| The Buccaneers The Count of Monte Cristo
The Gay Cavalier
Long John Silver
Robin Hood
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Sir Francis Drake
Ivanhoe
Sir Lancelot
Sword of Freedom
William Tell
|
Children's Adventure Series
The Adventures of
   starred Conrad
Phillips in the title role, with Jennifer Jayne
as Hedda Tell, Nigel Green as Tell's burly pal
Fertog (The Bear) and Willoughby Goddard as the
evil Landburgher Gessler. Richard Rogers played
Tell's son Walter.
 Video clip of the title
sequence
This was a
tights and arrows epic, set in fourteenth century
Switzerland in a town called Altdorf. Tell's
legendary act of marksmanship, shooting an apple
off his son's head, was relived in episode one.
Willoughby Goddard played the thoroughly
perfidious and corpulent Austrian Governor who,
to capture and kill Tell, used every dirty trick
conceivable, including assassins disguised as
resistance heroes and kidnapping Tell's wife,
Hedda.
Gessler
never got his man, and as solace ate vast amounts of
food. Scene after scene saw him stuffing his face
with meat.
The series
was partly filmed in Snowdonia.
William Tell Theme sung by David Whitfield
The full series is available
on DVD
|
 
(1956-1957)starring Robert Shaw as Dan Tempest.
TV's first
pirate series, featured swashbuckling adventure
on land and high seas.
Set in the
West Indies in the 1720's, The Buccaneers
told the rousing tale of reformed pirate Dan
Tempest, who had been the leader of a band of
freebooters in the British Caribbean province of
New Providence, as he battled against buccaneers
and Spanish attack after being persuaded by Lt.
Beamish (Peter Hammond), the new deputy governor,
to switch sides and fight on behalf of the Crown.
Armando
(Edwin Richfield), Taffy (Paul Hansard) and Gaff
(Brian Rawlinson) were all loyal members of
Tempest's swashbuckling crew. Dickon (Wilfrid
Downing), a stowaway-turned cabin-boy and Captain
Morgan, Tempest's pet monkey also featured.
Esteban
(Roger Delgado) was one of the Spanish
principals.
The
series, unusually, did not introduce its hero
until episode three! Tempest's brig was called
'The Sultana'.
Opening
Theme Closing
Theme
Video clip
The full series is available
on DVD
|
  'Sword of Freedom' (1957) - Adventures
of a 15th century Italian Robin Hood starring
Edmund Purdom as Marco deMonte, Adrienne Corri as
Angelica, Rowland Bartrop as Sandro, Martin
Benson as Duke de Medici and Monica Stevenson as
Francesca. 39 episodes.
|
 'The
Count of Monte Cristo' (1956) - starring
George Dolenz as Edmond Dantes alias 'The
Count of Monte Cristo'.In 18th. Century
France, Edmund Dantes had been wrongly convicted
of crimes against the state and incarcerated in
the infamous Chateau D'If. There, a dying
prisoner told of treasure to be found on the
island of Monte Cristo and Dantes broke free to
take it for his own, setting himself up as a
nobleman on the proceeds.
His two regular companions
were the bearded mute Jacopo (played by the
acrobatic Nick Cravat) and the stout Fortunio
Bonanova. Also featured Robert Cawdron as Rico
and Faith Demergue as Princess Anne. 39 episodes.
|
 'The
Adventures of Long John Silver' (1957)
A series made in Sydney,
Australia starring Robert Newton with Kit Taylor
as Jim Hawkins, the cabin boy, and Connie
Gilcrist as Miss Purity Pinker, the owner of Long
John's favorite pub, The Cask and Anchor.
Governor Strong was played by Harvey Adams and
other characters were Israel Hands, Billy
Bowledge, Mendoza and Patch.
They worked on behalf of the
Governor to thwart the advances of the Spanish
fleet and to preserve the island of Portobello
for the British Crown. A dash of treasure hunting
was thrown in for good measure.
26 x 30 minute episodes.
Long John
Silver Intro.
Take a trip to the the
island of Portobello in the Spanish Main,
somewhere back in the 1700s with LikeTelevision for a full episode
in Real Video (Ha Ha! Jim Lad!)
|
 'The Scarlet Pimpernel'(1955-56) - starring Marius
Goring
(centre right) as Sir Percy Blakeney in Baroness Orczy's
tales of the late eighteenth century aristocrat who
presented himself as a weakling and dandy to fashionable
London society but was the daring Scarlet Pimpernel to
the persecuted aristocracy in Robespierre's revolutionary
France. 18 episodes.
 'The Gay Cavalier' (1957)
Costume
action series set during the English Civil War starring
French actor Christian Marquand (left) as the dashing
swashbuckler Captain Claude Duval. 13 episodes.
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information of interest, please e-mail webmaster@whirligig-tv.co.uk
Find some of the above
programmes on video at
TV
Video |
A
new book celebrating the cult TV shows of Lew Grade's
ITC, published by Plexus, will be
available in bookshops from October 2006.
A section in the book is devoted to ITC's swashbuckling
1950s shows - Robin Hood, Sir Lancelot, The Buccaneers,
William Tell, and The Invisible Man.
Those interviewed for the book recalling their memories
of ITC's 1950s output include: Robin Hood's Maid Marian,
Patricia Driscoll; Sir Lancelot himself William Russell;
Jane Asher, a child actress at the time; Conrad Phillips,
who starred as William Tell and Liza Daniely from
Invisible Man.
|
Starred Terence
Morgan
