1-05. But He's a Lord, Mr. Callan.

Air Date: August 5, 1967. Written by: James Mitchell. Directed by: Guy Verney. Produced by: Terence Feely, Lloyd Shirley. MISSING, PRESUMED WIPED.

This review is based on the camera script, available in the .pdf archive on Disc Three of the Callan: This Man Alone DVD set.


THE PLOT:

Cash poor but highly influential, the venal Lord Lindale (Donald Hewlett) uses his status as a shield while blackmailing pretty Caroline Fielding (Ann Bell) with compromising photos he has of her husband. Her husband is close to the U. S. President's nephew, and his growing influence on the President is good for the British government... Which is why Hunter decides to intervene.

Lindale is a gambling addict, and he's forcing Caroline to bankroll his debts. Hunter calls on Captain Miller (Gerald Flood), an old associate of Callan's, to lure Callan into joining the game. Hunter's plan is to create a situation in which Callan is forced to defend himself against the lord. But Callan has plans of his own...


CHARACTERS:

Callan: "Somebody should kill you. I've got a feeling Hunter thinks it should be me..." The instant Miller comes to see him, Callan knows that he's being set up. From that point on, he is constantly thinking. He sees through the lies Miller tells and the manipulations Hunter uses; but once he realizes what Lindale is up to, he can't quite resist becoming involved.  He basically walks right into the trap that's been set for him.  But he knows it, and is able to think quickly to get himself out again.

Hunter: He wants Lindale dead, but the lord's status means that he wants to keep the Section out of it, leading him to set Callan up as his patsy. It is perversely entertaining to see Hunter's competence at pushing Callan's buttons. Callan knows he's being set up, and Hunter doesn't even particularly try to hide that from him - but Callan's inclination to do the opposite of whatever Hunter says still leads him to do exactly what Hunter wants.

Lord Lindale: The series' least interesting villain thus far. Lindale is an evil cad, and there's really nothing more to him than that. It's made clear that his blackmail of Caroline is just a game. Once he's bled Caroline dry, he will sell the photographs to the Russians. "He's done it before," Hunter observes acidly.


THOUGHTS:

As with Goodbye, Nobby Clarke, I find myself reflecting that if some episodes have to be missing, this isn't a particularly bad one to be in that pile. But He's a Lord, Mr. Callan isn't bad, exactly. The time I spent reading the script went by quickly enough, and the way Callan turns Hunter's plan back on him at the end is fairly satisfying.

Still, this episode treads very shallow waters. The title led me to expect an episode that would play more directly on the theme of class differences - entitlement on one end, resentment on the other - that has bubbled effectively under the series' surface.  Nope.  Lindale's status as a lord is only used as a plot device, to explain how he's gotten away with his misdeeds, and that's about all.  The rest is a fairly basic recycling of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, with a card game being used to push a villain into revealing himself.  Fleming's novel, and even the live television version of it, did the same thing better.

Another issue is one with the first season in general: By six stories in, the ways in which Callan is being roped into Section business are feeling increasingly strained.  In this episode in particular, all Callan has to do to avoid being drawn in is to lock his door after Miller's visit and then either play with his toy soldiers or head to bed - and there's no compelling reason for him not to do exactly that!

If it were recovered, I suspect But He's a Lord, Mr. Callan would be the first season's weakest episode, suffering as it does from a dull villain and the thinnest motivation yet for Callan's involvement.  Still, it remains entertaining and well-paced even in script form.  If this is the early series at its worst, then that speaks pretty well of the series overall.


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