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.
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.
Show Details:
Start date: Feb 1986
End date: Mar 1989
Status: cancelled/ended
Network(s): ITV (UK)
Run time: 30 min
Episodes: 13 eps
Genre(s): Comedy
End date: Mar 1989
Status: cancelled/ended
Network(s): ITV (UK)
Run time: 30 min
Episodes: 13 eps
Genre(s): Comedy
Credits:
- 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 ]
- crew:
- Andrew Marshall, writer
- David Renwick, writer
- David Askey, director [ series 1 ]
- Nic Phillips, director [ series 2 ]
- Humphrey Barclay, producer
Episode list & details from:
TVmaze •
TV.com
| Episode # | Original Air Date |
Titles | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 | |||
| 1. | 1-1 | 16 Feb 86 | The Tell-Tale Heart |
| 2. | 1-2 | 23 Feb 86 | The Modern Promethius |
| 3. | 1-3 | 02 Mar 86 | Beyond the Infinite |
| 4. | 1-4 | 09 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 | 06 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 |
| Specials | |||
| S02. | 2-0 | 10 Mar 89 | Comic Relief Special: The Satellite Years (15 min) |