1 9 7 1 (UK)
13 x 60 minute episodes
This 1971 drama series told the 13-part tale of international arms-dealer Joe Hine, with Barrie Ingham (straight from the Royal Shakespeare Company) in the title role.
Hine operated alone in a multi-billion-pound market dominated by a handful of monolithic corporations. His closest rival was an arms firm called Pendles, where Astor Harris (Paul Eddington) was head of weapons sales.
He also faced regular tussles with Walpole Gibb (Colin Gordon), a hostile senior civil servant at the Department of Arms Disposal Overseas.
While they formed a duplicitous alliance, business rivalry and red tape were often the least of Hine’s problems: from blackmail, diplomatic double-dealing and bribery to armed insurrection and kidnapping, his line of work ensured intrigue and danger were ever-present.
Sick of the hypocritical business, Hine always sought to pull off the ‘last big deal’ – a £100 million-plus package deal for radar, jet fighters and missiles – that would allow him to retire in style.
Joe Hine
Barrie Ingham
Astor Harris
Paul Eddington
Walpole Gibb
Colin Gordon
Jeremy Windsor
John Steiner
Susannah Grey
Sarah Craze
Rashid
Maxwell Shaw
Episodes
Rifles Are Dangerous | The Abominable No-men | What’s Wrong If The Price Is Right? | The Sterile Weapons | Caviar and Chips | Missiles for Sale, As New – One Owner | The Old School House | The Little White Lady | To Have and To Hold | Comrades in Arms | Survival of the Creeps | Everything I Am I Owe | The Big Package
