I’ve spread the word elsewhere but passing on the word to all you Quiller fans. Although it’s been rumored to have been lost forever, a Michael Jayston fan has uploaded all thirteen episodes of the Quiller TV series to YouTube! The show has been slightly shrouded in mystery as it has been seen since it originally aired. Adam Hall did not like this version and disowned it, similar to what he did with the film.
This version does have a better lead in Jayston versus George Segal. He captures the coiled anger that is always present in Quiller. However, the show’s stories were overall quite weak. Quiller gets accidentally kidnapped! Quiller fights voodoo hypnosis! Quiller fights a rogue army!
I’ve watched several now and they … aren’t very good, but check it out and decide for yourself!
Come for the bad stories and stay for the bad clothes and the rocking theme song!
I don’t know how long they’ll be up there, but if you’ve ever been curious, now’s the time to check them out! Of all of them, the second episode is probably the one to watch. It’s an adaption of The Tango Briefing written by Hall himself.
Hattip to the Quiller email group which first alerted me to the series being online.
Ugh. He is not my Quiller. I will watch The Tango Briefing since Hall had a hand in it. When will Clive Owen make a Quiller movie? The perfect Quiller to me. George? Hahahaha. He was in “Where’s Poppa?”Which I enjoyed. Best to stay in comedies.
The magic of Quiller may only be in the pages and our imagination. Can’t wait to check this out just the same!
I just watched the Tango Briefing. It really was quite good, and Jayston looked fine as Quiller. I must’ve seen a bad picture of him at some point. However, the African artifact and the vultures should’ve made an appearance. Do the British wear hats in the desert?
I was a big Quiller fan, I remember bumping into him at Mancherster united’s ground at the Manchester derby – I just asked for Quiller’s autograph I think – I asked him when would they make another serries – it has always been a lost masterpiece – no idea why its never reshown on the TV
Personally. I really enjoyed watching these on YOUTUBE.It became a ritual to watch an episode whilst eating a plate of fish and chips. I thought Jayston was extremely good!
I’ve just acquired the complete 13 episodes on DVD from LovingTheClassics.com. Three points:
1. Quiller in the TV series bears almost no remblance to Quiller in the novels. For a Quiller afficonado like me, the TV series is a travesty. God only know what Adam Hall/Elleston Trevor made of it. There is one episode which he wrote himself: an adaptation of the novel The Tango Briefing. Perhaps inevitably, that is the best of the series, but it is not that great.
2. The image quaility of the DVDs is poor.
3. LovingTheClassics win no prizes for service quality. It took several months for the DVDs to arrive and there was almost no communication about the delay..
Just for the sake of completion, I am glad to have watched them, but I don’t see myself revisiting them any time soon.
I’m betting they just downloaded the versions that were on YouTube. Definitely nothing like the books.