Charters and Caldicott | |
---|---|
Written by | Keith Waterhouse |
Directed by | Julian Amyes |
Starring | Robin Bailey Michael Aldridge Caroline Blakiston Gerard Murphy Tessa Peake-Jones |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Producer | Ron Craddock |
Running time | 50 Minutes |
Original release | |
Network | BBC One |
Release | 10 January – 14 February 1985 |
Charters and Caldicott is a 1985 BBC mystery series featuring the characters Charters and Caldicott from the Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes updated to a 1980s setting. It comprised six 50-minute episodes broadcast on BBC1 at 9.25pm on Thursdays from 10 January to 14 February 1985.
The story shows the pair in their retirement. Caldicott lives in the splendid Viceroy Court in Marylebone, whilst Charters is a widower living in a country cottage near Reigate, travelling up to his Pall Mall club on a Green Line bus (hailing it on the street as if it were a taxi). When a young girl is found murdered in Caldicott's flat, Charters and Caldicott forsake their regular Friday lunch and cinema visit to involve themselves in solving the crime. Inevitably, the plot involves the game of cricket, with the two finding coded messages in a letter that purports to correct errors in the description of a game in the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack, the official Bible of first-class cricket.
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor OBE was an English comedian and actor, best known as a member of The Goodies.
Naunton Wayne, was a Welsh character actor, born in Pontypridd, Glamorgan, Wales. He was educated at Clifton College. His name was changed by deed poll in 1933.
Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence.
Helen Mary Caldicott is an Australian physician, author, and anti-nuclear advocate. She founded several associations dedicated to opposing the use of nuclear power, depleted uranium munitions, nuclear weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation, and military action in general.
Arthur Ian Lavender was an English stage, film and television actor. He is best known for his role as Private Pike in Dad's Army, a BBC sitcom set during World War II, of which he was the last surviving main cast member.
Arthur Basil Radford was an English character actor who featured in many British films of the 1930s and 1940s.
Night Train to Munich is a 1940 British thriller film directed by Carol Reed and starring Margaret Lockwood and Rex Harrison. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1939 short story Report on a Fugitive by Gordon Wellesley, the film is about an inventor and his daughter who are kidnapped by the Gestapo after the Nazis march into Prague in the prelude to the Second World War. A British secret service agent follows them, disguised as a senior German army officer pretending to woo the daughter over to the Nazi cause.
William Henry Mettam "Robin" Bailey was an English actor. He was born in Hucknall, Nottinghamshire.
The Lady Vanishes is a 1938 British mystery thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Margaret Lockwood and Michael Redgrave. Written by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, based on the 1936 novel The Wheel Spins by Ethel Lina White, the film is about an English tourist travelling by train in continental Europe who discovers that her elderly travelling companion seems to have disappeared from the train. After her fellow passengers deny ever having seen the elderly lady, the young woman is helped by a young musicologist, the two proceeding to search the train for clues to the old lady's disappearance.
The Lady Vanishes is a 1979 British mystery comedy film directed by Anthony Page and written by George Axelrod, based on the screenplay of 1938's The Lady Vanishes by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, in turn based on Ethel Lina White's 1936 novel The Wheel Spins. The film stars Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, and Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael.
Adil Ray is a British actor, comedian and radio/television presenter. Ray stars in the BBC One comedy Citizen Khan, which he created and co-writes, as well as presenting on various BBC radio stations. He is also a presenter on ITV's Good Morning Britain, and has played the role of Sadiq Nawaz in the Channel 4 drama series Ackley Bridge. In 2021 he presented the revival of the British game show Lingo.
Caldicott Preparatory School is a prep school for boys aged 7–13 in southern Buckinghamshire, England.
Charters and Caldicott started out as two supporting characters in the 1938 Alfred Hitchcock film The Lady Vanishes. The pair of cricket-obsessed characters were played by Naunton Wayne and Basil Radford. The characters were created by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat. The duo became very popular and were used as recurring characters in subsequent films and in BBC Radio productions. Charters and Caldicott have also been played by other actors, and they eventually had their own BBC television series.
Crook's Tour is a 1940 British comedy spy film directed by John Baxter featuring Charters and Caldicott. It is adapted from a BBC radio serial of the same name.
Gregory James Alan Milward is an English broadcaster and author. He has been a presenter on BBC Radio 1 since 2007, hosting shows including his old drive-time show and the station's flagship breakfast show.
Helter Skelter is a 1949 British romantic comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Carol Marsh, David Tomlinson and Mervyn Johns. A radio star becomes involved with a wealthy heiress. The title is a common expression to describe a situation of "chaotic and disorderly haste".
Falling for You is a 1933 British comedy film directed by Robert Stevenson and Jack Hulbert, and starring Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge.
A Girl in a Million is a 1946 British comedy film. It is notable for featuring Joan Greenwood in an early starring role; and Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne in their comedy double act as two cricket-obsessed Englishmen, this time called Fotheringham and Prendergast.
Joel Patrick Dommett is an English comedian, television presenter and actor. After beginning his career as an actor, and appearing in various television shows including Casualty and Skins, he embarked on stand-up comedy and television presenting and became known for his television roles in Live in Chelsea (2011–2012) and Impractical Jokers UK (2012–2014).
Bertha Mary Willmott was a British actress, comedienne, singer and music hall performer.