Buccaneer (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Buccaneer is a short-lived television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series, made by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in 1979-80, and broadcast over 13 weeks in April-July 1980.

The series, dealing with a developing air freight business, starred Bryan Marshall
Bryan Marshall
Bryan Marshall is an English actor, with a number of major credits in film and television to his name.Marshall was born in Clapham, London...

, Pamela Salem
Pamela Salem
Pamela Salem is a British film and television actress.She was born in Bombay, India, and educated at Heidelberg University in Germany and later at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, England...

 and Clifford Rose
Clifford Rose
Clifford Rose is a British classical actor.He was born in Herefordshire. He was educated at the King's School, Worcester and King's College London, before appearing in rep and with the Royal Shakespeare Company....

, and was produced by Gerard Glaister
Gerard Glaister
John Leslie "Gerard" Glaister DFC, was a British television producer and director best known for his work with the BBC. Amongst his most notable successes as a TV producer were Colditz, The Brothers, Secret Army and Howards' Way.After studying at RADA, Glaister made his West End debut in 1939...

.

The 13 episodes (and their transmission dates) were:

Reluctant Hero (27 April 1980)
Albatross (4 May 1980)
Grounded (11 May 1980)
A Kind of Cuckoo (18 May 1980)
Let's Make a Killing (25 May 1980)
The Thin End (1 June 1980)
Somebody's Telling Lies (8 June 1980)
Private Arrangements (15 June 1980)
Intruders (22 June 1980)
Feet of Clay (29 June 1980)
Eldorado (6 July 1980)
A No Go Item (13 July 1980)
Emergency (20 July 1980)

The Aircraft that "starred" in the series was a Bristol Britannia of Redcoat Air Cargo
Redcoat Air Cargo
Redcoat Air Cargo was a British cargo airline between 1977 and 1982 with headquarters at Horley in Sussex and an operating base at Luton Airport.-History:...

, registration G-BRAC, which wore the markings of "Redair", the name of the fictional airline in the series.

One reason for there being only one series (13 episodes) of this drama was that the fact that Bristol Britannia G-BRAC was destroyed in a crash near Boston, Mass., on 16 February 1980, shortly after the completion of filming, but just before transmission of the series. Of the eight people on board, seven were killed, and only one survived, albeit seriously injured.

With the "starring aircraft" destroyed in a crash (see here: http://www.aaib.gov.uk/sites/aaib/publications/formal_reports/3_1981_g_brac.cfm) plans for a second series were abandoned.

Amusingly, in view of later political developments, the lead character in the Buccaneer TV series, played by Bryan Marshall was named "Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...

".
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