MY LATE LAMENTED FRIEND AND PARTNER • REVIEW

MY LATE LAMENTED FRIEND AND PARTNER • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... Jeff pays a call on Fay Sorrensen, who has engaged his services to track her unfaithful husband John. He has plenty of evidence, photographs of Sorrensen out on the town in the company of other women, and Mrs Sorrensen decides she has grounds to file for divorce. She is adamant that her husband will be unable to retain any interests in the family concern, a company called Steel Presses. Later, when Randall has gone and her husband has returned, Fay delivers an ultimatum. Sorrensen is unrepentant and insists that he will not allow her to beat him. He makes a telephone call to an underworld organisation which can arrange for people to be killed in apparent accidents or by seemingly natural causes. He is to bring an umbrella to a meeting point and rest his hat upon it to identify himself. Before going out to the rendezvous, Sorrensen pops in to say goodbye to his wife. The camera pans down and we see his hat, which rests upon the hilt of his umbrella handle.

• Production Brief... The success of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner is as much down to scriptwriter Ralph Smart as it is to series creator Dennis Spooner, perhaps more so. Spooner's original outline proposal is certainly quite some distance from what was ultimately realised on film. The proposal document describes Steven 'Steve' Randall as being in his late-twenties, ambitious, athletic and a magnet for the ladies, whereas in the series, Jeff is ten years older, is down on his luck and could only be described as ambitious in terms of hoping something might turn up to pay for his next meal. Meanwhile, Martin 'Marty' Hopkirk is accident prone rather than the diligent, realist worrier we are introduced to in the opening scenes of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner and there is no sign of Jean, his wife and soon-to-be widow. Smart and Spooner worked in tandem to transform what was perhaps standard ITC fare of the time into a series that remains today one of the best regarded of those fondly remembered British adventure series of yesterday. Ralph Smart was also vital to the series being commissioned by ITC mogul Lew Grade in the first place. Dennis Spooner, interviewed by Andrew Smaje in Time Screen magazine in 1986, recalled that "Ralph was a sort of father figure as far as ATV (went)... At that time, it was touch and go as Lew Grade was never sure about Randall and Hopkirk, but Ralph Smart saw it and thought it was terrific. He said, 'I wanna write the pilot!' So I was delighted he wrote the pilot because that convinced Lew that we should in fact make the series." Such was the Danger Man creator's track record and reputation within ITC that Grade's initial misgivings were quickly overcome.

• It is often thought that Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and Department S - being sister series that famously shared resources - were conceived at the same time, but this was not the case. Initially, as revealed by Andrew Pixley in the book accompany Imprint Television Blu-ray release of Randall and Hopkirk, the series announced in late 1967 as being in development alongside Department S was Robert S. Baker's Aces High, a thriller series set during the First World War that concerned an international air squadron. This series never entered production, dropped off the active list by early 1968, and Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was concocted by Dennis Spooner and Monty Berman of Scoton Productions to replace it, working alongside Department S with the two series effectively sharing one second unit.

• Scoton Productions had been formed by Monty Berman and Dennis Spooner in 1967 and was responsible for the creation and production of The Champions, Department S, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jason King and The Adventurer. The first three series did not carry an on-screen Scoton credit and were stated as ITC productions, whereas Jason King and The Adventurer were each credited as "A Scoton Production for ITC" at the start of each episode's closing credits. All five series were co-created by Berman and Spooner.

• The production (and eventually transmission) of the two sister series was staggered, with Department S first going before the cameras at ABPC Elstree Studios on Tuesday 30th April 1968 - at which point the central roles in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) had yet to be cast.

• When it did come to casting, during May 1968, the initial preference for the role of Jeff Randall was the Irish comedian Dave Allen, who had already experienced some success in the UK and Australia and would go on to host an acclaimed and popular 1970s BBC comedy series Dave Allen at Large. The stars did not align for him with Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), however, and the role went to Mike Randall, a few weeks shy of his 37th birthday. Pratt had entered acting in the early 1960s after some considerable success in the music business in the previous decade. He had made supporting appearances in a number of ITC adventure series including, most recently, The Champions. The second lead role of Marty Hopkirk went to Liverpudlian Kenneth Cope, a familiar-faced veteran of Coronation Street and That Was the Week That Was. The final regular role was won by Australian actress Annette André, who had been in serious consideration for the Sharron Macready co-star role in The Champions a year earlier and who had featured in earlier ITC series including The Baron, Gideon's Way and The Prisoner, not to mention five episodes alongside Roger Moore in The Saint.

• Director Cyril Frankel, who also served as Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'s creative consultant, simultaneously held the same role on Department S and when joining the Randall and Hopkirk crew to direct My Late Lamented Friend and Partner, he had just finished directing chores on the Department S episode, The Man in the Elegant Room. He commented during the commentary which he, along with Kenneth Cope and Annette André provided for the Network DVD edition of this episode that "this episode was the way I saw the fundamental part of the series. (Kenneth Cope) however, introduced more comedy. I remember that when I came back for an episode, Kenneth said to me that "we've changed it a bit from your way." Cope went on to say that "Both Michael and I realised it could really go somewhere and we both tried so hard to make it work."

• When Marty appears to walk through the hotel walls while looking for the beatnik Hendy, an age-old technique was employed to achieve the effect known as 'Pepper's Ghost'. The trick has long been used on the stage, in the cinema and even in haunted house rides at fairgrounds and is named after John Henry Pepper, who first demonstrated the technique in the 1860s. It achieves its illusory effect by use of a large plate glass angled in front of the camera, with the 'ghost' subject harshly lit at 90 degrees to the glass (and to the side of the camera). The image (in this instance, of Kenneth Cope running back and forth) was then reflected on to the glass and was filmed as a live, combined image. This technique allowed the performers to exchange dialogue in a natural fashion, but set up times were very long and Kenneth Cope later commented that it was very difficult for him, being a part of the action but in reality completely removed from it: "It got very lonely doing that behind the camera... playing shots with Michael with my back to him." In the end, a compromise was decided upon which would involve the the actors 'freezing', Cope moving into or out of shot as required and then Cope and his fellow performers starting up again on a given cue. The final effect would be achieved by editing out the frames between freezing and continuing. As viewers will note, some actors were superb at this discipline - Mike Pratt for starters - while others, normally visiting artistes, were less well versed in the technique and so the effect is rarely seamless. This is how the vast majority of Marty's appearances and disappearances were achieved in the series and the 'Pepper's Ghost' process was employed sparingly from this point onwards.

• Three standing sets were constructed for this episodes which would be used throughout the remainder of the series: the Randall and Hopkirk office and Jeff and Jeannie's respective flats. Other sets were built, some specially for particular episodes and others redressed from stock. These would appear many times throughout the run of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), though thanks to clever redressing, they are often hard to spot!

• Filming of this episode took place in May to July 1968 and a production slate which can be seen on Disc 7 of the Network DVD set reveals a 19th July filming date for one sequence.

• Post production work was completed in early October 1968.

• Seeing Things... My Late Lamented Friend and Partner was noted on ITC documentation as the episode that "must be transmitted first". It would, however, not receive its first UK broadcast until nearly twelve months had passed since it was completed (by which time the whole series had also been completed).

• A deal announced in March 1969 witnessed Canada's CTV network being among the first international broadcasters to buy Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). This would ultimately lead to this country giving the series its world premiere transmission in colour on Wednesday 17th September 1969 at 7.00pm.

• My Late Lamented Friend and Partner received its first UK broadcast when it was transmitted in monochrome by the ATV, Channel, Granada, HTV, Ulster, Westward and Yorkshire ITV regions on Friday 19th September 1969.

• It was first shown in colour on ITV two days later on Sunday 21st December 1969 when the standard London Weekend Television programming (which included My Late Lamented Friend and Partner) was transmitted in colour from Crystal Palace on UHF channel 23, offering a sneak peek at the regular service due to commence in mid-November. However, the majority of viewers would have seen the episode in monochrome as there were reportedly only 200,000 colour TV sets in use by the end of 1969, though this figure was double that of the beginning of the year.

• The only other ITV region to show the episode in colour during its first run was Scottish Television, which ran the series from Saturday 8th January 1972. STV is unique among the ITV regions in that they did not show a single episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in black and white on first run.

• In addition to the Canadian broadcasts, the series was also purchased and screened by many other countries, including New Zealand (from October 1970), Czechoslovakia (from December 1970, as Randall a Hopkirk), Poland (from June 1971, as Randall i duch Hopkirk) and Italy (from July 1971, as L'amico fantasma).

• My Late Lamented Friend and Partner was first screened in the USA in March 1974 after the series was sold into syndication as My Partner the Ghost, the sale coming much too late to allow for a second series to be commissioned, eventually selling to 41 local stations and rating very respectably. Chambers + Partners produced a new set of opening titles with the alternative series name specially for these transmissions, filming the captions on Thursday 30th August 1973.

Image © ITV Studios / Chambers + Partners, 1973

• This episode would subsequently be edited very slightly on its 1980s ITV repeat run to remove a spoken reference to a telephone number in the pre-titles teaser.

• On Location... This episode positively explodes with lush location work, taking in a large number of central and west London locales. The second unit Eaton Place location work in Belgravia, London SW1, was filmed on Friday 19th July 1968 and this footage would form the first scenes of the episode - and therefore would be the first footage to be seen by audiences.

• The Eaton Place location would go on to be more famous as the setting for the classic LWT drama series Upstairs Downstairs, with 'the house' being one of the properties on the other side of the road, number 65 (re-numbered 165 in the series).

• Coincidentally, Eaton Place had a further Randall and Hopkirk connection, as Mike Pratt lived there during filming and infamously broke both legs there while foolishly trying to climb to a first floor window after a party. This would affect the filming of Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave and The Ghost Talks at the end of the series production.

• After interrogating the beatnik Hendy, Jeff and Marty follow a lead to the driver of the car that hit Marty. They proceed to 2B Tower House on the Fulham Road and this is the only setting in the episode that is not introduced with a second unit or stock establishing shot. Although Fulham Road is a genuine road name, there is not a 'Tower House' there in reality.

• Particularly notable is the setting for the scenes in which Sorrensen and his hired killers hunt Jeff down towards the end of the episode, as whereas we are often in the position of discussing locations used that have since been demolished, these locations, in the main, were actually under construction while the sequences were being filmed, making the Then and Now comparisons at this site all the more interesting. More details in Locations: My Late Lamented Friend and Partner.

• Trivia... It is interesting that, in the 12 minutes of screen time prior to Marty Hopkirk's death, we get to know about Marty and how he gets on with Jeff Randall, but his relationship with his wife Jean is established via a telephone call from Marty at the office to their Jean, who is at home. Considering that the couple do not go on to share any scenes where Jean can interact with Marty's ghost, it seems strange that writer Ralph Smart did not find a way to bring the characters together in the same space. It would not be until The Ghost Talks that they shared a scene in which they could properly interact with each other.

• We learn that at their respective homes, Jeff lives in flat number 41 and Marty and Jean's flat is number 8 - though not in the same buildings, of course! Later, in The Man from Nowhere, Jean is said to be in the same apartment but it is then numbered flat 21.

• The regular Randall and Hopkirk players had a unique way of welcoming guest artistes, as Kenneth Cope recalled on the commentary for the Network DVD edition of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner: "It's very difficult coming into a show just to do a day's work on a show that's already established. It's so tricky and you remember anyone who is ever kind to you. Mike, (Annette) and I used to give (each of them) a paper cup of champagne - just one - to make the visiting people happy and more relaxed." This pleasant atmosphere was not exactly replicated across the way in the other Scoton/ITC series being made at Elstree in tandem with Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - Department S. Annette André commented that "Joel Fabiani (who played Stewart Sullivan in Department S) used to come over to us because he hated the set over there so much." Kenneth Cope went on to explain why perhaps their series was so great to work on: "We were OK because we had a live guy, a dead guy and a woman. There was no competition anywhere. There was nobody vying for anything."

• As is now practically Randall and Hopkirk legend, Kenneth Cope's wig was incorrectly applied in My Late Lamented Friend and Partner and for the next two episodes filmed, But What A Sweet Little Room and For the Girl Who Has Everything. Kenneth Cope recalled, when interviewed by Annette Buckley for Time Screen magazine, that "I had it on back-to-front... because we had this Canadian hairdresser and she was rubbish! It was alright, but I looked like the middle one of The Three Stooges." Marty's parting in these episodes is on the left-hand side rather than the intended right-hand parting which he sports from A Sentimental Journey onwards.

• While Marty Hopkirk's clothing is all white, the soles of his shoes are seen to be black in this episode.

• One of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'s unsung heroes is the man who was for a year the regular double for Mike Pratt in Second Unit sequences, Harry 'Aitch' Fielder. Aitch was something of a legendary figure in fandom, having appeared in just about every British television series and film ever made since the late 1960s, or so it has always seemed. Among hundreds of roles, he chalked up parts in many ITC series, plus Doctor Who, Blake's 7, Secret Army and even Star Wars. Harry also made an uncredited appearance in My Late Lamented Friend and Partner as the male passer-by who goes to the scene in the aftermath of the hit and run incident in which Marty Hopkirk is killed (see image, right). The voice we hear, however, was dubbed by another actor. Most of the rest of the time in the series, you only saw his face by accident, as generally he would be seen from behind, to mask the fact that he was not Mike Pratt. According to Kenneth Cope, this reputedly caused the studio to require Aitch to diet, so that he would look more like the slim actor whom he was doubling. Such dedication! You can read more about Aitch and his experiences working on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and many other films and series at his website: www.harryfielder.co.uk which remains open following his death in 2021. His autobiography, Extra, Extra, Read All About It, is recommended by Randall and Hopkirk (Declassified).

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

• Only You, Jeff? Being the first episode, it is no great surprise that only Jeff Randall can see Marty in his spectral form. We also learn that Marty's voice cannot be recorded, at least via a tapped telephone, despite Jeff being able to hear it.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Marty Hopkirk is the solitary spectral presence in this episode, returning as a ghost after being killed in a hit and run incident.

• Poetry Corner: The ghostly rhyme that leaves Marty cursed to walk the Earth for one hundred years, in full...

Afore the sun shall rise anew,

Each ghost to his grave must go.

Cursed be the ghost who dares to stay

And face the awful light of day.

He shall not to the grave return

Until a hundred years be gone.

• The Vehicles... Appearing in this episode were the following wonders of transport...

	1968 Vauxhall Victor FD 2000 Registration RXD 996F Driven by Jeff Randall	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - used extensively throughout the series Department S - 'The Last Train to Redbridge', 'The Man from X'
	1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe Mk I Registration BAP 245B Driven by Marty Hopkirk	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'You Can Always Find A Fall Guy', 'All Work and No Pay', 'Never Trust a Ghost', 'Vendetta for a Dead Man', 'Just for the Record', 'Could You Recognise the Man Again?', 'A Disturbing Case', 'Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave', 'The Ghost Talks' Department S - 'The Man from X' The Saint - 'The Time to Die' The Persuaders! - 'Greensleeves'
	1965 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III Registration CDK 978C Driven by John Sorrensen's chauffeur	Also appeared in: The Avengers - 'You'll Catch Your Death'
	1964 Thames 10CWT 400E Registration FGN 365C Driven by 'Electrician'
	1965 Humber Super Snipe Series V Registration EHP 416C Driver not revealed
	1968 Ford Cortina 1600E MkII Registration OYR 877F Driven by 'Assassin'	Also appeared in: The Saint - 'The Time to Die'
	1958 Austin FX4 Registration YYW 297 Incidental Vehicle
	1968 Ford Zephyr Deluxe MkIV Registration PXD 976F	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'A Sentimental Journey', 'You Can Always Find A Fall Guy', 'Who Killed Cock Robin?', 'The Trouble With Women', 'Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?', 'Never Trust A Ghost', 'Vendetta for a Dead Man', 'A Disturbing Case', 'Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave'  Department S - 'The Bones of Byrom Blain' and other episodes

• Seen It All Before? In this episode, Annette André, as Jean Hopkirk, wears an outfit previously worn by her friend Alexandra Bastedo in the 1967 ITC series, The Champions.

• Cock-ups... The 'graveyard' title sequence opens with a shot of the outer door to the Randall and Hopkirk office (below, left), but the typeface and wording to not match that seen elsewhere in the series (below, right).

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• At 25 minutes and 3 seconds into the episode, when Jeff Randall drives down Eaton Mews North towards Happy Lee's flat, he parks the Vauxhall in the middle of the road alongside a green Volkswagen Beetle. The shot then cuts to a view of Jeff's car in front of Happy's flat - and not only is the Vauxhall parked tight to the left side of the road, but the green Beetle is now ahead of it. We assume that a shot of the Vauxhall being reversed into the parking space was either not filmed or omitted from the final edit. 

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• In the same sequence, Jeff approaches the door to Happy's flat. The exterior of the door is a dark blue on location, but white when the action cuts to the studio.

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• Actress Dolores Mantez, who portrayed Happy Lee in this episode, was mistakenly credited as 'Dolorez Mantez' in the end credit sequence and in the ITC synopsis.

• And Finally... The filming location for Marty's funeral was actually an area of the Elstree Studios backlot and the cemetery set was re-used swiftly afterwards in the Department S episode The Double Death of Charlie Crippen. Marty's grave was, however, not seen.

Plotline: Scoton Productions / ITC • UK Transmissions by Simon Coward and Alan Hayes
Review by Alan Hayes • Declassified by Alan Hayes
with thanks to Vince Cox, Andrew Pixley and Mark Taylor

All timings given on this page relate to the Blu-ray editions of this episode