THE MAN FROM NOWHERE • REVIEW

THE MAN FROM NOWHERE • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... Jean has been taking a shower. She towels herself down, grabs and puts on her dressing gown, and goes over to the mirror and sits brushing her hair. She hears a noise from the lounge and a voice calling, "Jeannie! Jeannie, are you there?" Not recognising the voice, she gets to her feet and grabs the nearest heavy thing that might pass as a weapon, should she need to defend herself - a large perfume bottle. She pauses at the door before opening it and taking a look into the room. There is a dark-haired man sitting on her sofa, reading a newspaper. She approaches, brandishing the perfume bottle. Before she can bring it crashing down on his head, the intruder rises from the sofa and asks what she's doing. She challenges his right to be in her apartment and asks how he got in. The stranger says he got the key from the ledge outside, where she always leaves it. When Jean threatens to call the police, he is not flustered and tries to reason with her, quite affably and without a hint of being threatening. He says he was only behaving how he normally would do when in his own home, which is where he is. He realises Jean deserves an explanation. After all, he's been away for a long time and has only just got back. She is perplexed and angry - she's never seen this man before. "Of course you haven't," says the charming young intruder. "Not in this body. Now, come on, Jeannie. It'll just take a bit of getting used to. You know who I am. Your husband, of course. Marty Hopkirk!"

• Production Brief... The Man from Nowhere was the sixteenth episode to go before the cameras. It was the seventh episode to have been written by Donald James, and witnessed the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) debut of director Robert Tronson. Tronson had worked previously for ITC directing episodes of The Saint, Gideon's Way, Court Martial, The Baron (including Roundabout which featured Annette André in a guest-star role) and Man in a Suitcase. The Man from Nowhere would prove to be his only Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode and unusually he did not move across to the sister series Department S as most other directors and actors did.

• For this episode, Roger Christian assumed the role of Set Dresser, replacing Sue Long who had filled the role since the third episode, For the Girl Who Has Everything. Long would return for Vendetta for a Dead Man and two other episodes, with Christian called back for When Did You Start To Stop Seeing Things? and the last six episodes of the series.

• A production slate on surviving film trim footage reveal some scenes were filmed on 5th March 1969.

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but it is believed to have been filmed between February and March 1969. A fully edited version of this episode was completed by late-July 1969.

• On Location... The Man from Nowhere is an episode that involved filming at one of England's most famous stately homes, Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. Often known as simply Woburn, the house was one of the first private residences of the British aristocracy to be opened to the public, back in 1955. Shortly after the filming for The Man from Nowhere, the attraction was further expanded in 1970 to include a safari park in the estate's considerable grounds. Other locations in this episodes included the familiar ones like Lauderdale Road in Maida Vale along with settings close to the unit's Borehamwood base and a second visit to the beautiful village of Latimer in Buckinghamshire and The Duke of Cumberland public house. More details in Locations: The Man from Nowhere.

• Haunting Melodies... Edwin Astley was not called upon to compose any fresh music cues for The Man from Nowhere, with its score coming entirely from stock, mainly from those recorded for All Work and No Pay. Two library tracks were used as background music in scenes set at the Duke of Cumberland public house: Eddie Thomas' Long Beach Florida and Calypso Joe by Robert Farnon. Additionally, Albert Elms' Vivaldi recording originally heard in the Man in a Suitcase episode The Girl Who Never Was and later used as a stock track in You Can Always Find a Fall Guy was utilised once again for the scenes of the visit to Woburn.

• Seeing Things... The Man from Nowhere received its first UK broadcast on Sunday 28th December 1969 at 7.25pm when it aired in colour in the London Weekend Television ITV region.

• Trivia... This is one of only four episodes in the series to have been presented on DVD with their original 'graveyard' British opening titles, on the Network release of the series, the other episodes being When the Spirit Moves You, Never Trust a Ghost and Money to Burn. These episodes were mastered from standard prints and the title sequence was added during mastering by Network DVD to approximate how they would have looked on their original British transmissions. Subsequently this opening sequence was featured on all episode of the series when Network issued Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), restored in High Definition from the original film elements, on Blu-ray in 2017.

• After an episode - Money to Burn - in which she appears in a single scene only, Annette André is given a meatier role in this episode, reputedly due to her coming more to the fore having been pushed for by André and her co-stars Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope.

• Guest actor Patrick Newell was at the time appearing as a series regular in The Avengers, also filmed at ABPC Studios in Elstree, and proved to be available for The Man from Nowhere due to his Avengers character - Mother - not featuring in the episode that was filming at the same time.

• After the opening titles, we find Jeff in his apartment, using a Bullworker portable muscle exerciser. The Bullworker had been invented by Gert F. Kölbel in 1962 and enjoyed widespread popularity, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s during the personal fitness craze. The product remains available worldwide. One wonders, though, what Jeff hoped to achieve with it, his exercise regime consisting of Bullworker workouts and regularly getting beaten senseless, mixed with drinking (and seeing) spirits and smoking about five hundred cigarettes a day...

• Jeff now has a home photographic darkroom (or more accurately, darkcupboard!) in the kitchen area of his apartment. A photographic enlarger had previously been seen in the Randall and Hopkirk office in When the Spirit Moves You (see Trivia entry for that episode).

• Jeff wears two different leather jackets in this episode, one dark brown, the other tan  (the latter soon becoming part of his familiar costume). They are even displayed in the same shot at one point, discarded in Jeff's apartment, so it is clear that this was an intentional swapping of jackets rather than a continuity error.

• Jeannie now lives in flat number 21 at the apartment block on Lauderdale Road. Previously, in My Late Lamented Friend and Partner, she and Marty lived at flat number 8. This is either a mistake or perhaps Jean has moved to an alternative apartment following Marty's death, though this is not mentioned in any episode. Jeff's flat number at Hanover House  - 41 - remains consistent with earlier episodes.

• Although credited in the episode simply as 'Marty', Ray Brooks' character in The Man from Nowhere is referred to as 'Augustus John Sheldon' by Hyde Watson, though it is implied that some or all of it is not a real name, merely "the last name he used".

• Only You, Jeff? Rex, the Alsatian dog that Griggs leaves to guard Jeff at his apartment, can see Marty and responds to the ghost's auto-suggestion, causing him to fall asleep.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Aside from Marty Hopkirk, nothing to see here that no-one else can see, if you know what we mean...

• 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'
	1959 Bentley S2 Continental Registration 11 PPO Driven by Griggs / Sheldon	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'When Did You Start To Stop Seeing Things?', 'Just for the Record' (with fake HAL 14 plates) Department S - used extensively in the series with fake European plates (Jason King's car)
	1959 Thames Trader Luton Van Mk I Registration WYU 136 Driven by Griggs
	1968 Ford Zephyr 6 MkIV Registration OXE 998F	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water', 'Money to Burn', 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'
	1967 Ford Zephyr 4 MkIV Registration OLR 477E	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'That's How Murder Snowballs', 'All Work and No Pay', 'Money to Burn', 'The Ghost Talks'

• Seen It All Before? This is the second episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) to feature filming at the Buckinghamshire village of Latimer and its fictional public house The Duke of Cumberland. It had previously featured, complete with pub, in For the Girl Who Has Everything in which an establishing shot filmed on a shoot for the Department S episodes The Pied Piper of Hambledown and Who Plays the Dummy? was utilised. While The Duke of Cumberland therefore featured in four episodes of two separate series, it was not an actual pub at all. In fact, it was the village Post Office, though today no such service exists in Latimer and the building has been converted for residential use.

• The interior set for The Duke of Cumberland recycled elements of sets put together for But What a Sweet Little Room and For the Girl Who Has Everything, including the Buttery set from the latter.

• Shortly after Robert Tronson's credit has flashed up on screen, at 4 minutes and 30 seconds, Jeff sits on his sofa to answer the telephone. Behind him some way to the right is a golden Middle Eastern coffee dallah, some drinks bottles and a soda syphon on a silver tray. In the subsequent medium close-up, Jeff has moved position to the left of shot so that he is now positioned between the dallah and the drinks tray and the cushions have moved with him.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• At 9 minutes and 4 seconds, Sheldon, in the passenger seat of Jeff's Vauxhall, is wearing a grey suit and yellow tie. Jeff, in the driving seat, takes a single snapshot of the man who claims to be Marty, but when Jeff develops the photograph at home it shows Sheldon wearing a dark overcoat and no tie is visible. A short while later, when Jeff shows the photograph to the real Marty Hopkirk it is a different photo again with a wider framing and a different pose from actor Ray Brooks. To add insult to injury, this photograph shows the driving seat from which Jeff took the picture - and it is empty!

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• At 22 minutes and 20 seconds, Jeff and Marty - sitting on watch in the Vauxhall close to Jeannie's apartment - witness Sheldon being abducted by workmen in a green Luton van. The in-studio backdrop seen through the passenger window shows a white stone building with metal railing outside. The shot then cuts to location on Lauderdale Road with the red-brick buildings there and no metal railings. (This is to say nothing of the fact that the supposed other side of the Lauderdale Road location - in reality Stratfield Road in Borehamwood - is completely at odds with what was seen to be standing opposite Jean's apartment in previous episodes...)

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• A mere ten seconds later - at 22 minutes and 30 seconds - there is a real world geographical faux pas, when Jeff reverses into Biddulph Road from Lauderdale Road so he may turn back into it facing the opposite direction. The next shot shows the Luton van approaching and passing the entrance to Biddulph Road and Jeff and Marty following behind it. Not technically a cock-up, but worth documenting as an interesting directorial choice.

• At 37 minutes and 57 seconds we see the green van approaching and the camera cuts to a shot of Griggs, Hyde Watson and Mannering in the cabin of the vehicle and the van has clearly turned blue! A similar thing happens when Sheldon is driving Jean to The Duke of Cumberland. The burgundy Bentley Continental suddenly turns black when it cuts to a two-shot of the actors inside the car at 39 minutes and 5 seconds, though this could be a result of poor lighting or processing.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• At 38 minutes and 7 seconds, we see Jeff's Vauxhall approaching the roundabout at the eastern end of Lauderdale Road. He has just pulled out from his parking space in front of Griggs' Luton van. We then see a shot of Jeff driving down the western section of Lauderdale Road approaching Jean's apartment with the van in distant pursuit. Finally, Jeff reaches the roundabout in the next shot. The intercutting is quite jarring as Jeff is close to the roundabout in the first shot and the inserted shot is recognisably not the same section of the road.

• And Finally... Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'s visit to Woburn Abbey is quite unusual for an ITC adventure series in that it is referred to directly in the script for The Man from Nowhere and is not given a fictional name. It is revealed as Marty's favourite stately home and that he knows a lot about it, so much so that the sequence in the episode almost feels like a commercial for the stately home. One wonders if Scoton Productions negotiated a deal for Woburn to be included in the episode, possibly for the filming fee to be waived or some such concession. It certainly adds value to The Man from Nowhere and no doubt helped bring additional visitors through the Woburn turnstiles - including Randall and Hopkirk fans on location recces...

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,
Anthony McKay and Andrew Pixley

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