Anthony Goodman examines the formative years of

CALLAN
(continued)

The basis for the series was the planning document compiled by Terence Feely and James Mitchell, and which included the series format as well as the plots for three episodes, ‘The Death of Robert E. Lee’, ‘But He’s a Lord Mr. Callan’ and ‘Goodness Burns Too Bright’. Mitchell would also write the opening episode, for which the plot had not yet been worked out, and one other. Five episodes was considered enough for Mitchell to write in the time given, so a sixth episode was commissioned, to be written by Robert Banks Stewart. In fact, Banks Stewart came up with two stories, the first of which was scripted by the beginning of February, with the working title ‘People Discolour With Time’.

Lloyd Shirley was responsible for selecting the directors, choosing mainly directors used regularly on Armchair Theatre. The first episode to be recorded, ‘Goodness Burns Too Bright’, was given to Bill Bain as he had directed ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. Staff director Kim Mills was offered ‘The Death of Robert E. Lee’, but was unable to take it, relinquishing the script to free-lance director Robert Tronson. Another staff director, Guy Verney, was appointed to direct ‘But He’s a Lord Mr. Callan’, and shortly after, freelance Toby Robertson was contracted to direct the opening show, ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’. Piers Haggard was given a choice of two episodes, Robert Banks Stewart’s script (now retitled ‘Goodbye Nobby Clarke’) and Mitchell’s fifth script, ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’. Haggard chose the latter, much to the delight of Terence Feely, who felt this to be his favourite of the series. ‘Goodbye Nobby Clarke’ fell to Peter Duguid to direct, as well as the second of Robert Banks Stewart’s scripts, ‘Nice People Die at Home’. More of that episode later.

On February 4th 1967, during the early stages of pre-production of the Callan series, ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was screened on television. The publicity released for the play made it clear that this was only the first appearance of a character who was to return later. The TV Times ran a small feature:

"A new secret agent makes his debut this week. His name: David Callan. His profession: licensed executioner for a security organisation."

Callan makes his first appearance in Saturday’s Armchair Theatre drama, ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. (The Magnum of the title is a pistol, not a bottle). Later this year, Callan will be featured in a series of one-hour thrillers, on which production starts in April.

The broadcast of ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ attracted good notices and letters in the TV Times congratulating Edward Woodward on his performance. Perhaps one of the keenest reviews was one printed in ‘The Stage and Television Today’, written by J.D.S. Haworth, and titled ‘Special Agent Could Go Far’. In his review, Haworth comments, "James Mitchell’s script was tight, laconic, and mercifully unmannered, and the plot unfolded its ironic surprises with considerable inventiveness... It wasn’t just the contrast which made James Mitchell’s play such gripping pleasure; this spy tale could have held its head high among much fiercer competition."

Within a month of the transmission of the play, a cinema version had already been mooted. In a memo to Lloyd Shirley, dated April 13th 1967, Norman Mustoe, copyright and contracts manager, comments "As I see it, a German production of [A Magnum for Schneider] - over which we have no control - would not impede our ability to arrange for a feature film production. If Elstree were to make a quick decision to go into such a production, I have no doubt World rights could be obtained from the Author at the outset, but equally, if no decision was forthcoming from Elstree, the Author would be anxious to do business with a German buyer for a similar market. From recent past experience with this Author’s agent, I know the question of him going into film production on the ‘Callan’ character is uppermost in their minds, and they are doubtless looking for such possibilities." Although no film production came of this, or subsequent discussions, a cinema version of ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ was eventually made, and released in 1974, two years after the end of the final television series of Callan.

Some artistic decisions about the series as a whole were taken quite early. It was decided almost immediately to re-use the music from ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. The publishers, de Wolfe Music were informed, and they reserved the piece for Callan, i.e. it was no longer available for use by other companies. In March, the title sequence was produced. Designed by Patrick Downing, Jim Gask filmed the now famous sequence featuring the shattering light bulb. Filming took place on March 16th and was ‘premiered’ in the studios’ Working Theatre on April 5th.

One of the strangest anomalies of the recording of the first series is the decision to record a seventh episode, even though the company only had slots for six. This episode, ‘Nice People Die at Home’ by Robert Banks Stewart (original title ‘All Spies Are Alike’), was the last of the seven to be written, and was clearly not intended to be included as part of the series. ABC’s written files of the time make no reference to a seventh episode, and the contracts of the regular artistes only provided the company with their services up to the sixth episode, ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’. It seems unlikely that the episode was recorded to be part of the second series, which wasn’t settled upon until well into rehearsals for the episode. Ronald Radd was unavailable to return as Hunter in the second series, and contracts for Anthony Valentine and Russell Hunter were not drawn up until November ‘67. The only explanation which appears to fit with the facts is that at the time the episode was commissioned, ABC thought that it had been offered an additional slot for the first series. Eventually, this seventh slot must have been lost through re-scheduling, by which time it was too late to cancel the recording, which went ahead in the belief that a second series was very probable. As things turned out, ‘Nice People Die at Home’ was transmitted as part of the second series, nearly two years after it had been recorded.

By the end of June, the six episodes to be transmitted as the first series had all been recorded, and the broadcast order was decided upon. ‘The Good Ones Are All Dead’ was written to be the first, allowing the series to start as if ‘A Magnum for Schneider’ had not been seen. Recorded on June 1st 1967, the episode kicked off the series on Saturday July 8th.

Having been taped on June 14th, Robert Banks Stewart’s story ‘Goodbye Nobby Clarke’ reached the nation’s screens on July 15th. He recalls how it was scheduled second in transmission order:

"Lloyd Shirley decided that ‘Goodbye Nobby Clarke’ was a very good kind of - you call it a stiffener. I don’t know why, but I came to somehow put more into that about Callan and his background, which we hadn’t totally defined. So I was terribly pleased ... when they made it, and Lloyd said "I think we’re going to put this in number two, because it’s going to give the series a lot of character." Also, I’d had a bit of fun with the Anthony Valentine character."

In the week following the transmission of ‘Goodbye Nobby Clarke’, the Callan production office received their first letter of complaint from a viewer. Dated July 17th, Mary Whitehouse writes to ‘Producer, "Callan"’;

"Dear Sir,

"I have today written to Lord Hill about several matters, and have made mention of the program Callan, which you produce. The extract from my letter which concerns you is as follows:

"‘I myself watched this week’s episode of Callan, and the degree of violence seemed to me quite unjustified, and at times sadistic. The play itself seemed trivial and little more than a vehicle for the violence of which I have spoken.

"I thought you would wish to know this"

Lloyd Shirley replied on July 20th, "I have noted your comments." Terence Feely recalls being asked onto a television program to debate the matter with Mrs. Whitehouse, but at the last minute she "ducked out", leaving him to defend the violent nature of the series with the Chief Constable of Lincolnshire.

Videotaped on May 4th, ‘The Death of Robert E. Lee’ was transmitted third in the series, on July 22nd. The episode features a reprise performance from Francisca Tu as Jenny, from ‘A Magnum for Schneider’. It is interesting to note that in James Mitchell’s script for ‘A Magnum for Schneider’, there is no mention of Jenny being Chinese, so one assumes that had Jenny not originally been cast with a Chinese actress, the role of Jenny in this episode would have been quite different.

The first to be recorded, ‘Goodness Burns Too Bright’ was VTR’d on April 19th 1967, and was televised as the fourth episode, on July 29th.

Fifth to be screened, ‘But He’s a Lord Mr. Callan’ was broadcast on August 5th, having been taped on May 17th.

‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’ was recorded on June 29th, and shown on August 12th, the final episode of Callan’s first series.

Following transmission of ‘You Should Have Got Here Sooner’, ABC set about gauging the reaction to the series in order to decide whether to go ahead with the tentative plans for a second series consisting of thirteen episodes. Terence Feely:

"The powers that be did not have so much [faith in Callan], but they did this market research, to the extent that they actually used tape recorders to interview people, and we the production people actually heard what people were saying. It was really interesting. There were women saying "Well I don’t really like the violence." Well we knew that it was the violence they did like, because it was controlled violence, sexy violence in a way, because it was always Edward Woodward keeping himself reigned in, like a volcano with the lid clamped on, and then exploding... It was due to my pushing for [a second series], and interpreting this market survey, in the way I wanted to interpret it, that we got the second series."

By the time the new series was in full production, Feely had left the show.

"I got this offer from Paramount and I took off and maybe it was half way through series B, but it was, with no bullshit, only due to me that series B got made. I had to fight very hard."

His replacement was ABC staff director Reginald Collin. Collin filled the post of Producer, while Lloyd Shirley, by virtue of being Head of Drama at ABC, was still Executive Producer. Unlike Feely, Collin was given his own story editor, or Associate Producer, as the post was still called. This was filled by John Kershaw. Incidentally, Kershaw’s claim to fame was as the first voice to be heard on BBC2, as he had been working for the BBC on Play School, the first program to go out on the new network, and had recorded the familiar voice over for the title sequence. As ‘Associate Producer’ of Callan, Kershaw inherited several scripts which had been commissioned by Terence Feely as early as March 1967. By the middle of that month, James Mitchell had been contracted to deliver three scripts for the proposed second series of thirteen, with a proviso that another four would be delivered at an increased fee.

Re-writes were necessary on all scripts when it became known that Ronald Radd would be unavailable for another series. While negotiations with all the cast member’s agents were in progress by the end of June, with Woodward already agreed, the other regular cast at that stage expected to carry on in their roles, though no commitments were expected until November 30th. However, only the contracts for Anthony Valentine and Russell Hunter were renewed, on October 30th, with the latter contracted for only ten of the thirteen episodes. In fact, Lonely appeared in eleven of the thirteen, plus the two extra episodes which were to make the second series run to a total of fifteen.

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