IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 49

As this is my forty ninth page it seems only right that it should focus on PC 49 or at least the actor who played him so successfully. EAGLE TIMES has often covered the radio, film and stage career of Brian Reece, but he also appeared as a regular character in two television series. The first was The New Adventures of Martin Kane in 1957, about an American private detective based in London and working all over Europe. It starred William Gargan who had previously played the part on American radio and TV, hence the ‘new’ title. Brian Reece played  Superintendent David Page – at last getting promoted from PC and a significant promotion at that! He appeared in thirteen of the series’ thirty nine episodes, which were produced by Towers of London Productions and broadcast on ITV and in syndication in America.  His other series was a six part comedy called Don’t Do it Dempsey! which provided him with the starring role of James Dempsey, a man of eternal optimism and ‘an eye for the girls’ who leapt headlong into any promising romantic situation. Written by Patrick Campbell and Vivienne Knight, it was a B.B.C. production, made and broadcast in 1960. Brian also appeared in many one-off comedy and musical plays, often adapted for television from West End productions. These included a production of the musical Bless the Bride in 1956, which Brian had played in the West End. His performance in a radio adaptation of this play back in 1947 had won him the part of PC 49. Among his other parts was the leading role of Charles Battle in W. Somerset Maugham’s play The Breadwinner in 1960.

It is an indication of Brian’s fame as an actor, presenter and personality that he appeared twice as the celebrity ‘castaway’ on the long running radio series Desert Island Discs. These came in July 1953 and April 1961. Sadly he died in April 1962 of a bone disease, but despite serious illness he continued to present the radio series Movietime until shortly before his death.

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 48

I have mentioned several actors who portrayed Dan Dare in previous posts, but here is a list of all the professional productions in radio, audio CDs, stage and television, with all the actors who have played Dan and Digby. The very first production was a radio series which ran from 1951 until 1956 on Radio Luxembourg. This was a daily serial which featured Noel Johnson as Dan and John Sharp as Digby. Johnson had previously played Dick Barton for the BBC and this series of long serials, split into daily fifteen minute episodes, followed the structure of the 'Dick Barton' serials. The next adaptation was a stage play, produced in 1972 at the then new Half Moon Theatre in Whitechapel. Written by Michael Irving, it starred Alex Leppard as Dan and Terrence Dougherty as Digby. 

Although several attempts were made to produce a major live action TV series in the 1980s, with James Fox and later Gareth Hunt mooted to play Dan and Rodney Bewes signed to play Digby, a series was never made. Dan's first appearance on television was actually for a series of three humorous adverts on ITV for Mobil Motor Oil in 1987. These featured Niven Boyd as Dan and Jimmy Yule as Digby. The next version was a four part BBC radio serial based on Dan's original Venus story, produced in 1990. This featured Mick Ford as Dan and Donald Gee as Digby. Also in the 1990s, Colin Baker, who had played Doctor Who on television, produced a short experimental 'Dan Dare' audio with the company who would later become Big Finish Productions. Colin played Digby and David Banks played Dan. Unfortunately, this was not developed into a commercial release.  A short TV pilot episode was made by Zenith Productions in 1994, with Robert Bathurst as Dan and Geoffrey Hughes as Digby (see picture alongside), but it was not commissioned. The pilot was screened at several Comic conventions and can be viewed on You Tube. Dan finally did get on television in a 26 part computer animated series in 2001, in which Greg Ellis voiced Dan and Julian Holloway was a cockney Digby! Aargh!

Dan was back on stage for a musical version of his story in 2003, produced at the Customs House in South Shields. Scripted by Tom Kelly, with music by John Miles, Dan was played by Joe Caffrey and Digby by Gez Casey. In 2008, Orion released an audio dramatisation of the first Venus story as Dan Dare: Voyage to Venus Part One. This was an almost exact reading of Frank Hampson's text from EAGLE and featured Tom Goodman-Hill as Dan and Rupert Degas as Digby. Degas played several other parts as well. Unfortunately sales were not encouraging enough for the second part to be recorded. Finally B7 Media released a series of six audio CDs in 2016 and 2017, with Ed Stoppard as Dan and Geoff McGovern as Digby. These plays have subsequently been broadcast on BBC Radio Four Extra.   

Essentially all these adaptations have been based on the original version of 'Dan Dare' in the 1950s and 60s EAGLE, with some being closer to the original than others. The Half Moon Theatre play, the Radio Luxembourg serials, the 1990 BBC version, the Orion audio and the Zenith pilot stuck very closely to the original. The Mobil adverts echoed Frank Hampson's designs, but as deliberate comedies they sent the characters up, although they managed this affectionately and successfully. The 2003 musical was also humorous, but parodied 1950s space fiction in general and in doing so, often ridiculed 'Dan Dare' unfairly and incorrectly. The 2001 CGI version changed Dan's appearance and failed to capture his personality, In attempting to update him, it presented him as a slightly pompous and even irritating character.  Acknowledging and accommodating our greater knowledge of the planets of the solar system, the B7 audios were  obliged to make significant changes to the stories. However, this was consistent with Frank Hampson's original, for he set Dan's adventures on what was then known of the planets. While changes were also made to several characters, such as Digby and Professor Peabody, Ed Stoppard's Dan was recognisably the EAGLE hero and this series successfully captured the spirit of the original. 

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 47

 

The image alongside of a never published Eagle was the mysterious issue that appeared at the end of an episode of Midsomer Murders called 'Electric Vendetta', which begs the question “Why didn’t they use a real Eagle?” I believe the answer lies in the picture of a ‘flying saucer’ from the same ‘issue’. The saucer closely resembles one featured in the episode, (shown below), so the page was specially drawn to link with the story. I don’t think the artwork would pass muster in the real Eagle, although to be fair, the pictures were photographed from a television screen. In the programme, several real back pages of Eagle are shown and these feature The Travels of Marco Polo, drawn by Peter Jackson. In this episode, Inspector Tom Barnaby reveals that he was a keen EAGLE reader as a boy and he still has his collection, so it is no wonder he is such a good detective.  

EAGLE has been mentioned and sometimes featured in several films and television programmes over the years. In the 1958 film Violent Playground which stars Stanley Baker and David Mc Callum, a young boy is shown buying a copy of EAGLE in a newsagent's and in the 1965 film Doctor Who and the Daleks, Peter Cushing as the Doctor is shown reading a copy. Not to be outdone, the Doctor Who TV series also features a character reading EAGLE in the 1987 adventure 'Delta and the Bannermen', which is set in a 1950s Holiday Camp in south Wales. (See the picture below). In the BBCs 1987 version of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple story, '4.50 From Paddington', copies of EAGLE are prominently displayed on the newsagent's stand on Paddington Station at the start of the film and later in the story, two boys are shown reading EAGLE. The most recent mentions of EAGLE on TV were in two episodes of the 2024 series of Grantchester, which is also set in the 1950s. In the first episode, the Rev. Will Davenport, played by Tom Brittney, punishes his stepson for a minor misdemeanour by banning him from reading EAGLE for a month, which seems a gross overreaction to me! Later in the episode, the boy's mother mentions Dan Dare and Digby. In the final episode of this series, the young boy is shown reading EAGLE dated 23rd July 1960. 

In Michael Palin's 1989 travel series, Around the  World in Eighty Days, Michael is shown wearing a 'Dan Dare' tee shirt and Nicholas Lyndhurst, playing Rodney Trotter, wears a similar shirt in an episode of the comedy series Only Fools and Horses in 1981. The 1980s EAGLE appears in a 1983 episode of Coronation Street, being read by Eddie Yeats, played by Geoffrey Hughes. Geoffrey was a keen 'Dan Dare' fan and he played Digby in a short pilot film made in the hope of being commissioned for a TV series in 1994. EAGLE and Dan Dare are often featured on Quiz shows, but if you know of any other mentions of EAGLE and EAGLE characters in drama or comedy productions, then please let us know.  

  

IN AND OUT OF THE EAGLE 46

In 1956, EAGLE's publisher Hulton Press began to publish a series of novels featuring popular characters from the weekly. These included Dan Dare on Mars, Storm Nelson and the Sea Leopard, Jack O'Lantern and the Fighting Cock and Luck of the Legion's Secret Mission. However, there were also two novels by the well known historical novelist, Henry Treece. These were The Return of Robinson Crusoe, published in 1958 and Wickham and the Armada, published in 1959. They were printed on better paper than the other EAGLE novels and did not follow the layout of their dustjackets. The earlier'character' novels all had yellow jackets with a large red eagle emblazoned on them and a small colour picture depicting a scene from the story set near the top of the page, whereas these pictures show that the Treece book covers were quite different. The Return of Robinson Crusoe contained several colour and black and white illustrations inside the book and Wickham and the Armada contained several black and white illustrations, whereas the character novels each contained only one black and white illustration inside. The Treece novels were also higher priced than the others, retailing at 12s 6d as opposed to 7s 6d. It is impossible to say whether the publication of other new novels was abandoned because of disappointing sales of the Treece books, because Hulton Press sold EAGLE to Odhams Press in 1959 and while they continued to publish larger annual style books, such as EAGLE Sports Annuals, the EAGLE Book of Trains and the EAGLE Book of How it Works, the only new novel they published was the Swift novel, The White Hart Lane Mystery (in 1960), about 'Dixon of Dock Green', who featured in a comic strip in the weekly, which had probably been commissioned by Hulton. Odhams (under their 'Longacre' label) made many changes to the way that EAGLE had operated, scaling back several initiatives, so it is quite possible that the Treece novels sold well. 

The Return of Robinson Crusoe brought back Daniel Defoe's shipwrecked hero, now free from his desert island and living in England in the late seventeenth century. Treece's novel takes him on a perilous search for Henry Morgan's treasure. Defoe himself actually wrote an almost forgotten sequel to his famous book, but Treece ignores the events of the second book and his own story takes place at the same time. As the title suggests, Wickham and the Armada is set in the reign of Elizabeth I and the hero, Giles Wickham undergoes a series of perilous adventures after he becomes a fugitive, following a poaching incident. He then becomes an actor, a soldier a highwayman, a reluctant pirate and a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, before capturing a Spanish Galleon in the Queen's name. 

   

Both books keep the reader's attention, with exciting narratives and both bring the periods they are set in to life. Henry Treece was a successful author of historical novels and particularly those for young readers and his skills in storytelling and conveying authentic period settings are evident in both of his EAGLE novels. 

    

JOHN M. BURNS (1938 - 2023)

John Burns, who died on December 29th, aged eighty five, was one of Britain's greatest and most prolific comic strip artists. He was one of a very small group of artists who contributed to both versions of  EAGLE. For the original version he illustrated the famous Wrath of the Gods strip, which joined EAGLE from Boys' World in 1964. He also illustrated episodes of the non fiction series 'Bids for Freedom' and 'Roving Reporter'. For the 1980s EAGLE he illustrated 'The Fists of Danny Pike', 'Dolebusters' and a 'Dan Dare' adventure. But EAGLE forms just a small part of his contribution to comics. His work in comics began with illustrations for Girl's Crystal and School Friend in the 1950s. After completing his National Service, he illustrated strip versions of several classic novels for D.C. Thomson. He illustrated 'Wulf the Briton' for Express Weekly in 1961 and then several strips and story illustrations for EAGLE's companion paper Robin, 'Kelpie the Boy Wizard' for Wham! and in the late sixties and early seventies, many strips for the TV based comics TV 21, Lady Penelope, Countdown and TV Action. He subsequently contributed many strips for the long running TV based magazine  Look-In. He is well known on the continent for the Dutch sword and sorcery strip Zetari.

Excelling in both black and white and colour work, he also drew many newspaper strips, including 'The Seekers' for The Daily Sketch, 'The Tuckwells' for The Sunday Citizen, 'Jane' and 'Girl Chat' for The Daily Mirror, 'George and Lynne' for The Sun, 'Danielle' and 'Smythie' for The Evening News, 'Julia' for the German newspaper Bild and briefly, 'Modesty Blaise' for the Evening Standard. In recent years he became a major contributor to 2000 A.D. weekly, illustrating 'Nicolai Dante', 'Sinister Dexter', 'The Order' and 'Judge Dredd'. He also illustrated 'The Bendatti Vendetta' for the Judge Dredd Megazine.   

John had been in poor health for some time, finally retiring from illustration earlier this year. I was fortunate enough to meet him and his wife, Julia in 2005 at the Bristol Comic Expo and he kindly drew this pencil sketch of Arion, the hero of 'Wrath of the Gods' for me. Our condolences to Julia and his family. He will be greatly missed. 

Steve Winders