Die Abenteuer des Dick Turpin

Fantastic production design. Finely crafted stories. Inspired casting.

I watched it when I was a kid. I remember counting the days between the weekly airings. Heck, for me he was almost bigger than Robin Hood. So all in all I am probably a bit biased, but I recently bought the box set and found myself binge watching it and being genuinely entertained.

Okay, so the other comment about this show may be partially right: this is pretty bad; but it sure doesn't represent the best of British tv in the 70s. Perhaps the writer was confusing it with some of his own, homegrown tv: like the Dukes of Hazzard, which was foisted on UK audiences at about the same time as this was airing.

Turpin had its moments - oh and it was nothing to do with Napoleon or the 1800s, either (hence the reason you didn't see any Frenchmen...); it was set nearly a century earlier and Turpin was returning home from the War of the Spanish Succession - same enemy, of course, but then, some things don't change. I believe the series was replaced in the schedules (in the UK) by Robin of Sherwood - that's the one without the American accent.

I must admit that I like this show of very sentimental reasons. I was only five and loved this show really much. For a month ago i bought the DVD containing series 1. I forgot that the episodes lasted 25 minutes. Seeing it again tells how good the production value is of this series. It is really fast paced and contains a lot of humor. Qua ambiance you can compare this with the "Sharpe" series). OK, you have to love period drama's and you have to like swashbuckling adventures! If you are in to that stuff,than you will enjoy this series. This show is far better than most shows they make now. Go rent if possible or buy it. You won't regret it.

So simple. Napoleon's blockade in the early 1800s. British smuggler swashbuckling in Normandy and Kent. English officers are the baddies (I don't remember seeing any French baddies).

All episodes are the same: escape from the British police, save the idiotic young sidekick, get the girl aka barmaid, kick the captain's butt, the captain is humiliated by the commander, kick the captain and the commander's butts. end.

So... what was so great ? ha ha ha the music of course ! The theme is completely amazing. It's been 20 years and the only reason why I remember this crappiest of all piece of ol'rubbish British TV from the late seventies is the music.

The French counterpart of this series is called Schulmeister, l'espion de l'Empereur, and it takes place during the same period of history with a former smuggler from Alsace, a fat version of Asterix, turned into an Imperial Commissioner (wow) and enforcing Napoleon's way all over Europe. Much more fun. Jacques Fabri is Schulmeister and Roger Carel is Hamel the sidekick.

But the music sucked. Big time.

The first film made by RKO Pictures, together with London Weekend Television, the film version also starred Mary Crosby, who had just finished shooting "JR" in the TV series DALLAS.

Not a wonderful movie, but RKO had just gotten started and could only co-produce in the early years. The terrific experience working with LWT led RKO to establish its post-production and international distribution headquarters in London. In fact, RKO hired several people from LWT and staffed its London office completely with people from the British film industry. For many years, the British contingent at RKO ran production and international sales.