BY ANY OTHER NAME - LINKING "THE SWEENEY" TO "RUMPOLE OF THE BAILEY:"

I watched "Regan", an episode of 'Armchair Theatre' on YouTube, thanks to the recommendation of blogmate Rob Buckley.  (The link to his site, "The Medium Is Not Enough", can be found to your left....)  "Regan" served as the pilot for the series 'The Sweeney' which was an inspiration for the original version of 'Life On Mars'.

In the episode, Flying Squad cops DI Jack Regan and DS George Carter were grilling a bartender named Terry Maddox for information.  When he wasn't forthcoming, Regan put in a call back to the station for details on Maddox to see if there was anything which they could use as an excuse to pull his pub license.

The publican gave his name to Regan as Terry Maddox, but that doesn't mean it was his real name.  And we never saw Regan or Carter check his posted license to verify the name, nor did we find out what the cop back at the station found out about him.

So for alls we know, "Terry Maddox" might not have been his real name.  

He may have been working for the real owner of the pub who was named Terry Maddox.  Or he might have pulled the name out of thin air to protect his true identity.  Perhaps he saw "The Helen Morgan Story" on the telly the night before and decided to use the name of Paul Newman's character as an alias.  Only he changed the first name from "Larry" to "Terry", making the switch based on the terrycloth that he was using to wash his glasses.

At any rate, if he had given a false name, the ruse worked - Regan and Carter never came back to bother him.  And he was never again seen in that series......

So if "Terry Maddox" wasn't his real name, what was?

I'm thinking that, thirteen years before his official debut in Toobworld, we were witness to the first appearance of Dennis Timson, the head of the larcenous Timson clan of minor villains - "naughty boys" as Timson described them - all of whom kept Horace Rumpole in business as a barrister for many years.

Ron Pember played both roles.

SHOWS CITED:

'Armchair Theatre' - "Regan"

'The Sweeney'

'Rumpole Of The Bailey'

'Life On Mars'

BCnU!