Frederick Forsyth Presents

Frederick Forsyth Presents
Genre Espionage Drama
Created by Frederick Forsyth
Directed by Tom Clegg
Lawrence Gordon Clark
Ian Sharp
James Cellan Jones
Starring Alan Howard
Theme music composer Paul Chihara
Country of origin United Kingdom
Original language(s) English
No. of series 2
No. of episodes 6
Production
Executive producer(s) Nick Elliott
Frederick Forsyth
Murray Smith
Producer(s) Frederick Muller
Production location(s) Middle East, North Africa, Europe, West Indies
Running time 98 – 103 minutes
Production company(s) London Weekend Television in association with IFS Productions Ltd.
Distributor ITV Studios
FremantleMedia
Release
Original network ITV
Picture format 4:3
Audio format Mono
Original release 2 December 1989 (1989-12-02) – 8 December 1990 (1990-12-08)
Chronology
Related shows The Deceiver (1991), a related book which followed production

Frederick Forsyth Presents is a series of British television films made by FremantleMedia for London Weekend Television on ITV, first broadcast between 2 December 1989 to 8 December 1990.

Based on stories which were later published as the Forsyth novel The Deceiver, there are six films, most with the themes of espionage and war. An important character who appears in all six is Sam McCready, played by Alan Howard, a Secret Intelligence Service agent who has become an author but continues to work on SIS operations. He plays the lead in most of the films, but in A Little Piece of Sunshine he has more of a supporting role. Each of the stories is introduced on screen by Frederick Forsyth.

Outline

Sam McCready is an experienced SIS field agent who believes in his way of doing things, which is no longer welcome in some quarters. Set in areas of international tension around the world, including the Middle East, Berlin, and the West Indies, the films highlight a division in British espionage and government between those who favour a subservient British relationship with the American Central Intelligence Agency and those, including McCready, who want to see more independence of thought and action. There is also a tension between the protagonists of Signals intelligence, or Sigint, intelligence from electronic interception and satellite observation, and Human intelligence, or Humint, intelligence from agents in the field. The series mocks the subservient camp and those who are over-awed by technology, as well as more gently finding fault with the CIA.

Production

In 1988 Frederick Forsyth secured a contract with London Weekend Television for six thrillers under the headline name of Frederick Forsyth Presents, with a book to be linked to the series, which came out in 1991 as The Deceiver.[1]

The first three episodes were filmed, and the launch of the series was fixed for December 1989. In the run-up to that, the producers said they were hoping to attract eight million television viewers.[2]

1989 season

A Casualty of War

Libya is preparing to ship arms to the Provisional IRA, and McCready (Alan Howard) sends Tom Rowse (David Threlfall), a former SAS officer who is now a novelist, to Libya under the cover of researching a book. Rowse makes contact with the Libyan arms dealer and adds an order to the shipment. The SIS can then identify the cargo ship, and McCready enlists the help of the Special Boat Service to intercept it. Nicola (Amanda Burton), a woman Rowse is strongly attracted to, proves to be mixed up with the gun-runners and is shot dead when the ship is boarded.

Directed by Tom Clegg and first broadcast on 2 December 1989.

Just Another Secret

An American intelligence agent investigates the sudden disappearance of a colleague who was stationed in East Berlin. He finds a conspiracy to murder a Soviet politician.

Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and first broadcast on 9 December 1989.

Pride and Extreme Prejudice

A Soviet general offers the SIS important military documents, and a meeting is set up in East Germany, with McCready in charge of the operation. As the Soviets know him, he recruits his old friend Bruno Morenz, a BND agent, who has to break BND rules to enter East Germany, which he does as a favour to McCready. Morenz secures the documents, but his life is in chaos, as he has just accidentally killed a woman and her pimp boyfriend and is on the run from the police. McCready finds Morenz a hiding place and enters East Germany to join him. With the Stasi closing in on them, and Morenz unable to escape, McCready kills him with poison, takes the documents, and escapes to the West.

Directed by Ian Sharp and first broadcast on 16 December 1989.

1990 season

A Little Piece of Sunshine

Sunshine, an island in the British West Indies, is about to become independent, but shortly before the handover, in the middle of a bitterly fought presidential election campaign, the British governor is shot dead. Sam McCready of SIS (Alan Howard) sends in Desmond Hannah of Scotland Yard (Larry Lamb), but he can only go there unofficially. The governor's widow, Lady Coltrane (Lauren Bacall) tells Hannah that most of the inhabitants are not looking forward to independence, trusting neither of the two presidential candidates and fearing for their future. One candidate, Tomson (Philip Michael Thomas) is said to have drug-running connections, while the other, Livingstone, has links with Cuba. Drake (Clarence Thomas), the island's priest, is also against independence. Ernie Favaro (Chris Cooper) a police detective from Miami, arrives to investigate a murder ordered by the Medellín Cartel. Hannah and Favaro work together but are not welcomed by the island's chief constable. Someone shoots at them, and they catch him and find it is Drake, who wanted to create a sensation, not to hit them. The local police then arrest Hannah and Favaro for illegal possession of firearms. McCready arrives, deus ex machina, as the acting Governor of Sunshine Island and takes charge of the case. Lady Coltrane hints that she killed her husband herself. Favaro calls on Tomson and in his house sees a rare copy of Paradise Lost which leads back to the Medellín. McCready visits Tomson with Favaro, who steals the book, and inside it is a microfilm with the names and details of Medellín Cartel deals. Tomson tries to escape, and is shot. The presidential election is postponed until further notice, and McCready remains on the island as Governor.

Directed by James Cellan Jones and first broadcast 17 November 1990.

Death Has a Bad Reputation

The French government expels dozens of Soviet diplomats, and Rodimstev, head of the KGB (Gottfried John) forms an alliance with Carlos the Jackal (Tony Lo Bianco) to punish France. Sam McCready (Alan Howard) works to hinder them, going outside the law and the rules of his department. He has his own grudge match with Carlos, as his son Nick McCready (Guy Scantlebury) was disabled in a terrorist attack.[3]

Directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark and first broadcast on 24 November 1990.

The Price of the Bride

While on a Soviet Military Intelligence visit to Britain, a Russian contacts the CIA station in London, wishing to defect to the US, claiming to be Colonel Pyotr Orlov of the KGB (Robert Foxworth). Orlov's information leads to the arrest of several Soviet spies around the world and also gives insights into the Soviets' military planning. But McCready senses that something is wrong, and the head of the KGB's London office, who works for McCready under the name of Keepsake, claims that Orlov is not a defector at all, but a KGB plant, the purpose being to falsely discredit a high-ranking CIA officer as a Soviet mole. The American and British sides refuse to believe each other's versions of events, and "Orlov" succeeds in bringing down the supposed CIA traitor. Keepsake then suddenly returns to Moscow, casting doubt on McCready's warnings. Aiming to prevent the disintegration of the CIA, McCready brings Keepsake back from Moscow, and Keepsake says he went there to get solid proof that the Orlov defection is a deception. However, a CIA agent then kills the man Orlov identified as a mole, and when Orlov is exposed, he accepts execution.

Directed by Tom Clegg and first broadcast on 8 December 1990.

Notes

  1. ↑ Richard Joseph, Richard Joseph's Bestsellers (Summersdale, 1997), p. 222
  2. ↑ Photoplay Volume 40, Issues 1-3 (1989), p. 104
  3. ↑ "Rent Frederick Forsyth: Death Has a Bad Reputation (1990) film". CinemaParadiso.co.uk. Retrieved 25 January 2018.

See also

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