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''The Troubleshooters'' (titled ''Mogul'' for the first series) is a British
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
series made by the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
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between 1965 and 1972, created by
John Elliot. It recounted events in an international oil company – the "Mogul" of the title. The first series was mostly concerned with the internal politics within the Mogul organisation, with episodes revolving around industrial espionage, internal fraud and negligence almost leading to an accident on a
North Sea oil
North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea.
In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Sea ...
rig.
The series' upbeat theme music was by
Tom Springfield
Tom Springfield (born Dionysius Patrick O'Brien, 2 July 1934 – 27 July 2022) was an English musician, songwriter and record producer who was prominent in the 1960s folk and pop music scene. He was the older brother of singer Dusty Springfiel ...
, brother of
Dusty.
Cast
*Brian Stead (
Geoffrey Keen
Geoffrey Keen (21 August 1916 – 3 November 2005) was an English actor who appeared in supporting roles in many films. He is well known for playing British Defence Minister Sir Frederick Gray in the ''James Bond'' films.
Biography
Early lif ...
1965–72), Mogul's tough Deputy Managing Director.
*Peter Thornton (
Ray Barrett
Raymond Charles Barrett (2 May 19278 September 2009) was an Australian actor. During the 1960s, he was a leading actor on British television, where he was best known for his appearances in ''The Troubleshooters'' (1965–1971). From the 1970s, ...
1965–72), company field agent (i.e. "troubleshooter").
*Alec Stewart (
Robert Hardy
Timothy Sydney Robert Hardy (29 October 1925 – 3 August 2017) was an English actor who had a long career in theatre, film and television. He began his career as a classical actor and later earned widespread recognition for roles such as Sieg ...
1966–70), ruthlessly ambitious "troubleshooter" keen to rise up the promotional ladder.
*Willy Izard (
Philip Latham
Charles Philip Latham (17 January 1929 – 20 June 2020) was a British television actor.
He was educated at Felsted School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, from which he graduated in 1951.
In the late 1960s/early 1970s he was well kno ...
1965–72), head of finance at Mogul.
*Robert Driscoll (
Barry Foster 1965), Mogul's head of public relations.
*Derek Prentice (
Ronald Hines
Ronald Charles Andrew Hines (20 June 1929 – 28 March 2017) was a British television actor. He had a lengthy career, but possibly his most prominent roles were as Henry Corner in three of the four series of ''Not in Front of the Children'', ...
1965), head of personnel at Mogul.
*Jane Webb (
Philippa Gail 1965–66, 1970–71), Stead's efficient secretary.
*Eileen O'Rourke (
Isobel Black
Isobel Anne Gatward ( Black; born 15 December 1942), known professionally as Isobel Black, is a British actress. She is the daughter of the screenwriter Ian Stuart Black.
Isobel Black attended Queen Elizabeth's Girls’ Grammar School in Barn ...
1967–68), ambitious public relations assistant at Mogul.
*"Steve" Thornton (
Justine Lord 1965–66, 1968), glamorous woman unhappily married to troubleshooter Peter Thornton.
*Roz Stewart (Deborah Stanford 1966–70), Alec Stewart's wife, keen to strike out in business on her own, opening a London boutique.
*James Langley (
John Carson 1971–72)
*Dr. Ginny Vickers (Jayne Sofiano 1967–69)
*Charles Grandmercy (
Edward de Souza
Edward James de Souza (born 4 September 1932) is a British character actor and graduate of RADA, who is of Portuguese-Indian and English descent.
Early life
De Souza was the only child of Annie Adeline Swift (née Calvert) and Edward Valentine De ...
1967–68)
*Joan Izard (Margaret Ward 1965, 1967, 1969, 1971)
*Julie Serres (
Virginia Wetherell 1967)
*Miss Jenkins (
Beryl Cooke
Beryl Cooke (1 November 1906 – 21 August 2001) was an English actress. Her career spanned six decades; she is most familiar to British audiences as Aunt Lucy in the sitcom '' Happy Ever After'' and Mrs. Vance in the BBC drama '' Tenko''.
...
1970–71)
''The Troubleshooters''
Although ''Mogul'' was popular, it did not do as well as hoped for. However, it was renewed for a second series with the format radically changed. The show was renamed ''The Troubleshooters'' and it altered its focus, broadening its horizons by showing the actual workings of the company. The series now focused on the younger, dynamic Mogul field agents - the eponymous "troubleshooters" - like Peter Thornton, who flew around the world to "hotspots" to protect the company's interests.
Storylines
The show's storylines concentrated on disasters such as explosions and earthquakes, company take-overs, racial and political tensions, the discovery of new oil fields and the negotiation of drilling rights. There was extensive use of
stock footage of locations.
As time went on, ''The Troubleshooters'' began to experiment with ongoing narratives as storylines arched over several series. Because of the nature of his profession requiring him to be away from home, Peter Thornton found his marriage to the glamorous Steve collapsing. Brian Stead was diagnosed with a heart condition, and he struggled to maintain control of Mogul at the top. Ranged against him was new "troubleshooter" Alec Stewart, a young, ruthless operative keen to progress in the organisation with his eye on Stead's position. Stead kept sending Stewart out on dangerous assignments in the hope that he would fail, but Stewart was able to work every situation to his advantage. In the latter series, a rival oil company to Mogul was introduced – Zenith.
''The Troubleshooters'' never shied away from portraying Mogul as a faceless, uncaring and profit-driven corporation. Some episodes showcased industrial crisis through the perspective of striking
Teesside
Teesside () is a built-up area around the River Tees in the north of England, split between County Durham and North Yorkshire. The name was initially used as a county borough in the North Riding of Yorkshire.
Historically a hub for heavy manu ...
dockyard workers and foregrounded ecological concerns through storylines about local opposition to a Mogul refinery in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
and a chemical offshoot of Mogul's, which developed a crop spray with deadly side effects. There was also no loyalty or sentimentality amongst the Mogul men – Peter Thornton, sent to the
Arctic
The Arctic ( or ) is a polar region located at the northernmost part of Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean, adjacent seas, and parts of Canada (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut), Danish Realm (Greenland), Finland, Iceland, N ...
by Brian Stead to investigate possible oil concessions, nearly freezes to death and considers getting out of the oil business entirely. In another episode, Thornton is sent to
Saigon, against the backdrop of the
Vietnam war
The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...
. Alec Stewart is arrested in
Algiers as a spy and imprisoned – although eventually released, he receives little trust or support from his colleagues. Brian Stead, returning to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
for the first time since 1945 to oversee a natural gas drilling deal, finds his past coming back to haunt him in a nasty plot to discredit him by a rival company.
''The Troubleshooters'' and the real-life oil industry
The Mogul organisation was reputed to have been based on
BP and there were many similarities and coincidences in terms of the international events ''The Troubleshooters'' predicted.
# BP struck oil in
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...
and three days later, Mogul did the same on television. However, this particular episode had been produced four months earlier.
# In another episode, Mogul took over a chemical company – and BP did the same a few days later.
# ''The Troubleshooters'' predicted that there would be a
channel tunnel and also that men would live in underwater houses to probe the seabed for oil. Both predictions came true.
# An episode was made that showed an explosion in the
North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. An epeiric sea, epeiric sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the ...
, just before a real-life explosion occurred, and the
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
was forced to set fire to the sea as warning to shipping.
# The series also predicted to within 0.1 of a penny, the price that oil companies would charge the Gas Council for
North Sea gas.
# Lead actor Geoffrey Keen, who played Brian Stead, even found himself invited to the Oil Industries Club dinner, where he was warmly greeted by his "fellow" executives.
Conclusion
''The Troubleshooters'' lasted for seven series from 1965 to 1972, making the transition from black-and-white to colour along the way. In the final episodes, Brian Stead maintains control of Mogul and fends off hostile enemies, but at the cost of his own health. Stead eventually steps down as company director, but not before finally naming his successor.
Today the legacy of ''The Troubleshooters'' lies in its bridging the gap between "quality drama" and populist entertainment and charting a linear path trod by later British television serials, such as ''
The Brothers'' and ''
Howards' Way
''Howards' Way'' is a television drama series produced by BBC Birmingham and transmitted on BBC1 between 1 September 1985 and 25 November 1990. The series deals with the personal and professional lives of the wealthy yachting and business comm ...
''. The series struck a chord with the 1960s audience thanks to its format - a potent combination of the oil business, globe trotting power politics, corporate wheeler-dealing and sex. It had parallels with the contemporaneous
ATV board-room drama ''
The Plane Makers
''The Plane Makers'' is a British television series created by Wilfred Greatorex and produced by Rex Firkin. ATV made three series for ITV between 1963 and 1965. It was succeeded by ''The Power Game'', which ran for an additional three s ...
'' (later renamed ''
The Power Game
''The Plane Makers'' is a British television series created by Wilfred Greatorex and produced by Rex Firkin. ATV made three series for ITV between 1963 and 1965. It was succeeded by ''The Power Game'', which ran for an additional three se ...
'').
Archive status
The series was subject to the BBC's
wiping
Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect.
Common reasons for loss
A significant prop ...
policy of the era, but some episodes still remain in the BBC archive, including the series opener "Kelly's Eye". Only one colour episode survives as broadcast ("Camelot on a Clear Day", a copy of which can be viewed at the
National Media Museum
The National Science and Media Museum (formerly The National Museum of Photography, Film & Television, 1983–2006 and then the National Media Museum, 2006–2017), located in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is part of the national Science Museum G ...
in Bradford, UK); all other existing colour episodes only survive in the form of black-and-white
film recordings.
A previously missing episode from series two - "Birdstrike" - was returned to the BBC by a private collector in May 2010, with the assistance of classic TV organisation Kaleidoscope.
DVD release
The five surviving episodes of series one were released on DVD in the UK by Danann Publishing Ltd.
[Printed cover inlay supplied with official DVD release.] in 2016.
Notes
External links
*
British Film Institute Screen OnlineBBC Treasure Hunt
{{DEFAULTSORT:Troubleshooters, The
BBC television dramas
1960s British drama television series
1970s British drama television series
Lost BBC episodes
Television shows written by John Elliot (author)
1965 British television series debuts
1972 British television series endings
Black-and-white British television shows
English-language television shows