Gentlemen and Players | |
---|---|
Genre | Drama |
Created by | Dram Associates |
Written by | Chris Roose Dennis Abey Guy Meredith David Wilks Edmund Ward |
Starring | Brian Protheroe Nicholas Clay Claire Oberman Edita Brychta Faith Brook |
Ending theme | "Life's A Game" performed by Petula Clark |
Country of origin | United Kingdom |
Original language | English |
No. of series | 2 |
No. of episodes | 13 |
Production | |
Producers | Raymond Menmuir Graham Benson (exec) |
Running time | 1 hour (including ads) |
Production company | TVS |
Original release | |
Network | ITV |
Release | 10 April 1988 – 9 June 1989 |
Gentlemen and Players is a British television series produced by TVS Television for the ITV network. An aspirational late 1980s drama series, Gentlemen and Players dealt with the struggles and intrigues involving two business rivals, Bo Beaufort and Mike Savage, set against a backdrop of high finance, opulent country homes and cricket.
Miles "Bo" Beaufort (Brian Protheroe) is a rich "blue blood" financier who comes from a wealthy upper-class family. Mike Savage (Nicholas Clay) is a self-made businessman from a more modest family background, who likes adventure. The two are old enemies, and when Savage returns from a stay in Africa (fleeing from a coup with a fortune in bonds), he chooses to settle with his wife Sandy (Claire Oberman) and daughters in the affluent Hampshire village of Hunton Magna, in a Georgian mansion that is next door to Beaufort's home. Unhappy about his new neighbour, especially when he joins his local cricket club, Beaufort schemes and uses the old boy network to hamper Savage's plans whenever possible. Rivalry between the two escalates as "old money" clashes with "new money".
Starring
Recurring cast
Two series were made between 1988 and 1989, comprising 13 episodes in total, mostly filmed on location in London and Hampshire. The first series, comprising seven episodes, was screened on ITV on Sunday nights at 7.45pm from 10 April - 22 May 1988. The second series, comprising six episodes, moved to Friday nights at 9pm, and ran from 28 April - 9 June 1989.
The press release for the series by TVS Television described Gentlemen and Players as "A story of money, class and rivalry set in the world of finance and gracious country homes.", with The Guardian newspaper describing it as "a kind of Dallas in Hampshire". [1] [2]
Writing in The Guardian in 1989 (at the end of the second series), critic Nancy Banks-Smith mocked the "yards and yards and yards" of blue and white striped shirt material (a typical garment for 1980s banking and business culture) that many of the characters wear. "Everybody in Gentlemen and Players wore blue striped shirts to show they are something substantial in the city. It is as if the noble blood in their veins were showing through the clear white Caucasian of their skins." Commenting on the casting of the series' array of unscrupulous businessmen, she noted "...Every untrustworthy face in Equity was on parade. Some of whom had eyes that operated independently. One [character] had a deeply unreliable moustache." [3]
Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Last Man In" | Chris Roose & Dennis Abey | Dennis Abey | 10 April 1988 |
2 | "White Knights" | Guy Meredith | William Brayne | 17 April 1988 |
3 | "Box Clever" | Guy Meredith | Dennis Abey | 24 April 1988 |
4 | "One for Sorrow Two for Joy" | David Wilks | William Brayne | 1 May 1988 |
5 | "According to the Rules" | Chris Roose | Dennis Abey | 8 May 1988 |
6 | "It's All Who You Know" | Guy Meredith | William Brayne | 15 May 1988 |
7 | "Stags at Bay" | Neil Richards, story by Guy Meredith | William Brayne | 22 May 1988 |
Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Original airdate |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Inside Track" | Edmund Ward | Stuart Urban | 28 April 1989 |
2 | "Three Can Play" | Edmund Ward | Stuart Urban | 5 May 1989 |
3 | "Hard Hat Zone" | Ben Rostul | Stuart Urban | 12 May 1989 |
4 | "Loyalties" | Edmund Ward, story by Robin Estridge | William Brayne | 19 May 1989 |
5 | "Black Gold" | Liam McCaw | William Brayne | 2 June 1989 |
6 | "Another Square Mile" | Edmund Ward | William Brayne | 9 June 1989 |
The theme song played over the end credits, "Life's A Game", was written by David Lindup and performed by Petula Clark. Produced by Tony Britten, who also composed the incidental music for the series, the song was released as a single in 1988 by Fly Records.
There has been no domestic commercial release of Gentlemen and Players on any format in the UK. This is possibly due to ongoing rights issues after the production company, TVS, dropped out of the ITV network in 1992 and subsequently went through a number of take-overs. This problem affects the majority of the TVS programme archive as much of the original production paperwork and sales documentation has been lost during the intervening years.
ITV Channel Television, previously Channel Television, is a British television station which has served as the ITV contractor for the Channel Islands since 1962. It is based in Jersey and broadcasts regional programme for insertion into the network ITV schedule. Until November 2011, Channel Television was one of four ITV companies independent from ITV plc alongside the two STV regions in Scotland and UTV in Northern Ireland. The station has been owned by ITV plc since 2012 and the licence was transferred to ITV Broadcasting Limited in March 2017.
London Weekend Television (LWT) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm to Monday mornings at 6:00. From 1968 until 1992, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Thames Television, there was an on-screen handover to LWT on Friday nights. From 1993 to 2002, when LWT's weekday counterpart was Carlton Television, the transfer usually occurred invisibly during a commercial break, for Carlton and LWT shared studio and transmission facilities.
Television South (TVS) was the ITV franchise holder in the South and South East of England between 1 January 1982 at 9.25 am and 31 December 1992 at 11.59 pm. The company operated under various names, initially as 'Television South plc' and then following reorganisation in 1989 as 'TVS Entertainment plc', with UK broadcasting activities undertaken by subsidiary 'TVS Television Ltd'.
Blockbusters is a British television quiz show based upon an American quiz show of the same name. A solo player and a team of two answer trivia questions, clued up with an initial letter of the answer, to complete a path across or down a game board of hexagons.
Nicholas Anthony Phillip Clay was an English actor.
Albert Geoffrey Bayldon was an English actor. After playing roles in many stage productions, including the works of William Shakespeare, he became known for portraying the title role of the children's series Catweazle (1969–70). Bayldon's other long-running parts include the Crowman in Worzel Gummidge (1979–81) and Magic Grandad in the BBC television series Watch (1995).
A Country Practice is an Australian television soap opera/serial which was broadcast on the Seven Network from 18 November 1981 until 22 November 1993, and subsequently on Network Ten from 13 April 1994 to 5 November 1994. Altogether, 14 seasons and 1,088 episodes were produced.
Dramarama is a British children's anthology series broadcast on ITV between 1983 and 1989. The series tended to feature single dramas with a science fiction, supernatural and occasionally satirical theme. It was created by Anna Home, then head of children's and youth programming at TVS; however, the dramas themselves were produced by a total of twelve ITV regional companies. Thus, each episode was in practice a one-off production with its own cast and crew, up to and including the executive producer. Some episodes were originally produced for the 1981 ITV children's anthology series Theatre Box and then were re-screened as Dramarama episodes.
Edward William Welch is an English songwriter, composer, conductor and arranger.
Edna Lillian Doré was a British actress. She was known for her bit-part roles in sitcoms and for playing the character of Mo Butcher in EastEnders from 1988 to 1990.
ITV News Meridian is a British television news service broadcast and produced by ITV Meridian.
The Maidstone Studios, formerly called TVS Television Centre, is the largest independent television studio complex in the United Kingdom, and is based at Vinters Park in Maidstone, Kent, England. It has been home to a varied selection of independent British television programming including Later... with Jools Holland, Jools' Annual Hootenanny, Take Me Out, Catchphrase, as well as popular children's shows such as Mister Maker and Let's Play for CBeebies, or Art Attack for TVS and later for ITV and Disney Channel.
Inspector Morse is a British detective drama television series based on a series of novels by Colin Dexter. It starred John Thaw as Detective Chief Inspector Morse and Kevin Whately as Sergeant Lewis. The series comprises 33 two-hour episodes produced between 6 January 1987 and 15 November 2000. Dexter made uncredited cameo appearances in all but three of the episodes.
Suzanne Bertish is an English actress.
Jill Baker is a British actress who has worked extensively in theatre and television for 50 years.
This is a list of British television related events from 1992.
This is a list of British television related events from 1989.
This is a list of British television related events from 1988.
This is a list of British television related events from 1982.
This is a timeline of the history of the former British broadcaster TVS. It provided the ITV service for the South and South East of England from 1982 to 1992.