The Protectors

The Protectors
Genre	Action Adventure Crime Thriller
Created by	Gerry Anderson
Starring	Tony Anholt Anthony Chinn Yasuko Nagazumi Nyree Dawn Porter Robert Vaughn
Theme music composer	Mitch Murray Peter Callender
Opening theme	"Avenues and Alleyways" Instrumental
Ending theme	"Avenues and Alleyways" sung by Tony Christie
Composer(s)	John Cameron
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	2
No. of episodes	52 (list of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Gerry Anderson Reg Hill
Cinematography	Brendan J. Stafford Frank Watts
Editor(s)	Mike Campbell David Lane Bert Rule John S. Smith
Camera setup	Single
Running time	25 mins approx. per episode (excluding advertisements)
Production company(s)	Group Three Productions
Distributor	ITC Entertainment
Release
Original network	ATV
Picture format	Film (16 and 35 mm) 4:3 Colour
Audio format	Mono
Original release	29 September 1972 (1972-09-29) – 15 March 1974 (1974-03-15)

The Protectors is a British television series, an action thriller created by Gerry Anderson. It was Anderson's second TV series using live actors as opposed to marionettes, and also his second to be firmly set in contemporary times (following The Secret Service). It was also the only Gerry Anderson-produced television series that was not of the fantasy or science fiction genres. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company. Despite not featuring marionettes or any real science fiction elements, The Protectors became one of Anderson's most popular productions, easily winning a renewal for a second season. A third season was in the planning stages when Brut—the show's major sponsor—pulled out, forcing its cancellation.

The Protectors was first broadcast in 1972 and 1973, and ran to 52 episodes over two series, each 25 minutes long - making it one of the last series of this type to be produced in a half-hour format. It starred Robert Vaughn (of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame) as Harry Rule, Nyree Dawn Porter (co-star of The Forsyte Saga) as the Contessa Caroline di Contini, and Tony Anholt (later to star in Space: 1999 and Howards' Way) as Paul Buchet. Episodes often featured prominent guest actors.

Premise

Three inexplicably affluent international private detectives/troubleshooters are charged with ensuring the protection of innocents. They belong to an organisation called The Protectors, based in London. Harry leads the group. The Contessa lives in Italy (when she is not working with Harry). She runs her own detective agency, which specializes in exposing art frauds and recovering stolen art. Paul Buchet works out of Paris, and is the group's researcher and gadget specialist. Adventures range from simple kidnapping to convoluted cases of international intrigue. These characters are all very wealthy and drive exotic cars of the era, such as the Citroën SM and Jensen Interceptor.

Production

According to Anderson, the show's format was outlined in a brief note that Grade gave him, and he was then given a free hand to develop it, although Grade ultimately cast two of the main actors himself. The format of the series allowed for occasional episodes in which not all of the main actors appeared, including two in which Vaughn's character was absent.

Like The Persuaders!, a similar series also produced by ITC that aired around the same time, The Protectors was shot on location at numerous "exotic" locations throughout Europe, such as Salzburg, Rome, Malta and Paris, giving the series a sixties "jet set" feel (it was also the first Anderson production to have such a luxury). In order to offset the cost of location filming, and also perhaps because the equipment was more portable, the series was shot on 16mm film rather than the usual 35mm.

The episodes aimed at fast-paced action, set against an international jet-set background, incorporating elements from both private-eye detective shows and espionage shows, but within a half-hour format. The lack of screen-time, compared to a typical 50 minute show such as The Persuaders or Department S, resulted in plots which were rather simplistic, with motivation and characterisation sacrificed for action, due to the writers trying to write a one hour show but having to cram everything into a half-hour timeslot. Accordingly, the series suffered from most of the same drawbacks which beset The Adventurer, a similar ITC / Lew Grade show that aired at the same time, and which also featured big-name American stars: Gene Barry from Burke's Law, and Barry Morse from The Fugitive.

The theme tune for the series, "Avenues and Alleyways", was a minor hit for Tony Christie (and was successfully revived by Christie in the 2000s, thanks in part to its use in the soundtrack to the film Love, Honour and Obey).

Courtfield Mews, London SW5 was used as the filming location for The Protectors headquarters.^[1]

In Germany the series was known as Kein Pardon für Schutzengel (meaning "No Mercy for Guardian Angels") and in France as Poigne de fer et séduction ("Iron Fist and Seduction"). This highlights another snag which bedevilled the show: its English title, The Protectors, implied that Robert Vaughn was playing a bodyguard, in a more serious version of the 1980s ITV show Minder, but very few of the episodes cast Vaughn's team in the role of bodyguards: hence the title made little sense, and was actually misleading for casual viewers.

In the United States the show was not Networked, but aired instead in first-run syndication: a term which refers to programming that is broadcast, in the USA, for the first time as a syndicated show (i.e. it was broadcast ad hoc, airing on different days and at different times in different cities, rather than being seen simultaneously on every station affiliated to one of the big three Networks). This made it more difficult for the show to make any impact in America, despite its big-name American star, and this hurt its overseas sales.

Actor relationships

According to Robert Vaughn's autobiography, there were numerous problems between the actor and both the show's financier, Lew Grade, and its co-producer, Gerry Anderson. Anderson claimed in his own autobiography that Vaughn acted like a Hollywood prima donna and refused to get along with the other actors; but John Hough, who directed several episodes (and the opening title sequence of the series), had more problems with Vaughn's business partner, Sherwood Price, than with Vaughn himself.^[2] Vaughn claimed that he felt the series was "tasteless junk", and that he could not understand the scripts either before or during shooting.

Vaughn was given the opportunity to direct one episode himself – number 23 in production order, "It Could Be Practically Anywhere on the Island". Although Vaughn had a better relationship with Grade, the mogul called "It Could be Practically..." the worst episode he had ever seen of anything; Vaughn himself was less than fond of it. To understand Vaughn's jaundiced opinion of the script, it needs to be realised that he was asked to direct, literally, doggie-do: a thirty minute show devoted to searching a large island for a stolen microfilm swallowed by a dog, and 'deposited' by said dog (i.e. excreted) in an unknown locale that might be anywhere on the island.

Anderson's relationship with series regular Tony Anholt was a more positive one, and a few years later he cast the actor as Tony Verdeschi in the second series of Space: 1999.

Episodes

Series 1 (1972–73)

Series 2 (1973–74)

Home media

ITV Studios Home Entertainment released the entire series on DVD in Region 2 in 2002/2003.

Network DVD released a seven disc Region 2 DVD set in 2010 comprising both series.

In Region 1, A&E Home Video released the entire series on DVD for the first time in 2003/2004.^[4][5]

On 10 September 2014, it was announced that Visual Entertainment had acquired the rights to the series in Region 1 and will re-release all 52 episodes on DVD on 4 November 2014.

Music

In 2009 Network released a five-disc set of music recorded for the series, featuring Tony Christie's "Avenues and Alleyways", library music and scores for 13 episodes composed by John Cameron, and Eartha Kitt's rendition of "My Man's Gone Now" for the episode "A Pocketful Of Posies."

References

1. ↑ Mews News. Lurot Brand. Published Spring 2010. Retrieved 20 September 2013.
2. ↑ Sellers, Robert (2006). Cult TV: The Golden Age Of ITC. Plexus. ISBN 0859653889. 
3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4 ed.). Richmond, London: Reynolds and Hearn. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1. 
4. ↑ The Protectors - Season One
5. ↑ The Protectors - Season Two

External links

• The Protectors at the Internet Movie Database