Occasionally we get asked to big up our more obscure fan interests - so I thought I'd big up one of mine: The Protectors. Short, half hour adventures with an international, glamourous, crimefighting, secret organisation.
The show starred Robert Vaughn as Harry Rule, the impeccably turned out Nyree Dawn Porter as the Contessa Caroline di Contini and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet. It ran for 52 episodes over two series (1972 + 1973), which is unusual for a Biritish made programme, typically British series have half the eps of an American season, and was one of the last of its kind to be made at this ep length. (Although Dr Who would sucessfully stick to the half hour/25 minute format for another decade - its adventures were episodic - usually four to each story - and not self conatined, like The Protectors.)
Apart from the wonderful Contessa di Contini (a woman who never knowingly waits to be rescued), the series also featured Yasuko Nagazumi as Suki, Harry Rule's housekeeper. Suki is traditionally demure, self-effacing and capable of felling an ox with a well timed chop of her hand.
The Contessa's aide-de-camp is Chino, played by Anthony Chinn, a chauffeur-come-butler who often aids and abets, but never usurps, his employer's penchant for putting criminals in their place.
The Protectors: The Big Hit
What I did find on YouTube was Mr Vaughn discussing the series, the legendary Lew Grade and, obliquely, the Barbara Bain/Martin Landau vehicle Space 1999. This is another of my loves and also only ran to two series, the second going on to feature Tony Anholt as Tony Verdeschi. His interspecies relationship with Maya (played by Catherine Schell) is one of the big canon 'ships' in that fandom. (It also lays bare some of the restrictive working practices of that time - which led ultimately to Mrs Thatcher's tenureship at No.10 - which in turn led to the destruction of British manufacturing and the desolation of communities which have never recovered. Whatever your view of that time, the Unions sowed the Wnd and reaped the Whirlwind.)
It's interesting to note RV refer to the Continent/Europe as distinct from the UK - in the era The Protectors was filming many people still talked about 'joining Europe' as if the Continent had suddenly materialised on our doorstep. Very few people thought of themselves has having any form of European identity. Although this has changed, the legacy of it lives on in some of the terminology in the 'Brexit' referendum - the referendum is about leaving the EU (European Union), a polictical entity, but some people still talk about 'leaving Europe' as if we could just up sticks and park the myriad islands which constitute the British Isles somewhere else.
In addition, the series is also notable for what is usually cited as Mr Vaughn's directorial debut, it's also said he never directed again - although, if anyone knows different...
The series was not normally as comedic in tone as this ep suggests (The Big Hit is more typical) and, again because I couldn't find it on YouTube,
The Protectors: It Could be Practically Anywhere on the Island
