Unaired Episode: Tara King Era
Page 164 of 192

 

These images are from the original version of this episode.

THE GREAT GREAT BRITAIN CRIME

?

Produced in late 1967

Early in the rocky history of the Tara King Era, John Bryce had replaced Brian Clemens and Albert Fennel as producer, and by the time Clemens and Fennell returned, Bryce had managed to crank out three episodes. Among them was "The Great Great Britain Crime," which Clemens and Fennell rejected as unusable. About a year later, it was tossed into the old Clemens/Fennell food processor, together with some random Emma Peel footage, and out came the train wreck known as "Homicide and Old Lace."

One can gather from the surviving bits of this never-seen episode that the story involves the theft of all the major art treasures of Britain, including the Crown Jewels, by Intercrime, an international crime organization, as the name clearly suggests. Staging a national emergency, they trigger the movement of all said treasures into a high-security vault for which they have obtained the security access codes.

As it has not yet been (and may never be) found, little else is known of the original version other than the fact that it was penned by Malcolm Hulke and Terrance Dicks, who had also written the Cathy Gale episode, "Intercrime." Thus "The Great Great Britain Crime" might be regarded as something of an updating of, or perhaps a sequel to, "Intercrime."

Of note, the other two episodes Bryce managed to complete are the unaired "Invitation To A Killing," remade as "Have Guns - Will Haggle," and "Invasion of the Earthmen," which apparently survived relatively intact. See Behind the Scenes for additional details.

 

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Page last modified: 5 May 2017.

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