Triton

1 9 6 1 (UK)
4 x 30 minute episodes

This four-part adventure series from the BBC was set in 1800 where two young British naval officers – Captain Belwether (William Russell) and Lieutenant Lamb (Francis Matthews) – are sent to gather intelligence about French plans for Napoleon’s planned invasion of England.

It transpires that the French have a secret weapon – invented by American inventor Robert Fulton (Reed De Rouen) – which could blow up ships from a distance without using gunfire. It’s the first working design for a submarine.

Scriptwriter and producer Rex Tucker came across the story while carrying out research for his play, Victory, which was commissioned for the Nelson bicentenary, and wrote Triton around the information.

The story was remade by the BBC in 1968 in another four-part serial of the same title with Jonathan Adams as Captain Belwether, Paul Grist as Lieutenant Lamb and Robert Cawdron as Robert Fulton

Adams and Grist reprised their roles in a four-part series in 1969 called Pegasus – in which Belwether and Lamb uncovered a plot by Napoleon’s forces to bomb Portsmouth from balloons.

Captain Julius Belwether
William Russell
Lieutenant Simon Lamb
Francis Matthews
Interpreter
Michael Anthony
Robert Fulton
Reed De Rouen
Lord Nelson
Robert James
French Captain
Jacques Cey
Lieutenant Singleton
Peter Mayock
Clotilde
Kitty Atwood
Madame Victor
Selma Vaz Dias
Captain of Hebe
Garard Green
Vice-Admiral Graeme
John Lawrence
Earl St. Vincent
Ewan MacDuff
Sir Home Popham
Anthony Sharp
Lieutenant of Hebe
Leon Shepperdson