Private Detective Season: Dick Spanner PI - The Case of the Human Cannonball Part 1
This is another of those occasions when I would be very pleased if both my readers abandoned reading this blog and just went and watched Dick Spanner instead. In fact the only reason this show hasn't appeared here before is that, for reasons which will become apparent, it's on my list of TV programmes that I just can't seem to blog about. I have always tended to avoid description on this blog, thinking that there are already endless sites giving the same descriptions of TV shows, and that instead I would prefer to give my opinions about the TV I watch. That approach doesn't play off with some shows, and in the case of Dick Spanner PI I think it's because the show is very dependent on visual gags, double meanings, is quick moving, and intended to entertain and not so much provoke discussion, which doesn't lend itself to my sort of blogging.
However there's also a subject involved in Dick Spanner PI which is right up my blogging street. I don't think I've banged on about it for a bit, but I'm always conscious that nowadays we violate the circumstances in which old TV was intended to be viewed. We binge watch shows intended to be seen one episode a week with no possibility of pausing them, for example. In this case it's impossible to watch Dick Spanner PI in its original context because it was intended to be seen in small snatches as part of another TV programme. Afterwards it was repeated on TV as a stand-alone show and has also been released, edited into two longish episodes, on both VHS and DVD, but I really think this doesn't do it too many favours, so let's start properly by recontextualising it.
In 1987-8 the then new-ish Channel 4 broadcast, at lunch time on Sunday, a new sort of music and current affairs programme called Network 7. I'm aware that much of the TV I blog about was broadcast when I was in nappies or not born, but here we're in territory that I remember, and I loved Network 7, tuning in religiously every Sunday to my mother's disapproval. What Network 7 did was basically speed up television, with a style described as frenetic: very frequent changes from segment to segment, and one lot of information being on the screen in text while another lot of information was being spoken by the presenters. As a teen of the eighties I can see the influence of Max Headroom at every step. I loved this show.
But anyway, they had a segment where they had this private detective show, produced by Gerry Anderson, with each episode only running to six minutes. Yes, you read that right, this is the Gerry Anderson that's always missed off the lists of his work.
Spanner is a robotic Chandleresque private detective, investigating bizarre cases, and was made in stop-motion animation. With each episode being so short, and the show consisting of so much humour and atmosphere, honestly I think this is one of those shows you have to watch for the atmosphere and humour rather than the investigation. For example in this one, Spanner's services are called on by a dame who is bothered by the disappearance of her boyfriend, a human cannonball who has been...you know what's coming...fired! She looked like she'd been poured into the dress she had on and someone had forgotten to say stop.
I particularly like the visuals of where it's raining cats and dogs. In another episode the policeman reads The Riot Act to Spanner (and we see the title on the book he's reading) before literally throwing the book at him. This is wonderfully intelligent viewing based on the adventures of a private detective.
Unfortunately it isn't possible to see this series in its original context, which I think does it a mischief. You can see some odd episodes online and the whole thing edited into two longish adventures (the other one if The Adventure of Maltese Parrot) are also online. However the show wasn't meant to be seen alone in full like that, and doing that spoils the effect. Its clever punning just seems silly when carried on for about 50 minutes. Seen against the background of a very quick magazine programme its fifties styling and Spanner's drawl come across as a different pace and a rest. Unfortunately it's not possible to get the effect at all because apart from a couple of complete episodes which don't have Dick Spinner, Network 7 isn't available. I am sure that somebody must have some on VHS in an attic somewhere, but I'm certain they won't be commercially released, because I happen to have one odd episode on my laptop and I think Channel 4 would now be a bit embarrassed by it.
I don't have any criticisms of the show itself; the only problems I have are with the way the show has to be seen now, as I say.
Nonetheless, Dick Spanner is a delightful show which is well worth seeking out if you like private detectives or being amused or like anything else! I'm also quite impressed with the way I've written a whole blog post and barely talked about the actual episode I'm blogging about in any detail.
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