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 23

The 2002 C.G.I. Dan Dare TV series was heavily criticised by fans for changing Digby from a Wiganer to a cockney. Digby was voiced by the British actor Julian Holloway, son of London born Stanley Holloway, who famously performed the monologue The Lion and Albert and many other humorous narrative poems in a Lancashire accent. Julian himself could easily have portrayed Digby as a Lancastrian, having inherited his father’s talent for mimicking accents, but the misguided decision to relocate Digby came from the producers. Ironically, Greg Ellis, the actor who voiced Dan Dare in the series, actually comes from Wigan!

The new Eagle originally featured the adventures of Dan Dare’s great great grandson in its pages, but in a short flashback in 1983 it suggested that the original Dan had really been an R.A.F. pilot in the Second World War who travelled through a time warp to the 1990s. There seemed to be no point to this ‘revelation’ especially as it contradicted long established facts, but it was actually reported to tie in with the planned live action Dan Dare TV series, slated to star James Fox as Dan and Rodney Bewes as Digby. Bewes was a keen fan of Dan Dare and a member of the EAGLE Society. In his 1983 autobiography Comeback, James Fox commented on the role of Dan for which he had recently been cast, describing him as a Second World War fighter pilot who travels forward in time to become a space pilot.

Of course ATV's live action series was never made, but in a 2015 interview James Fox suggested that although he is now too old to play Dan, he could play Sir Hubert Guest instead! The aborted series was first mooted in the mid 1970s and in 1979, Gareth Hunt, fresh from his success in The New Avengers was reported to have been cast as Dan. Remarkably, in a poll conducted by 2000 A.D. comic, also in 1979, Gareth Hunt was the readers' choice to play their revisionist version of Dan Dare, as drawn by Dave Gibbons.  

In 1991 a short TV pilot was made by Zenith Productions in an effort to interest TV companies in a Dan Dare series. Robert Bathurst played Dan and Geoffrey Hughes played Digby. Like Rodney Bewes, Hughes was also a keen fan and in his role as Eddie Yeats in Coronation Street was once shown reading a copy of the 1980s EAGLE. Unfortunately a series was not picked up.   

 The only time a live action Dan was seen on TV was in 1987, when he and Digby, played by Niven Boyd and Jimmy Yule respectively were featured in three advertisements for Mobil Oil.