Image © ITV Studios, 1968

Network's 2016 Blu-ray releases of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) offered fans the chance to experience the complete series in High Definition for the first time. However, it also incorporated something that harked back to the series' first transmission. ITC fans with long memories, those who saw the series on its first broadcast or via its 1970s repeats, would no doubt have welcomed the decision to restore the opening credits that were used for its initial UK transmissions from September 1969.

Due to a decision taken close to those first screenings, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - unusually for an ITC series - was left with two different title sequences, both of which can arguably be termed 'original' by some criteria.

The first broadcasts of the series across the ITV regions all included a title sequence featuring a voice-over from Kenneth Cope as Marty Hopkirk, neatly explaining the series' premise in the space of a few short lines of dialogue - "Jeff! It's alright. Jeannie can't see or hear me... Nobody can. Only you, Jeff. Only you!" This monologue was mixed with Edwin Astley's distinctive Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) theme and combined with edited film footage, almost all of which hailed from the debut episode, My Late Lamented Friend and Partner and Kenneth Cope's screen test. As a result, viewers were quickly brought up to speed with what was going on, dispelling their questions about Kenneth Cope's white suit, and why no-one but Jeff Randall could see or hear him.

After a couple of 1970s repeat runs - in which this same sequence was included again - Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), along with several other classic ITC film series, were wheeled out again in the mid-1980s. The film prints of all these series had, by this time, suffered some wear and tear, it was decided to strike new 35mm film prints from the original negatives. While this was a welcome development, it meant that Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) wouldn't be quite the same as it had been before, as the new film materials featured an unfamiliar title sequence which lacked the graveyard scenes and Marty's expository voice-over. Its replacement was much more in the style of the other Chambers + Partners ITC sequences, and it was this 'orange' title sequence which would become familiar to the series' fanbase over the next thirty years - seen throughout the repeat seasons on the ITV stations in the mid- to late-1980s and BBC2 in the 1990s, on VHS home video and, later, DVD from Carlton, Umbrella and Network. The 'graveyard' sequence was recovered during the Carlton era and was included as a bonus feature - isolated from the episodes - on the DVD releases. However, Network decided to add it to the episodes on Disc Four of their 2007 DVD set - When the Spirit Moves You, Never Trust a Ghost, Money to Burn and The Man from Nowhere - though the editing was hardly seamless, making many fans question the choice.

Let us consider two key questions:

1) Why it was felt necessary to make a replacement title sequence?

2) Which of the two is the original?

The second question has a potentially confusing answer in that - in a way - both sequences can be described as being the original. Bear with us... The 'orange' one, first seen on the 1980s repeats, is the sequence present on all the series' negatives and inter-positives (back-up copies of a positive image printed on negative film stock) - thereby establishing it as the 'original' sequence initially intended for broadcast. Likewise, the 'graveyard' sequence (henceforth, 'replacement titles') is also original in that it is the sequence seen on screen the first time around, when it was decided that a replacement sequence would be required.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

Both sequences pre-date the premiere broadcast of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner - a fact that has been established from surviving paperwork. The Sound Magnetic Dupe report, dated January 1970, which was archived along with the music recordings for the beginning and end credits, refers to "new front titles" in long and short versions, further noting a filming date of 12th August 1969. The reference to versions of different lengths remains unexplained, as only one known version of the replacement title sequence survives. Below this entry, it is further stated that the original titles were shot on 13th August 1968, shortly after production wrapped on the opening episode.

Production on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) concluded in July 1969. It would appear that the 12th August 1969 date given on the production paperwork refers either to:

• the date of the editing session of the new title sequence,

• the recording of Kenneth Cope's voiceover, and / or

• the shooting of additional footage required.

In fact, only one new piece of film was included in the replacement sequence: a zoom-in and pull-focus on the door of the Randall and Hopkirk office (which is not the office door seen in the actual episodes). Of the original 1968 sequence, only Dennis Spooner and Monty Berman's credits were retained unmolested, and the transition from the original to the replacement looks somewhat jarring at this point, it must be said. It is also worth noting that the title sequence made for the North American market is identical to the replacement sequence, barring its series title caption My Partner the Ghost.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

With the series going to air in September 1969, this was a very late substitution. Film prints for broadcast would already have been struck from the negatives or inter-positives, complete with the original 'orange' titles - and the new replacement titles were simply spliced into these broadcast prints. It is very likely that the option to edit the new sequence into the negatives was dismissed for reasons of expense and almost certainly time. Whatever the reason, the replacement titles do not feature in any of the negatives or inter-positives - and this is why when new prints were struck several decades later, the graveyard shots and Marty Hopkirk's voice-over simply disappeared, much as Marty was wont to do himself, to be replaced with the original, hitherto unseen, 1968 sequence.

So, the 'orange' titles were made first, were replaced prior to broadcast, and not seen until the 1980s... but was that actually the case? Randall and Hopkirk fan Mark Rogers watched the series right from the beginning and has an interesting point to make: "My parents were living in the Granada ITV region at that time, and I would have been eleven years old in September 1969. I didn't see every episode - at that age my TV viewing was very much at the mercy of the grown-ups in my life, and their viewing tastes and social calendar - but I saw My Late Lamented Friend and Partner, and most of the following episodes. My father took a liking to it - I remember him roaring with laughter throughout A Disturbing Case, to the point where he went out of his way to watch that one when it turned up during the 1995 BBC2 repeats. The first thing to say is that I remember the debut being trailed quite substantially and that prompted me to make sure I saw it. The other thing is that My Late Lamented Friend and Partner, on its first airing on Granada, had the 'orange' title sequence. The next episode - I couldn't swear which one it was - had the 'graveyard' sequence. I remember distinctly being disappointed as I'd liked the 'orange' sequence and disliked the use of the clips in the expositionary one for some reason. Now, of course, I hold the 'voice-over' version in great affection because it was the one I had become most familiar with during the 1970s repeats. However, that wasn't the end of the 'orange' sequence during that first run. It did pop up again; and I was delighted when it did - but I can't recall how often it appeared. I do wonder if it was only the once, to cover Judith Arthy's appearance in The House on Haunted Hill, but I can't say for sure."

Mark's memories obviously cannot be taken as absolute confirmation, but it suggests that the title sequence choice was not as cut and dried as the producers going for one sequence or the other. It is tempting to consider that perhaps the 'graveyard' sequence with its explanatory voice-over was thought to give away too much of the storyline of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner and the decision was made to retain the slightly more ambiguous 'orange' titles on prints of that episode. 

So, while there are shades of grey in the answer to our first question, the second is one that cannot be answered definitively due to the passage of time: why it was felt necessary to make a replacement title sequence in the first place. The original sequence had been prepared by Chambers + Partners, who supplied such sequences for many other ITC filmed series, often utilising multiple colour overlays and double exposure effects. In the case of this particular sequence, it's generally fine in colour but certain aspects could have been deemed indistinct when viewed in black and white. At the time of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'s production, this was an important consideration as - despite ITV's transition to colour broadcasts from 15th November 1969 - colour equipment was expensive and a great many viewers would continue watching on monochrome sets well into the next decade, and these viewers had to be considered. Perhaps more tellingly, for the series' first run, the original sequence may not fully explain the one aspect of the series format which a new viewer (if they missed the first episode) would need to know to understand the whole set-up: that Marty Hopkirk is a ghost, visible and audible only to his chosen partner, Jeff Randall.

The people who made the decision to produce the replacement title sequence are no longer with us, so barring some ghostly intervention, it must remain one of the unsolved mysteries of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).