Friday 12 February 2016

Department S: The Introduction


"The cases are inexplicable, baffling and illogical. They have to be... to interest Department S! The orthodox is not for this department of Interpol... its operators handle only cases which cannot be solved by normal police routine."


So says the original publicity brochure for this 1969 detective show from the British action-adventure factory ITC, makers of shows like Danger Man (aka Secret Agent), The Saint, Thunderbirds and The Prisoner. ITC, run by entertainment mogul Lew Grade, generally made its productions to a formula, albeit one that evolved over time; the lone hero format of earlier in the decade (The Saint, Danger Man, The Baron, Man In A Suitcase) had by 1969 become two heroes and one heroine, one of the male leads usually being American to improve the chances of making a sale to a US network.




Department S perfectly fits this formula, established by the previous year's ITC series The Champions and later followed by Strange Report and The Protectors. One British hero, one American hero and one heroine, and for good measure an older boss who hands out assignments and occasionally gets involved in the action. Let's meet them, shall we?


His moustache would soon mysteriously turn a darker shade.

Jason King (Peter Wyngarde)

Best-selling author of the suspiciously James Bond-ish series of Mark Caine novels, the wealthy, famous and hedonistic Jason King has a sideline as a freelance investigator for Interpol’s Department S. Quite how he managed to wangle this is never explained. Possessed of a huge ego, considerable narcissism, outrageous dress sense and we have to assume a grotesquely enlarged liver from all the alcohol he consumes, Jason is the team's "whiz-kid" who comes up with bizarre and outlandish theories to explain the inexplicable crimes they are assigned. To the annoyance of at least one of his colleagues, he's usually right.


"Shullivan. Shtuart Shullivan."

Stewart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani)

The team's most traditional detective, token ITC American Stewart Sullivan is also landed with the most traditional wardrobe, favouring three-piece ensembles of brown, a different brown, brownish grey, and sometimes a sort of blue-grey with a bit of brown. But mostly plain brown. He follows leads the old-fashioned way, by interviewing witnesses, questioning suspects and occasionally beating the truth out of them. Stewart generally acts as straight man to Jason, being a consummate professional, but he can get righteously angry if he thinks politics is interfering with justice.


"It has a whole two kilobytes of RAM!"

Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols)

Where Jason works on instinct and imagination, Annabelle Hurst favours the application of science and reason to solve crimes, so her relationship with the author is often a bit spiky. She's far more comfortable with Stewart, however; he has a key to her apartment and they frequently flirt to the point where the room they're in tells them to get another room. While she's generally found teasing information out of her ridiculously large 1960s computer Auntie, Annabelle doesn't hesitate to get out into the field (or rather the Borehamwood backlot).


A fish drinks from the head.

Sir Curtis Seretse (Dennis Alaba Peters)

An African diplomat of ill-defined bailiwick (seeming to work for Interpol, the United Nations and/or various western intelligence agencies depending on the script's requirements), the urbane Sir Curtis Seretse is effectively the boss of Department S. His role usually consists of assigning them new cases, but he sometimes gets more personally involved in the investigations. His vast network of high-level contacts often proves useful, although his predilection for secrecy frustrates Stewart.


"I won't cooperate, so you might as well kill me - oh."

So that's the cast: what, you may ask, is the show's gimmick? It is, in theory, that its heroes solve the unsolvable: the opening scene (the 'teaser') of each episode sets up a bizarre event that defies explanation - a man wearing a spacesuit is found dead in the middle of London; a plane lands six days late but nobody aboard realises anything unusual has happened; assassins blow up a car, but the occupant is a wax dummy - and then Department S is called in to find a rational explanation with a combination of dogged detective work, scrupulous scientific analysis of the evidence and esoteric knowledge being used to formulate way-out theories. In practice, it didn't take the show long to become lax with its own premise, but we'll learn more about that in the individual episode reviews.


Somewhere, someone has a fetish about this moment.

Another question you might be asking is: why would someone go to all the trouble of doing detailed reviews of an almost-forgotten TV show that's now over half a century old? My answer is largely "because I can", but there's more to it than that. For all its faults (again, you can discover those in the reviews), I enjoyed watching Department S, and wanted to share that enjoyment with other people.


She wondered why on earth the director wanted her to sit in such an uncomfortable position.

It's also a chance to look at a very different era of television. Commercial TV in the 1960s - on both sides of the Atlantic - actively avoided things like character arcs, ongoing plotlines and callbacks to previous episodes: the belief at the time was that such things would confuse and enrage viewers, and a confused and enraged viewer would change the channel! As a result, shows were deliberately made so that each episode stood alone as a totally self-contained story, and could be watched in any order. Times have changed, with even straight procedural shows like the various CSIs, Criminal Minds or NCIS now having serialised elements threaded through them, so it's almost refreshing to go back to a time when each episode existed in its own little bubble.


Literary critics were closing in.

One thing that Department S has in common with the modern shows above is that it later got a spin-off series. This is in contrast to most ITC shows, which rarely even got a second season, never mind an expanded continuity! In this case, Jason King the character begat Jason King the series, the gadabout author going solo for a new set of globetrotting adventures. The only reason it was made was because Lew Grade's wife rather fancied Peter Wyngarde, so pestered her husband into commissioning him a new show. It's true! However, beyond making you aware of this so you'll understand the references to it (and also some jokes), that show won't be covered here. Why not? Because, well... it's really not very good. I have a lot of fondness for Department S, but it doesn't extend beyond the show itself!


"Morning, all! I brought breakfast."

With all that now established, it's time to get to the important stuff: namely the episodes themselves. Here's what you can expect to find in the guide to each one.

By Any Other Name

The first thing in each review is the episode's title. Self-explanatory.

The Order Of Things

Each episode is listed according to its order in actual production, where known (taken from the booklet accompanying the Network DVDs, which unfortunately doesn't give the production order for the final seven episodes made - these are listed as "Unknown"); its code number as assigned by ITC (which has almost no correlation to the production order); the order in which it was first shown on British TV (which has almost no correlation to either of the previous two); and its order on the DVDs (which, you won't be surprised to learn, has almost no correlation to any of the preceding). The episodes here have been reviewed in DVD order because, well, it was the easiest way to do it, but should you fancy pretending you're back in 1969 about to watch an intriguing-sounding new detective show from the makers of The Champions and want to view them in broadcast order, now you can.

Those Responsible

Next come the names of the writer and director. In the former case, there's a 35.71% chance that it will be a man called Philip Broadley. Be warned.

Where & When

Each episode starts with a caption saying where the action takes place, and on what date. The differences between production, episode code, airdate and DVD order mean that the dates are in a totally jumbled sequence. Either our heroes can time-travel, or their cases are spread out over several more years than the show actually ran.

The Inexplicable Mystery

A weird crime or event is presented to the audience before the opening titles, one which seemingly defies any rational explanation.

The Mystery Explained

The reason for the events in the teaser is revealed here, to save having to work it into the individual reviews. Sometimes - more frequently as the series goes on - the revelation is pretty mundane after all and scarcely seems worth Interpol's time. C'est la vie.

Review

Your author's opinions on the episode as a whole.

Fancy Quotes

Jason, Stewart and Annabelle (and occasionally even Seretse) get some quite clever dialogue. The best exchanges and quips are presented in this bit for your pleasure.

Cheers!

Jason King enjoys his alcohol, so much so that the only other television character seen more frequently with a glass in his hand was Norm Peterson. Whisky is his preferred tipple, but in general if it's a higher percentage proof than water he'll have some. The only exception is beer - a man has to have some standards! This section catalogues the rapid rotting of his liver throughout the series.

Fight!

It wouldn't be an ITC show without frequent outbreaks of fisticuffs to add a bit of excitement, often for completely gratuitous reasons. (Not even The Prisoner, over which Patrick McGoohan had absolute carte blanche, was immune to the call of fast-paced music over shots of stuntmen backflipping and crashing into boxes.) Here we run down the Department's all too common pugilistic performances, along with the startling number of times either Jason or Stewart takes a blow to the head and is knocked out cold. It's a wonder they don't have constant concussions.

Author! Author!

Jason is a world-famous novelist, and his books pop up quite frequently throughout the show, whether merely by name or actually in the hands of readers. This is where we find out his ever-expanding bibliography.

That Looks Familiar

ITC made its shows on a production-line basis, saving money as much as possible by re-using sets and props from its other shows - Stewart's white Vauxhall Ventora is the same car occasionally driven by Jeff Randall in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - and even previous episodes of the same show. This parsimony will be taken to extremes by Department S's spin-off Jason King, in which every wealthy villain shares the same interior decorator and Jason himself is stalked around the world by a silver Vauxhall Viva. Department S is slightly more varied, but there are several sets and locations that reappear from episode to episode. In addition, there are regular guest appearances by certain cars: a white Vauxhall Victor (with a registration number only one different from Stewart's wheels; his is RXD 997F, while the Victor's is RXD 996F), a red Lotus Elan and a black Ford Zephyr.

So now you know what all of this is about, let's get on with the reviews!


And just to complete the links, some videos for you!
Department S: Opening Titles
A Tribute To Department S
Top Gear: The Interceptors (a fun spoof of ITC's shows using the Department S theme music)
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