''The Vital Spark'' is a

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

television series set in the western isles of

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in the 1930s, based on the Para Handy books by Neil Munro. It starred Roddy McMillan as Peter "Para Handy" MacFarlane, captain of the puffer '' Vital Spark''. The series followed the ''Vital Spark's'' adventures around the coastal waters of west Scotland and the various schemes that Para Handy would get himself and his crew involved in. The comedy was first broadcast in August 1965 as an episode of the BBC’s '' Comedy Playhouse'' series. Following this two series, of six and seven episodes respectively, were commissioned by

and transmitted in early 1966, and autumn 1967. Both series were made in

black-and-white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

. Of these only "A Drop O’ The Real Stuff" survives. In March 1973 an hour-long

TV Special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of en ...

was made, in

colour Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorp ...

, featuring the same cast. After the success of this, a further six episodes (essentially remakes of previous scripts but in a more contemporary setting) were commissioned, broadcast in the autumn of 1974. Four of the seven colour episodes survive complete.

Cast

* Roddy McMillan - Captain Peter "Para Handy" MacFarlane * John Grieve - Dan Macphail, the engineer * Walter Carr - Dougie Campbell, the mate *

Alex McAvoy Alex McAvoy (10 March 1928 – 16 June 2005) was a Scottish actor known for his roles as Sunny Jim in the BBC Scotland adaptation of Neil Munro (writer), Neil Munro's Para Handy stories, ''The Vital Spark'', and as the teacher in Pink Floyd's m ...

- Davie "Sunny Jim" Green *Robert Urquhart - Dougie (pilot only)

Episodes

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

References

Genome, Radio Times listings.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vital Spark, The 1965 Scottish television series debuts 1974 Scottish television series endings Scottish television sitcoms BBC television comedy 1960s Scottish television series 1970s Scottish television series Lost BBC episodes Television shows set in Scotland 1960s British comedy television series 1970s British comedy television series