The Secret Service is a 1969 British science fiction television series created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson and filmed by their production company, Century 21, for ITC Entertainment. It follows the exploits of Father Stanley Unwin, a puppet character voiced by, and modelled on, the comedian of the same name. Outwardly an eccentric vicar, Unwin is secretly an agent of BISHOP, a division of British Intelligence that counters criminal and terrorist threats. Assisted by fellow agent Matthew Harding, Unwin's missions involve frequent use of the Minimiser, a device capable of shrinking people and objects to facilitate covert operations. In hostile situations, Unwin spouts a form of gibberish (based on the real Unwin's nonsense language, "Unwinese") to distract the enemy.

The Secret Service was the last Anderson series to be made using a form of electronic marionette puppetry called "Supermarionation". This technique was combined with scale model effects sequences and – uniquely for an Anderson puppet series – extensive footage of live actors in long shot. The move towards non-puppet live action was influenced by Gerry Anderson, who wanted to increase the realism of Supermarionation. Filming began in August 1968 and ended with the completion of the thirteenth episode in January 1969 after Lew Grade, Century 21's owner and financial backer, responded negatively to a test screening and cancelled the production. Grade believed that the inclusion of Unwinese had made it impossible to sell the series to the American market.

The series was transmitted on three of the ITV network's regional franchises and has not been repeated since 1975. Critical response has been mixed, with verdicts ranging from the Andersons' "forgotten gem" to their "one flop". Commentators have questioned the wisdom of hiring Unwin, arguing that his gibberish had too little comic value to sustain viewer interest. However, the series has been praised for the writing of its supporting characters. The Secret Service was Gerry Anderson's final puppet series until Terrahawks in the 1980s.

Premise

The Secret Service follows the exploits of Father Stanley Unwin, the parish priest of an English village. Outwardly an eccentric middle-aged vicar, Unwin moonlights as an operative of the intelligence agency BISHOP ("British Intelligence Service Headquarters, Operation Priest"). He is stationed at his vicarage with fellow BISHOP agent Matthew Harding, who when not assisting Unwin on missions affects a country accent and serves as the Father's verger and gardener. Supporting characters include The Bishop, head of BISHOP and Unwin's superior, Blake, a junior BISHOP operative, and Mrs Appleby, Unwin's housekeeper, who is unaware of Unwin and Matthew's double life as spies.

Prior to the series, Professor Humbert invented the Minimiser, a device capable of shrinking people or objects to one third of their normal size. When Humbert died it was inherited by Unwin, who conceals it inside a large book. The device is regularly used on Matthew, who is reduced to a height of to enable him to carry out covert reconnaissance where any normal-sized person would be noticed. (In this way, the puppet is shown to interact with life-sized sets and live actors whose faces are kept out of shot.) Occasionally it is also used to shrink enemies, literally bringing them down to Matthew's size.

Unwin carries the miniaturised Matthew around in a specially adapted briefcase, which can open from the inside and contains field equipment such as a periscope. During missions, the agents communicate via earpiece transceivers, with Unwin's disguised as his hearing aid. Their primary mode of transport is a revamped 1917 Ford Model T called Gabriel, which can reach speeds over . If challenged by law enforcement or enemy agents, Unwin spouts a form of gibberish to confuse the opposition and cover for Matthew.

While most of the Supermarionation series are set in the future, the events of The Secret Service take place in the then-present day. The episodes "Errand of Mercy" and "The Deadly Whisper" are respectively set on 3 February 1969 and 24 May 1969. Gerry Anderson biographers Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn argue that the setting is ambiguous: they believe it to be "sometime in the near future" but note that the world of The Secret Service sees "Morris Minors negotiate leafy country roads while space-age helijets patrol the skies", ultimately concluding that the series is so fantastic that it "isn't set in the real world at all."

  • Gary Files as Matthew Harding (aged 28), Unwin's partner in BISHOP as well as gardener of his vicarage. He made significant contributions to Harding's characterisation, devising the character's rural accent himself: "It just seemed so right for the character. Then once I had the voice, the rest of Matthew followed." This would feature an English village as the home of its spy protagonist, an eccentric parish priest. Unwin's fee was set at £250 per episode.

Unwin was the creator of "Unwinese", a form of gibberish that was outwardly unintelligible but retained some aspects of meaning. Anderson remembered Unwin's radio and TV performances using the language and thought that it would suit the character of a secret agent, also reasoning that it would have comic value if shown to confuse the enemy. Shane Rimmer, who wrote the episode "Hole in One", recalled that "A lot of [the dialogue] you had to leave to [Unwin]. You gave him a line of patter that's going to work with what he does. Because he was such a bizarre character, you felt you could really go all the way with him: you could practically do anything." "The Unorthodox Shepherd" had also been filmed partly on location.

The only new puppets created for The Secret Service were those of Unwin, his housekeeper Mrs Appleby (which sculptor Christine Glanville based on her mother) and The Bishop. Supporting characters were played by puppets recycled from Joe 90 and Captain Scarlet; the Matthew Harding puppet was originally made for the Captain Scarlet episode "Treble Cross" while Blake was played by the Captain Scarlet puppet himself. La Rivière describes the puppet Unwin as "one of the most impressive artistic feats" to be produced by the Century 21 puppet workshop, calling the likeness "uncanny".

Filming locations included a house in Burnham, Buckinghamshire as Father Unwin's vicarage, Centre Point as the British Intelligence building in London and Horse Guards as the headquarters of BISHOP. Wexham Park Hospital appears in the episode "School for Spies", while the Century 21 Studios themselves are featured in the opening of the first episode, "A Case for the Bishop".

As the series is set in the present day, the special effects team, headed by Derek Meddings, were not required to design many futuristic-looking vehicles. On some days only two minutes of footage were recorded.

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|Horse Guards, London (multiple episodes)

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|Centre Point, London (multiple episodes)

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|Burnham Beeches (multiple episodes)

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|New Lodge, Winkfield (episode "School for Spies")

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|Jubilee Clock Tower, Maidenhead ("Last Train to Bufflers Halt")

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|Wexham Park Hospital ("School for Spies")

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Titles and music

thumb|alt=A side view of a church.|The opening and closing titles feature [[St Michael and All Angels Church, Hughenden.]]

Both the opening and closing titles feature shots of St Michael and All Angels Church in Hughenden Valley, Buckinghamshire, which doubles as the church of Father Unwin. He developed the initial concept into a three-part fugue in the style of Bach.

As well as the theme, Gray recorded incidental music for four episodes in three additional four-hour sessions. The first of these was held at Olympic Studios in Barnes, London on 12 November 1968, when an orchestra of 29 instrumentalists performed the music for the first episode, "A Case for the Bishop". Recording for "A Question of Miracles" took place on 11 December at Gray's private studios with an ensemble of eight. The other two episodes to include original scores are "The Feathered Spies" and "Last Train To Bufflers Halt"; the remaining episodes use music recycled from the other four, as well as from Century 21's earlier series (in particular, Captain Scarlet and Joe 90). The final recording session was held on 10 January 1969.

In 2007, Fanderson released the series' soundtrack on CD exclusively for its members. In 2022, Silva Screen released it on CD for the public.

Cancellation

Stephen La Rivière favours the episode "More Haste Less Speed": describing the series finale as "wonderfully quirky", he considers the plot about a money-forging scheme to be reminiscent of the "gentler, earlier days of Supercar" and lauds voice actor Keith Alexander for his impression of the elderly Lady Hazlewell. Nevertheless, in his overall assessment of the series, La Rivière asserts that a spy posing as a vicar and driving an antique car would not have appealed to children and that adults would have been disappointed by the series' "traditional espionage format". Ian Fryer of FAB magazine expresses similar views, writing that "very little about The Secret Service has obvious appeal to the traditionally young Supermarionation audience." He notes that the title sequence marked a departure from Supermarionation's "tradition of having a thrilling or suspenseful promise of what was to come", instead "[making] the series look suspiciously like it might be about the life and work of an elderly vicar." Fryer also suggests that prospective foreign buyers were put off by the espionage theme, noting that by the time The Secret Service debuted on British TV, other spy series like The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and The Avengers had already aired their last episodes.

Media historian Nicholas J. Cull, who views The Secret Service as the Andersons' "one flop", calls it an "idiosyncratically British product", adding that through BISHOP the series reflected "the 1960s vogue for stories set in secret organisations with extravagant acronyms". He considers The Secret Service to be one of several Anderson series that "unashamedly capitalised on the Cold War cult of the secret agent whose skills defend the home from enemies unknown", noting that Sakov in "The Cure" is a hostile Russian agent.

Reviewing the episode "Recall to Service" for the fanzine Andersonic, Paul O'Brien describes the plot about the AquaTank – a military robot gone rogue – as "an obvious allegory about the hazards of complete automation". He adds that the pivotal moment comes when Harding returns the AquaTank to manual control: "in other words, the machinery is now subordinate to its creator once again, as it should stay." On the series generally, O'Brien is critical of the puppet cast, noting the persistent absence of female characters and commenting that only female regular, Mrs Appleby, "contributes precisely nil to the plot."

Other media

Two novels based on the series – The Destroyer and The VIP, both written by John William Jennison under the pseudonym "John Theydon" – were published in 1969. In the early 1970s, the weekly children's title Countdown printed a number of Secret Service comic strips, including an origin story.

The series was released on Region 1 DVD in December 2003 by A&E Home Video. This featured digitally-remastered picture and sound as well as bonus materials including an audio commentary by producer David Lane for the first episode, "A Case for the Bishop". The website AllMovie gives the release a feature rating of three-and-a-half stars out of five.

Network DVD followed with a Region 2 DVD in June 2005. It included audio commentaries by Gerry Anderson and PDF transfers of original production documents.

References

Citations

Works cited

Further reading

  • "A Case for the Bishop" – photo gallery with production information
  • – includes The Secret Service title sequence
  • The Gerry Anderson Complete Comic History – includes The Secret Service comic strips