Man in a suitcase -- The girl who never Was

I think Man in a Suitcase is one of those television shows that resonates quite strongly with those from my generation but is almost unknown to anyone else. It was one of those detective dramas from the sixties by ITC, produced with an eye towards the American market. From what I've learned it was the direct successor to Dangerman (Secret Agent), utilising the production crew after McGoohan left to pursue The Prisoner project. The style of the show went even further down the hard boiled route than Dangerman, our hero, McGill, played brilliantly by the uncompromising method actor Richard Bradford, was laconic and moody, morose even. A disgraced former US intelligent agent, McGill was man cast adrift from his former life, living from job to job, a man who rarely slept under the same roof for more than a week, a man in a suitcase. His exploits often placed him in peril and presented moral dilemmas more complex than is usual for a typical hero. He was as likely to find himself in conflict with an unscrupulous client as was to be exchanging blows with heavies in a darkened alley. There's a good chance, I think, that the show took its cues from popular American fiction, there's a definite Mike Hammer feel to McGill but just as the unjustly maligned Spillane's character never found a popular audience in US television, Man in a Suitcase also fell on unwelcome shores and was cancelled after the first season.

Whether the show's failure to find an audience in the US was a result of audience reaction or the manoeuvrings of TV execs is uncertain, what is clear is that television in the US was moving into less dangerous territory. Successful shows like The Man from Uncle were being softened up, partly through the influence of mid-sixties camp, partly through concerns over the depiction of violence. McGill's world of casual violence and moral ambiguity might be too grim for a nation seeking respite from the reality of the Vietnam war, who knows?

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The single episode that really stick is my mind is, The Girl Who Never Was, this episode features Bernard Lee in a fantastic role. He plays a retired army man, Kershaw, I'm not sure what rank but his character's affectations suggest a Warrent Officer. Kershaw's character is brilliantly and succinctly conveyed in the script by Lee's performance. He's a man with his best years behind him, who misses the status and respect his rank afforded him. He's one of two antagonists in the story, the other, Gilchrist is an art dealer played by Annette Carell, while not exactly unscrupulous, Gilchrist is callous and devious and betrays both Kershaw and McGill in like manner.

The plot revolves around a painting looted from Italy during the war by a mentally disturbed British soldier and the efforts to recover it. McGill's character moves through the narrative like the wind or the tide, a force of nature, not a typical protagonist motivating the narrative, he just does his job. What makes his character sympathetic is his ethical code and his personal integrity. He doesn't meter out justice or arbitrate between good an evil, he's just trying to make an honest living while making as small a wake as possible through a sea of troubled humanity. As you might guess the resolution of the plot is not straight forward but the final scene is one of my favourites of any tv drama.