A Touch of Frost

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A Touch of Frost
A Touch of Frost title card.jpg
Genre Police procedural
Comedy drama
Created by R. D. Wingfield
Starring David Jason
Bruce Alexander
John Lyons
Arthur White
Theme music composer Barbara Thompson
Jon Hiseman
Composers Barbara Thompson
Jon Hiseman (1992–1997)
Ray Russell (1999–2010)
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series15
No. of episodes42 (List of episodes)
Production
Running time75–100 minutes
Production companies Yorkshire Television (1992–2004)
Granada Yorkshire (2005)
ITV Productions (2006–2008)
ITV Studios (2010)
Original release
Network ITV
Release6 December 1992 (1992-12-06) 
5 April 2010 (2010-04-05)

A Touch of Frost is a television detective series produced by Yorkshire Television (later ITV Studios) for ITV from 6 December 1992 until 5 April 2010, initially based on the Frost novels by R. D. Wingfield. Writing credit for the three episodes in the first 1992 series went to Richard Harris. [1] [2]

Contents

The series stars David Jason as Detective Inspector William Edward "Jack" Frost, an experienced and dedicated detective who frequently clashes with his superiors. In his cases, Frost is usually assisted by a variety of detective sergeants or constables, with each bringing a different slant to the particular case. Comic relief is provided by Frost's interactions with the bureaucratically-minded Superintendent Norman "Horn-rimmed Harry" Mullett, played by Bruce Alexander.

A number of young actors had their major debut as supporting cast in the show, including: Matt Bardock, Ben Daniels, Neil Stuke, Mark Letheren, Colin Buchanan, Jason Maza, Jim Sturgess, Damian Lewis and Marc Warren.

Background

The series is set in the fictional southern England town of Denton. Denton may be in Berkshire, Oxfordshire or Wiltshire. There are many references to Reading, Oxford, and Swindon. In SE1E1 a character mentions going to Bishop's Stortford, implying it is a short journey away and thus in the Hertfordshire or Essex area. In SE2E3 a suspect talks about "Driving over to Chelmsford", implying reasonable proximity to Denton, again placing the action in the Herts/Essex area. Frost drives a blue Ford Sierra - D843 MPP. This is a Luton registration (ending 'PP'), a very common registration in Hertfordshire, consistent with Bishop's Stortford. In the earlier episodes, the M4 and A417 were often seen, and the map of Swindon was seen in the control room, although a map of Reading was used occasionally. Paperwork given to Frost and other characters refers to Denton station as being part of the Thames Valley Police. In SE2E4 Frost hurries to Denton station and Network SouthEast branding is visible on the station signs. This is broadly consistent with most of the putative locations listed, though not with the actual Yorkshire locations. In SE4E1 Frost and Toolan observe a train passing, consisting of a British Rail Class 141 Pacer in West Yorkshire Metro red and cream livery coupled with a British Rail Class 142 Pacer in BR Provincial Sector blue livery. Both units in those liveries are quite inconsistent with Network SouthEast but very much with the Yorkshire locations. In some episodes ambiguous references to 'County' are made. This is inconsistent with Denton being part of Thames Valley since this is not part of a County force. One reference implies 'County' has jurisdiction beyond that of Denton. Either 'County' is the HQ of the county force Denton belongs to, or Denton is a small city force, surrounded by a larger county force. A situation analogous to that of Oxford City Police and Oxfordshire Constabulary pre-1968.

The programme was produced by ITV in Leeds, and most of the outdoor locations were shot in West Yorkshire. Several scenes were filmed in and around the city and district of Wakefield and neighbouring small towns of Pontefract and Castleford, West Yorkshire. [3] Filming location names are sometimes used in lieu of a fictional address, one such example occurs in SE2E1 where Frost is made aware of, and later visits, an address of interest located at King George Gardens. The scene was filmed at King George Gardens, Chapel Allerton, Leeds. The Denton Police Station of early seasons was filmed in an industrial complex at the intersection of Burley Road and Westfield Road in Leeds; this has since been demolished. Seacroft Hospital in Leeds was used as the 'Denton' Hospital.

The role of Frost was notable in changing the public perception of David Jason from a predominantly comic actor to a dramatic actor.

At a press conference in London on 15 September 2008, David Jason announced that he would be quitting the role of DI Jack Frost. Jason's main reason for quitting the role was that Frost was by now the oldest detective on television and he felt that it was 'natural' to retire as Frost. At 68, a police detective would already have been retired for eight years. Sir David said: "You wouldn't want me to play Frost in a wheelchair, would you?... Frost is getting a little long in the tooth. I still enjoy doing it and it's a great part but I just think he's got to retire. It'll be a sad day." [4]

Cast

Main cast

Supporting cast

Characters

Main characters

Supervising Officers

Detective Sergeants

Detective Constables

Uniformed officers

Other Service Personnel

Romantic Interests

Production

The series is based on the novels of R. D. Wingfield:

By discarding several minor sub-plots in "Frost at Christmas", the two major cases were able to be investigated in the one episode, being the pilot "Care and Protection". This novel, and the pilot, introduced the characters of Frost, Mullet, DI Allen (DCI in the series), DS George Martin (Toolan in the series), Sgt. Bill Wells, Sgt. Johnny Johnson, DS Arthur Hanlon (uniform sergeant in the series), DC Barnard, PC Jordan, PC Simms, WPC Hazel Page (Wallace in the series), PC Stringer, newspaper reporter Sandy Lane (Longford in the series), Dr McKenzie, pathologist Drysdale (Simpkins in the series), his assistant Miss Grey and Shirley, Frost's on/off love interest.

Due to their length, many of the other books were split into multiple episodes. "A Touch of Frost" was split over three episodes. "Night Frost" was split over two (although the element of DS Gilmore's marriage break-up was used in the series 4 episode "The Things We Do for Love", which has no other reference to "Night Frost", for the series-only character of DS Nash). "Hard Frost" was the last and perhaps most closely referenced novel filmed, which was split across two almost unrelated episodes. Despite the show still being produced when the last two novels were written, they were never used as source material for episodes, possibly due to their more graphic subject matter.

The iconic saxophone solo heard during the show's theme music was performed by Barbara Thompson. [5]

The aspect ratios of A Touch of Frost have been the subject of discussion. From series 1 through to 5, the series was originally shown and transferred to DVD in the 4:3 aspect ratio (which was still mostly the UK television norm in the 1990s). From series 6 onwards, the show was shown in a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio. The DVD releases reflected this change. However, from 2012, ITV3 HD have been broadcasting a growing number of episodes of the series in high definition, remastered from the original 16mm source. In these HD versions, even the opening series are shown in widescreen. Comparisons to the 4:3 version of the shows (still available on DVD) have shown that the frame has been "opened-up" to include previously unseen parts of the frame. This not only means that these episodes fit the widescreen ratio without cropping out important material, they are a new experience. [6]

Episodes

International broadcast

In Australia, the series aired on ABC, UK.TV and 7Two. In Canada, the series aired on Knowledge, SCN and TVOntario. In New Zealand, the series aired on Prime, TV1 and UK.TV. In the United States, the series aired on A&E Network. In the Netherlands, the series aired on KRO, while in Italy on La7. Other countries that have aired the series include Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Japan, Norway and Sweden.

In Ireland the series originally aired on RTÉ, but was later dropped by RTÉ in the early 2000s and was not acquired by TV3 Ireland (which was then part owned by ITV, until 2006), however with the introduction of UTV Ireland in 2015 the series made a return and has aired across all Virgin Media channels (formerly TV3) since UTV Ireland's takeover in 2017.

DVD releases

TitleEpisodesRegion 1Region 2Region 4
The Complete First Series330 March 200418 October 20044 August 2008
The Complete Second Series425 May 200418 October 20043 November 2008
The Complete Third Series428 July 200418 October 20043 November 2008
The Complete Fourth Series523 November 200418 October 20042 February 2009
The Complete Fifth Series429 March 200518 October 20042 February 2009
The Complete Sixth Series428 June 200518 October 20041 May 2009
The Complete Seventh Series227 September 200518 October 20041 May 2009
The Complete Eighth Series227 September 200518 October 20041 May 2009
The Complete Ninth Series225 April 200618 October 200426 June 2009
The Complete Tenth Series325 April 200618 October 200426 June 2009
The Complete Eleventh Series231 October 200621 November 200531 July 2009
The Complete Twelfth Series131 October 200621 November 200531 July 2009
The Complete Thirteenth Series129 April 20086 November 200631 July 2009
The Complete Fourteenth Series328 July 200927 October 20088 June 2010
The Complete Fifteenth Series230 November 201012 April 20108 December 2010
The Complete Series 1–52018 October 200427 November 2009
The Complete Series 6–101318 October 2004
The Complete Series 6–152216 August 2010
The Complete Series 1–154215 August 20119 December 2015

Prequel series

Free @ Last TV, who produced the Sky1/Acorn TV series Agatha Raisin , are developing a prequel series, based on the novel First Frost, published in 2011 by Transworld Publishers Ltd. [7]

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References

  1. "Touch of Frost, A (1992-)". Screenonline . British Film Institute . Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  2. "A Touch of Frost (an Episode Guide)". Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2012. Seasonal credit list forA Touch of Frost at epguides.com
  3. New a touch of frost filming in my home town
  4. Daily Telegraph David Jason quits as Frost.
  5. Biography page Archived 20 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine of Barbara Thompson.
  6. "A Touch of Frost Series 1–5 DVD Aspect Ratio".
  7. "Turning Great Stories into Great Drama". freeatlasttv.co.uk. Archived from the original on 3 September 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2019.