#when Dial 999 began airing). presumably a conscious choice on the producer's part? | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariocki · 2 years ago

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Double Doctors! William Hartnell has a terrible time as wounded robber Jeff Richards, while Patrick Troughton is the unnamed (and uncredited!) tramp who finds Jeff's hiding place in Dial 999: 50,000 Hands (1.16, ABC, 1959)

#fave spotting #dial 999 #classic doctor who #william hartnell #patrick troughton #doctor who #classic tv #itc #1959 #or possibly '58; as I've said on the other Dial 999 posts‚ establishing a definitive transmission order is nearly impossible with tv from #this era. most sources agree this was the 16th episode shown‚ but a date isn't given anywhere but imdb‚ which provides only 1959 but has #dates scattered all over the place for other episodes in the show's run.#something of a fave spotting find‚ this! doctors one and two together in one episode of old tv‚ years before DW even existed #sadly the two‚ although technically in scenes together‚ never share the screen; in fact they never did‚ with Hartnell too ill to appear in #studio for DW tenth anniversary special The Three Doctors. he's in very fine form here tho‚ completely different to his other Dial 999 #appearance (1.1‚ where he was a dangerous gangland leader). here he's a slightly sorry crook who's accidentally shot himself in the guts #he spends most of the episode wracked with pain and i must say Bill's very convincing and quite sympathetic. of note‚ his decidedly less #likeable partner in crime is played by Bill Fraser‚ Hartnell's costar in The Army Game (the first series of which had recently finished #when Dial 999 began airing). presumably a conscious choice on the producer's part?#Pat meanwhile has only a brief appearance here‚ playing a character imdb inexplicably identity as 'Benny'; I'm almost completely certain #that name never appeared in the episode‚ as he's mostly referred to simply as 'a tramp'‚ and it certainly doesn't appear in the credits as #Pat isn't credited (not unusual in early ITC shows which tended to credit only five or six key performers in an episode)#he gets a little comic business to do as he tries to evade Bob Beatty's tireless cop‚ and delivers his few lines in a rural accent of #indeterminate origin. apologies that i can't provide better pictures but network's dvd release‚ while welcome‚ doesn't appear to have had #much in the way of restoration (and who knows in what condition these eps survive; if the original films are still held then they'd be #potentially able to get a full shiny hd resto‚ but it could always be that the archived eps are overseas tapes or other inferior copies #i just don't know tbh! there simply isn't a huge amount of info out there about this 65 year old obscure cop show! for shame everyone! /jk)

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