Hot Metal (a Titles & Air Dates Guide) by John Lavalie Last updated: Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:00
aired from: Feb 1986 to: Mar 1989	13 eps	ITV	30 min	mono

regulars:

• Robert Hardy as Russell Spam / Terrence "Twiggy" Rathbone
• Geoffrey Palmer as Harold Stringer [ series 1, episode #13 ]
• Richard Wilson as Dicky Lipton [ series 2 ]
• Richard Kane as Greg Kettle
• John Gordon Sinclair as Bill Tytla [ series 1 ]
• Geoffrey Hutchings as Max Rutherford [ series 1 ]
• John Horsley as Father Teasdale [ series 1 ]
• Caroline Milmoe as Maggie Troon [ series 2 ]
• David Barrass as Jack Thrush [ series 2 ]

production:


• Andrew Marshall, writer
• David Renwick, writer
• David Askey, director [ series 1 ]
• Nic Phillips, director [ series 2 ]
• Humphrey Barclay, producer

This sitcom lampoons the journalistic style of Rupert Murdoch and the Fleet Street newspapers as traditional newspaperman and editor Harold Stringer tries to preserve some dignity and integrity while managing editor Russell Spam courts scandal and the sensational in order to increase circulation.

Robert Hardy, well known to Americans for his role as Siegfried Farnon on All Creatures Great and Small and as Winston Churchill in various productions, takes on the dual roles of muckraker Russell Spam and his self-important boss, publisher "Twiggy" Rathbone.

Harold Stringer was played by the veteran deadpan comic actor Geoffrey Palmer in the first series. He was replaced in the second series by Richard Wilson playing a twitchier Dicky Lipton, hired to replace the missing Stringer.

                            Original
  Episode #      Prod #     Air Date   Episode Title
_____ ______ ____________ ___________ ___________________________________________

Season 1

  1.   1- 1                16 Feb 86   The Tell-Tale Heart
  2.   1- 2                23 Feb 86   The Modern Promethius
  3.   1- 3                 2 Mar 86   Beyond the Infinite
  4.   1- 4                 9 Mar 86   Casting the Runes
  5.   1- 5                16 Mar 86   The Slaughter of the Innocent
  6.   1- 6                23 Mar 86   The Respectable Prostitute

Season 2

  7.   2- 1                 6 Mar 88   Religion of the People
  8.   2- 2                13 Mar 88   The Joker to the Thief
  9.   2- 3                20 Mar 88   The Hydra's Head
 10.   2- 4                27 Mar 88   The Twilight Zone
 11.   2- 5                10 Apr 88   Crown of Thorns
 12.   2- 6                17 Apr 88   Unleash the Kracken

Special

       S- 1                10 Mar 89   The Rat Sat on the Cat