Spender

Spender
GenrePolice procedural
Created byJimmy Nail
Ian La Frenais
Written byJimmy Nail
Ian La Frenais
Kenneth Ladd
Val McLane
Directed byMary McMurray
Roger Bamford
StarringJimmy Nail
Sammy Johnson
Berwick Kaler
Denise Welch
Tony McAnaney
Paul Greenwood
Peter Guinness
Theme music composerTony McAnaney
ComposerTony McAnaney
Country of originUnited Kingdom
Original languageEnglish
No. of series3
No. of episodes21 (list of episodes)
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Production
ProducersMartin McKeand
Paul Raphaël
Peter McAleese
CinematographyNigel Walters
EditorMartin Sharpe
Running time50 minutes
Production companyBig Boy Productions
Original release
NetworkBBC1
Release8 January 1991 (1991-01-08) –
29 December 1993 (1993-12-29)
Infobox instructions (only shown in preview)

Spender is a British television police procedural drama, created by Ian La Frenais and Jimmy Nail, that first broadcast on 8 January 1991 on BBC1.[1] The series, which also starred Nail as the titular character, ran for three series between 1991 and 1993, finishing with a feature-length special, The French Collection, broadcast on 29 December 1993. A total of twenty-one episodes were produced. The first and second series were produced by Martin McKeand, while the third and final series was produced by Paul Raphaël and Peter McAleese.

The series, set in Newcastle upon Tyne, focuses on the life and exploits of Detective Sergeant Freddie Spender, who was often chosen to carry out more daring police cases. With his criminal sidekick Stick (Sammy Johnson), Spender was regarded as one of the more remarkable TV detectives of the 1990s. The series featured an extensive back story for the main characters, with a number of episodes dealing with Spender's domestic life, his family and circumstances. Some of the storylines were however seen as somewhat dark; one episode featured the death of Spender's wife at the hands of a ruthless gangster, another on the kidnap of one of his daughters.[2]

Guest stars in the series included Amanda Redman, Rodney Bewes, Frances Tomelty, Julie Peasgood, Jan Graveson, Geoffrey Hughes, Bobby Pattinson, Tom Bell and Ian McElhinney. The series was broadcast on Tuesday evenings in the peak time slot that followed the BBC's flagship Nine O'Clock News. No further series were produced following the feature-length special, despite the popularity of the show, and it being a smash hit for the BBC in terms of ratings with the show regularly pulling in 14 million viewers, and each episode costing upwards of £350,000 to produce. In 1992, a novelisation of the series, written by Nail, was published.[3] The series has never been released on DVD.

  1. ^ "How to Choose Stereo AV Receiver".
  2. ^ "Spender". epguides.com.
  3. ^ Nail, Jimmy (1992). Spender: The Novel. ISBN 978-0553405026. ASIN 0553405020.