An Enemy of the State

1 9 6 5 (UK)
6 x 25 minute episodes

This six-part BBC thriller series starred Australian actor Charles Tingwell (well known as Doctor Dawson from Emergency – Ward 10) as Harry Sutton, an electronics expert and the owner of a once internationally successful computer manufacturing factory that had fallen on hard times.

Harry’s desperation to keep his head above water has placed considerable strain on his relationship with his wife, Jennifer (Veronica Strong) and his creditors are closing in – including his stockbroker, who is demanding repayment of a £3,000 debt immediately.

His salvation comes in an unexpected commission to install a computer in Moscow which his company had sold to a leading steel factory there for £2.5 million pounds.

Before he departs, though, he is approached by the mysterious Mr Henderson (Robert Mill), who claims to be an “unimportant civil servant” and asks Harry to keep his eyes open and his ears close to the ground while he is behind the Iron Curtain, offering to settle his debt with Harry’s stockbroker in return.

What starts as a relatively simple computer installation in Moscow (and the procurement of a tape requested by Mr Henderson) soon turns into a nightmarish sequence of events for Harry, who becomes implicated in murder and becomes a target of the Security Services in Moscow.

Trapped behind the Iron Curtain, he becomes embroiled in a game of cat and mouse which ultimately finds him standing trial for espionage – and facing the death penalty if he does not reveal his connection with Mr Henderson and a British agent known as Smith (Richard Armour).

Harry Sutton
Charles Tingwell
Orlov
Alfred Hoffman
Colonel Rykov
James Maxwell
Wilson-Nichols
Adrian Ropes
Jennifer Sutton
Veronica Strong
Henderson
Robert Mill
Karin
Dalia Penn
Simons
Peter Stephens

Episodes

The Trouble with Harry | Point of No Return | Cause for Alarm | The Faceless Man | The Blood Red Tape | The Reckoning