Strange Report

During the summer of, I think, 1971, NBC used a three-year-old British show called The Strange Report as a summer replacement. I have very good memories of my 20-year-old sister wanting me to see this cool show and my surprise that it was cool (and she wanted to spend time with me, her annoying brother of 13!).

I remember the show as a fairly hip, witty, and funny show about three scientists who investigated the para-normal. The two male leads, Anthony Quayle and Kaz Garas were established character actors, but I didn't have a clue about the female lead. The show was spooky and scary and terribly fun to watch on a hot July night. Honestly, I don't remember much from the show--this review is more about the memories it evoked, but, if you ever get a chance to see it, watch it with an open mind (through my adult lenses, it's probably just awful!) and imagine seeing this with your older sibling(s) and feeling just fine.

I remember watching this series as a young boy in the late 60s. It was a excellent series then and, still is, now. What a shame they never went on to make a second run. What a great roll model Anthony Quayle was both as Adam Strange and as him self. Anneke Wills was/is great attired in the fashion outfits of the day and Kaz Garas was full of great fun without being too over the top, I thought his character was great. All three characters interacted so well that the presence of other actors is almost an intrusion.

As for DVD box set - It was great to see the present day Anneke and Kaz speaking of the series on the DVD extras disc. Appearances are made by other actors, like Martin Shaw, talking about the program just prior to the episode that they appear in. The quality is stunning, having been digitally remastered, far better than when I originally watched it. What a treat to see it again after all these years.

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!

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.

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.