Farewell to a TV Legend

 

Fame is indeed a fickle thing, and I've been reminded of that by the death of Gerald Harper on the 2nd July this year...I didn't even find out that he had died until I saw a small report in a magazine a couple of months later.

 

There was a time when the actor was everywhere - during the sixties and into the seventies he was all over the tube; was in the same league as other big TV actors of the time such as Roger Moore, though where the latter went onto conquer cinema by stepping into the 007 shoes, Harper simply seemed to vanish from screens.

 He was the swashbuckling time traveler in the BBC series Adam Adamant Lives in 1967, and then went onto even bigger stardom playing a millionaire newspaper owner in 1968's The Gazette. This newspaper set drama was such a hit that it spawned a spin-off series called, Hadleigh which centered on Harper's character and ran for four seasons.   

 

17 MILLION VIEWERS WEEKLY, FOLKS!

 

 AND THEN HE SEEMED TO VANISH. 

Only, he didn't - he went back to theater as well as hosting radio shows, but for us 1970's TV kids that was pretty much the same thing as vanishing without a trace. We didn't listen to radio, other than Sunday afternoons Charts rundown.

 

Gerald Harper died on 2nd July at the age of 96. 

 

Filmography as listed on Wikipedia:

• The Dam Busters (1955) – Mocking RAF Officer (uncredited)
• Tiger in the Smoke (1956) – Duds Morrison
• Stars in Your Eyes (1956) – Dicky
• The Extra Day (1956) – Police Constable
• The Admirable Crichton (1957) – Ernest
• A Night to Remember (1958) – 3rd Officer, SS Carpathia
• The League of Gentlemen (1960) – Captain Saunders
• Tunes of Glory (1960) – Major Hugo Macmillan
• The Young Ones (1961) – Watts
• The Punch and Judy Man (1963) – 1st Drunk
• Wonderful Life (1964) – Sheik / Scotsman / Harold
• Strangler's Web (Edgar Wallace Mysteries) (1965) – Inspector Murray
• Up Jumped a Swagman (1965) – Publicity Man
• The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) – Brian
• The Lady Vanishes (1979) – Todhunter

 

Magazine Watch - Infinity

 Billed as the Magazine Beyond Imagination, issue 87 of Infinity magazine, is on news-stands now.

   (Well, Tesco anyway since it seems that most newsagents have been gobbled up in the UK ) 

The magazine contains, among other stuff, an interesting article on what could have been (should have been) Timothy Dalton's third Bond movie.

 Yeah, I know this type of speculative article has been done to death, but the Infinity piece is really rather good and contains some interesting stuff about the script for Bond 17 which was written by William Osborne and William Davies who were best known for penning the Arnie comedy, Twins.

Basically the long and short of it is that the Twins guys were working on an initial script penned by Michael G. Wilson and Alfonso Ruggiero, a writer who was largely known for his TV scripts for shows such as Airwolf, Wiseguy and Miami Vice.

 

The proposed story-line concerned the weaponizing of advanced technology and robotics. So it seems the Bond team were looking to bring elements of the fantastic back into Bond after the all out brutality of Licence to Kill.

 

Personally, I'd take Licence to Kill over any of Daniel Craig's efforts. Well, with the possible exception of Skyfall. I actually quite liked that one!

 

Ah, what if?

 I always enjoyed Dalton's Bond and it is great fun to wonder what would happened if he'd made a couple of more movies for the franchise.

 The magazine is well worth picking up for the Bond article alone but the glossy magazine has so much other content, that it's a no-brainer  for film and pop culture fans. There are articles on the martial arts star, Cynthia Rothrock - remember the smoking hot China O'Brian...Ah a 1980 teenage boys dream date.

Also a look at TV'S Bewitched, the early years of Patrick McGoohan and much more. - or much much more, as they used to say in the old adverts.

 

INFINITY ISSUE 87 is on sale now.