Freewheelers facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Freewheelers |
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| Genre | Children's television series |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 8 |
| No. of episodes | 104 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Chris McMaster |
| Production location(s) | Southern England, Spain, France, Sweden, Netherlands |
| Cinematography | Stan Bréhaut |
| Editor(s) | Michael Womersley |
| Running time | 24 mins |
| Production company(s) | Southern Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Original release | 4 April 1968 – 5 May 1973 |
Freewheelers is a British television series made by Southern Television between 1968 and 1973 for the ITV network. It was created by the television producer Chris McMaster, who was aware of the popularity of adult action series such as The Avengers and Department S amongst teenagers and saw the potential of a version aimed at a younger audience.
Plot
In the opening story, three young people become caught up in the plans of ex-Nazi officer Karl von Gelb to "reverse the verdict of the last war" and inflict revenge on his former enemies. Under the direction of Colonel Buchan of MI5, the trio thwart Gelb's scheme to launch Polaris missiles on London from a captured nuclear submarine. This set the template for future stories, with the teenagers regularly preventing Gelb from carrying out massive and ingenious threats to Britain's security.
Cast and characters
Ronald Leigh-Hunt, as the British secret service agent Colonel Buchan, was the most regular cast member, appearing in series 1–4 and series 6. In 1971, he had a major part in the feature film Le Mans and when production of that overran by two months, he was unavailable for series 5; the absence of his character from the series was explained as him being on an overseas mission. The teenagers, almost invariably referred to as "the kids", varied over the years. The original line-up consisted of Tom Owen, Mary Maude and Gregory Phillips. Chris Chittell featured in series 2 and 3 and Adrian Wright played Mike Hobbs in series 4–7. Former Doctor Who companion Wendy Padbury joined the cast in series 5 as art student Sue Craig. Her youthful looks enabled her to portray a character several years her junior, although by the final series, with the actress in her mid-twenties and then married to actor Melvyn Hayes, careful camera angles were required to conceal an advancing pregnancy. Padbury was the only regular actor to appear in the eighth series, which was a single 13-part serial. She was teamed with co-star Martin Neil, who played Sue's boyfriend Dave.
Initially Geoffrey Toone played the resident villain Karl von Gelb, a former high-ranking SS officer. To avoid prejudicing potential sales of the programme to West Germany, references to the character's Nazi past were dropped in series 3. From series 4, the character was replaced by a succession of similarly crazed criminal masterminds, such as Jerome Willis as Professor Nero and Commander Caine played by Kevin Stoney. The criminals were aided by various henchmen, perhaps most memorably by Ryan (Richard Shaw) and the beret-wearing Burke (Michael Ripper) in series 5 and 6.
Episodes
A total of 104 episodes over 8 series were made. The first five series were all wiped by Southern but telerecordings of series 1 and a single episode from series 2 survive. The final three series (6-8) exist in various formats.
Repeats of the surviving episodes of Freewheelers were shown on the British satellite television channel Film 24 in 2010 and in 2017 and 2019 on Talking Pictures TV.
