johng

Can anyone put a name to a wartime drama series on BBC1 I think. It was in B/W and centred aroung our dropping agents into occupied France.

The significant feature being that it usually started with a shot of a Lysander either taking off or landing.

If I remember rightly it ran for a good many episodes.

JohnG

Harleybloke

Was it 'Wish Me luck'. Not B&W, Colour and shown on ITV but I seem to recall the opening titles were B&W..................???

.....You couldn't hear it, if they were shooting at me with howitzers!

johng

You may well be right about ITV but i still think the one I am referring to was b/w

orpheum

I know the programme you are talking about.It might be Spy Catcher starring Bernard Archard as Col.Pinto(1959-1961)

Welcome To Highbury The Home Of Football

panettone

could it be "secret army" johng

Steve Crook

When people ask this sort of question it does sometimes turn out that it really was in colour - but they saw it on a B&W set. Or they remember it as B&W because so many old films and TV shows were in B&W. The memory can play tricks

So I'd advise you use your memory of it being in B&W as a guide, but don't immediately reject suggestions just because they were in colour.

In some cases it is even that a TV show was made in colour, but broadcast in B&W. But that means that most of the reference books (& web sites) record it as being in colour

Steve

johng

No it definitely wasn't secret Army. That was more recent.I have the whole series which I have watched many times.

No this always started off and probably not quite sure finished with a night scene where a Lysander landed in a field and either dropped off or picked up an agent to return them to this country.

Time marches on but i am sure it goes away back to the 1960s.

johng

I agree with you that we did not all buy colour sets at the outset, most people waited until their b/w was no longer repairable.

it is true that many films were made in colour but were shown in b/w and if I remember rightly London was the first area to get colour and it did not reach other parts of the UK until some time later.

So yes agree it could have been a colour production.

It is just the fact that the Lysander scene stands out so much in my memory that I thought most 'older' members would remember it. I don't think it was ever repeated.

mark windley

just a chance could it be a series called the .the forth arm. just a thort..

for thow . will be ours some day , we shall have it all
, and more .

CaptainWaggett

My mighty google-fu tells me it is Moonstrike.

See this thread for more information!

johng

Had a look at the other thread. Yes without a doubt it was Moonstrike. Would like to think the Beeb still have most of the episodes although whether any one will take it upon themselves to dig that deep into the archives and release it on DVD is another matter.

This has not definitely cleared up the question as to whether it was in b/w or colour.
I cannot now remember when BBC started to broadcast in colour?

johng

A search through Google indicates that the series was in fact in b/w as I first thougyht.

it further seems that of the 20 odd episodes all have been wiped except three.

Unfortunately in those far off days domestic video recorders were few and far between if they even existed and i remember the first two types brought out by Philips, before Beta and VHS the quality was very poor and would probably not be acceptable by modern standards.

Philips then came away with their type 2000? It was said at the time that if this had been allowed to be developed it would have been a winner, however by that time Beta and VHS had taken over the market and Philips own design just faded away into the history books.

rymnd_woodward

I remember the series, and you have got me at it now, I wont be able to stop thinking about it. The program may have just been called "OSS", or was that the American version.

RonK

Can I offer a little 'light' relief (if you'll excuse the pun) on this topic? A young daughter of a friend of mine, when watching an old film on TV asked, "Was everything black and white when you were young, Dad?'

ringsider

So glad it has been established that the programme was indeed Moonstrike. It was a great series I remember, with at least one episode, the capture of a female British agent in a cheese store (yes a cheese store), being very much based on true events.

OSS was an even older US TV series based on the exploits of a Capt Hawthorne (starring Ron Randell). Great action, but totally fictitious plots.

I know this is Britmovie, but for anyone interested in that genre, can I recommend the 1946 US film, also called OSS. It includes mentions of the less glamourous side of spying, such as tiredness and hunger, and was one of Alan Ladd's best films.


Bernie