Last updated : 1st August 2016





Episode 'A Man Called Quinn'
Story Synopsis An ex-Secret Service agent, now a mental hospital patient after years of torture by the KGB, inexplicably flees his asylum and begins a lethal revenge campaign against his former comrades. WriterTony Barwick
Guest StarsStephen Berkoff, Del Henney DirectorHorace Ové
Production Order
& Filming Dates
Block 5, Episode 2
30th March to 11th April 1981Main shoot, though much of the exterior scenes for Repton Clinic, the Army Camp and the finale at the airfield outstanding.
15th April 1981Outstanding exterior scenes at the clinic, reshoot of some KGB interrogation scenes.
24th April 1981Oustanding Army Camp scenes, final scene of Quinn driving down the runway.
28th April 1981Start of runway chase.
Original UK Transmission Season 5, Episode 10
30th January 1983
Dave's Comment
Story
Action
Pace
Humour
Violence

Although one of the better plotlines from the later years with some well-conceived scenes, laudable direction and top-notch one-liners, the episode as a whole doesn't seem to work as effectively as one would expect. The ease with which Cowley manages to "turn" Quinn is the main culprit, I think.

However there is a liberal dose of great humour - see Dialogue section below.

The poorer scenes include Linal Haft's hilarious attempts at boxing manoeuvres and the old chestnut of a truck emerging from a sidestreet to block a pursuing car.

Cowley has yet another nameless "girlfriend" ferrying him around!

Thirty quid a week to stay in a crummy bedsit in 1981??!!

Many of the incidental music themes are recycled from previous episodes. The music editing itself is generally uninspired, too, negating a required sense of vitality or "urgency" from many scenes. Perhaps Laurie Johnson wasn't available to create sufficient new themes for this episode?

Although the safehouse scenes are excellent, they actually serve no purpose in furthering the story, as no attempt is made to capture Quinn immediately following the rocket attack. Besides, how does Quinn know where Cowley is hiding?

The finale is a good old shoot-out (one which would have greatly benefited 'Servant of Two Masters') with an excellent stunt involving a villain being plastered across the Capri's windscreen. And there is some great photography when the lads are chasing the deranged Quinn on his "final mission".

Overall, however, the episode's whole is less than the sum of its (many great) parts.

Dialogue

Motorcycle cop to speeding Bodie: "Good morning, Flash Gordon! I made it 65 - but I'm not vindictive, so I'm going to call it... 65!"

Bodie to Doyle: "I suppose we could always say we're on our way to a fire, couldn't we?"

Doyle: "What do you mean 'we', mate? I'm just a passenger!"

Bodie: "Oh, thanks!"

Cop: "Driving license?"

Bodie takes out his warrant card.

Cop: "What's this?"

Bodie: "Well you can read, can't you? CI5."

Cop, nodding resignedly: "Thunder and Lightning Brigade! Are you on official business?"

Doyle, deliberately giving the impression he's lying: "Of course we are!"

Bodie puts pedal to metal.


Bodie: "What's Quinn's connection with CI5, sir?"

Cowley, impatiently storming off: "The connection is very simple: I want him found!"

Bodie to Doyle: "What's he been eating? Razor blades?"

Doyle: "Yeah - all the better to bite your head off with, my dear!"


Doyle, showing photo of Quinn: "Is this one of your guests?"

Landlady: "Second landing, room facing."

Bodie appears with a gun.

Landlady: "Bloody 'ell!"

Doyle: "Alright, just relax, go to your room and stay there."

Bodie, nonchalantly, to retreating landlady: "Put the kettle on, love!"


Bodie, having just saved Cowley's life: "Finish your cup of tea, sir?"

Cowley, usual lack of gratitude: "No - some idiot put sugar in it!"

Bloopers

When Quinn lobs the grenade at the pursuing Bodie and Doyle, you can see it bounce along the ground after it has exploded! (Thanks to Rainer Schmidt)

SidenotesTony Barwick's 1973 script 'First Circle' for Gerry Anderson's The Protectors bears remarkable similarities to this episode (thanks to Bob Rocca)
Deja Vu

Amazing to think that even as recently as 1981, Steven Berkoff (Krasnov) was still little-known, having spent much of the previous two decades languishing in bit-parts. Cult TV fans might have spotted him in the wonderful Avengers story 'The Gravediggers' (he's the heavy in the wheelchair) and three episodes of Gerry Anderson's UFO as a SHADO pilot. Almost immediately after his Professionals episode, however, his career took off. Action/adventure film fans will remember him in Octopussy, Beverley Hills Cop and Rambo: First Blood Part II. His propensity for psychopaths continued when he played Hitler in the big-budget Robert Mitchum mini-series War and Remembrance.

Bernard Archard (Granger) popped up in all sorts of cult and classic films and TV shows of the 60s and 70s such as Village of the Damned, Danger Man, The Avengers, Doctor Who, Callan, Polanski's Macbeth (with M Shaw Esq), Day of the Jackal and Sky.

Locations
Quinn escapes from his secure hospital, named as Repton but actually St Hubert's House, St Hubert's Lane, Gerrards Cross. It's a surprisingly private estate and there don't appear to be any useful photos of it readily available, so here's a shot of Quinn escaping down St Hubert's Lane.
News of Quinn's departure reaches Cowley, who summons the lads. They race to meet him along the north-eastern tip of Bishop's Bridge Road...
... and then Harrow Road, Paddington. The building circled in the screenshot can be clearly seen in the Google Street View, though I've had to cheat a little as a tele-photo lens was used for the scene.
The lads have got company! But they carry on along Harrow Road, under the A40 flyover...
... and further along Harrow Road...
... and then finally north-east down Blomfield Road before being nabbed.
Cowley waits impatiently for the lads to join him. He's on Primrose Hill.
The lads enter the park via the northern end of Primrose Hill Road.
After briefing the lads on Quinn, Cowley hurries off to another meeting, leaving the park via the eastern end of Primrose Hill Road.
Meanwhile Quinn breaks into the house of ex-boxer Jack Cannon to take money and a change of clothes. This is "Little Heath", 46 Sheen Common Drive, Richmond. The house isn't easy to see now as it's greatly obscured by greenery but we subsequently see the lads drive through its gateway.
Meanwhile the lads are still searching for Quinn, driving by the junction of The Frithe and Berryfield, Slough.
Quinn finds a rooming house to stay in, 2 Bracewell Road, North Kensington.
Hearing of the break-in at Cannon's place, the lads head there via Randolph Avenue, Maida Vale...
... continuing along Randolph Avenue, Maida Vale...
... and then spin the car in Randolph Crescent.
Meanwhile Cowley is heading to Quinn's secure hospital via Elsworthy Road, Primrose Hill.
Quinn heads to a forest to retrieve a hidden cache of weapons. This scene - and all others involving woodland - are documented as having been filmed in Black Park, Fulmer.
Quinn steals a car from a repair garage. This was located just off Blackburn Road, West Hampstead. The area has been redeveloped since but one of the buildings in the background is still recognisable.
With Quinn on the loose and seemingly deranged, Cowley heads to the house of a former colleague, Colonel Granger, to seek advice. This is Magna Carta House, Magna Carta Lane, Wraysbury.
The local police find Quinn's stolen car near his accommodation. The lads head there via the junction of North Pole Road, turning into Bracewell Road...
... where they spot the car and park up. (Difficult to get a recognisable angle on this in Google Street View!)
Quinn escapes and heads down Great Church Lane, Hammersmith. The building in the mid-background is now a Novotel hotel. The church is St Paul's which is still there today but now obscured by recently-constructed office blocks.
Quinn turns into Colet Gardens (and bizarrely collides with an identical car!) The subsequent aerial shot is of the same street.
The action then switches to the junction of Hofland Road and Masbro Road...
... And then, with a "cheat", Richmond Way into Bolingbroke Road...
... and then Quinn is mysteriously back on Hofland Road, where he turns the corner and...
... is magically transported to the grounds of Cadby Hall! (Demolished in 1983)
The lads lose Quinn in Augustine Road. It's difficult to recognise this as a tele-photo lens was used for the shot and the subsequent growth of much greenery but the circled building in the screenshot can be seen by "driving" the Google StreetView forward along the road.
Finding a "death list" at Quinn's rooming house, Cowley send the lads to protect Major Howard at the Queen Elizabeth II Gurkha Barracks, Aldershot Road, Church Crookham, Hampshire - however it has since been replaced by a housing estate.
Realising that Cowley himself is also a target for Quinn's deluded mental state, the lads pick up their boss in Augustine Road.
The lads tail Cowley to a safehouse via Hammersmith Road, Hammersmith. The three archways are useful tell-tales here!
The interior shots of the safehouse are Cadby Hall, Hammersmith (demolished in 1983) but...
... The exterior of the safehouse is documented as the Canal Works, Bentinck Road, Yiewsley, though it has since been redeveloped.
The lads take Cowley into town via Uxbridge Road, Slough...
... but stop off by some shops on the corner of Richmond Way and Lakeside Road, Hammersmith.
Cowley goes into a chemist shop on the pretence of buying some toothpaste - 35 Richmond Way, which is now an Estate Agent. (Can't get a decent angle on this in Google Street View).
Cowley suspects Leniston will be Quinn's next target and heads to his house via Elsworthy Road, Primrose Hill.
Leniston's house is documented as Black Park Cottage, Queens Drive, Black Park, Fulmer. If true, it appears to have had some cosmetic changes and extensions built since 1981.
The final showdown takes place at Chalgrove Airfield, Cuxham Road, Chalgrove.



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