Denis Shaw Season: The Invisible Man - Man in Disguise

I am delighted that this exercise in writing blog posts about an actor has brought several series that are new to me to my attention. The first of these is The Invisible Man (1958 to 1959), which I think I might actually have seen an odd episode of a long time ago but have enjoyed watching this odd episode because it has a role for Denis Shaw.

The premise of the show is of course borrowed from the HG Wells novel of the same title, however nothing else if taken from the novel at all. The protagonist - Peter Brady - is a scientist whose experiment into invisibility goes horribly wrong and makes him invisible instead of the rat he is trying to experiment on. In the TV series ultimately his invisiblity becomes publicly known and he ends up working with the authorities, using his advantage over everyone else. He does not go insane or die a miserable death, which is pretty much what you would expect from this situation. In fact I suspect that what would have put me off this series when I have seen it previously is the huge problem that it is impossible to make a human invisible. It is therefore completely science fiction but presented as if it is something that could really happen. As you can tell this is not an idea which appeals to me personally but I haven't been repelled by it this time.

The premise also gives the show licence to play with the special effects in a big way, which I suppose would have been an attraction for the show then and afterwards. For example we see cigarettes being smoked hanging in the air. The show had ongoing problems with depicting Brady driving a car or motorbike, which was of course done by having a stunt man drive the vehicle while crouching low out of view of the camera. Members of the public who saw this would of course think it was a runaway vehicle and respond accordingly.

I see the show was made by our old friends ITC who are no strangers to eccentric television, and I'm particularly taken with their gimmick of not crediting the actor who actually played Dr Brady, other than to put in the titles that the Invisible Man played himself. This has left a legacy where it isn't clear who played him in which episode and apparently he was played by different actors and voiced by another actor again.

Man in Disguise is a series 2 episode with a fairly straightforward drug plot. Dr Brady in his role as aide to the authorities is investigating a drug smuggling ring. A member of the ring pretends to be Brady (by bandaging up with dark glasses) to smuggle drugs into the country. A lot of the action is set around a night club where salt is peddled pretending to be cocaine, and Dr Brady sets out to bust the smuggling ring.

A lot of the show is very classic ITC. We have the French milieu of the beginning of the episode, which at the time was probably intended to suggest both continental sophistication and dodgy foreigners to its British audience. Then of course we have a presage of the classic 1960s televisual warnings about what happens when science goes wrong, in the shape of Brady's temerity in experimenting with invisibility and its effects on him. We have the slightly sleazy nightclub, and in fact I really enjoyed this episode.

Denis Shaw's role is of course as the manager of the nightclub. It's another perfect role as a dodgy man for him, and in fact in this role you can see how he could have obtained his name as 'the rudest man in London' and managed to get banned from every pub in Soho (quite an achievement). You get the impression that he's not even really acting but just uttering the lines resentfully, and honestly it's absolutely perfect for him.

I don't have any real criticism of this episode, although I see online that while it is widely loved there is some criticism that of course the contemporary special effects can tend to creak like an old gate. I think a certain inconsistency in plot and in the actual effects of the invisiblity has also been identified.

An excellent, enjoyable episode, which gives a perfect platform to Denis Shaw.

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