The World of Tim Frazer

I was 12 when I watched this series on the BBC. Jack Hedley was my hero and it introduced me to how excellent TV can be. He played an engineer who stumbled on something big and it needed investigation, an enthralling mystery during the 'Cold War'

My homework would go on hold while I watched, it was before video recorders or catch-up TV which has totally revolutionized viewing habits.

The latest BBC rendition called 'The Night Manager' is reminiscent of this series. It has me hooked too.

Does anyone know where I can watch 'The World of Tim Frazer' again, is it available on DVD or online?

I remember this TV series well, being an impressionable 13 year old! It ran for over six episodes, something like 18-20. There were three stories, six episodes each but on Episode 7, the first story ended and the second story began, again for another six episodes with the third story beginning in the same manner. I still remember the shock when Barbara Day (Patricia Haines) was unmasked as the villain in one of the stories! It was very much done in the (radio) style of Paul Temple with Francis Durbridge employing the usual red herrings and co-incidences and the villain (in all three stories) being someone who was in the story often, usually a main character, who had a second secret name.

I also watch this when I was about 12 along with the whole family and we made sure we caught up with every episode.

The theme music was haunting, the Willow Song which you can find on YouTube. My recollection is that it was followed by some other Francis Durbridge serials, starring Donal Pleasance. One had another haunting theme, The Girl From Corsica.

Would love to know if Tim Fraser is available on the internet or DVD. I see that Jack Headley died recently.

The Tim Frazer TV-series still after 40 years stands out as one of my peak TV-experiences. The story was very well plotted with a thrilling ending of each part. I'm not able to judge about the acting as I was only 10 when the series started in Sweden in the summer 1962. But the manuscript was great. Certain thrilling details reoccurred as sort of a leading motive, for instance a name or a sound... Some years later I even tried to persuade Swedish National Television to repeat the broadcasting but at that time black and white had become totally out of date, there was no interest. I enjoyed other Francis Durbridge TV-series after that though, for example "Melissa".

Remember these episodes and would love to see them again. I was 14/15 and remember especially his Jaguar XK150 Roadster, lovely car, owning an XK many years later. Surprisingly, no one has mentioned the car, the camera shots captured the car wonderfully! Even in black and white.