the exploration of the intricate balance of the Mogul board, coupled with the emergence of James Langley, Deputy Chairman of Mogul, in the final season of the programme, reflected the capacity of the series to constantly generate interesting storylines (a rare commodity by comparison to contemporary television, in which ideas are recycled time and again).

The programme itself, over the course of one-hundred-and-sixty-five episodes, had attracted some of the biggest names in British television. Edward Woodward, Dame Judi Dench, James Beck, Glyn Houston, Jack Smethurst, Charles Gray, Nigel Stock, Keith Barron, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, George A Cooper, Burt Kwouk, Joss Ackland, Geoffrey Palmer, T P McKenna, Peter Copley, Adrienne Corri, Geoffrey Chater, Charles Tingwell, Valentine Dyall, Neil McCallum, Gordon Jackson, Peter Bowles, John Le Mesurier, Wendy Craig, Fulton Mackay, Peter Jeffrey, Kate O'Mara, Bernard Lee, Wanda Ventham, Richard Hurndall, Catherine Schell, Garfield Morgan, Roger Delgado, Richard Pearson, Glyn Owen, Maurice Denham, Iain Cuthbertson, Anton Diffring, Brian Blessed, Trevor Bannister, Bernard Horsfall, Patrick Newell and Frank Middlemass. The writing team boasted the talents of David Weir, John Lucarotti, Ian Kennedy Martin, James Mitchell, Ludovic Peters and David Fisher (amongst others), whilst the production unit utilized the capabilities of Moira Armstrong, Terence Dudley, James Gatward (who would later marry Isobel Black, whom he met on the set of The Troubleshooters), John Frakau, John Warrington, David Proudfoot, Peter Cregeen, Raymond Menmuir, Viktors Ritelis, Michael Hayes, Henri Safran, Lennie Mayne, Paul Ciappessoni, Ken Hannam, Douglas Camfield and Bea Rea.
The series attained countless awards, engendered critical praise and esteem, scored highly with audiences and became an international success for BBC Television. Yet John Elliot would later view the transition and progression of the series with optimism tinged with sadness. "I had no doubt now that The Troubleshooters would be major and would succeed and continue and become part of the everyday texture of television. I had set out, two years before, to beat the system. But the system had taken over and guaranteed what I was doing and, on the way, had changed it. Whatever it was to be, it would become less and less what I had intended. And I would be pleased and sad and proud and a little ashamed, and less and less a part of it" (Mogul - The Making Of A Myth by John Elliot). His loss of control on a project he considered to have sole ownership on may be a common complaint amongst the television writing fraternity, and to a certain extent the series did indeed deviate from his initial vision, but there can be no denying that Mogul, and then The Troubleshooters, marked a historic period not only in BBC Television's history, but in the history of British Television itself.

A product of its time, the series proved to be the most successful of its kind set in the oil industry (Oil Strike North and Roughnecks, which were to follow in the 1970s and 1990s, were entertaining but failed to grip the public's imagination in the manner with which this series did) and was, or indeed still is, a testament to the successful prosecution of BBC Television's risk-taking in the 1960s. Like Mogul Oil itself, the programme became an international success. The tragedy that this successful worldwide exploitation has not been translated into VHS or DVD releases (courtesy of the BBC's policy of junking programmes to accommodate space for future productions) is the lasting regret associated with such a wonderful programme.

PRESS REACTION

Peter Knight in the Telepgraph noted: "The style and brilliance which sets this series miles ahead of its nearest rival, assuming alertness and intelligence in its audience with sweeping technical assurance - a fine example of teamwork".