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
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