ITC Greats: Jason King

First In An Occasional Series On Classic Television



Jason King came late in the ITC canon, premiering in 1971-72. The show was a spinoff from the 1969-70 series Department S, and like its predecessor was a collaboration of legendary tv writer Dennis Spooner and producer Monty Berman.



Department S had been a prototype X-Files, where a perplexing conundrum such as identifying an amnesiac case found wandering the streets of London in a spacesuit had to be investigated and solved by a crack team of special consultant detectives. Working for a Government department with international ties were American investigator Stuart Sullivan (Joel Fabiani), English computer expert Annabelle Hurst (Rosemary Nicols) and of course consultant and adventure novelist Jason King (Peter Wyngarde). The series ran for a single season of 28 episodes (currently available via Network).



Before the series had completed its run, one character had shone out above his co-stars. Lew Grade was never enamoured of the character, but Lady Grade was and she convinced her husband that a series starring Wyngarde as Jason King would be a success. Wyngarde is on record recounting the meeting he had with Lew Grade to cement the deal. Grade told him his idea of a hero was blond and clean-cut like Roger Moore. "You come on and you look like Viva Zapata, with this funny moustache and the terrible clothes you wear. But my wife likes you so we're going to do another series"



Watching the series now, I cannot help wondering if Lord Grade's disdain for the character was responsible for the distinct obstacle put in the way of the show to ensure its failure. The thing that stands out about the show is that it was shot on 16mm rather than 35mm like its ITC stablemates. While it was commonplace at the BBC to shoot on 16mm for location filming, and the other ITV companies made shows on 16mm for cost considerations, ITC almost always made its shows on 35mm with an eye to international sales - most specifically the US market. A 35mm show had a shot at the three networks, where a 16mm show was doomed to the syndication circuit. It was only in the mid-to-late 1970s, when ITC had retired from filmed show making that 16mm became commonplace for television production (The Sweeney, Sherlock Holmes). While being made on 16mm kept production costs on Jason King down, it almost guaranteed no US network sale and therefore in Lord Grade's eyes no further investment.



Co-creator and executive story consultant Dennis Spooner had his reservations about the success of a Jason King series - the character had worked well in small, spectacular doses in Department S, but could he carry a whole series? In the early days of the production, plans were afoot to partner King with a more conventional hero to do all the legwork for him and to that end a number of actors were interviewed, including Michael Billington (who unfortunately had signed up to do UFO for Gerry Anderson). Shortly after completing UFO, Billington's conventional hero attributes would almost win him the most coveted hero role of them all - 007 - on whose creator Jason King was very very very loosely based.



In spite of the show's cancellation, it had enough of an impact to make a household name of Peter Wyngarde, who would be named the man most Australian women would like to lose their virginity to.



Bibliography:

Sellers, R.: Cult TV: The Golden Age Of ITC

Chapman, J.: Saints and Avengers: British Adventure Series Of The 1960s

Rogers, D. : The ITV Encyclopedia Of Adventure