''The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a British television series based on the 1905 adventure novel of the same name by
Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Baroness Emma Orczy (full name: Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála Orczy de Orci) (; 23 September 1865 – 12 November 1947), usually known as Baroness Orczy (the name under which she was published) or to her family and friends as Em ...
. The series was created by writer Michael Hogan and produced by the Towers of London for Incorporated Television Programmes. It was first screened in Britain in 1955 to 1956 in an eighteen-episode run beginning on 28 September 1955. It was one of the first drama series shown on the fledging network, which had only begun transmission in London the week before.
Cast and characters
*
Marius Goring
Marius Re Goring, (23 May 191230 September 1998) was a British stage and screen actor. He is best remembered for the four films he made with Powell & Pressburger, particularly as Conductor 71 in '' A Matter of Life and Death'' and as Julian Cr ...
as Sir Percy Blakeney/The Scarlet Pimpernel
*Stanley Van Beers as Chauvelin
*
Patrick Troughton
Patrick George Troughton (; 25 March 1920 – 28 March 1987) was an English actor who was classically trained for the stage but became known for his roles in television and film. His work included appearances in several fantasy, science fiction ...
Alexander Gauge
Alexander Gauge (29 July 1914 – 29 August 1960) was a British actor best known for playing Friar Tuck in ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' from 1955 to 1959.
Born in a Methodist Mission station in Wenzhou in China,Lucie Mannheim as Countess la Valliere
Production notes
*Lucie Mannheim was married to Marius Goring
*Filming was at
Elstree Studios
Elstree Studios is a generic term which can refer to several current and demolished British film studios and television studios based in or around the town of Borehamwood and village of Elstree in Hertfordshire, England. Production studios ha ...
, London
*The series' sets were designed by the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the vis ...
Duncan Sutherland
Duncan Sutherland (1 August 1905 – 1967) was a Scottish-born art director, based in England where he designed the sets for over eighty films and television series between the early 1930s and mid-1960s. Sutherland spent much of the 1940s employ ...
.
*Marius Goring previously played the role of Sir Percy in a
radio show
A radio program, radio programme, or radio show is a segment of content intended for broadcast on radio. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series. A single program in a series is called an episode.
Radio netwo ...
which lasted from 1952 to 1953 in a total of 50 episodes. The series is now available to listen to for free on the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
.''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' radio show on th Internet Archive /ref>
*It was originally planned to produce 39 episodes but only 18 were eventually filmed and broadcast.
Guest stars
Many guest stars appeared in other ITC series, BBC series and films:
* Ivor Dean
*
Roger Delgado
Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto (1 March 1918 – 18 June 1973) was a British actor. He played many roles on television, radio and in films, and had "a long history of playing minor villains" before becoming ...
*
William Franklyn
William Leo Franklyn (22 September 1925 – 31 October 2006) was a British actor, perhaps best known for voicing the "Schhh... You Know Who" adverts for Schweppes from 1965 to 1973. He also performed on stage, film, television and radio, ...
*
Conrad Phillips
Conrad Philip Havord (13 April 1925 – 13 January 2016), known professionally as Conrad Phillips, was an English television and film actor. He is best known for playing William Tell in the adventure series ''The Adventures of William Tell'' ( ...
Peter O'Toole
Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old V ...
Maureen Connell
Maureen Connell (born 2 August 1931) is a British actress.
Personal life
On 20 July 1956, Connell married British film director, writer and producer John Guillermin. They resided in the Los Angeles area beginning 1968. They had two children, ...
*
Walter Rilla
Walter Rilla (22 August 1894 – 21 November 1980) was a German film actor of Jewish descent.Siegbert Salomon Prawer, ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933'', Berghahn Books (2007), pg. 213 He appea ...
Brian Wilde
Brian George Wilde (13 June 1927 – 20 March 2008) was an English actor, best known for his roles in television comedy, most notably Mr Barrowclough in '' Porridge'' and Walter "Foggy" Dewhurst in ''Last of the Summer Wine''. His lugubrious ...
Episode list
Dates are for the first broadcast on Independent Television in London (Associated-Rediffusion), Midlands and Northern.
Home media
Alpha Home Entertainment
Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alpha Video releases approximately 30 ne ...
released Volume 1 of ''The Adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel'' on DVD in 2006. Volume 2 was released in 2007. Each volume contains four episodes from the television series. The cover art used on these releases, however, erroneously used photos of Marius Goring in his character as Conductor 71 from his 1946 film '' A Matter of Life and Death''.
Network (UK) released the entire 18-episode series on a three disc DVD set on 30 July 2012 with some extras included: a behind the scenes photo gallery.
Motley Theatre Design Group
Motley was the name of the theatre design firm made up of three English designers: sisters Margaret (known as "Percy," 1904–2000) and Sophie Harris (1900–1966) and Elizabeth Montgomery (1902–1993).
Career
The name ''Motley'', according t ...