The Buccaneers

I remember watching this TV Show in the 1950's in Australia during the first decade of Television in the country. Robert Shaw was a great swashbuckler leading his motley pirate crew in a new adventure each week. It was very entertaining and the theme music I remember to this day.

When I saw the whole series was available in the USA on DVD I naturally bought it. Imagine my disappointment when I found the original theme and song 'Lets go a roving ..' had been completely discarded in the program in favour of one generic theme with lots of woodwinds and percussion. I wonder why the original music could not have been retained? Perhaps there had been a problem with the original print that was now remastered for DVD. Whatever the program definitely lost something in the translation. It is great to be able to watch the show again after many decades but my memory feels betrayed by the substitution of the program's theme music.

Watching Robert Shaw as the gangster/mark Lonergan in The Sting, made me think of the first time I saw Mr. Shaw in this short lived series The Buccaneers. It was one of those British based series that made its way in syndication across the Atlantic, like Robin Hood, Sir Lancelot, Sir Francis Drake.

I've got a feeling that this one may have been a replacement for Robert Newton's Long John Silver. Mr. Newton was the grandest pirate of all, he made Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow look like Mr. Chips. But he was dying of alcoholism and maybe the BBC needed a new pirate show.

Only 39 episodes were made of The Buccaneer. Robert Shaw went on to bigger and better things. He died tragically just as he was really reaching the heights as a player with great performances in Jaws and in The Sting. What a great loss he was.

Shaw's Dan Tempest was not in the Robert Newton, but rather in the Errol Flynn tradition. He would have made a grand swashbuckling hero if his career hadn't taken other directions.

Like Flynn's Captain Blood, Dan Tempest was a former pirate newly pardoned and working for law and order and his majesty the king, doing a few odd jobs policing the seas. His three top crewman, Gaff, Taffy, and a Spanish renegade named Armando were as salty a bunch as ever shivered any timbers.

He also had a British naval officer, Lieutenant Beamish played by Peter Hammond who worked with Tempest, sort of in tandem. Beamish was squeamish about working with a pirate, but after a while he sort of just went with the flow.

With all the great film parts that Robert Shaw played, it's Dan Tempest that I remember him best for. I do so wish I could see some Buccaneer episodes.

For a low budget series this one comes off quite well. The only obvious flaws are the small cast and limited sets. Substituting Cornwall for the Caribbean is an odd choice indeed, but again,they seem to carry it off! Shaw is excellent as "Dan Tempest" the nice-guy pirate. "Dan Tempest" sounds like a Gerry Anderson character from one of his puppet series. There was "Troy Tempest" in Stingray. Compare this series to 1954's "Long John Silver" shot in Australia. The one redeeming factor in that series was Robert Newton reprising his Disney role. All in all an enjoyable series. You could spot Shaw as an up and comer. He reminds me of Richard Greene's Robin Hood from the same era. Low key but he got the job done.

"The Buccaneers" was made by the same British production company that did "The Adventures of Robin Hood" (Richard Greene). Robert Shaw was over the top as ex-pirate Dan Tempest. Their action scenes were equal to Greene's Robin Hood. They also had an interesting theme song.

Some reviewers have said they would like to see "The Buccaneers" on DVD. Three volumes (12 episodes) are available from: oldies.com ($5.95 each). The last volume was just released in May 2007. Hopefully, that means 36 of the 37 episodes will be collected in nine volumes.

The Lt. Beamish character (Peter Hammond) seems to be there for some comedy relief. The pilot episode of the series did not have Robert Shaw as the star. He appears in the second episode.

The DVDs are good quality (picture as well as sound).

My wife and I just finished re-watching THE BUCCANEERS and we enjoyed it even more than we did the first time around. We're big fans of 1950s British historical action-adventure shows and have seen almost all of those currently available. We concur that THE BUCCANEERS is the best of the lot, better even than Richard Greene's more widely known ROBIN HOOD. Both series were produced by Hannah Weinstein for her Sapphire Films productions and were instigated by Lew Grade (years away from becoming entertainment mogul Lord Grade) for his fledgling ITV network. THE BUCCANEERS ran for 39 episodes during 1956-57 and served as the launching pad for Robert Shaw's movie career. It also gave work to a number of blacklisted American writers and technicians banned from working in the U. S.

There are a number of things that distinguish THE BUCCANEERS from other shows of its era. The scripts are consistently above average plot wise which allows for greater character development. The relationship between Robert Shaw as pirate captain Dan Tempest and acting governor Edward Beamish is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the series. Beamish is wonderfully portrayed by Peter Hammond who started out as a comic foil to Shaw but quickly developed into an equal partner though of an entirely different temperament. Unfortunately Hammond left 2/3 of the way through the series (after 26 episodes) to pursue a director's career which was great for him but not so much for the series. As a result TB became more one note with a tiresome love interest for Shaw substituting in his place.

In addition to Hammond, four others among the pirate crew were developed further as the series progressed. Armando, a half Spanish and half Indian character, played by Edwin Richfield in brown make-up and curly wig, Dan Tempest's go to man who was given a central role in over half the episodes. Gaff (Brian Rawlinson) my wife's favorite of the pirates, a big guy with an even bigger heart who acted first and then thought about it later. Taffy (Paul Hansard), a supposed Welshman, the musician of the group who led the crew in rounds of sea shanties (there was always lots of singing) and also joined in the swordplay and fisticuffs present in every episode. And Dickon (Wilfred Downing), a young boy who came of age under the pirates' tutelage. These leading characters interacted with each other excellently and formed a completely likable, believable ensemble.

This series is based on historical fact. It's set in the Bahamas of 1718 where the Governor General was authorized to offer pardons to pirates in exchange for their protection of the islands from the Spanish and other buccaneers like Blackbeard. Like all shows from this time period, THE BUCCANEERS is family oriented. The potential darker sides of the characters are barely hinted at, the violence is bloodless, and it has a catchy theme song ("Let's go a' roving and join the buccaneers") you might find yourself singing along to. Also as with other shows from the 1950s, this series showcases not only up and coming performers like Robert Shaw, Adrienne Corri, Richard Pasco, and Hazel Court but also well known character players like Anthony Dawson, Alex Mango, Sid James, and Roger Delgado.

Like so many of Lew Grade's early ITV / ITC television shows, THE BUCCANEERS, after its initial run in the U. S., existed in substandard second and third generation copies with poor sound and inconsistent video quality. Back in 2006 Mill Creek Entertainment issued all 39 episodes but not in their original order as first shown, which creates a problem with the character development I spoke of earlier. Still the Mill Creek version is to be preferred over the recent several volume set released by public domain specialists Alpha Video, or what's currently available on Amazon streaming. Although more expensive and Region 2, this Network set from 2008 remains THE set to own. All the episodes are on 5 discs and the picture quality and sound are the best available. Just too bad there aren't any subtitles...For more reviews visit The Capsule Critic.