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The following is a guide to the production order for all five seasons. Unfortunately there is some confusion over the order for the first season episodes as I have been supplied with two "official" orders that are quite different to each other! One version, however, is clearly incorrect in several places: for example it implies that 'Female Factor' was the first ep to be produced but we know that the cast and crew started on 'Old Dog with New Tricks' on the first day. The notes also imply (via the allocated production numbers) that some episodes that were obviously filmed during the wintertime (bare trees, heavy coats, poor weather, etc) were amongst the earliest to be produced – clearly this is nonsense.... A second version arrived recently (many thanks to Bob Rocca!) that makes more sense in that it gives better consistency and "continuity" in terms of the cars and crew used from episode to episode. As for the remaining seasons, the production notes are generally more professionally presented and both mine and Bob's versions tally exactly. Naturally if anyone thinks I've got something wrong, please do yell at me! So several wee drams o' Pure Malt Scotch to Bob, Laurie Johnson and Dave Rogers for taking the time and trouble to raid the archives! Cheers, lads! Interestingly the notes also give the original titles of some of the episodes: 'The Rack' was to be called 'An Inquiry into Violence' (though I believe it was changed on LWT's instigation, not Mark 1's) and 'Blind Run' had a bizarre prenom of 'Play Up and Play the Game'! 'Not a Very Civil Civil Servant' was apparently called 'Housing and Estates' initially. Another surprise is that episodes 'Foxhole on the Roof', 'You'll be Alright', 'Discovered in a Graveyard', 'The Ojuka Situation', 'Operation Susie' and 'The Untouchables' were originally supposed to follow straight on from 'It's Only a Beautiful Picture' in terms of actual transmission (ie from January 1981). So the decision to delay them until 1982/83 seems to have been made at the last minute. I think I may also have a partial explanantion as to why 'Servant of Two Masters' mysteriously became 'Master of Two Servants' when exported. The production notes themselves erroneously list the episode as 'Master of Two Servants'!!! So it is little surprise that there was some confusion among the Mark 1 staff! A similar mistake occurs with 'Klansmen' – the notes list it as 'Klansman' (ie singular rather than plural). I've said before that LWT made some very strange decisions when it came to choosing a transmission order. As most of you have realised, many episodes became 'detached' from their 'natural' series and shown as part of the following season. But even those episodes that remained properly allocated, it's clear from the tables below that production order hardly ever mirrored transmission order! The table below tries to compare the production order of episodes with the original UK transmission order. The blue arrow Towards the end of this page is a summary of the table. |
| Thirteen episodes in total. | Twelve episodes transmitted with 'Klansmen' being withdrawn | |
| 'Old Dog with New Tricks' | 'Private Madness, Public Danger' | |
| 'Long Shot' | 'Female Factor' | |
| 'Where the Jungle Ends' | 'Old Dog with New Tricks' | |
| 'Killer with a Long Arm' | 'Killer with a Long Arm' | |
| 'Heroes' * | 'Heroes' | |
| 'Private Madness, Public Danger' | 'Where the Jungle Ends' | |
| 'Female Factor' | 'Close Quarters' | |
| 'Everest was Also Conquered' | 'Everest was Also Conquered' | |
| 'Close Quarters' | 'When the Heat Cools Off' | |
| 'Look After Annie' | 'Stakeout' | |
| 'When the Heat Cools Off' | 'Long Shot' | |
| 'Stakeout' | 'Look After Annie' | |
| 'Klansmen' | ||
| 'Rogue' | 'Hunter Hunted' | |
| 'Hunter Hunted' | 'The Rack' | |
| 'First Night' | 'First Night' | |
| 'The Rack' | 'Man Without a Past' | |
| 'Man Without a Past' | 'In the Public Interest' | |
| 'In the Public Interest' | 'Rogue' | |
| 'Not a Very Civil Civil Servant' | 'Not a Very Civil Civil Servant' | |
| 'A Stirring of Dust' | 'A Stirring of Dust' | |
| 'Blind Run' | 'Blind Run' | |
| 'Fall Girl' | 'Fall Girl' | |
'Backtrack'  | ||
| 'The Madness of Mickey Hamilton' | ||
| 'Servant of Two Masters' | ||
| 'Stopover' | 'The Purging of CI5' | |
| 'Backtrack' | ||
| 'Runner' | 'Stopover' | |
| 'A Hiding to Nothing' | 'Dead Reckoning' | |
| 'The Madness of Mickey Hamilton' | ||
| 'Dead Reckoning' | 'A Hiding to Nothing' | |
| 'Mixed Doubles' | ||
| 'Need to Know' | ||
| 'The Purging of CI5' | 'Runner' | |
| 'Servant of Two Masters' | ||
| 'Fugitive' | ||
| 'The Acorn Syndrome' | ||
| 'Slush Fund' | ||
| 'Weekend in the Country' | ||
| 'Takeaway' | ||
| 'Involvement' | ||
| 'The Acorn Syndrome' | ||
| 'The Gun' | 'Wild Justice' | |
| 'Fugitive' | ||
| 'Involvement' | ||
| 'Need to Know' | ||
| 'Takeaway' | ||
| 'Wild Justice' | 'Blackout' | |
| 'Blackout' | 'Blood Sports' | |
| 'Slush Fund' | ||
| 'It's Only a Beautiful Picture' | 'The Gun' | |
| 'Blood Sports' | 'Hijack' | |
| 'Mixed Doubles' | ||
| 'Weekend in the Country' | ||
| 'Hijack' | 'Kickback' | |
| 'You'll be Alright' | ||
| 'Kickback' | 'It's Only a Beautiful Picture' | |
| 'Discovered in a Graveyard' | ||
| 'Foxhole on the Roof ' | ||
| 'The Ojuka Situation' | ||
| 'Operation Susie' | ||
| 'The Untouchables' | ||
| 'Foxhole on the Roof ' | ||
| 'Operation Susie' | ||
| 'You'll be Alright' | ||
| 'Cry Wolf' | 'Lawson's Last Stand' | |
| 'Discovered in a Graveyard' | ||
| 'Spy Probe' | ||
| 'A Man Called Quinn' | 'Cry Wolf' | |
| 'The Untouchables' | ||
| 'The Ojuka Situation' | ||
| 'Lawson's Last Stand' | 'A Man Called Quinn' | |
| 'No Stone' | 'No Stone' | |
| 'Spy Probe' |
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Summary of the above table (plus some extra info!)
Filming Block 1: Commenced June 1977. Thirteen episodes in total. * There appears to be an odd production problem with 'Heroes' - check out its entry in the Episode Guide for details.
Filming Block 2: Commenced approx 5th June 1978. Thirteen episodes in total. Filming Block 3: Commenced 23rd April 1979 (once Lew had recovered and finished the three outstanding Season Two stories!). Thirteen episodes in total. Filming Block 4: Commenced June 1980. Thirteen episodes in total. Filming Block 5: Commenced March 1981, completed May 1981. Five episodes in total. |