AS SEEN ON TV: HUGH "BULLDOG" DRUMMOND

 

 

 BULLDOG DRUMMOND

AS SEEN IN:

'Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. Presents'

TV LOCATION:

Earth Prime-Time

From Wikipedia:

Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile (1888–1937), and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.

The Bulldog Drummond stories follow Captain Hugh "Bulldog" Drummond, D.S.O., M.C., a wealthy former WWI officer of the fictional His Majesty's Royal Loamshire Regiment, who, after the First World War, spends his new-found leisure time as a private detective. He places an advertisement in the local newspaper-

"Demobilised Officer finding peace incredibly tedious would welcome diversion. Legitimate if possible; but crime of a humorous description, no objection. Excitement essential."

The character is partly based on McNeile's friend Gerard Fairlie, who carried on writing Drummond books after McNeile's death.

Drummond is a proto-James Bond figure and a version of the imperial adventurers depicted by the likes of John Buchan. In terms of the detective genre, the first Bulldog Drummond novel was published after the Sherlock Holmes stories, the Nayland Smith/Fu Manchu novels and Richard Hannay's first three adventures including "The Thirty-Nine Steps". The character first appeared in the novel "Bulldog Drummond" (1920), and this was followed by a lengthy series of books and adaptations for films, radio and television.

Philip José Farmer and J. T. Edson included Bulldog Drummond in Tarzan's extended family tree as the older brother of John 'Korak' Drummond-Clayton and the great-uncle of Dawn Drummond-Clayton.

Although the Wold Newton Family may incorporate Drummond into that shared universe, the Toobworld Dynamic can't add his appearances in novels, short stories, movies, radio plays, and comic books into the background for this one outing in television. Those all belong in their respective fictional universes, from BookWorld through the Cineverse, and beyond.

As for Korak and Dawn Drummond-Clayton, neither one has appeared on TV, so they don't have a presence in Earth Prime-Time. Tarzan himself, as envisioned by Edgar Rice Burroughs, has yet to appear in Toobworld. Right now we only have Ron Ely's televersion, who was most active during the 1960's. This could be the original Tarzan, after receiving that immortality serum from the books; or he could be a descendant following in the footsteps of his grandfather(?). But that would depend on an Edwardian era Tarzan finally reaching our TV screens. (It seems like every new incarnation of Tarzan MUST be situated in the modern day.)

A 30-minute episode of Douglas Fairbanks Jr Presents featured Bulldog Drummond in "The Ludlow Affair" (1957). Drummond (Robert Beatty) was little more than a detective in London, aided by Kelly (Michael Ripper). This episode is available on DVD.

But you can see it now for free here:

BCnU!