TV Express scrapbook: Eric Sykes part 2

 (* © TV Publications Ltd.)

TV Express scrapbook: Eric Sykes part 1

Eric Sykes is one of the few remaining writers of the Associated London Scripts group who helped create the golden age of British radio comedy - The Goons, Hancock's Half Hour, etc. - and some of television's finest moments. A good outline of Sykes' career can be found on Wikipedia but here I'm concerned with a couple of things that appeared in TV Express. The first article speaks for itself...

TV Express Scrapbook: Tony Hancock and Sid James

More features on the stars of yesterday from the pages of TV Express, these two relating to the comedians Tony Hancock and Sidney James.

The two had been working together for years on Hancock's Half-Hour and had made the successful switch to television together. But with the end of the TV show's sixth series, James was dumped by Hancock who feared that he and James would be seen as a double act.

TV Express Scrapbook: Gerry Anderson

Today's scrapbook pages are a couple of features about Gerry Anderson shows, Four Feather Falls and Supercar.

(* © TV Publications Ltd.)

TV Express Scrapbook: No Hiding Place

'No Hiding Place' was based on the long-running TV series which was broadcast between 1959 and 1967, a total of 236 episodes. The show starred Raymond Francis as Det. Chief Supt. Tom Lockhart and Eric Lander as Det. Sgt. Harry Baxter, who were also the stars of the comic strip. After 140 episodes, Lander was replaced in 1964 by Johnny Briggs as Det. Sgt. Russell.

The strip version of 'No Hiding

TV Express Scrapbook: Col. Pinto

More art by Ron Embleton following up yesterday's 'Biggles' strip. The strip actually makes an error from the very beginning -- Oreste Pinto's rank was Lieutenant-Colonel, not Colonel as ascribed by TV Express, although I learn from Wikipedia that Lt.-Col. is often shortened unofficially to Col. You can find out more about Pinto if you scroll down.

     (* © TV Publications Ltd.)

TV Express Scrapbook: Biggles

Here are a couple of scans from the pages of TV Express from 1960 introducing the Biggles strip that began running in 1960. The artwork is by Ron Embleton and followed on from his work on 'Battleground' and 'Wulf the Briton' (which came to an end on the rear cover of issue 306, hence 'Biggles' appearing only on the front). Embleton was working at the top of game at this time -- was he ever off

Paul Temple: Light Fingers

This is the only Paul Temple short story that I've been able to discover. It's a spot-the-clue story and, for fun, I'm going to delay publishing the solution until tomorrow... see if you can work out how Paul resolved the case.

       (* © Associated Newspapers.)

Francis Durbridge

The following piece appeared in the TV Mirror Annual 1956, published in 1955.

  More Francis Durbridge and Paul Temple tomorrow!

"How I Created Paul Temple" by Francis Durbridge

Following on from yesterday's post on the Paul Temple Library, we present the rear-cover features that appeared on the first two issues.

(* My thanks to Keith Chapman who sent these over.)

The Paul Temple Library

Back in 1964, a little company called Micron published a series of reprints of Paul Temple strips from the Evening News. The series ran to only 10 issues, published at the rate of two a month between March and July, reprinting stories drawn by John McNamara. The issues are now very scarce - I've never stumbled across a single one in thirty years. I do, however, know the editor, Keith Chapman, who

Rip Kirby collections

Back in the 1940s/50s, Associated Newspapers published five collections of Rip Kirby strips in various-sized reprint volumes, anywhere between 16 and 84 pages. I recently saw three of the volumes and, as I had my camera with me, took some pics. The books were badly yellowed - they were upwards of sixty years old, after all - but a bit of TLC and colour correction in Photoshop has... well, you can

Ted Rawlings (1921-2010)

Adrian Banfield of the Victor & Hornet website has forwarded the news that Ted Rawlings, who was a regular artist on D. C. Thomson's Victor for over twenty years, died at Netherlea Hospital, Newport-on-Tay, on Friday, 6 August 2010. Although a brief notice in the Dundee Courier and Advertiser says that he was 90, he was, in fact, 89 years old.

A full obituary will appear shortly.