Last Updated 2nd May 2000 |
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 Randall
& Hopkirk (Deceased) was originally made in the 1970s and stared
Mike Pratt as Jeff Randall and Kenneth Cope as Marty Hopkirk, Jeff's
dead friend. Annette Andre played Jeannie, Marty's fiancee. It was made
by ITC and is still shown today somewhere in the world. Two videos are
currently available from this original series.The series follows the lives of Jeff and Marty who are private detectives. In the first episode (of the original and this remake) Marty is killed. Everyone thinks it was a tragic accident, but Marty comes back as a ghost telling Jeff he was murdered. Only Jeff can see and hear Marty. Marty has only one day to find his murdered before he has to get back to his grave, otherwise he's doomed to walk the earth forever. Needless to say, he doesn't make it back to his grave, and the rest is history. Viv Reeves and Bob Mortimer are better known for their comedy shows, such as Vic Reeve's Big Night Out and Shooting Stars. In 1993 they joined the BBC (after a stint with Channel 4) and were asked what they would like to do. Jokingly one of them said Randall and Hopkirk. "When production company Working Title brought the show's rights, the pair [Reeves and Mortimer] offered their services. Straw polls were taken: Reeves got the white suit while Mortimer became Randall."1
They approach Charlie Higson,
better known for his writing and acting in the Fast Show, to write a
pilot. Charlie says, "I was looking for something different to
do relished the chance of trying something on a larger scale, so I rashly
said 'Yes, sounds like fun.' So I duly wrote the pilot, which was well
received, and then they asked if I'd like to write the whole series
- and produce it. Before I knew it I'd said yes to everything, and taken
on a mammoth project - five hours of screen time, four months of filming,
more than 500 special effect shots - nearly £5.5 million."2
The show has been updated, and we'll see Emilia Fox's Jeannie kicking some bad guy butt, unlike her counterpart in the 1970s version. The show is a change of pace for Emilia who has starred in a string of BBC costume dramas such as Pride and Prejudice. "I've been in heavy martial arts training,"4 she says, "Jeannie's an action girl. She's not just kidnapped or saved. She's like a Bond girl or Purdey in The New Avengers."5
1 Quote
taken from the Radio Times 18-24 March 2000 p.22.
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He
continues "My research revealed that the two things the people
behind the original show wanted to do more of were special effects and
comedy."3 So Charlie pushed the fantasy element of the
show, and this is what we have today.