Queen’s Champion

1 9 5 8 (UK)
8 x 30 minute episodes

The ‘Queen’s Champion’ was a golden statuette of a knight in armour which was passed down to the eldest son of each generation of the aristocratic Penlynden family.

This series – the first long-form historical serial to be specially written for television as an ersatz ‘literary classic’ – followed the adventures of 14-year old Roger Penlynden in Elizabethan England.

The adventure began on the eve of the battle of the Armada on 20 July 1588 and saw Roger (Michael Anderson) and his friend Toby the scullery boy (Frazer Hines) discover fifth columnists and a Spanish plot to kill the Queen.

The cast contained many names who would go on to become well-known in years to come. The series was recorded in its entirety and repeated the following summer, although it is believed only the first episode survives in the BBC archive.

Roger Penlynden
Michael Anderson
Toby
Frazer Hines
Master Fidian
Patrick Cargill
Don Jose
Roger Delgado
Master Allan
John Woodnutt
Rumbell
Paul Whitsun-Jones
Ralph
Colin Douglas
Old Bartholomew
Nigel Arkwright
Sir Thomas Wycherly
Barry Letts
Queen Elizabeth 
Peggy Thorpe-Bates
Hal
Terry Baker
Lord Burleigh
John Welsh
Sir Henry Penlynden
William Devlin
2nd Wycherly Guard
Michael Harrison
Courtier
Neville Barber
Captain Elliot
Derek Sydney
Andrews
Glyn Jones
Mary Brandon
Jane Asher
John Brandon
Michael Brennan
Don Alonzo
Patrick Troughton
Lord Bretherton
Desmond Llewelyn
Sir Edmund Carrick
Anthony Parker
Earl Hawkeden
John Gedin
Sir Arthur St. John
Alec Bregonzi
O’Keefe
Bruce Stewart
Lady Fennimore
Penelope Bartley
Mistress Downey
Betty Cooper
Servant
Jack Smethurst

Episodes

Betrayal | The Escape from Penlynden | The Outlaws | The Rescue | The Trap | The Eve of the Armada | The Edge of Defeat | The Return to Penlynden