Strange Report

I remember watching this as a 14-year-old when it was originally televised. It really is a blast from the past. Great acting, good story lines - no computer graphics here. And the old London taxi? Fabulous! What you see is what you get. It's fun to see now well-established actors in small roles. Sadly, Sir Anthony Quayle is no longer with us, and Anneke Wills retired from acting long ago. Surprisingly, so few people seem to remember the show. It is every bit as good as its contemporaries - The Avengers, The Professionals etc. A shame only one series was made. It stands the test of time and will surely jog the memory for people of a certain age. Buy it and enjoy! 60s TV at its best.

I've thoroughly enjoyed watching this (largely-forgotten) series over the past few weeks, & I'm just so surprised that I'd never come across it before. Starring the excellent Anthony Quayle (in a very naturalistic & perfectly understated performance) as criminologist Adam Strange, each hour-long story sees him tackling an unusual (numbered) case that is slightly out of the normal field of Scotland Yard's remit - ably assisted by forensics expert Ham (Kaz Garas), & Strange's pretty young female artist neighbour Evelyn (played by Dr Who's Anneke Wills). There are some eminent guest-stars too, including a pre-Sweeney John Thaw, Ian Ogilvy, Julian Glover, Martin Shaw, Sally Geeson, Bernard Lee & Anthony's 'Ice Cold in Alex' co-star Sylvia Syms, to name a few.

Only one series of 16 episodes were made - broadcast in the UK on Sunday evenings between September 1969 & January 1970. I liked the Little Venice London setting of Strange's apartment, & there's some excellent location work too which adds plenty of colour & late-60s period charm. The production is based at Pinewood, & good use is made too of the studios environs & locations in the surrounding areas. There's also of course the obligatory catchy theme tune & memorable title sequence that you would expect.

This show to me seems to bridge the gap perhaps from the more studio-bound & fantasy-based ITC shows of the 60s to the more gritty & realistic drama series that would start to emerge in the 70s. It's highly-enjoyable & original, & it seems a pity that only one season was made - although I'm not sure the proposed setting of the second season in America would have been such a good idea, as it may have lost the intimacy & 'Swinging London' feel that make this perfect collection of 16 episodes so unique.

All in all, highly-recommended for fans of tele-fantsasy & lovers of 60s kitsch, & a real hidden gem of a programme.

The Strange Report is nowadays quite forgotten compared to the other ITV adventures like The Saint, Danger Man etc. Only one season was ever made. This isn't however, because the series flopped; in fact the truth is quite opposite. The Strange Report was an ambitious series, starring Anthony Quayle as a master detective utilizing top science and psychological skill instead of fists and guns. It got good reviews and was very popular in the UK. ITV got so excited, they thought they had a break at the US market and decided to film the second season in the States. As Strange as it may sound, Quayle and his female sidekick, Anneke Wills, decided they didn't feel like traveling, and the series was axed! How does the series, killed by its popularity, look now? It has a nice swinging 60's look, but it has it's problems. Kaz Garas as the male sidekick Hamlyn Gynt(?) is quite a bland character, and although Anthony Quayle does a competent job, mr. Strange isn't extremely charismatic. It is, however, a quality show, good scripts, good acting, decent production values. The Strange Report genuinely favors wit over action. Strange can talk the criminal to put down his gun instead of the usual shooting and chasing. Definitely a show worth checking out.

This was a decent action series, but isn't as fondly remembered as, say, Randall & Hopkirk or The Saint (though it was somewhat better made, with higher production values). The premise was that Adam Strange, together with two young sidekicks, would solve unusual crimes, not through routine thick-ear violence, but rather with skill, science and psychology. The scripts were intelligent, and even (as for example in the episode with Julian Glover playing a psychotic on a revenge spree) moving. And an excellent theme tune also helped.

So far, so good. But it never quite made classic status. There are a couple of possible reasons for this. Firstly, the cast was not super-charismatic. Anthony Quayle as Adam Strange is somewhat cerebral, and Kaz Garas as Ham was not terribly engaging, with his earnest manner, strangely stooping gait and persistent references to Minnesota. Both look as if the swinging sixties were about to pass them by. On the other hand, Anneke Wills, fresh from Dr Who, continued her posh dolly bird act with her usual panache, but - as in Dr Who - was too often relegated to making the tea.

Secondly, the cases fell between several stools. It is easier to say what they are not, than what they had in common. They were not surreal. They were not glamorous. They were not spooky or supernatural. They were not action-packed. They were not comedic. They were not police procedural. They were largely, but not exclusively, restricted to Britain, and often took their premises from the headlines. The title 'Strange Report' was an unfortunate misnomer - it does lead the viewer to expect something odd or off the wall, which they rarely were.

Some sort of methodical and painstaking science or data checking was usually brought in. A typical scenario would involve Ham having to stay up all night going through the telephone directory finding all the people called Smith whose houses had North-facing aspects, forty years before mashups and Google Maps would have solved all his problems.

They were certainly enjoyable, but just fail to stick in the mind. But well worth seeing, and give a much better sense of what life was actually like in the 60s and 70s than was usual in the genre.

That was probably their problem - too real and too intelligent!

Funny, but a few series have come to light recently where some bright executive has thought that it does well on Britain so we should try the 'States, and got it sunk mid Atlantic.

I did not see The Strange Report first time, as I didn't have a television in 1968, so I am glad to be able to see it now. The stories are good as is the acting, and it is all clean, so clean that when I saw the first episode from half way through, I knew it wasn't 'modern'.

This particular episode, set in a hospital was roughly contemporary with one of my spells as a hospital porter. I remember the considerable precautions that the radiologists took to ensure that patient details were recorded on the film. A small stencil was made by writing with a stylus to remove radio-opaque wax, and this was then clipped onto the negative carrier so that the stencil wax showed up white and the patient details in black writing.

Of course, different hospitals had different methods.

Nevertheless, I still like the series.