ATV Icons: Gerard Glaister

Gerard Glaister produced some of the most memorable drama’s of the last thirty years from wartime drama’s such as Colditz and Secret Army to business drama’s such as The Brothers and Howard’s Way. We take a look back on the career of man who created some of Britain’s most memorable dramas.

Gerard Glaister was born John Leslie Gerald Glaister in 1915 during the First World War. He studied at RADA and made his West End debut in 1939 but with the outbreak of war, in the same year, he joined the Royal Air Force. During his time with the RAF Glaister was a bomber pilot and then later a photo reconnaissance pilot. Most pilots during the early stages of the war, during which time the country was under heavy bombardment from Nazi Germany, had a very short life expectancy. Even when the tide began to turn and Britain carried out routine bombing raids on Germany, and occupied Europe, pilots could be expected to be shot down over occupied lands. So few pilots who joined the RAF at the start of the war were alive when it ended in 1945 and Glaister was one of these few and his experiences during the war would later be the inspiration for several of his dramas. In 1963 Glaister produced Moonstrike, a drama series set during the war about a RAF squadron who drop agents in and out of occupied Europe. Glaister drew upon his own experiences during the war while producing the series

A year before producing Moonstrike Glaister worked as a producer on the Doctor Finlay’s Casebook series, a popular television series starring Bill Simpson as Doctor Finlay. The series was based on the novel by A.J Cronin and ran on the BBC from 1962 until 1971. The series was set in the Scottish town of Tannochbrae during the 1920s. Cronin, writer of the original novel, wrote many of the scripts for the drama between 1962 and 1964.

In 1972 Glaister created and produced The Brothers, a fondly remembered drama series about a family who own a road haulage business. Following the death of patriarch Robert Hammond conflict arises over who should run the business and how it should be run. While eldest son Edward [Glyn Owen/Patrick O’Connell] expected to take over the running of the business he was dismayed to find out his father had left equal shares to his brothers, Brian [Richard Easton], David [Robin Chadwick] and to his mistress, Jennifer [Jennifer Wilson]. Storylines throughout the series dealt with plans to expand the business into an international concern, coupled with more family-oriented plots as Edward and Jennifer fall in love and marry. The show also featured Jean Anderson as the matriarch of the family, Mary, who is keen to keep her influence over the family. Gabrielle Drake played David’s girlfriend, later wife, Jill. Later in the show’s run Colin Baker joined the series as the villainous Paul and Kate O’Mara as Jane Maxwell, a tough boss of an air freight business.

Today The Brothers is seen as an early example of the “supersoaps” that would follow in the 1980s with Dallas, Dynasty and Falcon Crest all about the drama’s of conflict within the family over business and lovers. While it’s unlikely that The Brothers would have any real influence on these American drama’s it certainly would have influenced the UK’s own big drama series of the 1980’s, Howard’s Way – which was also produced by Gerald Glaister. The Brothers, like the supersoaps and Howard’s Way, drove the storylines through conflict within the family but also played with the idea that this conflict was actually driven by powerful, formidable and ambitious women – exploring the theme of the power behind the throne. The idea of powerful, ambitious and scheming women determined to grab power would be a theme of all the “super soaps” but also would become a stable in soaps with increasingly ambitious female characters, such as Cindy Beale in EastEnders and Kim Tate in Emmerdale, going to any lengths to achieve what they want. The Brothers ended in 1976 after its seventh season, the show wasn’t officially cancelled but the BBC didn’t commission an eighth.

In the same year that The Brothers started, 1972, Glaister was also producing another series from the BBC, Colditz. The series was a co-production between the BBC and Universal Studios and was a war-time drama series set in a prisoner of war camp in occupied Europe. The series was created by Brian Degas working alongside Glaister and it ran until 1974. Also working on the series as a technical consultant was Major Pat Reid who had been a prisoner as the real Colditz Castle and was the British Escape Officer there. The series starred David McCallum, Robert Wagner, Christopher Neame, Richard Heffer, Peter Penry-Jones, Ian McCulloch and Michael Bryant as some of the prisoners of the camp while Bernard Hepton played the Kommandant of the prison. The series was mostly based in reality with events and characters being based on real events that took place in the camp during the war.

This attention to detail, fine research and basing storylines on real events that was to carry on in Gliaster’s next wartime drama series, Secret Army, in 1977. The drama series was set in Brussels, Belgium, during the war and dealt with the evasion lines set up to help shot-down airmen return to the UK via Spain or Switzerland. While the series dealt with the evasion lines it also featured the German officers tasked with tracking down the evaders and bringing an end to the evasion lines. The evasion line in the series was called “life-line” and was based on the real Belgium evasion line of “Comet Line”. The series would often follow characters as they took the evaders down “the line”, across the border of Belgium and France and through occupied France to the Spanish/French border. Although the series was co-produced with the Belgium television channel BRT most of the series location footage was shot in East Anglia and the fens where the flat land closely resembles Belgium. Scenes set on steam trains where often filmed at Nene Valley Railway, in Peterborough, which is often used by television and film companies.

Most of the events portrayed in the series were based on real events and close attention was placed on detail and accurate research. In series one running life-line was Jan Francis as Yvette with Bernard Hepton playing Albert, owner of the Candide which was where life-line was operated from. Albert and Yvette were helped with running the line and getting evaders down the line from Albert’s mistress Monique [Angela Richards], Natalie [Juliet Hammond-Hill] and Doctor Keldermans [Valentine Dyall]. British agent John Curtis [Christopher Neame] was sent over in the opening episode of series one to assist life-line. Heading up the Germans was Clifford Rose as Kessler, head of the Gestapo on Belgium and a role which won Rose much critical acclaim. Michael Culver played Major Brandt, head of the Luvwafffe in Belgium. Brandt was portrayed as being softer and more likable that Kessler with his methods being careful and less extreme, he didn’t like to use violence or interrogation.

Secret Army was hugely popular with audiences who enjoyed its portrayal of life in occupied Belgium and the struggles of those who risked their lives to help the evaders. The series could often be dark as lifeline wouldn’t always win and sometimes characters were killed off. In the opening episode of season two Jan Francis’ character of Yvette was killed in a British air-raid as Glaister felt the series needed a mini-revamp and that Yvette’s character didn’t fit in with his idea for the new look Secret Army. The second season saw the introduction of a new restaurant for lifeline to operate from and where Kessler and Brandt would often dine, allowing lifeline to eavesdrop on important information. The introduction of a mistress, Madeline [Hazel McBride], for Kessler also proved to be a popular addition to series two as it allowed the show to explore the human side of Kessler but also explore the highly controversial concept of those who went with Germans during the war. At the end of the second season Michael Culver’s character was killed off as well Stephen Yardley’s character, who had joined at the start of the season, as Secret Army continued its trend of realistically portraying the consequences of war.

The series ended at the conclusion of its third series in 1979 although the show’s final episode wasn’t aired as the BBC were worried about its anti-communist overtones. The episode was set in the late 1960s and revolved around a documentary being filmed which reunited the members of lifeline and posed the question of whether Kessler was actually dead or whether he was alive in Germany. While the last episode has never been seen it was the basis of the spin-off series Kessler which would follow in 1981.

In 1981 Glaister produced a terrorist based drama, Blood Money, which was written by Arden Winch. The series starred Michael Denison as Captain Percival who works is tasked with solving the kidnap of the son of the Administrator General of the United Nations by a terrorist cell. The series starred several actors who had worked with Glaister on Secret Army such as Bernard Hepton, who played the Chief Superintendent of Police, while Juliet Hammond-Hill and Stephen Yardley played two terrorists in the drama. The six-part drama series lead to Michael Dennison appearing in two more BBC series as his character of Captain Percival, Skorpion in 1983 and then in 1984 Cold Warrior which was a collection of individual stories which were also produced by Glaister.

In 1981 Glaister also produced his follow up sequel, and spin-off, to Secret Army – Kessler. Kessler would use the basis of the unseen final episode of Secret Army as the basic premise of the series. The new series was set in the modern-day and would deal with the rise of Neo-Nazism in Germany and those wanted Nazi war-criminals that were believed to be hiding in South America. In the series Kessler is now an industrialist in Germany but living under an assumed name, Dorf. His Belgium mistress Madeline had died some years earlier but he had a daughter, Ingrid [Alison Glennie] who has her own neo-nazi organization. A documentary in Belgium about life-line and Kessler reunites Albert, Natalie and Monique who are soon footage of Dorf and asked whether or not it is Kessler. Natalie and Monique both confirm that Dorf is Kessler but Albert is less sure. Also seeking to find out whether Dorf is Kessler or not is a Jewish Isreali girl, Mical Rak [Nita Saul]. The documentary causes Kessler to eventually flee to South America where he is reunited with other wanted Nazi’s such as Mengele, the Angel of Death. Following Kessler to South America is Mical and a West German agent Richard Bauer [Alan Dobie] who wishes to bring Kessler and others like him to justice.

The series was once again a co-production between the BBC and BRT with location filming taking place in London and Brussels and Spain, which stood in for South America. The series not only dealt with the prospect of the rise of a new Nazi movement in Europe but also those Nazi’s who had fled and gone to South America and whether or not it was worth chasing after them now they were old men. The possibility of a second series of Kessler was discussed by Clifford Rose, who had reprise the role for the six-part sequel, was in favour of killing Kessler off. In the final episode of the series Kessler was indeed killed-off, committing suicide, after finding out about the death of his daughter, Ingrid. The part of Ingrid was played by Alison Dobie who was recommended for the part by Juliet Hammond-Hill who had recently worked with the actress when they had both guest-starred in an episode of Blakes 7. Juliet Hammond-Hill, Bernard Hepton and Angela Richards also reprise their Secret Army roles for Kessler’s first episode.

In 1985 Glaister created and produced his last big and successful television series for the BBC – Howard’s Way. The drama was the BBC’s answer to the popular American shows Dallas and Dynasty and was also a strike against ITV as it tried to produce a populist drama; EastEnders was also launched in 1985 in another strike against the BBC’s commercial rival. The memorable theme tune to the series was by Simon May who also created the theme tune to EastEnders and as with the soap lyrics were later put to the theme tune, which were sung by Marti Webb.

Howard’s Way in many ways resembled The Brothers as it was about the struggles of the Howard family but this series was about boats, and later fashion, not lorries. Tom Howard [Maurice Colbourne] is made redundant from his job as an aircraft designer, much to the horror of his wife Jan Howard [Jan Harvey]. Tom decides to invest his pay-off money in the local boatyard, The Mermaid, which puts even more pressure on his strained marriage to Jan who does not support his new business venture. The owner of the Mermaid Yard Jack Rolfe [Glyn Owen] isn’t best pleased when Tom decides to be an active partner in the yard and starts to design a new boat but Jack’s daughter April [Susan Gilmore] supports Tom in his ideas. Meanwhile Jan decides to expand her own horizons and helps her boss Ken Masters [Stephen Yardley] in expanding his own business. Slowly Jan and Tom drift apart and grow closer to April and Ken respectively and both distrust each others’ closeness to them.

Although critics weren’t hugely impressed by th series it was hugely popular with audiences who lapped up the drama in Howard’s Way. The show also had an impressive budget and although it couldn’t compete with the grandure of Dallas and Dynasty it could certainly offer audiences impressive shots of boat races and later fashion shows. In following seasons Jan and Tom get divorced and Jan starts up her own fashion business and chain of shops and even invests in the Mermaid Yard. New characters are added in later seasons such as Kate O’Mara joining the drama in its fifth season. Glaister was well known for reusing actors he had previously worked with an in Howard’s Way Glaister had worked with Kate O’Mara, Glyn Owen, Stephen Yardley and Richard Heffer before.

In 1989 the seeds for the end of Howard’s Way were sown when lead star Maurice Colbourne died at the age of 49 from a heart-attack. Scripts were hastily re-written to explain Tom Howard’s absence during the latter part of the fifth season. In 1990 the series returned for its sixth and final season which opened with the funeral for Tom Howard and saw several characters return for this. The sixth season was commissioned by the BBC to tie up loose ends and with the start of a new decade Howard’s Way draw to a close, such a part of the 1980s it’s doubtful if it really could have continued much further into the 1990s.

In 1991 Glaister produced his final television series, Trainer. It ran for two seasons between 1991 and 1992 and was set in the world of horse-racing. It starred Mark Greenstreet, Susannah York and David McCallum but Trainer failed to capture the audience in the same way as Howard’s Way. Although the series was given a second season by the BBC its ratings were not brilliant and the corporation declined to renew it for a third run. Trainer was Glaister’s last television project. In this feature we’ve only covered his bigger and more well known drama’s on television.

Gerald Glaister died in February 2005. Secret Army, Kessler and Howard’s Way have all been released on DVD and are still available to buy in shops.