Jason King

After the huge success of 'Department S', in which the character of Jason King had quickly become dominant, a spin-off series was developed called (not surprisingly) 'Jason King'.

King had left Department S and was working on his novels - the 'Mark Cain' stories. The rest of the cast of Department S did not appear at all, and were never mentioned.

The general premise for the show was that King wandered around the world living a playboy lifestyle and each week was somehow drawn into a crime which he neatly solved in time for the end credits. British Intelligence were often hounding him to work for them as a freelance which he generally resisted until they reminded him of his back-taxes. The series was made on location around Europe, in contrast to Department S which never left the back-lot at Pinewood.

Overall the series lacked much of the original sparkle and zest of Department S, the plots were much thinner and less original, and Wyngarde was becoming to old to play the part of a trend-setting playboy convincingly.

This is by way of a comment on one of the other reviews.

The episode "All that Glisters..." was playing recently on a TV that I could hear but not see. "Thunderbirds!" I thought since I could clearly hear the voice of Scott Tracey. On going in to actually watch the TV I was amazed to see that it was Jason King rather than Thunderbirds and that bizarrely Clinton Greyn was speaking with Scott Tracey's voice. The lip-sync was excellent but it was clearly a dubbed voice since the acoustic was different. And of course, rather than Greyn's rounded Welsh tones we were getting the distinctive Canadian sound of Shane Rimmer. Cant understand why they did this - and then not credit it? Weird.

Finally we have a digital channel that is not afraid to run the old ITC pulp series from the late 60's and early 70's. These are the ones we 50-year-olds grew up with!

They were, of course, formulaic having the two-man/one girl teams (almost always with the Canadian/American Hero in order to sell over the pond). With the popularity of the formula it was surprising that 'Department S' spawned an untypical offshoot - Solo British Hero with very few Transatlantic guest parts. This was harking back to the glory days of 'Simon Templar'.

ITV4 has now re-run a number of these old 'Jason King' episodes most recently a two-parter entitled "All That Glisters.." I am absolutely convinced that Clinton Greyn's character of 'John Mallen' was voiced-over by Shane Rimmer, although no mention of this occurs in the credits. Anyone familiar with these stock actors would surely recognise the substitution instantly, unless Greyn had cultivated a mid-Atlantic accent of remarkable similarity during his time in the USA.

If true it is a shame that Rimmer (who, I believe has been unwell recently) received no accolade for the performance. Such 'Lip-Sync' on live actors must be far more demanding than marionettes and is to be admired!

Can anyone out there shed any light on this?

I really like Peter Wyngardes performance, a bit of an intellectual cheeky chappy I suppose. . The program may be a little dated but there are some very good guest stars and some of Wyngardes one liners are so funny. It's obviously a follow on from Department S which was also enjoyable to watch, but with the Jason King show Peter is in it much more which I feel is a plus for us viewers watching. I agree with a previous review who said they don't watch it for a mind blowing plot. It's simply great fun with a very charasmaric lead and it's very enjoyable to watch and the program is well produced with a very catchy theme tune.

Compared to its predecessor Department S, Jason King was a generally enjoyable but sometimes uneven show which pointed to the impending decline of the ITC adventure series. Though many of the stories were good with excellent guest actors, and there was an emphasis on style, the series suffered from budgetary constraints compared to its contemporaries in 1971. These included grainy 16mm film, too much studio filming/stock footage and no matter where in the world a particular episode was set, any cars used tended to be right hand drive including in particular a recurring Vauxhall Viva that turned up in episodes set in France, Turkey and the Far East among others. Other ITC series disguised these discrepancies better.

It was also sometimes slow moving and lacking in atmosphere, concentrating on King's style, flamboyance, social graces and relationships with whichever guest actress(es) were in the particular episode, rather than other characters and the ultimate plots, which were becoming clichéd. The show may have benefited if there had been regular support actors to play with/against King in every episode.

Nevertheless, Jason King is one of the most memorable TV characters of that era, if not of all time, and the best episodes were very good indeed. Being forever identified as Jason King, and unfortunately caught up in a minor scandal, whether Peter Wyngarde could have continued to be (or wanted to be) a convincing leading man in subsequent years is debatable. He would have been excellent in lighter fare such as sitcoms and perhaps even as a Doctor Who. His relative obscurity is a loss to TV and movies.