This BBC series was based on the anecdotes of Rudyard Kipling which he wrote for the daily Civil and Military Gazette in Lahore during the 1880s.
Newspaper editor William Stevens (Joss Ackland), young journalist James Lockwood (Kenneth Fortescue), Mian Rukn Din (Patrick Westwood) and Inspector Strickland (Barry Letts) featured prominently.
Guest performers included Alfred Burke, David Hemmings, Patrick Troughton, Warren Mitchell, Dandy Nichols, Jane Asher, Ronald Hines, Carmel McSharry, Nyree Dawn Porter, Desmond Llewellyn, Michael Bates, Victor Maddern and Geoffrey Chater. Sir Ian McKellen made his first appearance on British Television in the episode ‘The Tomb Of His Ancestors’.
The series failed to captivate the viewing public and there was criticism, too, about the inaccuracies in the production: cavalrymen were shown wearing infantry caps and uniforms only worn for ceremonial parades, while officers’ insignia of rank were shown on the epaulettes of their tunics when they should have been worn on the sleeve (pips on the epaulettes were not adopted in 1919).
William Stevens
Joss Ackland James Lockwood
Kenneth Fortescue Mian Rukn Din
Patrick Westwood Inspector Strickland
Barry Letts Mrs Hauksbee
Barbara Murray Mrs Mallowe
Georgina Cookson Private Jock Learoyd
Douglas Livingstone Private Terence Mulvaney
David Burke Private Stanley Ortheris
Harry Landis
Episodes
A Bank Fraud | On the City Wall | The Return to Imray | Private Learoyd’s Story | A Germ Destroyer | The Tomb of His Ancestors | Mark of the Beast | Three: And an Extra | The Madness of Private Ortheris | The Sending of Dana Da | Only a Subaltern | Black Jack | The Rescue of Pluffles | Beyond the Pale | Watches of the Night | Miss Youghal’s Sais | The Head of the District | Love o’ Women | Consequences | His Private Honour | Without Benefit of Clergy | The Bronckhurst Divorce Case | A Second-Rate Woman | A Wayside Comedy | The Man Who Was
