Literary source
The character of Percy Stuart was created for the dime novel series Lord Percy vom Excentric Club. Der Held und kühne Abenteurer in 197 geheimnisvollen Aufgaben ("Lord Percy of the Excentric Club. The Hero and Daring Adventurer in 197 Mysterious Tasks"), which was published from 1913 to 1916. The series described his colourful efforts to become accepted as member of a lodge called the "Excentric Club", which consisted of high-ranking military officers and civil servants and other influential members of the British upper class. Percy Stuart was the glorification of the British gentleman and his missions could sometimes be described as one-man raids. At the outset of WWI, Percy Stuart was changed into an American millionaire. When the USA started supporting the UK, the government prohibited further publication, ending the series with issue 131.
Beginning in 1920, the series was republished under the title Der neue Excentric-Club - Spannende Sport-Geschichten ("The New Excentric Club - Exciting Sports Stories"). The success led to the series being continued with new stories, ending with issue 534. A 1950 attempt at reissuing the series in 1950 ended after a single issue.
Harvey Keitel is an American actor known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with director Martin Scorsese, starring in six of his films: Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967), Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and The Irishman (2019).
The Scarlet Pimpernel is the first novel in a series of historical fiction by Baroness Orczy, published in 1905. It was written after her stage play of the same title enjoyed a long run in London, having opened in Nottingham in 1903.
Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe was a Scottish painter and musician best known as the original bass guitarist of the English rock band the Beatles. Sutcliffe left the band to pursue his career as a painter, having previously attended the Liverpool College of Art. Sutcliffe and John Lennon are credited with inventing the name "Beetles" (sic), as they both liked Buddy Holly's band, the Crickets. They also had a fascination of group names with double meanings, so Lennon then came up with "The Beatles", from the word beat. As a member of the group when it was a five-piece band, Sutcliffe is one of several people sometimes referred to as the "Fifth Beatle".
Johann "Hans" Hölzel, better known by his stage name Falco, was an Austrian singer and musician. He had several international hits including "Der Kommissar" (1981), "Rock Me Amadeus", "Vienna Calling", "Jeanny", "The Sound of Musik", "Coming Home ", and posthumously "Out of the Dark".
Derrick is a German TV crime series produced between 1974 and 1998, starring Horst Tappert as Detective Chief Inspector (Kriminaloberinspektor) Stephan Derrick, and Fritz Wepper as Detective Sergeant (Kriminalhauptmeister) Harry Klein, his loyal assistant. They solve murder cases in Munich and surroundings. It was produced by Telenova Film und Fernsehproduktion in association with ZDF, ORF and SRG.
Herbert Reinecker was a very prolific German novelist, dramatist, screenwriter and former Nazi SS officer.
Martin Böttcher was a German composer, arranger and conductor.
Francis Henry Durbridge was an English dramatist and author, best known for the creation of the character Paul Temple, the gentlemanly detective who appeared in 16 BBC multi-part radio serials from 1938 onward.
Paul Temple is a fictional character created by English writer Francis Durbridge. Temple is a professional author of crime fiction and an amateur private detective. With his wife Louise, affectionately known as 'Steve' in reference to her journalistic pen name 'Steve Trent', he solves whodunnit crimes through subtle, humorously articulated deduction. Always the gentleman, the strongest expletive he employs is "by Timothy!".
Don Durbridge was a UK radio presenter who started his career on the BBC Light Programme, and subsequently worked on the British Forces Broadcasting Service, and on BBC Radio 2,. He also broadcast for many years on BBC Radio Medway, BBC Radio Kent and Invicta Sound in Kent, and latterly on PrimeTime and Saga DAB radio. On PrimeTime he introduced the late night slot, In Mellow Mood, until the station's demise in 2006. He was also the regular matchday announcer for Fulham Football Club in the mid-1970s and for Gillingham Football Club during the 1980s.
Horst Brandstätter was the owner of the German company Brandstätter Group. The company was founded by Andreas Brandstätter in 1876. At the age of 19, Horst Brandstätter followed in his father's footsteps by joining the family business and successfully modernised it. One of his major successes was the production of hula hoops in 1958. In the early 1970s he commissioned inventor and employee Hans Beck to produce a toy system that would eventually become known as Playmobil. Brandstätter retired from the company in 2000, but regularly visited the company offices until his death in 2015.
Hans Peter Wilhelm "Hape" Kerkeling is a German comedian, TV presenter, author, and actor.
Horst Liepolt was a jazz producer and artist.
The Indian Scarf is a 1963 West German crime film directed by Alfred Vohrer. It was part of a very successful series of German films based on the writings of Edgar Wallace and adapted from the 1931 play The Case of the Frightened Lady.
Butler Parker is a fictitious British character who was, despite his ostentatious Britishness, created by a German pulp fiction author and became eventually the protagonist of a German TV series.
John Kling is the protagonist of a German TV series featuring a secret agent who tackles international missions all over the world. He works as detective for an American secret service, usually teaming up with his colleague and friend Jones Burthe.
I.O.B. Spezialauftrag' was a German crime television series after Percy Stuart and Sergeant Berry that featured an American hero.
Claus Wilcke is a German actor who has played Americans in the German TV shows Percy Stuart and I.O.B. Spezialauftrag. He has also dubbed many American actors including Elvis Presley and Michael Landon for cinema and TV. He has won several German awards.
Beschlossen und verkündet is a German legal television series starring Hans Söhnker, Dieter Kursawe and Horst Keitel. 13 episodes were aired in 1975. It was the continuation of the series Lokaltermin (1973), which had a similar setting.
Karl Heinz Schwab, known professionally as Ralf Bendix, was a German Schlager singer, music producer, composer and songwriter.
