Storylines
The show's storylines concentrated on disasters such as explosions and earthquakes, company take-overs, racial and political tensions, the discovery of new oil fields and the negotiation of drilling rights. There was extensive use of stock footage of locations.
As time went on, The Troubleshooters began to experiment with ongoing narratives as storylines arched over several series. Because of the nature of his profession requiring him to be away from home, Peter Thornton found his marriage to the glamorous Steve collapsing. Brian Stead was diagnosed with a heart condition, and he struggled to maintain control of Mogul at the top. Ranged against him was new "troubleshooter" Alec Stewart, a young, ruthless operative keen to progress in the organisation with his eye on Stead's position. Stead kept sending Stewart out on dangerous assignments in the hope that he would fail, but Stewart was able to work every situation to his advantage. In the latter series, a rival oil company to Mogul was introduced – Zenith.
The Troubleshooters never shied away from portraying Mogul as a faceless, uncaring and profit-driven corporation. Some episodes showcased industrial crisis through the perspective of striking Teesside dockyard workers and foregrounded ecological concerns through storylines about local opposition to a Mogul refinery in Wales and a chemical offshoot of Mogul's, which developed a crop spray with deadly side effects. There was also no loyalty or sentimentality amongst the Mogul men – Peter Thornton, sent to the Arctic by Brian Stead to investigate possible oil concessions, nearly freezes to death and considers getting out of the oil business entirely. In another episode, Thornton is sent to Saigon, against the backdrop of the Vietnam war. Alec Stewart is arrested in Algiers as a spy and imprisoned – although eventually released, he receives little trust or support from his colleagues. Brian Stead, returning to Berlin for the first time since 1945 to oversee a natural gas drilling deal, finds his past coming back to haunt him in a nasty plot to discredit him by a rival company.
Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, The Clangers, however it became dormant again in 2017, after production of the show was slightly changed, It was originally a partnership between Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. Several very popular series of short films were made using stop-motion animation, including Clangers, Noggin the Nog and Ivor the Engine. Another Smallfilms production, Bagpuss, came top of a BBC poll to find the favourite British children's programme of the 20th century.
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Siegfried Farnon in the BBC television series All Creatures Great and Small, Cornelius Fudge in the Harry Potter film series and Winston Churchill in several productions, beginning with the Southern Television series Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years. He was nominated for the BAFTA for Best Actor for All Creatures Great and Small in 1980 and Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years in 1982. Aside from acting, Hardy was an acknowledged expert on the medieval English longbow and wrote two books on the subject.
Noggin the Nog is a fictional character appearing in his own TV series and series of illustrated books, created by Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin. The TV series is considered a cult classic from the golden age of British children's television. Noggin himself is a simple, kind and unassuming King of the Northmen in a roughly Viking-age setting, with various fantastic elements such as dragons, flying machines and talking birds.
Brian George Wilde was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, most notably Mr Barrowclough in Porridge and Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst in Last of the Summer Wine. His lugubrious world-weary face was a staple of British television for forty years.
Comedy Playhouse is a long-running British anthology series of one-off unrelated sitcoms that aired for 120 episodes from 1961 to 1975. Many episodes later graduated to their own series, including Steptoe and Son, Meet the Wife, Till Death Us Do Part, All Gas and Gaiters, Up Pompeii!, Not in Front of the Children, Me Mammy, That's Your Funeral, The Liver Birds, Are You Being Served? and particularly Last of the Summer Wine, which is the world's longest running sitcom, having run from January 1973 to August 2010.
Marius Re Goring, was an English stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in A Matter of Life and Death and as Julian Craster in The Red Shoes, and also for the title role in the long-running TV drama series, The Expert. He regularly performed French and German roles, and was frequently cast in the latter because of his name, coupled with his red-gold hair and blue eyes. However, he explained that he was not of German descent in a 1965 interview, stating that "Goring is a completely English name."
Stanley James Carroll Beck was an English actor who played the role of Private Walker, a cockney spiv, in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army from 1968 to 1973.
Charles Philip Latham was a British television actor.
John Barry Foster was an English actor who had an extensive career in film, radio, stage and television over almost 50 years. He was best known for portraying the title character in the British crime series Van der Valk (1972–1992) and Bob Rusk in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972).
Geoffrey Keen was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the James Bond films.
Raymond Charles Barrett was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in The Troubleshooters (1965–1971). From the 1970s, he appeared in lead and character roles in Australian films and TV series.
Ann Forrest Bell is a British actress, best known for playing war internee Marion Jefferson in the BBC Second World War drama series Tenko (1981–84).
Lee Montague is an English actor noted for his roles in film and television, usually playing tough guys.
Oil Strike North is a BBC television drama series produced in 1975.
The Venturers is a British television series produced by the BBC in 1975.
John Herbert Elliot was a British novelist, screenwriter, director and television producer who, between 1954 and 1960, scripted a succession of one-off television plays including War in the Air and A Man from the Sun. The latter was a pioneering work aimed at a West Indian audience. In 1961 he joined with astronomer Fred Hoyle to write another ground-breaking TV science fiction serial A for Andromeda, which set the tone for what was to follow in its stead. The success of A For Andromeda prompted a sequel, The Andromeda Breakthrough, in 1962.
Mary Elizabeth Miller was an English television and stage actress, who was a founding member of the National Theatre Company in 1963.
Patrick O’Connell was an Irish actor. O'Connell began his acting career appearing in various films, such as the Brian Keith war "The McKenzie Break" (1970), "Cromwell" (1970), and the Simon Rouse drama "The Ragman's Daughter" (1972). He also appeared in "The Human Factor" (1980) with Nicol Williamson, the drama "Runners" (1983) with Kate Hardie, and the horror feature "Dream Demon" (1988) with Kathleen Wilhoite. His film career continued throughout the eighties and the nineties in productions like the drama "Nanou" (1988) with Imogen Stubbs and "Don't Get Me Started" (1993). He also appeared in the TV special "Fool's Fire". He also worked in television during these years, including a part on "Life Goes On". O'Connell most recently acted on "Baskets". He was also an artist known for his paintings, drawings, linocuts, and etchings.
Dr. Finlay's Casebook is a television drama series that was produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1962 until 1971. Based on A. J. Cronin's 1935 novella Country Doctor, the storylines centred on a general medical practice in the fictional Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the late 1920s. Cronin was the primary writer for the show between 1962 and 1964.
BP plc is a British oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. It is one of the world's seven oil and gas "supermajors". It is a vertically integrated company operating in all areas of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and extraction, refining, distribution and marketing, power generation, and trading.
