Hunter's Walk

[MarmaladeSkies]

I remember in the 1970s a TV programme called "Hunter's Walk", the main house in the series was actually next door to where I used to live and I remember the production team recording various episodes, of course I wasn't very old when all this was done and my memories aren't that clear, as far as I can recall its never been repeated on the TV and I'd love to see just one episode to see if its any good or not. I've searched the internet and the reviews I've found haven't been that good. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks to anyone in advance.

[Marky B]

Originally posted by MarmaladeSkies@Aug 22 2005, 05:56 PM

I remember in the 1970s a TV programme called "Hunter's Walk", the main house in the series was actually next door to where I used to live and I remember the production team recording various episodes, of course I wasn't very old when all this was done and my memories aren't that clear, as far as I can recall its never been repeated on the TV and I'd love to see just one episode to see if its any good or not. I've searched the internet and the reviews I've found haven't been that good. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks to anyone in advance.

Well MarmaladeSkies,here it is from my trusty The Penguin TV Companion by Jeff Evans.

ATV Police Drama ITV 1973-6 Ted Willis

DS SMITH.....................................EWAN HOOPER

SGT KEN RIDGWAY.......................DAVYD HARRIES

PC FRED POOLEY..........................DUNCAN PRESTON

DC "MICKEY" FINN........................DAVID SIMEON

PC HARRY COOMBES....................CHARLES REA

BETTY SMITH...............................RUTH MADOC

A small police force keeps the peace in a provincial town

Set in the modest Midlands settlement og Broadstone (actually Rushden,Northants) Hunter's Walk focused on the team at the local police station,namely po-faced DS "Smithy" Smith,"Mickey" Finn,his junior detective colleagues PC's Pooley and Coombes and station offficer Ken Ridgeway. faced with routine police investigations,mostly of a domestic nature,they successfully patrolled the streets in steady,DIXON OF DOCK fashion (not surprisingly,as this was also created by Lord Ted Willis). Smith's wife was played by future HI-DE-HI star Ruth Madoc.



I don't remember much of it,but I believe a young sexy actress from Wales called Beth something was in it (not much to go on I know).

I hope this is of some help.

[Marky B]

Originally posted by Marky B@Aug 22 2005, 07:34 PM

Well MarmaladeSkies,here it is from my trusty The Penguin TV Companion by Jeff Evans.

ATV Police Drama ITV 1973-6 Ted Willis

DS SMITH.....................................EWAN HOOPER

SGT KEN RIDGWAY.......................DAVYD HARRIES

PC FRED POOLEY..........................DUNCAN PRESTON

DC "MICKEY" FINN........................DAVID SIMEON

PC HARRY COOMBES....................CHARLES REA

BETTY SMITH...............................RUTH MADOC

A small police force keeps the peace in a provincial town

Set in the modest Midlands settlement og Broadstone (actually Rushden,Northants) Hunter's Walk focused on the team at the local police station,namely po-faced DS "Smithy" Smith,"Mickey" Finn,his junior detective colleagues PC's Pooley and Coombes and station offficer Ken Ridgeway. faced with routine police investigations,mostly of a domestic nature,they successfully patrolled the streets in steady,DIXON OF DOCK fashion (not surprisingly,as this was also created by Lord Ted Willis). Smith's wife was played by future HI-DE-HI star Ruth Madoc.



I don't remember much of it,but I believe a young sexy actress from Wales called Beth something was in it (not much to go on I know).

I hope this is of some help.

Ta Ta

Marky B

Well that was a wasted time and effort.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[Harbottle]

Originally posted by Marky B@Aug 27 2005, 01:21 AM

Well that was a wasted time and effort.

Ta Ta

Marky B

Well I only vaguely remembered this series so I found it interesting thanks Marky B

[Bobj]

I remember this series from my teenage years. Like Public Eye it was a top rated show on ITV but today is largely forgotten. Marky B's description is spot on and there were similarities with Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars though I would argue that there was a wider gap in those days between what would be considered "drama" and an action series such as The Persuaders or The Professionals. The writing for the series was very good and I do remember one episode being criticised because it contained nudity!

[MarmaladeSkies]

Originally posted by Bobj@Sep 2 2005, 05:18 PM

I remember this series from my teenage years. Like Public Eye it was a top rated show on ITV but today is largely forgotten. Marky B's description is spot on and there were similarities with Dixon of Dock Green and Z Cars though I would argue that there was a wider gap in those days between what would be considered "drama" and an action series such as The Persuaders or The Professionals. The writing for the series was very good and I do remember one episode being criticised because it contained nudity!

Sorry I didn't get back, been away on hoilday Marky, sorry, seems that nobody has any of the episodes on VHS then? Oh well, one day I will see another episode :-)

[Marky B]

I don't remember much of it,but I believe a young sexy actress from Wales called Beth something was in it (not much to go on I know).

I hope this is of some help.

Ta Ta

I think she was called Beth White and appeared in an episode of Thriller,as some sort of private detective,as she was always going about in a white mac.

Ta Ta

Marky B

[nuance]

Yeah, love to see it again.



I always thought it was filmed at Rushton, not the larger Rushden? Incidentally, county police HQ was situated at the fictional town of Neneborough.

[rougepercival]

i remember hunters walk and like you i would like to see it repeated .especially as it did try to use the local accent,which as far as i can remember this is the only show to do this. the star the sgt was local and had a passable northants accent however the guest stars were very funny to us northamptonshire people as they did their best but the results were very strange.lets hope we get a chance to see it once more

[MarmaladeSkies]

Thought Id bump this up to see if there's any new interest. Don't look like Ill ever see it again, I was walking down a street when one episode was being done, would love to see myself walking along as a kid, lol :-)

[Bobj]

Nothing new to add MarmaladeSkies but like you I'd love to see this series again. Been working my way through the box sets of Public Eye. We can only hope and pray that someone like Network DVD gets ahold of the series and releases it.

[cornershop15]

Like Bobj, I also hope this will get a release, but the longer we have to wait the more original viewers will be unable to see it. A lot of us could be dead by the time some of these things are made available. We've seen, from the Extras on DVD discs, that the technology IS there to put this invaluable stuff out, so I wonder what the problem is. Lack of interest? A copyright issue (I think David Jason's prevented some of his shows from being seen again)? Or have most people forgotten it?



Personally, I'd like to see 'Hunter's Walk' mainly because of Davyd Harries who was mesmerising when he was in 'Emmerdale' a few years ago. Have a look at some of the guest stars - maybe this will tempt Network to make us happy (as they often do):



"Hunter's Walk" (1973) - Episode list

[MarmaladeSkies]

Quick update, been searching for this series for 20+ years all with dead end links. Found out only this week that from a reliable source that only a handful of episodes exist. Im gutted as I appear as a little boy walking with my mother and sister in the back ground on one of the episodes and I may never see this. The same source is borrowing one of the few episodes left very soon and Im hoping to get to his house to view it, fingers crossed to get some snap shots as Im not allowed to copy it.

[Koshka]

Just stumbled across this site, I remember Hunters Walk and would love to see it again - as I was in it. I played the daughter of DS Smith and his wife played by Ewan Hooper and Ruth Madoc. I was 10 years old and the producer John Cooper recruited local school children for the last episode of the 2nd series called 'kids'. Think there was about 9 of us and we filmed in Rushden and some of us were lucky enough to go to ATV studios. Had a script and got paid, my claim to fame. I remember the original police station and the old railway being used - the catering trucks were located there!

[paul revere]

'Kids' is actually the only series 2 episode of Hunter's Walk which still exists. There are actually only ten episodes remaining in the archives. I've detailed those below;



Series 1

4/6/73 Disturbance

11/6/73 Local Knowledge

18/6/73 Outcast (Postponed from 11/6/73)

25/6/73 Behaviour

2/7/73 Vanishing Trick (Postponed from 4/6/73)

9/7/73 Reasonable suspicion



Series 2



22/7/74 Kids





Series 3



6/7/76 Say Nothing

10/8/76 Spinsters

24/8/76 Kicking and Screaming



The first 5 remaining episodes only exist in monochrome.



I hope this information is of some use.

[Dadwasinflame]

My Dad was in an Espoide called Steady job playing a guy called Rupert Symes which was orginally transmitted on 01/07/74

would love to know if i could get hold of iot as i never saw it as was at bording school and it wass on 2 late, dont know if it was ever repeated

[MarmaladeSkies]

Thanks for the info guys, may I ask Paul where you got this info from? Ive been hunting (if you'll excuse the pun) for info for the last 20+ years meeting dead ends along the way. As mentioned before Im waiting on a friend to get back to me as he is hiring an episode from collectors, its said that this episode (don't know title yet) is the only copy in exsistance, they don't want it back as it has foreign subtitles at the bottom and they won't be able to show it on the tv. Would love to see these ten episodes but doubt if they will ever get a dvd release or get shown on the television again. Hardly anybody remembers it and the only hint of it in Rushden is a road named after it!

[zenileon]

I remember in the 1970s a TV programme called "Hunter's Walk", the main house in the series was actually next door to where I used to live and I remember the production team recording various episodes, of course I wasn't very old when all this was done and my memories aren't that clear, as far as I can recall its never been repeated on the TV and I'd love to see just one episode to see if its any good or not. I've searched the internet and the reviews I've found haven't been that good. Any help would be much appreciated, thanks to anyone in advance.

I remember I loved the theme tune. Does anyone know where I can find it. It was sweet, tuneful, and homely. I also loved the tune for a show called "Village Hall".

[MarmaladeSkies]

Found the theme tune here:
I've still getting nowhere in finding any episodes, even pictures are hard to come by. My contact above never did get back in touch so my search continues....hoping actually somebody somewhere can help, would love to see this again :)

[wadey]

I watched it in 1974 and it wasn't bad, a friend had connections with the area it was filmed