Vanessa Bergman investigates the origins of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

Fans of the series are all very familiar with how Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) began its life in the episode My Late Lamented Friend and Partner - with the craggy-faced, down-at-heel private investigator Jeff Randall and his ghostly partner, Marty Hopkirk. However, the late Dennis Spooner, the creator of the series, had some very different ideas in mind when he first submitted a proposal document to ITC, regarding the characters, the background, the situation after Hopkirk's death and the effect of this on his partner. All in all, a complete metamorphosis took place before the series was eventually transmitted in some ITV regions in the autumn of 1969. In this section of Randall and Hopkirk (Declassified), aspects of the series as we know it are compared with Spooner's original proposal.

This section is divided up into several pages, each one focusing on a particular aspect of Dennis Spooner's Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) proposal. Please use the links at the top of each page to navigate through the Origins section.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

Forward to Origins: The Characters

Proposal Document: Scoton Productions / ITC • Feature by Vanessa Bergman
Previously published as In the Beginning in RAHDAS Newsletter No. 1 (Spring 1989)
and as Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased): Before and After in Time Screen No. 14 (Autumn 1989)
Reprinted with permission

The author acknowledges the help given to her by ITC in the preparation of this article.