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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Television»Kids TV
    Kids TV TV Shows - 1960s 2 Mins Read

    Secret Service, The

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    1 9 6 8 – 1 9 6 9 (UK)
    13 x 25 minute episodes

    The Secret Service followed the adventures of Father Stanley Unwin, the world’s most unusual clergyman.

    The good Father was actually moonlighting as a secret agent for B.I.S.H.O.P (British Intelligence Service Headquarters Operation Priest).

    secretservice9Operating out of his quaint parish in the English countryside, Father Unwin had at his disposal genial housekeeper Mrs Appleby and gardener-cum-handyman, Matthew Harding, who was also an undercover BISHOP agent.

    More importantly, he had an invention called The Minimiser, which he kept in a hollowed-out book.

    The Minimiser had once belonged to one of Father Unwin’s parishioners, Professor Humbolt. It was Humbolt’s dying wish that Unwin look after the invention at all costs. The compact device was capable of shrinking a human to one-third their normal size.

    Father Unwin shared this secret with the British Government who in turn recruited him to B.I.S.H.O.P. and assigned Matthew Harding to be his partner on his missions – often transported by Unwin’s beloved Model T Ford, Gabriel.

    secretservice5Invariably it was Harding who was miniaturised and transported inside Father Unwin’s specially adapted briefcase.

    Unfortunately, The Secret Service only ran for a single series of 13 episodes and remains one of Gerry Anderson’s lesser-known works, successfully blending live-action and Supermarionation.

    When it was first broadcast in the UK, only three ITV regions (ATV Midlands, Granada and Southern) took it up. It was deemed that the Americans allegedly “wouldn’t get it” so it didn’t even sell there, and Lew Grade (head of ITC – who made most of Anderson’s shows) famously told Gerry the series was cancelled halfway through a preview screening of the very first episode . . .

    Stanley Unwin had featured as the narrator on The Small Faces‘ 1968 concept album, Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake, excelling on the track Happiness Stan. Sadly, he died in January 2002 in Northamptonshire, England.

    secretservicetoyFather Stanley Unwin 
    Stanley Unwin
    Matthew Harding 

    Gary Files
    The Bishop 

    Jeremy Wilkin
    Mrs Appleby 

    Sylvia Anderson
    Agent Blake 

    Keith Alexander

    Video

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