Public Eye

This is a quite exceptional, but sadly neglected, British series. There have been many detective series, most located squarely in a world of glamour or serious crime. "Public Eye" was exceptional in breaking this cliche. The programme centred upon private enquiry agent Frank Marker. Marker was a middle-aged man,of modest appearance, operating out of the most modest of offices. His cases were undertaken for minimal fees and usually centred upon mundane matters - missing persons, character checks, divorce, chasing debts. If crime was involved it was usually of a petty, often seedy, nature - no high-profile murder enquiries. The mundane nature of the investigations and the settings might make one think that this would be a very prosaic affair. Quite the opposite. It was refreshing to see stories set in the real world, with realistic people facing realistic problems. Superb acting, characterisation and clever story-telling made this a marvellously engaging series. The best example of this was the role of Marker, brilliantly played by Alfred Burke.

Marker was a thoroughly decent man, struggling to earn a crust, regularly disillusioned by the tales of misery, dirt and deception he engaged in. Like many detectives he was a loner but not in the confrontational sense of many others. He did not allow closeness, but was not aggressive. He was sharp and socially skilled but did not have unblemished success. He could make mistakes. The best example of this was in "The Man Who Said Sorry". In this extraordinary episode, which is almost entirely a two-hander, Marker has a frustrating dialogue with a man (Paul Rogers) who threatens both suicide and the murder of his estranged sons. The man, dogged by self-pity and indecision, does not convince Marker who gives him little sympathy. Later Marker has doubts and hears the sirens that confirm his error - the man has thrown himself under a train. Unlike many other detectives Marker is sometimes the victim, including taking a terrible beating from some gangsters in "Nobody Wants To Know". His painful, self-pitying recovery is superbly documented. Despite this he doesn't shirk a case. The show ended in 1975. As a video series it is unlikely to be repeated, certainly on terrestrial television. However it won new admirers when broadcast on "UK Gold" some years ago and just possibly it may return again.

These series in my opinion are British television at its very finest, centred around a marvellous sustained performance by Alfred Burke which stands comparison with anything to be seen anywhere in film, TV or theatre; and scripts of high intelligence, firmly grounded in the downbeat experiences of everyday English life, yet psychologically profound.

The support acting rises to the occasion too, in all the episodes I have seen - Pauline Delaney's performance in Series 4 for example.

By all accounts the show was widely popular when originally broadcast, and it is a mystery to this viewer why repeat broadcasts are so very seldom seen.

I would thoroughly recommend this series to anyone who is tired of the trend in British TV for murder in middle England, conspiracy and terrorism stories and the excess of melodrama in the soaps.

Public Eye brings the viewer down to earth with a bump, no glamour, gentility or sensational plots here just the daily grind of trying to earn an honest crust. Frank Marker, marvellously portrayed by Alfred Burke, is a private enquiry agent who investigates the most routine cases imaginable. He may be checking on unfaithful husbands, looking at minor fraud or petty theft. Occasionally he is used by clients who have ulterior motives and he gets involved in cases he wishes he hadn't. The story lines are thoroughly believable so that viewers quickly identify with the situation. The characters are well developed, sympathetic and demand your attention, but it is Marker who always draws the viewers eye. A loner, he does not make friends easily (at all!) yet we find ourselves identifying with him and caring about him. Add to this Public Eye was made 35 years ago and it is fascinating to see how values and attitudes have changed in the intervening years.

The 1969 series concentrates more on Marker himself following his release from prison for a crime he did not commit. While the 1971 series sees him going about his normal enquiry business. My only regret is that most of the early series (1-3) are lost forever and of the other 4 series only the two mentioned above have so far been released on DVD.

Public Eye was a fine series and deserves a place in the British TV Hall of Fame. Luckily, it's available on DVD, and the British channel Talking Pictures TV shows it regularly.

It was part of Alfred Burke's brilliance in the part that Frank Marker was a character with no real character traits. We knew nothing about his background, a mystery which was never solved for us by the writers. Originally, the character of Marker was going to be a tough, Lee Marvin figure, but casting Burke was an inspired move on the part of the producers. With his lined, seen-it-all face and his sensitive, laconic manner, Burke rooted the concept firmly in reality. Marker dealt with the dark, petty underbelly of the world, and was only ever a few pounds short of bankruptcy. It seemed only natural that one day he would be arrested (framed for handling stolen goods) and go to prison (ending the original ABC TV series). When he emerged some time later (Thames TV taking over production), Marker has quit Birmingham for seedy Brighton for a masterly 1969 series entirely penned by Roger Marshall. Here, Marker is dealing as much with the repercussions of his own lonely, solitary character as he is with the shadow of prison. Later (with the advent of colour TV), the character moved from there to the more upmarket locale of Windsor, where for a time he became partners with the sharp, ambitious alpha-male Ron Gash.

Marker always eschewed the term "detective" in his dealings with clients, preferring the term that real British private eyes use, "enquiry agent"; at a stroke, this narrative move cut Public Eye off from all other detective series and encouraged a more downbeat approach. In this, it followed its source: Anthony Marriott was a real-life enquiry agent whose techniques and experiences were the basis of the show. A movie made from the material might have been a British classic.

One other point: the haunting bluesy theme for some reason is rarely mentioned, was never released on record, and is not credited on IMDb.com. It is by veteran TV bandleader Bob Sharples (under the pseudonym Robert Earley).

It's been over 30 years since I last saw Public Eye on UK ITV, but having just watched some of the 1969 episodes released on DVD it's as I remembered it: grimy and gritty. There was a marvellously downbeat downtrodden atmosphere to all the series (I'm too young to remember the first from the mid-sixties, all wiped), partly thanks to the fact neither ABC nor Thames wanted to spend much money on it, and not just the acting or the stories. Those who remember the series have no chance in forgetting the lugubrious theme music, oft repeated per episode at the commercial break bumpers.

Welcome to Brighton? broadcast 30.07.69: Framed ex convict Frank Marker indelibly played by angular and craggy Alfred Burke leaves HMP Ford for a new start in Brighton. A few ordinary adventures later his cynical outlook is seemingly proved justified by our glimpse into a dull grainy world of varying but usually seedy human emotions. Being an "Enquiry Agent" was in his blood, as performing a simple favour to an acquaintance in prison brings out the bloodhound in him.

I don't go overboard for "realism" in films or TV - give me Abbott & Costello any day! But I do recommend Public Eye for something refreshingly different to today's type of TV drama, a realism at once hard but at the same time humdrum and fantastic too, and also basically portraying a non-colour, non-violent and non-CGI world too.