Hi, I'm in the very early stages of watching the Man In A Suitcase episodes on DVD and reviewing them month by month on my website:
http://www.sheepbone.co.uk/maninasuitcase.htm
If anyone would like to add any comments about any episode, please let me know! I'll add any comments to the site, with your name etc.
Please! You gotta love Man In A Suitcase!
http://www.sheepbone.co.uk/
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Thanks apple venus vol 2! Hope you continue enjoying Man In A Suitcase. I'll add your comment to my website next time I update it.
http://www.sheepbone.co.uk/
Might be worth trying to leaving your message at the MAN IN A SUITCASE SMARTGROUP - fans there might want to join in.
shareThanks highrickman, good idea.
http://www.sheepbone.co.uk/
I saw the series on its first showing in the UK in 1967/8,it became a firm favorite from the start.I'm pretty sure the first episode shown was "Brainwash"-you were plunged right into it,really knowing nothing about who McGill was.I love the scenes in that episode where he lurches around in the room where he is trapped as the Newsreel plays over and over.I had never seen a hero like McGill before and knew nothing about the method acting style Richard Bradford was using in the show.I still watch an episode every so often.The only total dud is "Jigsaw man"-some sort of attempt at comedy which doesn't work and is totally atypical of the series,and "Property of a gentleman" seems to me a rather uninteresting episode about nothing very much.I loved Bradford's having McGill always chain smoking-in one episode "Essay in evil" I think he has a fight with a guy and has a cigarette hanging in his mouth all thru it!McGill/Bradford seemed to me the epitome of cool-even more so than the likes of Steve McQueen.One of the most interesting episodes is "The Whisper",the one about Father Loyola-very ethically complex and with a fascinating performance from Colin Blakely-who is also in "Brainwash".
The 60s was a period when we could make tv shows in the UK which were escapist and looked good-like feature films,with clear crisp pictures and able to compete with some of the US product on an equal footing.It was a period where imagination and adventure were important components of the prime time schedules-now I literally watch nothing on the main channels apart from an occasional movie,having no interest in kitchen sink soap operas,reality shows(if I want reality I'll go to the shopping mall!) and endless talent shows and Big Brothers featuring preening exhibitionist nobodies.Fascistic European Union regulations have banished non-EU shows,like those from America,from peak prime time tv on the major channels like BBC1-but they can still be seen on the many other channels such as those on the digital "Sky" satellite network.
I've been watching the series on ITV 4, and I've probably seen around 8 - 10. Im a huge fan of the ITC series, especially Randall and Hopkirk and The Saint, two which have a higher level of humour and are generally lighter in tone. Man in a Suitcase has just blown me away, however. I hate to sound all gushy and fanboy, but Richard Bradford is just COOL. Theres no other word for it. McGill is one of the best TV characters ever committed to screen. Personally, I think that this show could actually be remade well, if done properly. There arent enough hard as nails characters out there, who trust only themselves, their own set of morals and instincts. TV today could learn a lot from the 60s (and Im only 17, but i know TV today is crap). Constantly well written, my favourite episode so far is Sitting Pigeon - all the episodes seem to have excellent guest casts (though I was a bit disturbed by Donald Sutherlands bizarre accent in Day of Execution), but George Sewell (playing totally against type as the sniviling, cowardly Rufus) is just excellent. The end fight between McGill and the assasin is also one of the best Ive seen on TV. I was really shocked to see Richard Bradford on the extras of the ITC 50 dvd release, for the Suitcase episode - i wouldnt have recognised him hes changed so much.
shareI'm old enough to have seen the show when it first appeared-peak time on ITV in 1967.Bradford was cool as McGill-and may be partly responsible for me taking up cigarettes!We were spoilt back then-mainstream drama on UK tv is unwatchable to me now,the main American networks are getting as bad with "reality" garbage and purient drivel-still some good stuff like "24",but it's getting scarce.
Richard B. has really let himself go-obviously he's nearing 70 now,but he put on a lot of weight when still quite young.It's a bit sad to see him as he is now,to what he was then-but we all get older!After "Suitcase" finished he seemed to disappear off the face of the earth-nobody knew what had happened to him.The episode with George Sewell,"The Sitting Pigeon" is one of the best,with Sewell playing against type."Brainwash" was the first episode shown,it probably remains my favorite and has beautiful Suzan Farmer in it too.
ITC series were made by the now vanished ATV(Associate Television)company,run by Lew Grade,who was in the tradition of the old time cigar chewing Hollywood movie studio heads.His action drama series were generally expensive to make and were shot like feature films.Most were made on 35mm film,unusual ouside the American shows at the time.American actors were often imported as stars to help US sales.Roger Moore had been in movies and in US tv shows,so he was familiar already to the Americans.Patrick McGoohan was born in the US and his accent was suitably "mid-Atlantic for them.The expense was one of the reasons why the ATV action shows ended in the 70s.ITC's TV action dramas moved into color long before most tv companies did.
These are some of the "contemporary" live action shows by ATV/ITC(they made a lot of "costume" swordplay action stuff as well).
The 50s
The new adventures of Charlie Chan(1957/61)
The Invisible man(1959/61)
Interpol calling(1959/60)
Four just men(1959/60)
The 60s
Danger man(1960/61,1964/66,1968)
The Saint(1962/69)
Man of the world(1962)
Sentimental Agent(1963)
Gideon's Way(1965/6)
(All shows now in color-the later Saint episodes were of course in color.The 2 1968 Danger Man shows were in color)
The Baron(1966/67)
Man in a suitcase(1967/8)
The Prisoner(1967/8)
Strange Report(1968/9)
The Champions(1969-though filmed much earlier)
Randall and Hopkirk(Deceased)(1969/70)
Department S(1969/70)
The 70s-generally poorer fare,and really awful clothes-the Persuaders has its moments but is all a bit silly.
Jason King-not recommended!
The Persuaders(1971/2)
The Protectors(1972/74)
The Zoo gang(1974)
The Avengers is sometimes thought of as an ATV show,but was in fact produced by ABC(Associated British Corporation)
The show was still present on the French TV late night,or early in the morning should I say until the early 90's.
Bradford's performance was great, Mc Gill is unique because lonely in a time where the world was devided in two and the Cold War was everywhere,there was no place for lone wolves nor for such anti-heroes.
In my opinion he could have done what Richard Harris did in the 70's if he had a chance to.
did you forget 'the adventurer' with gene barry as an actor/spy ... i am sure that was an ITC show
JoshsDad
'SPECTRUM IS GREEN'
Great comment. Very informative.
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I respect what you said, but I see things a little differently.
I've grown up on this sort of stuff, as I'm betting you have too, but I don't know that you see this show for what it was and is?
Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the first season (is there another?) very much. The production values are amazing--i.e. every episode in a different city and the cinematography is quite excellent. I'd say this series could be brought to life today with very little changes even down to the story lines, and it'd be a hit. The writing and acting are terrific and I enjoyed 'Mac-a-gill' as much as the next fellow, but that doesn't discount the fact that this show smacks of what we know happens today and definitely happened back then.
This show was created and produced with an obvious intent and message, no different from James Bond. To be honest, it's almost the entire reason the world is so screwed up today. You do know James Bond is 100% propaganda, yes?
McGill's entire persona is the good guy fighting evil and he's supposed to be the good guy because he loves money but won't always take the case.....Hilarious, since that doesn't even apply anymore, as if it ever did. Do you see what I mean Mcfaddensflats? No CIA agent was ever a good guy for the same reasons that James Bond is not a 'good' guy. That's probably one of the many things you may never understand.
I am an American 40 years old. i saw this show back when i was a kid watching tv in Los Angeles. I watched a lot of ITV shows after school. Avengers, The Saint. I hated the Saint due to the way that Roger Moore (still cool as ice) grabbed the back of a guy's head with one hand and punched him with the other. it seemed so stunt man like. But then i got hooked on The Protectors, then The Persuaders. i had seen an episode of The Champions in the 70's at 1am in the morning while watching my parents TV from 6 feet away when i wasn't supposed to be. Then in the 80's i caught MIAS, It struck me then as a show that was different from the other shows from ITC. for one thing, Richard Bradford was real. i knew it back then. Real. Unlike Starsky and Hutch did, the guy got up from a blow like he had been hit, not ready to go, but shaky, woozy. That made it all the more important that he NOT get hit by someone, so it looked to me that in the fight scenes, McGill tried to do Whatever he could, not to get hit. That *beep* was cool. the theme songs from ITV television as well as it's own Logo music were classic and deserve a chapter in film/TV history as well. i have purchased the Champions DVD and MIAS DVD from Amazon.UK and have configured my DVD player to play all region via Googling the codes for such. i will NEVER regret the purchases
shareHi I am looking for the name of a TV programme or film shown on British TV 1968- 1974 ( someone just suggested Man in A suitcase via Youtube) with... A dress in a tall glass case in a rear corner of a Victorian old ladies bedroom , she is sitting on a chaise lounge in the foreground, and warns a young girl who is admiring the dress, at the back of the room, on the facing left "not to open the case" .
But the girl does when the air rushes inside in a of basic technique of film animation /time frame - the dress dramatically and rapidly falls to pieces
Is this from any series you can think of please?
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