Probation Officer (TV series)

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Probation Officer
David Davies
Henry Oscar
A. J. Brown
Jack Stewart
Humphrey Heathcote
Derek Benfield[1]
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series4
No. of episodes109
Production
ProducersAntony Kearey
Rex Firkin
Running time60 minutes
Production companyAssociated Television
Original release
NetworkITV
Release14 September 1959 (1959-09-14) –
14 September 1962 (1962-09-14)

Probation Officer was a British TV series that ran from 1959-62 about

David Davies and John Scott.[3][4] Other actors who appeared in the series include Henry Oscar, Honor Blackman, Windsor Davies and Billy Milton.[5]

It was created by Julian Bond and was the first ever one-hour TV drama to screen on ITV.[6] Bond spent months researching the show from real life cases.[7]

Cast

  • John Paul as Philip Main (53 episodes, 1959-1961)
  • John Scott as Bert Bellman (33 episodes, 1959-1962)
  • Jessica Spencer as Maggie Weston (32 episodes, 1960-1962)
  • David Davies
    as Jim Blake (20 episodes, 1959-1960)
  • Henry Oscar as Magistrate (15 episodes, 1960-1961)
  • A.J. Brown as Judge (12 episodes, 1959-1961)
  • Jack Stewart as Andrew Wallace (10 episodes, 1959-1960)
  • Honor Blackman as Iris Cope (9 episodes, 1959)
  • Humphrey Heathcote as Jailer (9 episodes, 1959-1961)
  • Windsor Davies as Bill Morgan (8 episodes, 1962)
  • Bernard Brown as Stephen Ryder (8 episodes, 1961-1962)
  • Betty Hardy as Miss Randell (7 episodes, 1959)
  • John Barrett as Clerk of Court (6 episodes, 1960-1962)
  • Derek Benfield as George Cooper (1 episode, 1960)[8]

Archive status and home media

Like many British TV series of the same vintage, the archive holdings of Probation Officer are incomplete, with approximately three-quarters of the episodes missing.

In 2017 Network DVD release "Volume One" containing twelve extant episodes from the first series (1-3, 5-8, 13-16 & 22 - #8 is missing one courtroom scene) as a three DVD boxset. No further releases followed.

References

  1. ^ "Probation Officer (1959-1962)".
  2. ^ Marcus, Laurence (December 2000). "Probation Officer". Television Heaven.
  3. ^ "Probation Officer[12/09/60] (1960)". BFI. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021.
  4. ^ "Probation Officer[30/11/1959] (1959)". BFI. Archived from the original on 6 April 2020.
  5. ^ "Probation Officer[31/08/62] (1962)". BFI. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020.
  6. ^ "Probation Officer – Series One, Episode Two". 24 December 2016.
  7. ^ Probation Office at UK TV Index Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ "Probation Officer (1959-1962)".

External links