Trying to remember the name of an old UK TV series.
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Hi, I'm trying to remeber the name of an old UK TV series, annoyingly I can remeber the theme tune very well. I think it would have been from the 70's or 80's. I 'think' the opening titles were like a board game with a lot of identical cartoon figures, and one figure in a different colour ( or maybe shade of grey ;-) ). The cartoon figures moved around on a grid, and this one different figure always managed to avoid 'capture'. Bear in mind this was just the titles, the show was with real actors.
This one figure represented the protagonist in the series who was being hunted but always seemed to evade capture. I 'think' the premise was some kind of computer expert who was a whistleblower, or had some dangerous information he was trying to keep out of the wrong hands, so he could get it to someone, or to some organisation who could use it to publically expose some corruption.
The lead actor was a rather rotund middle aged guy, so not the typical hero. Can't remember his name though, but i'm sure i would recognise a photo of him. I think he was quite a well known actor..
Sorry if this is way off topic, but it's driving me crazy that I can't make that connection to the name.
Also annoying that I have looked through several lists of UK TV series, and it isn't mentioned, even though I thought it was excellent series.
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Comments
AI thinks it is
Was there such a show?
Bird of Prey seems like the right choice; if you look in Wikipedia for Bird of Prey (TV serial), it sees to match the decription.
I think your AI is smarter than my AI. I couldn't find any corroborating evidence to back up the answer it gave me. I think it was totally bogus. Yours looks like a good match for the description.
Excellent, that's the one, and the opening titles screen. Thanks very much everyone, and especially Stonemason. Maybe I'll be able to sleep now that mystery is solved.
Great, that you got the answer.
I was searching for something related to The Game (1985), but has found something about my favorite instead.
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By the way is it the same Warren Clarke as in:
Blackadder The Third - Mr Hardwood
It was Richard Griffiths was the protagonist in Bird of Prey. Warren Clarke wasn't in it so far as I know, although he was a good actor and in a lot of films and TV.
I managed to watch a couple of episodes of Bird of Prey ( there were only three episodes in the first series )., it was a good as I remembered, though of course dated as it is from 1982. The writer really captured the feel of civil service offices ( or at least the ones I experienced, murders excepted ;-) ), even down to the tea ladies. There were also a lot of 1980's era computers. Many twists to the tale, a fairly high body count though. It's quite chilling how the characters start by doing a favour for someone, and then get drawn into situations where they are willing to arrange for people to dissappear to protect themselves from a similar fate..
There were a lot of strange rules at that time. For example, only staff above a certain grade were allowed to have a fitted carpet in their office. If you were moved to an office which had previously been occupied by a higher grade officer, then they would came round and trim off the edge of the carpet, so that it wasn't fitted anymore. ( I am referring to civil service officer grades, not police or armed forces. )
Ok, thanks. Quite interesting story.
Your post made me think about an old series I've watched in the 70's - The Prisoner (first of 17 episodes -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=osNmf_zmSyE) which a still think of as utterly amazing.
I didn't remember the name, but putting "a british tv series about a secret service agent getting shipped off to a secret island" in the search bar immediately gave me the right answer
Warren Clarke is a great actor. He plays a convincing curmudgeon, lol, of course, he sort of looks the part. I remember him most from the Britsh TV serial "Daziel and Pascoe".
Funny what forty years will do to a person, (especially considering how some of them spent those forty years).
The Prisoner was an excellent series ( the reimagining not so much IMHO ) . It's especially great that the village is a real location and can still be visited today. You might also want to look into 'Danger man' ( 'Secret Agent in the USA ) which was the series which spawned 'The Prisoner'. It is widely accepted that the prisoner is the same character ( John Drake ) after he resigned from his secret agent job. The first episode of 'Danger Man' .. "View from the Villa" includes scenes with Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake, driving through Portmeirion. This was 1960.
Nice comparisons - bring sweet memories...
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