Callan Resources

Bleak, hard-hitting and completely uncompromising in style, the classic spy series Callan portrayed the ruthless world of espionage as it existed in reality, in marked contrast to the glamorous image of secret agents often portrayed on television in the sixties and seventies. Edward Woodward starred in the title role, ably supported by an equally fine cast of character actors including Russell Hunter, Anthony Valentine, Ronald Radd, Michael Goodliffe and William Squire. Four series were transmitted on British televsion between 1967 and 1972, with a single play, Wet Job following in 1981. We are proud to present a special section devoted to this fine series, which proves one of Kaleidoscope's most popular items year after year, with the exclusive publication of these original production documents from the archives.

Printed below is the title page of the original Callan format document drawn up by series creator James Mitchell as a result of the huge success of the pilot script, "A Magnum for Schneider", which went out as an entry in the long-running Armchair Theatre anthology series of plays, on 4 February 1967. Basically, this document outlined such matters as the setting of the proposed series, defined each character and the overall style and tone of the programme, as well as providing biographical information on the author and performers. The rest of the document appears on the following pages.

We also have a similar background document for the second series of Callan and a fascinating internal ABC Television report on a contemporary audience survey to assess what types of people the series was attracting, or otherwise.

• Edward Woodward fans should also take a look at the superb Edward Woodward World Wide Web Site.

Kaleidoscope - The Classic Television Organisation

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