IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THICKER THAN WATER • REVIEW

IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE THICKER THAN WATER • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... In his apartment one night, Jeff is working on his business accounts, trying to see how he can pay the latest set of bills. It is impossible - his outgoings are far too high. He throws his pen across the room in anger. It hits his guitar, causing the strings to twang. Marty appears and causes the guitar strings to twang another three times. "Olé!" he declares, with a flourish. Jeff isn't in the mood for theatricals and suggests that while he's here, Marty should take a look at the books - it has been the worst month for the Randall and Hopkirk detective agency since they went into business. Jeff leaves Marty in the apartment, insisting he wants to go for a walk - alone. As he walks the London streets, he is surprised to hear the sound of approaching horses' hooves. He dismisses the thought and goes to light a cigarette. As he does so, a gloved hand lands on his shoulder and a well-dressed man asks Jeff if he is Mr Randall. When Jeff confirms this is the case, the stranger reveals that a Mr Joshua Crackan wishes to speak with him. Jeff is initially disinterested until the man talks of him being offered the opportunity to make a considerable amount of money, at which point he is all ears and asks to be led to this Mr Crackan. Crackan is waiting in a nearby hansom cab. He asks Jeff to perform a simple task. All he must do is deliver a letter to another of the Crackan clan, his nephew Johnny Crackan, and for this, Jeff will receive £50. Jeff readily accepts the offer of work and asks how he might find the man. Joshua Crackan has no idea. After all, Johnny is a criminal who escaped from prison six weeks ago...

• Production Brief... It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water, the eighth episode to be filmed, boasted Donald James' fourth script (of an eventual, unrivalled eleven) for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and had another 'old hand', Leslie Norman, in the director's chair (Norman had previously helmed A Sentimental Journey).

• Leslie Norman was born on Thursday 23rd February 1911 in London, England and enjoyed a hugely successful career in the British film industry over five decades. He started out in the industry at Warner Brothers' Teddington Studios at the age of fourteen, working in the labs and editing rooms there. By the time he was called up for military service, he had rose from sweeping floors to supervising editor and then assistant director. After his two years' service, he joined Ealing Films and was soon involved in films they were producing in Australia. His first credit of note was on the outback wartime drama, The Overlanders (1946), on which he took the role of supervising editor. Over the next eleven years, he split his time working in Britain and Australia, editing the likes of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (1957) and producing classics such as The Cruel Sea (1953) in Britain and Where No Vultures Fly (1951) and West of Zanzibar (1954). During this period, he also began directing films, his first being The Night My Number Came Up (1955), with other notables being Hammer genre favourite X - The Unknown (1956), starring Dean Jagger, and Dunkirk (1958), starring the marvellous Sir John Mills. Moving into the 1960s, Norman found a niche for himself directing filmed television, and was responsible for episodes of the ITC series The Saint, Gideon's Way, The Baron and The Champions, before he came to work on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). During the same period, he was also hired to direct episodes of The Avengers and Randall's sister series, Department S. Afterwards, he remained with ITC, directing episodes of Shirley's World, The Persuaders! and Return of the Saint, after which he retired from the industry. He was the father of renowned British film critic Barry Norman and director Valerie Norman and passed away at 82 from heart failure on Thursday 18th February 1993.

• The day-for-night shots filmed at both High Canons and The Orange Tree public house are a little unusual in that in addition to having night filter processing, they are also blanked with a soft black wipe - or a partial mask over the camera - to completely obliterate the sky.

• The High Canons gatehouse was filmed on location and a replica was constructed in studio, which was used for interiors and some exterior sequences. All shots in the gatehouse sequences involving the actors rather than doubles were recorded in studio. The replica was exceptionally detailed, carrying over the window shape and frame style and even the layout of the front door from the actual gatehouse building, right down to having an identical door knocker.  The tell-tale sign that this was not an all-location sequence (aside from the subtle differences between studio and exterior lighting) is that the external wall has an additional section of wall coming off at right angles to the left of the window. This is absent on the actual structure. All images below are taken from the episode as screened, with the exception of the bottom right image of the front door, which was taken in recent years.

Images © ITV Studios, 1968 except © Alys Hayes, 2013 (bottom right)

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but in his DVD liner notes, Andrew Pixley states the filming commenced in late September 1968. Filming is thought to have been completed in October 1968.

• Post production work on this episode was completed in mid-March 1969.

• On Location... The major location in this episode was High Canons, an impressive private country house near Well End, Hertfordshire, which is situated in an expansive and picturesque 800 acre estate.  The building is a much-filmed location and the director of this episode, Leslie Norman, had filmed there twice before for earlier ITC series The Baron and The Saint. The episode also took in The Orange Tree pub on Totteridge Common, and the familiar locale of Borehamwood's shopping street, Shenley Road. Also notable was a re-use of the footage shot with the famous ITC white Jag on Ivinghoe Beacon and at Betchworth Quarry. Footage was also used from a Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode in post-production to produce a montage of night-time shots of theatrical venues in London's West End, a whirlwind sequence which depicted Marty's search for magician's assistant Fay Crackan. More details in Locations - It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water.

• Seeing Things... It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water received its first UK broadcast when it aired in colour in the ATV region on Friday 30th January 1970.

• After the first fifteen episodes of their run had been shown in black and white, the HTV ITV region moved to colour broadcasts during an eight month break in their Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) schedule. The region's switch to colour was staggered: the Wenvoe transmitter, serving the HTV Wales area, switched over on Monday 6th April 1970, while the Mendip transmitter, which provided signals for the HTV West area, started transmitting in colour from Saturday 30th May 1970. As a result, the first episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to be transmitted in colour from both transmitters to HTV Wales and West viewers was It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water on Saturday 15th August 1970 at 5.50pm.

• Trivia... In It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water, it is revealed that Jeff knows at least a smattering of Spanish, as he converses in that language with the doomed Ramon Burgos y Crackan when the Spaniard arrives at the Crackan Manor gatehouse. This is distinctly more impressive than Marty's "Olé!" at the start of the episode!

• In this episode, we see Jeff reading Professor David William's Not in the Public Interest, a book which focused on the operation of the 1911 Official Secrets Act and how successive British governments used it to suppress sensitive information. It was published by Hutchinson in 1965.

• When we see close-up shots of Johnny Crackan (John Hallam) driving the white Jag, the director opted to use a moving painted backdrop rather than a 'back projected' moving background. This was undoubtedly decided upon to keep costs down as optical printing necessary to combine studio shots with pre-filmed backgrounds was expensive.

• The vaudeville show at The New Hampstead Theatre that we see auditions for is revealed to be taking place on Saturday 20th September. The venue was a fictional one, but coincidentally, today there is a theatrical venue in Hampstead with that name. It opened in February 2003.

• The show's poster, displayed outside The New Hampstead Theatre, credits 'Jack Holbert' as its compère, seemingly a nod to the famous British comedy star Jack Hulbert (1892-1978). It is debatable whether the spelling of Hulbert's surname was an error or a deliberate choice.

• Only You, Jeff? When Fay Crackan is hypnotised and unconscious, Marty is able to communicate with her to the extent that he is able to will her to resist Hodder's murderous attack and then, still in a trance, telephone the police to get them to arrest Joshua Crackan and Hodder and save Jeff Randall.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Only Marty, who it is revealed can strum a guitar by telekinesis.

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

	Hansom Cab Driven by Cabbie
	Jaguar Mk II Registration 469 EXO Driven by Ramon and Johnny Crackan
	Jaguar Mk II Registration M 2543 Driven by Johnny Crackan	Also appeared in: Department S - 'Who Plays the Dummy?'
	1957 Jaguar Mk I Registration M 431 428 (a fake Continental registration plate) Driven by Johnny Crackan (Stock Footage)	Also appeared in: The Baron - 'Time to Kill' Department S - 'The Man Who Got A New Face', 'Who Plays the Dummy?'
	Jaguar Mk I Registration WRP 344 (Registration on the front of the car was NMK 76, which was most likely the actual registration.) Driven by Johnny Crackan (Stock Footage)	Also appeared in: The Baron - 'Something for a Rainy Day' The Saint - 'The Queen's Ransom' The Champions - 'The Final Countdown' Department S - 'The Man Who Got A New Face', 'Who Plays the Dummy?' The Adventurer - 'Icons are Forever' Hammer House of Mystery and Suspense - 'Black Carrion'
	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'
	1968 Ford Zephyr 6 MkIV Registration OXE 998F	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'Money to Burn', 'The Man from Nowhere', 'Could You Recognise the Man Again?', 'The Ghost Talks' Department S - 'The Man in the Elegant Room', 'The Last Train to Redbridge', 'The Double Death of Charlie Crippen'

• Seen It All Before? The hallway set was utilised once more to form a part of Crackan Manor. The dining room set was, however, constructed specially for this episode.

• The 'doomed white Jag' footage which was used in many other series, having originally been shot for The Baron, was incorporated into this episode. The sequence reused shots from two Baron episodes, Something for a Rainy Day and Time to Kill, meaning that footage of no less than five different white Jaguars (four Mk IIs and a Mk I) were seen as Johnny Crackan made his fateful journey!

• The shot of Wormwood Scrubs Prison was also sourced from The Baron, coincidentally from the same episode that featured the first appearance of the white Jag footage, Something for a Rainy Day.

• Footage from That's How Murder Snowballs, then in production, was inserted in the episode to form the montage showing Marty checking out the West End theatres.

• This sequence also borrowed footage from The Saint episode The Fast Women, namely the shots of the sharpshooter and his female assistant. John Hollis and Valerie Bell played these roles in the Saint episode (as Maximillian Tordoff and Thelma).

• Cock-ups... The first of the bloopers in It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water concerns Michael Ripper's character, the betting shop punter. We see him talking to Jeff in the 'Joe Coral' betting shop and then he later tips off Randall by telephone, putting a handkerchief across the telephone receiver so as to disguise his voice and thereby protect his identity. The voice that we hear is not in the least bit muffled and, with Michael Ripper having such a distinctive, recognisable voice, it all seems rather hilarious.

• Not so much a blooper, more a production necessity - by utilising the famous footage of the white Jaguar car being driven off a cliff, the newly shot footage features a lookalike car with an incorrect number plate. However, this did not stop the production team incorporating footage of another white Jag with fake foreign plates into the sequence! (See The Vehicles, above, for the full Jag count!)

• The poster for the vaudeville show at The New Hampstead Theatre bills the magician as 'Mesmoro', while the end credits have him down as 'Mesmero' and these are presumably correct as he is a mesmerizer.

• At 34 minutes and 50 seconds, the female dancer (played by Jill Chartell) who we see auditioning for the stage director at The New Hampstead Theatre whacks the lampshade hanging behind her from the ceiling as she goes through her routine.

• Finally, poor Mike Pratt was probably wondering where his stunt double Rocky Taylor was at the end of the episode when the police arrive. The officers enter and one goes to pick up Hodder from the floor. He lifts the man up and as he rises, he hits Mike Pratt in the forehead with the back of his cap (at 49 minutes and 10 seconds)! You can see Mike Pratt react and recoil from the blow...

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• And Finally... Almost all the ITV regions that transmitted this episode originally placed it midway to late in the run, with the exception of Scottish Television, who inexplicably showed it the week after the introductory episode, My Late Lamented Friend and Partner. This was an odd choice as in It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water we are told that Jeff is fed up with Marty being around and wishes to do some detective work on his own, to prove that he can still do it. Jeff also admits that Marty's spectral help has led to his life being saved on many occasions. Let's face it, it just doesn't work as the second episode!  

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, Alys Hayes, John Holburn and Andrew Pixley

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