1 9 5 4 (UK)
6 x 30 minute episodes
This six-part BBC drama series was broadcast in the early evening children’s viewing slot and repeated at 7.45 pm for older viewers.
The cloak and dagger adventure starred Laurence Payne as D’Artagnan, Roger Delgado as Athos, Paul Whitsun-Jones as Porthos, and Paul Hansard as Aramis.
Viewers marvelled at the way the Musketeers managed to sweep through the flimsy sets without knocking over the lot. The London Daliy News remarked after the second episode that the four heroes, far from creating an atmosphere of bravado, mystery, and courage, gave the impression of “a somewhat dim-witted crowd of students prematurely released from the rigours of the Chelsea Arts Ball”.
Episodes aired on Wednesdays between 24 November and 29 December 1954.
Filming of the series at Frensham Ponds in Surrey was interrupted on one occasion by a cloud of British Army paratroopers who descended on the area as part of a training exercise, coming to earth all around the film unit.
D’Artagnan
Laurence Payne
Athos
Roger Delgado
Porthos
Paul Whitsun-Jones
Aramis
Paul Hansard
King Louis XIII
Garard Green
Milady de Winter
Adrienne Corri
Planchet
Reginald Barratt
Cardinal Richelieu
William Devlin
M. de Jussac
Peter Diamond
Rochefort
Ewen Solon
Constance Bonacieux
Clare Austin
M. de Treville
Laidman Browne
Lord de Winter
Derek Aylward
Queen of France
Veronica Hurst
Bonacieux
Arthur Lowe
George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham
John Van Eyssen