Strangers

Introduction

Don Henderson is probably more well known these days for his time on the Death Star, but there was a time when he was synonymous with UK TV viewers as the irascible George Bulman. The character of Bulman had first appeared in the series The XYY Man, before he effectively got his own TV series with Strangers. Following a five year run in this ITV series between 1978 and 1982, Bulman then appeared in his own self-titled series in 1985 for a couple of years.

Strangers features a new type of Police Squad (Leslie Nielson not included…), guaranteed to get up the noses of regional British policemen everywhere. George Bulman (Henderson) is a Detective Sergeant assigned to the Inter-City Squad, the first police team to be named after a train and also the first national police squad (just like CI5 and a host of similar fictional TV cop shows of the era). Their remit is to follow leads and cases wherever they take them.



The Inter-City squad is led by the rather grumpy and dour Detective Chief Superintendent Jack Lambie (Mark McManus), whilst Bulman is backed up by Detective Sergeant Bob Willis (Dennis Blanch) and Detective Constable Vanessa Bennett (Fiona Mollison). This series contains seven episodes.

Retribution
The new squad are on the trail of a gang of armed blaggers who aren't averse to shooting people.

You Can't Win 'Em All
Bulman and Willis go undercover in Oxford in an attempt to uncover a well-organised fraud ring.



Armed And Dangerous
A simple escort job goes wrong when Bulman and Willis are ambushed at a roadside café and their informer is killed.

Racing Certainty
Tracking leads in an attempt to trace the killer of one of their own, the Inter-City squad finds themselves involved in the Sport of Kings and the gangsters running it.

Clowns Don't Cry
After Bulman triggers a near diplomatic incident with Poland, he finds himself in Wales hunting a flasher and a circus that seems to setting up camp next to most of Britain's top secret Early Warning stations.

Tom Thumb And Other Stories
Bulman is undercover amongst the tramp population in an attempt to turn a drug smuggler against his Irish terrorist bosses.

No Orchids For Missing Blandisch
Bulman, Willis and Bennett are on the trail of a hired killer.

Visual

The picture is a bit hit and miss. It looks like a VHS transfer as there appears to be at least two tape spooling glitches across this series. There is also no re-editing of the series at all as you see the advert break captions. Picture quality is generally OK for such an old series (this one is 1980) but there are obvious artefacts and some of the shots are of a lower quality. However, this shouldn't detract too much from the viewing experience and Network are about bringing old series to the DVD market rather than cleaning them up and editing them, which would take far more money than they would make.

Audio

Mike Moran's distinctive bass-driven theme tune is massively overused. Yes, it's moody during the opening captions, but it then kicks in at sporadic moments at different tempo's and is a little annoying in the end.

Extras

Bizarrely, episode 2891 of Crossroads. It features Don Henderson quite heavily, but still…

Overall

This is one of those series that I remember watching as a child, although not all of it and to be honest one I'm not as familiar with as such as The Professionals. I wasn't sure why until I started watching it, and then I knew. I couldn't remember it too well as it wasn't really that memorable. That's not too say it's bad, because it's not, but the series is a bit of a slowburner. The episodes just kind of bob along at their own pace, which is around 33RPM compared to the likes of The Professionals 78RPM.

Bulman is a great character, one of those eccentric British characters that will live in the psyche long after the end of a TV series. You also discover bits of his character and back story as the series progresses; George carries his possessions in a carrier bag, he loves dropping in literary references, he was shot up in Manchester, he pretends to have given up smoking and he has spent the last five years doing Open University courses but never manged to get any leave to do the exams. Henderson gives a superb but rather understated performance. He's backed up by the dour Mark McManus in what must surely have been the inspiration for Taggart. Dennis Blanch and Fiona Mollison are also pretty good as the cockney tough guy and posh bird respectively.



As I say, the episodes are generally very slow to get anywhere but there is quality beneath the surface, not least as it's obvious that this series does not even pretend to take itself seriously with funny quips appearing when you least expect them. It does hit hard in places though, hard for the back end of the 70's anyway.

There are weak spots in the writing, most notably with two of my pet hates with TV series; the horse racing and circus episodes. Parts of the story for both are pretty good, but I've always found basing TV episodes in these settings is just an excuse to pad the episode out with stock footage and the feeling is pretty strong here, despite a nice comedic turn featuring the helmeted, lurex cape-wearing flasher in the circus episode.

Not quite a warm welcome from the past, but an enjoyable enough few hours spent in the company of the Inter-City squad…