Catch Hand

1 9 6 4 (UK)
10 x 40 minute episodes

This 10-part BBC series featured the trials and tribulations of Johnny Rich (Mark Eden) and Finn Brodie (Anthony Booth), two itinerant workers (otherwise known as “Catch Hands”) with an eye on the main chance as they undertook a variety of work in the most unlikely of locations.

The pair were always on the move and the staple ingredients of their existence were living fast, earning big money and entertaining the ladies.

Episodes found them working on building sites, at a tin mine, reconditioning a pier, surveying a railway siding and building a new motorway.

Guest appearances included Tony Selby, Glyn Owen, Rosemary Leach, Trevor Bannister and Philip Madoc.

The chemistry between relative newcomers Eden and Booth brought respectable audience figures (the opening episode attracted 7.2 million viewers) and a prime position in the BBC’s summer schedule. Despite its popularity, though, further series’ were not commissioned.

Johnny Rich
Mark Eden
Finn Brodie
Anthony Booth

Episodes

Stop Counting at One | Five Per Cent of Trouble | Fifteen-Bob-an-Hour Men | The Jokers | It’s Never the Same | Because It Was There | Just Call Me Dad | A Time for Grass | It’s Only Bricks and Mortar | Shadows from the Past