Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman, and was first broadcast in 1969 and 1970. In the United States, it was given the title My Partner the Ghost.
ITC Entertainment produced a single series of 26 episodes in 1968 and 1969, which was aired from September 1969 to March 1970. The pilot episode was broadcast on ITV in the United Kingdom on 19 September 1969 on ATV. London Weekend Television broadcast the pilot on 21 September 1969.
The series was remade in 2000, starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.
Plot.
In the initial episode, Hopkirk is murdered during an investigation but returns as a ghost. Randall is the only main character able to see or hear him, though certain minor characters are also able to do so in various circumstances throughout the series, such as mediums, or drunk, or under hypnosis.
Production.
Conception.
The idea for the series was conceived by Dennis Spooner, who had an office adjoining producer Monty Berman at Elstree Studios. They had already collaborated on "The Champions". In March 1968 the pair conceived "Department S". Spooner's interest in the paranormal, inspired by several feature films, contemplated the possibility of a television series featuring a ghost, and he thought a detective series would offer greater scope for storylines.
The idea was put to Head of ATV Lew Grade but he was not enthusiastic as the series lacked a leading American, which he felt would inhibit overseas sales. Fortunately the synopsis caught the eye of Ralph Smart, who had worked on "The Adventures of Robin Hood", "The Invisible Man", and "Danger Man" and he wanted to write the pilot. This convinced Lew Grade to green-light the series.
Casting.
Jeff Randall, originally named Steven Randall, was considered for the comedian Dave Allen who had made "Tonight with Dave Allen" for Lew Grade's ATV. When Allen signed for the BBC attention turned to Mike Pratt who had appeared in a number of episodes of various ITC series and was deemed to be right for the part by the production team including Cyril Frankel, creative consultant on the series.
Marty Hopkirk proved more difficult and some actors were considered after scouring the pages of casting resource Spotlight, Frankel was at a new Italian restaurant in Soho, London and sitting at the next table was Kenneth Cope, with his wife, and Frankel thought he would be right for the part. Frankel told Monty Berman, directed a screen test and Cope got the part.
Jean Hopkirk, not in the original concept, is portrayed by Australian actress Annette André. She was well known to the production team, having appeared in six episodes of "The Saint" as well as "The Baron". She had been short listed for one of the lead roles in "The Champions" but lost to Alexandra Bastedo, reportedly at the whim of an American CBS executive.
Filming and locations.
Filming commenced with the pilot in May 1968 with the aim to shoot a 48-minute episode over a fortnight working Monday to Friday from 8:30am to 5:30pm with some filming on alternate Sundays. The bulk of filming with the main cast was on two sound stages at ABC Elstree in Borehamwood where "Department S" and other series were also in production. Establishing shots would use library footage. Location sequences were usually filmed by a second unit using stand-ins or the guest cast who were only needed for one episode filmed by one director while the main cast were completing the previous episode with another director. To keep costs down, a simple jump cut was used to make Marty Hopkirk disappear and reappear. Walking through walls was costly and time consuming using an image reflected on plain glass at an angle in front of the camera often used in the theatre called Pepper's ghost.
The exterior of the Randall & Hopkirk's office was a doorway at the side of Adam's Furniture Fabric on the corner of Kymberly Road and Springfield Road in Harrow, now completely redeveloped as St George's Shopping Centre. Jeff Randall's flat was located at Hanover House, close to the corner of St John's Wood High Street, and Jean Hopkirk's flat was on Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, London.
Numerous country houses in the northern Greater London and Hertfordshire area were used for the external shots of the many mansions featured in the series. In the episode "For the Girl Who Has Everything", the exterior of Hilfield Castle in Aldenham was used for Kim Wentworth's (Lois Maxwell's) home. The Tudor-looking Edgwarebury Hotel on Barnet Lane in Elstree, now The Manor Elstree, was used in the episodes "Who Killed Cock Robin?" and "The House on Haunted Hill" and a plethora of other ITC series. The exterior of the Lambert Clinic in the comical episode "A Disturbing Case", written by Mike Pratt himself, is now the Institute of Grocery Distribution in Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire. The Seaton Residence, a large white house with Doric columns at the front used in "The Smile Behind the Veil" episode is the Dyrham Park Country Club, the club house of a golf club in Galley Lane, Barnet. Woburn Abbey in Woburn, Bedfordshire, is featured in the episode "The Man from Nowhere" and is visited by Jeannie and a Marty imposter.
Cars.
The car Jeff Randall drove was a white Vauxhall Victor registration RXD996F which was also used in two episodes of "Department S"; in that series Joel Fabiani's character Stewart Sullivan drove a white Vauxhall with the registration RXD997F. The red Mini used by Jean Hopkirk was registered in May 1964 and had been used in an episode of "The Saint" (1968), an episode of "Department S" (1969) and driven by Tony Curtis's character Danny Wilde in an episode of "The Persuaders!" (1970).
Music.
The theme music was composed by Edwin Astley, who in the previous years had composed many themes and incidental music for film series produced and distributed by ITC and its forerunners. Astley used the harpsicord because of its distinctive sound and used the C minor key because of the "death" part in it. In all Astley composed 188 numbered cues used throughout the series. Music composed by Astley from "The Champions" was briefly used, as was music by Albert Elms from the same series. Music was also used by Astley from his own library of music, the Chappell library, and other music composed by Robert Farnon, Johnny Hawksworth, Sidney Torch, Vivaldi.
Characters and cast.
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Episode list.
Airdates given here are for London Weekend Television. It was the only ITV region to screen all 26 episodes without breaks in transmission. Other ITV regions varied airdates and transmission order.
Filming took place between May 1968 and July 1969.
Broadcast.
The 26 episodes were broadcast in the UK between 26 September 1969 – 31 July 1971; ATV dropped the show after 20 odd episodes had been transmitted. In the United States it was syndicated 1973 under the title "My Partner the Ghost". The series has been shown in 2020 in the UK on the Sony Channel.
Remakes.
In 2000–2001 the series was remade by Working Title Films for the BBC with a more elaborate storyline, starring Vic Reeves as Hopkirk (once again in a white suit) and Bob Mortimer as Randall, with Emilia Fox as Jeannie. Two series were made. The show was produced and primarily written by Charlie Higson, who also directed some episodes, and featured numerous writers including Gareth Roberts, Mark Gatiss, Paul Whitehouse and Jeremy Dyson. The premise of the show was the same, but the circumstances of Hopkirk's death were changed.
On 10 May 2010, the SyFy Channel announced that it had secured the rights to "Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased)" and were looking to develop a pilot, and in January 2011, "Entertainment Weekly" announced that Jane Espenson and Drew Z. Greenberg would be writing a pilot for SyFy. Espenson told io9 that "The version we're proposing is quite different in tone and content from the original." She added, "We took the basic premise of a Ghost Detective and his still-living partner and invented our own take on it."