Chessgame | |
---|---|
Genre | Thriller |
Written by | John Brason |
Directed by | Ken Grieve Roger Tucker |
Starring | Terence Stamp Carmen du Sautoy Michael Culver Robin Sachs |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 1 |
No. of episodes | 6 |
Production | |
Running time | 60 minutes |
Production company | Granada Television |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 23 November – 28 December 1983 |
Chessgame is a British television series produced by Granada Television for the ITV network in 1983.
Based on a series of novels by Anthony Price, the series dealt with the activities of a quartet of counter-intelligence agents: David Audley (Terence Stamp), Faith Steerforth (Carmen du Sautoy), Nick Hannah (Michael Culver) and Hugh Roskill (Robin Sachs).
One series of six episodes was made.
The series was rebroadcast as three TV movies in 1986 called The Alamut Ambush, The Deadly Recruits, and The Cold War Killers.
The theme music was composed by Christopher Gunning.
The Order of Assassins or simply the Assassins were a Nizari Isma'ili order that existed between 1090 and 1275 AD, founded by Hasan-i Sabbah.
Alamut is a mountain fortress at an altitude of 2163 meters at the central Alborz, in the Iranian stanza of Qazvin, about 100 kilometers from Tehran. In 1090 AD, the Alamut Castle, a mountain fortress in present-day Iran, came into the possession of Hassan-i Sabbah, a champion of the Nizari Ismaili cause. Until 1256, Alamut functioned as the headquarters of the Nizari Ismaili state, which included a series of strategic strongholds scattered throughout Persia and Syria, with each stronghold being surrounded by swathes of hostile territory.
John David Hannah is a Scottish film and television actor. He came to prominence in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), for which he was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role as Matthew. His other film appearances include Sliding Doors (1998) and The Mummy trilogy (1999–2008). His television roles include: Dr Iain McCallum in McCallum (1995–1998); D.I. John Rebus in Rebus (2000–2001); Jack Roper in New Street Law (2006–2007); Jake Osbourne in Cold Blood (2007–2008), Quintus Lentulus Batiatus in Spartacus (2010–2011), Jack Cloth in A Touch of Cloth (2012–2014), Jason's father (Aeson) in the BBC series Atlantis (2013–2015), Dr Holden Radcliffe in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2016–2017), Colin in Overboard (2018), and Archie Wilson in the BBC series Trust Me.
Hasan-i Sabbah was a religious and military leader, founder of the Nizari Ismai'li sect widely known as the Hashshashin or the Order of Assassins.
Robin Sachs was an English actor, active in the theatre, television and films. He was also known for his voice-over work in films and video games.
Alan Anthony Price was an author of espionage thrillers. Price was born in Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire, England. He attended The King's School, Canterbury and served in the British Army from 1947 to 1949, reaching the rank of captain. He read history at Merton College, Oxford, from 1949 to 1952, and was awarded an MA in 1956. Price was a journalist with the Westminster Press from 1952 to 1988, as well as the editor of the Oxford Times from 1972 to 1988. He was the author of nineteen novels in the Dr David Audley/Colonel Jack Butler series. These books focus on a group of counter-intelligence agents who work for an organization loosely based on the real MI5.
George Peabody Macready Jr. was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains.
Anthony Higgins is an English stage, film and television actor. His credits include A Walk with Love and Death (1969), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), Hadleigh (1976), The Eagle of the Ninth (1977), Love in a Cold Climate (1980), Quartet (1981), The Draughtsman's Contract (1982), Lace (1984), The Bride (1985), Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (1987), Sherlock Holmes Returns (1993), Nostradamus (1994), Peak Practice (2000), Chromophobia (2005), Heroes and Villains: Napoleon (2007), Lewis (2009), Malice in Wonderland (2009), Bel Ami (2012), and Tutankhamun (2016).
Alamut is a novel by Vladimir Bartol, first published in 1938 in Slovenian, dealing with the story of Hassan-i Sabbah and the Hashshashin, and named after their Alamut fortress. The maxim of the novel is "Nothing is an absolute reality; all is permitted". This book was one of the inspirations for the video game series Assassin's Creed.
The Loughgall ambush took place on 8 May 1987 in the village of Loughgall, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. An eight-man unit of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) launched an attack on the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) base in the village. An IRA member drove a digger with a bomb in its bucket through the perimeter fence, while the rest of the unit arrived in a van and fired on the building. The bomb exploded and destroyed almost half of the base. Soldiers from the British Army's Special Air Service (SAS) then returned fire both from within the base and from hidden positions around it in a pre-planned ambush, killing all of the attackers. Two of them were subsequently found to have been unarmed when they were killed.
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 2010 American action fantasy film directed by Mike Newell from a screenplay by Boaz Yakin, Doug Miro, and Carlo Bernard, based on the video game series Prince of Persia created by Jordan Mechner. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Ben Kingsley, Gemma Arterton, and Alfred Molina. It is an adaptation of the 2003 video game of the same name published by Ubisoft. Elements from its sequels Warrior Within and The Two Thrones are also incorporated.
"The Price" is the 65th episode of the American television series Prison Break and was broadcast on October 20, 2008 in the United States on the Fox Network.
The Alamut is a river of northern Iran. It flows through the southern Alborz mountain range into the Shah River. The Taliqan and Alamut rivers conjoin to form the Shahrud River.
The Shahrood or Shah-Rud, also translated as Shah River, is a river of northern Iran.
Love in a Cold Climate is a British serial drama miniseries produced by the BBC in association with WGBH Boston, and first broadcast in two parts on BBC One on 4 and 11 February 2001. The series was adapted by Deborah Moggach from Nancy Mitford's novels The Pursuit of Love (1945) and Love in a Cold Climate (1949), and was directed by Tom Hooper.
John Brason is a British scriptwriter and script editor, best known for the series made in collaboration with television producer Gerard Glaister, Colditz and Secret Army both set during World War II.
Rukn al-Dīn al-Hasan ibn Muhammad Khurshāh (1230-1257) was the son of ‘Alā’ ad-Dīn Muḥammad III and the 27th Isma'ili Imam. He was also the fifth and final Nizari Isma'ili Imam who ruled at Alamut. The Imam was the eldest son of Imam ʿAla al-Din Muhammad and succeeded his murdered father to the Imamate in 1255. Imam Rukn al-Din engaged in a long series of negotiations with the invading Mongols, and under whose leadership Alamut Castle was surrendered to the Mongol Empire marking the end of the Nizari state in Persia.
The Nizari state was a Nizari Isma'ili Shia state founded by Hassan-i Sabbah after he took control of the Alamut Castle in 1090 AD, which marked the beginning of an era of Ismailism known as the "Alamut period". Their people were also known as the Assassins or Hashashins.
The Mongol campaign against the Nizaris of the Alamut period began in 1253 after the Mongol invasion of the Khwarazmian Empire and a series of Nizari–Mongol conflicts. The campaign was ordered by the Great Khan Möngke and was led by his brother, Hülegü. The campaign against the Nizaris and later the Abbasid Caliphate was intended to establish a new khanate in the region—the Ilkhanate.
"Ambush" is the premiere episode of the fourth season of the American medical drama ER. The 70th episode overall, it was written by executive producer Carol Flint and directed by Thomas Schlamme and it was first broadcast on NBC on September 25, 1997, as a live episode, filmed twice for the East and West Coast. The episode was also pre-filmed in the event a technical issue happened.