In search of the One Armed Man
I've started watching The Fugitive on DVD. It's one of those shows that have entered our cultural DNA: though it began before I was born, and the last repeats were shown before I was old enough to sit up and watch it, I somehow manage to absorb the basics by osmosis. David Janssen plays Richard Kimble, on the run for killing his wife while looking for the One Armed Man who is the real killer.
So how does the real program actually stack up? Well actually from what I've seen so far, The Fugitive is darn good television. The production values are good (albeit a bit old fashioned), the scripts well written, and though we know that Kimble will always live to run away another day, there's inbuilt suspense in each episode as the law (or a lynch mob) gets closer and closer to catching him.
If I've got a nit to pick, it's that Kimble finds it a bit too easy to convince random strangers that he's innocent, especially as he fail to convince a jury of the same!
On a lighter televisual note, I spotted Patrick Troughton the other day, guest starring in an episode of The Goodies as mad scientist Ratfink Von Petal, and having fun hamming it up. Jon Pertwee had equal fun on the same show a few years later as a mad Welsh preacher!
So how does the real program actually stack up? Well actually from what I've seen so far, The Fugitive is darn good television. The production values are good (albeit a bit old fashioned), the scripts well written, and though we know that Kimble will always live to run away another day, there's inbuilt suspense in each episode as the law (or a lynch mob) gets closer and closer to catching him.
If I've got a nit to pick, it's that Kimble finds it a bit too easy to convince random strangers that he's innocent, especially as he fail to convince a jury of the same!
On a lighter televisual note, I spotted Patrick Troughton the other day, guest starring in an episode of The Goodies as mad scientist Ratfink Von Petal, and having fun hamming it up. Jon Pertwee had equal fun on the same show a few years later as a mad Welsh preacher!