The series, originally to be titled Police Dog, was produced for "Crestview Productions" by Donald Hyde with shooting starting on August 29th 1960. Following the traditions of the day a pilot had already been made.
Hyde described it thus: "It is a purely British production. Probably the first that will not have any mid-Atlantic accents." We'd love to see this pilot which was "The Story of George Webber." The star was Shay Gorman and it was directed by John Knight. Script was by Basil Dawson who continued to contribute to the series. This film was one of 8 UK entries entered in the May 1960 Eurovision Grand Prix Contest.
It was later reworked to form one of the series of 39, and with sales to USA in mind, Donald Hyde called in his old stalwart from the Lone Wolf series, Louis Hayward. As for Shay Gorman, in a May 1960 interview he stated he "has not yet been signed up for the series."
Question- What was the name of the dog that was supplied by The Bowesmoor Kennels? Answer
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THE SAILOR
Nostalgic scenes of a ship berthed in the shadow of Tower Bridge. On board, stoker Portugenna (John Crawford) is arguing with Larry, a crew member who has been cruel to the ship's dog Rama. Larry ends up in hospital with a fractured skull. Inspector Bollinger questions the motley crew who cover up, "somebody's lying," Bollinger warns them. Police Dog sniffs a piece of torn shirt in Larry's hand, but loses Portugenna's trail at a bus stop.
The case becomes more sinister when Larry dies, and it's discovered that the Great Dane Rama has rabies. A disturbance on a bus, in which a dog has attacked several passengers leads Bollinger to Portugenna's girl friend Sally
(Ann Lynn) at 24 Cedar Villas Hackney. But he's twenty minutes too late, as the flat's empty, in rather a mess actually.
Sally's Austin is found abandoned, the couple and Rama are trailed by Police Dog to their favourite pub, where the dog had been snarling fiercely. Bollinger takes a "gamble" and assumes Portugenna is making his way back to his ship, and there he is, with Rama who's "acting peculiar." Portugenna and Sally bid each other farewell, after which Portugenna notices the police swooping towards him, and he runs for it through deserted warehouses. Police Dog sniffs him and Rama out, but too late to prevent the killer being savaged by his own dog. "He won't have to stand trial," comments the sardonic Bollinger.
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THE HUSBAND
Two hoodlums smash up a cafe owned by Jimmy Benson (Donald Churchill). His wife Betty (Simone Lovelle) urges him to pay for the protection demanded, but his logical reply is "why should anyone be forced to buy protection?... it only makes the leeches grow stronger."
But she has divided loyalties, for it's her father Joe Raker (John Le Mesurier) who is behind the extortionists, and this makes it difficult for Jimmy to know what he should do: "open my mouth, and send my father-in-law to jail." His alternative is to give Joe a taste of his own medicine, punching him hard.
Raker's response is swift- he orders his cronies lead by Larkin to work Benson over, and Inspector Bollinger and Sgt Wall find Jimmy, his wife at his side, in a coma in Temple Hospital. Raker is making sympathetic if hypocritical noises to Betty. Robbery is the apparent motive for the attack, but Bollinger discovers one clue at the scene of the crime, an unusual button. He "gets lucky," for it is an unusual Italian button, and rare too, and Larkin is found to have one missing from his jacket. Police Dog completes the case against Larkin, when she uncovers Benson's wallet and watch in Larkins' room. He's ready to talk.
Realising he's rumbled, Raker makes a run for it. Police Dog pursues him on to railway tracks and the finish is too predictable, especially when Raker's foot gets caught in some points.
Back at the hospital, Jimmy makes an incredible recovery. He identifies Larkin as one of his assailants and Betty testifies against her dead father. Her loyalties are no longer tested.
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THE HOLIDAY -
"Through Nature to Eternity," is where writer Timmy Merrill is going to on his night walk, in this start that seems to owe something to Armchair Theatre.
Timothy's on holiday from Zurich University. "Sometimes," he confides in his younger sister Armanda, "I feel the strangest things."
The body of a dead woman, Sybil Langley, is found on the nearby heath. Her distressed dog is at her side. No obvious motive for the killing, which had been done with an open razor. The biggest puzzle is why the corpse had been dragged twenty yards on to a flower bed.
A passer by comes forward. It's Timmy, who tells Inspector Bollinger he'd seen a stranger running in the area. Timmy rather takes to this "intelligent" policeman, and returns, saying he thinks he recognised the man. One of the gardeners who work on the heath. But Sybil's dog seems to have taken a violent dislike to Timmy, which starts Bollinger thinking. Checking up on him, Bollinger learns he isn't a student in Zurich.
"I don't think anybody knows you the way I do," Armanda observes to her brother. "monster that you are, I expect every genius has to be a bit of a monster." Yet she doesn't know just how much of a 'monster' he is.. But she does perceive he's not quite right in the head as he spouts on about "the Awareness of Awareness.. the Knowing of Unknowing." More Armchair stuff there and indeed the plot rather disintegrates for a while at this juncture.
A suspicious Armanda decides to take a look at what Timmy's been doing in the greenhouse. Timmy catches her there. Thank goodness Bollinger has now learnt Timmy's escaped from a mental hospital, where he was due to have a brain operation. As he asks "why is the hangman's noose?," she screams, That guides Police Dog to her rescue.
John Cairney as Timothy gives a strong performance as the deranged killer.
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THE JUNGLE AND NICKY STEEN -
One not to miss. Authentic teddy boy era drama of "two groups of hot headed kids in tight jeans." They "sweat with a jungle fever," explains Bollinger for the benefit of us non Expresso Bar types, as Nicky (Ken Hewitt) plans his revenge on Benny Trotter's gang, so he can be Number One.
Benny will be "laughed off the streets" if they get him in his own back yard. As Benny digs Nicky's "dip" Sue (girl friend, Clare Marshall), she gives him the come-on, and alone in 137 Kirby Mews he's lured into Nicky's trap.
Then in St Philip's Hospital, Inspector Bollinger throws a hopeful "who did it?" at Benny. He claims to have walked through a glass door.
What Bollinger groovily calls a "full scale gang rumble" follows as Benny discharges himself.
At 137, Police Dog picks up the scent which leads "Mr Square" Bollinger straight to "little man" Nicky. Bollinger takes him down a peg by arresting him for cruelty to animals. Though charges aren't pressed, Nicky is now lowered in his gang's esteem.
He spits out revenge, kidnapping the "goofball" Police Dog and threatening to chop it up. Ahhhh! Fortunately Sue can't stand to see Police Dog maltreated and tells Bollinger where he's been hidden.
Meanwhile Benny's gang are marching in on Nicky. There's a clambering chase over a bomb site and ironically it's Police Dog, breaking loose of his chains, who saves Nicky from a worse beating.
However there's a sombre note as Bollinger brings the story to a moral conclusion.
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THE FRAME -
After 5 years in jail, ex cop Jim (Dermot Walsh) is out, and out to get Gino (Leonard Sachs) whose false witness had brought about his conviction. He's twisted and bitter.
His wife Sue (Honor Blackman) has not been allowed to visit him in prison.
Desperate, she asks Inspector Bollinger to get her "husband back," but is it too late?
Brooks confronts Gino. "You're crazy," says Gino. "I told them what I saw." In a crowded cafe Brooks threatens him.
He's found later viciously beaten to death, just like Fowler, the man Brooks had beaten up whilst in his custody. Has Brooks' revenge ended in murder? But we have seen that Gus and Benny (Maurice Kaufman and Michael Balfour) are responsible.
Jim is in trouble! But why would he kill Gino before he'd told the truth about the trial? Jim believes Gino had lied to protect his family. Bollinger tells Jim Gino's dying word was "Benny." This means something to Jim, if not oddly to Bollinger. "Stop feeling sorry for yourself," says Bollinger as he lets Jim go. "He was ready to explode," narrates Bollinger, "and if he did, he'd also destroy himself."
Returning home, Jim finds Sue has had a word of warning from Gus and Benny. And a few punches. But instead of at last seeing the light, Jim grabs a gun to face the two crooks. As they meet, Gus sagely notes "I should have thought five years would have taught you something."
An exciting conclusion to a powerful story of a man eaten up by revenge.
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THE OTHELLO MURDER
Against Bollinger's orders, a sixteen year old student at a progressive co-educational school, Doris West, leaves the premises to keep an assignation, and is found murdered. A quotation from Othello ("else she betray more men") is by her corpse so the murderer is clearly a person "who knows his Shakespeare."
Bollinger has a harrowing interview with her mother, which puts him on edge. Steve Wall sits in on lessons and Bollinger talks with a pupil who had been on a date with Doris: "she had a nice smile." Later the boy is found removing a handkerchief from her locker. But it seems he wants it as a keepsake as he blames himself for her death. He says he had a date with her but he had had to break it because he had been kept in to finish his French translation.
Those were the days when most pupils did exactly what they were ordered!
Of course several of the staff have secrets to hide, including Edwards (Bob Dean) and the French master. "We waited for the murderer to make a move.........."
Then it happens. One blonde pupil, Anne, is stalked through the park on her way to a concert. A man, whose face, of course, we never see, gets nearer and nearer. He grabs her and starts to strangle her. Bollinger and his dog appear in the nick of time.
The killer confesses, explaining his feeble motive, as Bollinger listens in disgust. "You shouldn't have stopped me, inspector."
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TOMORROW'S GHOST-
The sudden collapse of a wall on a Civil Defence site kills Amy Stewart instantly. The wall had been held firm by a cable which had snapped. Amy worked there and was unpopular with her colleagues. However it seems no accident when minor skin burns prove she was radioactive!
Arthur Johnson, manager of the site arranges for Inspector Bollinger to question his staff not only about Amy but also about the six or seven ounces of radioactive material that is missing. Johnson himself gives a clear description of the "accident" as he calls it- "there was an explosion, followed by a crash." He tries to explain why this wall was being held up by a strong cable, and he can't account for the missing radioactive material.
Mr Parks admits he had some "not serious" arguments with Amy, because he regarded her as a spying busybody.
Miss Martin (Valerie Gearon) didn't care for Amy either, as she suspected her of pilfering.
Police Dog gets very worked up on a visit to Amy's home. Her talcum powder is what he keeps barking at. It proves to be radioactive. "Now all we have to do is find out who gave it to her."
Lab man Alec Carson (Bernard Archard) demonstrates how the wall was made to collapse by using quartz and passing an electrical current through the cable. That explosion had been caused by the electrical impulse. "The plan was viciously thought out."
Bollinger lies in wait a catch the killer when that person comes to remove this electrical equipment. The killer arrives and Police Dog gives chase up a rickety building. The case ends with the traditional fall off the top.
A slow story that gradually becomes more absorbing. It concludes with a neat rounding off scene, which explains why Amy was killed using motifs we've already encountered.
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BREAKOUT-
A typical opening scene - lots of loud music as model prisoner Joe Bailey (Hector Ross) breaks jail and is driven away by his associates, then bashed on the head and dumped Underneath the railway Arches.
His former 'employer' Karvik had never helped Bailey after his arrest. When Karvik is found dead Bailey is the obvious suspect. In fact Della Karvik (Naomi Chance) even witnessed Joe shooting her husband- "I'll remember that face as long as I live."
Joe flees to his wife. "Something wrong going on here," he tells her. He'd broken out to kill Karvik, but he's already dead! The police arrive at their flat. He hides in a cupboard but this is hardly going to fool Police Dog.
Bollinger questions Bailey, and with Mrs Karvik's identification, he's under arrest. We see her go off to celebrate with her partner Paul.
Dyson, the villain who'd met Joe with his getaway car, denies helping Joe when the police interrogate him. But Paul is worried he might crack so he drives Dyson to a quarry and pushes him over the edge.
Although it looks black for Bailey, Bollinger has "some nagging doubts" so with Police Dog's assistance, he retraces Joe's movements after his jailbreak. At the Karvik apartment Bollinger reealises his dog hadn't picked up Joe's scent there. She's been lying!
Della is enjoying a kiss with Paul when they're interrupted by a loud bark! Enter Bollinger to question her again about her identification of Joe. "He was wearing his prison clothes," she finally decides. That clinches it. She's under arrest. Paul makes a run for it and Police Dog chases him up several flights of stairs and over roof tops. There's a lot of clambering before he doesn't as expected, fall over the edge.
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THE ESCAPE-
A prisoner escapes from jail, leading Bollinger to the country mansion of a has-been big game hunter, who is trying to continue his position of greatness back in the old country
Cast includes:
Peter Madden,
Sidonie Platt,
Barry Foster,
Peter Bathurst,
Ian Ainsley and
Alan Rolfe
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THE WEB-
Old hand Ferdy Mayne plays another villain, this time called Greg. At the start, he's urging patience on Ann (Paula Byrne). We watch her return to her luxury home and her invalid husband Tony Payton (Arthur Lawrence), "only half a man."
Inspector Bollinger is called in to investigate the disappearance of Payton's missing jewels worth £60,000, stolen from his safe along with £250 cash. But he finds precious little in the way of clues, or as he remarks in his Sixties-speak - "absolute nothingness began to say a great deal." The job seems to have been committed by a criminal with a fetish for neatness.
Ann's phoning Greg, but no reply. Not surprising as he's lying dead in his flat!
Meanwhile Bollinger is asking old mate Sam Rock (Jessie Robbins) if she's heard any whispers. But all she can tell him is "this one you may not crack Johnny."
But at last a break, when a costume jeweller comes to Bollinger. "A young man" had asked him to make imitations of some jewellery, which he now knows are part of the stolen Payton collection. The imitations must have been stolen. The young man proves to be dead Greg. Next stop Mrs Payton, of course, to arrest her.
Bollinger makes "the fifty minute trip in twenty" (mainly easy because the roads are empty!), where he obtains his confession. The stolen notes are found in Payton's secretary's wallet. Then the bombshell that brought Bollinger here. How does the sec explain the £10,000 he's deposited in his bank account? The sec is arrested but Payton, in an effort to elude justice flees in his wheelchair. Hardly a match for the pursuing Police Dog! Having fallen into a lake, Payton is duly apprehended.
The final scene is a sad one, as Payton reflects on life- "my plan was perfect," he claims. Bollinger points out where he went wrong.
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THE ACCIDENT
Clive Marchant (Norman Bird) is off to work at the bank as usual. But this is to be no ordinary day, for his wife is to receive a call from the police, bringing her bad news- her husband has been injured in an accident.
But, hello, there is Mr Marchant, at work as usual, dealing with a customer (John Gabriel) who is no ordinary client. He informs the manager his wife is now in safe hands. "Where's my wife?" shouts Marchant, twice. "No need for histrionics," he's warned.
He returns home to explain to Mrs Fleming, his neighbour, that his wife has had to leave to help her sick mother. However Mrs Fleming is so worried, she phones the mother, who is perfectly OK. She dials 999: "there's been a murder," she yells down the phone. Inspector Bollinger takes all the details in, quietly puffing his cigarette. He's sufficiently interested to call at Mr Marchant's bank, where he learns the couple are now alleged to have had an argument. It would be "fatal" if the police were involved, he tells Bollinger.
Yet they are, for Bollinger keeps watch on Marchant, who is so worried about his wife's fate. The crook (John Gabriel) quietly collects a nice sum of money from the bank, before driving off in his car, XPH 165. That familiar police car trails him, XPC 898. Up the Great North Road, and on to the Barnet by-pass. The driver becomes suspicious, so a new car is put on his tail.
Then disaster! The crook crashes- "I think he's dying." Bollinger quizzes him: "where's Mrs Marchant?" If the crook is "not back by 4 o'clock she'll be killed," Bollinger learns. But the address is impossible to discover- the driver has died.
Police dog picks up a scent- "all right boy, go!"
3.55pm and the crook's accomplice (Neil Hallett) is preparing to shoot his prisoner. Up swoops a police car, but it's warned to back off. Bollinger retreats, but only to where he can watch the house. Police Dog waits to pounce. There's a sound of barking as he jumps on the villain.
At last, Mr and Mrs Marchant are reunited at the end of a long day.
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THE CONTRACT-
An exciting story of Walter Nolan (Richard Leech) who really needs a "miracle" to extricate himself from his financial difficulties. For £20,000 marksman Dulos (Paul Stassino) guarantees to do just that. "I kill so many people," he tells Nolan, "I've lost count." For that kind of money he will ensure Nolan's rival for a big contract, Robert Harlow will be eliminated. His method- a shot in the back.
Forensic evidence shows the gun that killed Harlow came from Greece. Footprints testify to a man wearing size sevens, "hand made." From such unpromising information a picture is built of the killer of which Mr Sherlock Holmes himself would have been proud.
Bollinger checks out the last known businessmen to have had appointments with Harlow, and that includes Nolan. His financial adviser Miss Porter (Frances Bennett) decides to offer her boss a challenge- "we'll be happier at the Ritz than in the poorhouse." He picks up on the word "we." But has he any choice?
In fact he starts to panic when Bollinger's suspicions fall on him. He tells Miss Porter "that means stopping him, before he stops us." Dulos is summoned again. He waits outside Bollinger's home. He fires. Quickwitted Police Dog pushes his master out of the bullet's path.
Dulos is soon tracked down. But Nolan has got there first. Dulos is dead. Bollinger knows at once who to arrest. But has he any proof? He certainly has!
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Answer- Ivan.
If anyone knows if these kennels are still in operation or can tell more of Ivan, we'd love to hear from you
For The Pursuers