FILM
GOLDENGIRL
Avco-Embassy, USA, 1979
A brilliant US sprinter prepares for a unique triple victory at the Moscow Olympics. The exploitation merchants close in and the mental and physical pressures lead to doubts whether she will ever reach her goal.
Starring Susan Anton, James Coburn, Leslie Caron, Robert Culp and Curt Jurgens
Screenplay Jon Kohn, from the Peter Lear novel
Director Joseph Sargent
Also adapted as a TV mini-series
Susan Anton had a Golden Globe nomination as New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture
CHRIS: If possible use J-peg FILM Susan Anton
TELEVISION
WAXWORK
Granada Television, 1979
90 minute play set in Victorian London about a woman condemned to hang for the murder of her husband. Sergeant Cribb investigates in the limited time before the execution.
Starring Alan Dobie, Carol Royle and David Waller
Screenplay Pauline Macauley, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director June Wyndham-Davies
CHRIS: If possible use Jpeg TV Waxwork
CRIBB (First Series)
Granada Television, 1980
Seven one hour plays: this and the second series are frequently repeated on ITV3. In its first year, Cribb grossed the highest takings of any Granada production, outselling Coronation Street, Laurence Olivier Presents and World in Action. Audiences peaked at 12.5 million in the second series. It was sold across the world to more than 40 countries ranging from America’s PBS to Zimbabwe Television.
Alan Dobie was nominated as Best Actor in the 1981 Emmy Awards and William Simons was nominated as Best Supporting Actor.
In America, Cribb was chosen to launch the long-running Mystery! series on the Public Broadcasting Service
CHRIS: If possible use Jpeg TV Thackeray & Cribb
SWING, SWING TOGETHER
Three female students out for a midnight swim witness a body dumped into the river. Cribb and Constable Thackeray investigate and find themselves following the route of Three Men in a Boat.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Heather Moray and Ronald Lacey
Screenplay Brian Thompson, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director June Wyndham-Davies
CHRIS: If poss, use Jpeg Swing, Swing
ABRACADAVER
A series of music hall accidents prompts an investigation by Cribb that uncovers the not so innocent pleasures indulged in by the cream of society.
Starring
Alan Dobie, William Simons, Julia Chambers and Patsy Rowlands
Screenplay Bill MacIlwraith, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director Julian Amyes
CHRIS: If poss use Jpeg Abracadaver
THE DETECTIVE WORE SILK DRAWERS
Bare-knuckle fighting is illegal, but the hands on a headless body recovered from the Thames suggest it is going on. A Scotland Yard man goes undercover to investigate.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Norma West
Screenplay Peter Lovesey, from his own novel
Director Alan Grint
THE HORIZONTAL WITNESS
The body of the king of London’s underworld is found in one of his brothels. Cribb discovers a link with a London hospital and as Thackeray has problems ‘of a personal nature’ gets him admitted to Charing Cross Hospital to observe a key criminal.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and James Coyle
Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey
Director Alan Grint
WOBBLE TO DEATH
A competitor drops dead in a six-day indoor endurance race at the Royal Agricultural Hall and while the show continues the versatile detectives have to decide if it was due to exhaustion, tetanus or strychnine.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Bobbie Brown and Michael Elphick
Screenplay Alan Plater, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director Gordon Flemyng
SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW
Thackeray is best man at a wedding, but Cribb is suspicious because the bride is 37 years younger than her intended and is wearing a secondhand wedding dress. Her previous elderly husbands seem to have died rather suddenly.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Charlotte Mitchell and Geoffrey Baylden
Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey
Director Oliver Horsbrough
A CASE OF SPIRITS
An investigation of the theft of a valuable painting and a vase leads to a murder enquiry as Cribb and Thackeray are forced to indulge in the Victorian craze for spiritualism and se’ances.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Judy Cornwell and Clive Swift
Screenplay Arden Winch, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director Bill Gilmour
CRIBB (Second Series)
Granada Television, 1981
MAD HATTER’S HOLIDAY
In Brighton, Cribb and Thackeray have a breath of sea air and solve a gruesome murder. They meet the voyeuristic Mr Moscrop, with a passion for telescopes, and venture into the crocodile tank in the aquarium.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons and Fenella Fielding
Screenplay Bill McIlwraith, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director
June Wyndham-Davies
CHRIS: If poss use Jpeg Mad Hatter’s Holiday
THE LAST TRUMPET
Jumbo, the largest and most famous elephant in London’s Regent’s Park Zoo, is to be sold to the American, P.T.Barnum. A protest group is formed and it seems they will stop at nothing to keep Jumbo in London.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Joyce Carey
Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey
Director Brian Mills
CHRIS: If poss use Jpegs The Last Trumpet and The Last Trumpet 2
THE HAND THAT ROCKS THE CRADLE
Cribb gets the royal seal of approval as he investigates a near fatality involving Queen Victoria and a pram containing her grandson. The nursemaid is dismissed, but is this the work of anarchists?
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, Rosalie Crutchley and Jessica Spencer
Screenplay Peter &
Jacqueline Lovesey
Director George Spenton-Foster
THE CHOIR THAT WOULDN’T SING
A Christmas episode finds Cribb and Thackeray in a Gloucestershire village investigating the death of a colonel member of the choir. Nobody seems to want to assist the police.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons and Elizabeth Spriggs
Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey
Director Mary McMurray
MURDER OLD BOY
The former school captain of a public school organises a selective reunion of distinguished former pupils. Suddenly the old school tie finds another use and the Yard’s help is urgently required.
Starring
Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and John Carson
Screenplay Peter & Jacqueline Lovesey
Director George Spenton-Foster
INVITATION TO A DYNAMITE PARTY
London is beset by Irish ‘dynamiters’ in 1884 and an attack on one of the royal family is planned. Cribb must infiltrate the terrorist gang and discover the sinister secret submarine.
Starring Alan Dobie, William Simons, David Waller and Jeananne Crowley
Screenplay Arden Winch, from the Peter Lovesey novel
Director Alan Grint
Cribb series one and two were published in DVD and video by Acorn Media UK, 2004. www.acornmediauk.com
Questioned by a TV audience of children for the BBC programme In the Limelight with Lesley on 6 June, 1980, The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, revealed that she didn’t see much television, but enjoyed a programme that went out on Sunday evenings about a Victorian policeman called Cribb.
TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
Anglia Television, 1982
30 minute play
A MAN WITH A FORTUNE
An American called Smith travels to London with the ambition of researching his family tree and finds some unsuspected relatives.
Starring Shane Rimmer, Cyd Hayman and Elizabeth Richardson
Screenplay Alan Seymour, from Peter Lovesey’s short story, How Mr Smith Traced His Ancestors
Director Herbert Wise
ENGLISH FILE: TELLING STORIES
BBC2, 1988
BUTCHERS
Peter introduces and interrupts a dramatisation of his short story to demonstrate techniques of writing
Starring Michael Keating, Jason Rush and Denys Graham
Screenplay Peter Lovesey
Producer David Taft
DEAD GORGEOUS
Carlton Television, 2002
World War II has just ended and two ex-WAAFs meet again by chance and agree that the peace holds little excitement and their husbands are a dead loss. They think up an ingenious way of making the dead loss a reality.
Starring Helen McCrory, Fay Ripley, Ron Cook and Loyd Owen
Screenplay Andrew Payne, from the novel On the Edge, by Peter Lovesey
Director Sarah Harding
CHRIS: If poss use Jpeg Dead Gorgeous
ROSEMARY & THYME
Carnival Television, 2003-2007
Peter was story consultant for this light-hearted series about two gardeners turned sleuths.
Starring Pam Ferris, Felicity Kendal
Screenplays by various writers including Clive Exton, Peter Spence, David Joss Buckley, Stephen Gallagher and Simon Brett
Directors Brian Farnham, Simon Langton
Producer Brian Eastman
RADIO
ABRACADAVER
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1973
For synopsis see TV production
Starring Frank Windsor, John Hollis, Helen Worth, William Eedle and Rolf Lefebre
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Producer David H. Godfrey
WOBBLE TO DEATH
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1975
For synopsis see TV production
Starring Timothy Bateson, William Eedle, Sydney Tafler, Trader Faulkner and Steve Hodson
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Producer Harry Catlin
THE DETECTIVE WORE SILK DRAWERS
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1977
For synopsis see TV production
Starring John Rye, John Hollis, Steve Hodson, Carole Boyd and William Eedle
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Producer Graham Gauld
A CASE OF SPIRITS
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1985
For synopsis see TV production
Starring Barry Foster, John Cater
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
SWING, SWING TOGETHER
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1987
For synopsis see TV production
Starring Barry Foster, John Cater, Moir Leslie, Brian Hewlett and Roger Hume
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Vanessa Whitburn
WAXWORK
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1987
For synopsis see TV production
Starring Brian Cox, John Cater, Sarah Berger, Roger Hume and Don Henderson
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Vanessa Whitburn
BERTIE AND THE TINMAN
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1990
Bertie, Prince of Wales, investigates the alleged suicide of Fred Archer, the royal jockey.
Starring Timothy West, John Moffatt, Marcia King, Simon Treves and Geoffrey Whitehead
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Matthew Walters
BERTIE AND THE SEVEN BODIES
BBC Saturday Playhouse, 1991
Bertie, Prince of Wales, honours a house party with his presence, and there is a murder each day of the week.
Starring Robert Lang, Marcia King, Susannah Fellowes, Joan Moon, Siriol Jenkins and Timothy Carlton
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Matthew Walters
KEYSTONE
BBC Saturday Playhouse, 1992
Warwick Easton, an Englishman, is recruited to the Keystone Cops and finds himself involved in murder and romance as well as comedy.
Starring Mark Straker, Jennifer Ehle, Roger Gartland and Lorelei King
Adapted by Michael Z Lewin
Director Matthew Walters
THE FALSE INSPECTOR DEW
BBC Radio Drama in five parts, 1993
Dentist Walter Baranov plans to murder his wife Lydia aboard the liner Mauretania in 1921 and pass himself off as a detective, but complications ensue.
Starring Ronald Pickup, Fiona Fullerton, Oona Beeson and Steve Hodson
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Matthew Walters
ROUGH CIDER
BBC Saturday Night Theatre, 1994
What did Theo really see as an evacuee on a Somerset farm where a terrible murder was committed? Twenty years later he returns to relive the dramatic events.
Starring Rob Edwards, Briony Glassco, Oona Beeson, Peter Whitman, Neville Jason and David Jarvis
Adapted by Michael Z Lewin
Director Matthew Walters
BERTIE AND THE CRIME OF PASSION
BBC Drama in four parts, 1995
Bertie, Prince of Wales, turns sleuth again to solve a murder at the Moulin Rouge, aided by the divine Sarah Bernhardt.
Starring Robert Lang, Jane Lapotaire, Olivier Pierre, Andrew Branch, Roger May and David Timson
Adapted by Geoffrey M Matthews
Director Matthew Walters
