Codename (TV series)
Encyclopedia
Codename was a short-lived British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

 series produced 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 1970.

An espionage thriller series, Codename was based around a secret organisation, MI17, being run from a residential hall at Cambridge University. The programme, lasting for one series of thirteen episodes, 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...

 and starred Clifford Evans
Clifford Evans
Clifford Evans was a Welsh actor. As a conscientious objector he served in the Non-Combatant Corps in World War II.During the summer of 1934 he appeared in "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Open Air Theatre in London....

, Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo
Alexandra Bastedo is a British actress, best-known for her role as secret agent Sharron Macready in the 1968 British espionage/science fiction adventure series The Champions...

, Anthony Valentine and Brian Peck. It was preceded by a one-off pilot play, with a different cast.

The leads were well known from other series when this series was originally transmitted, Valentine from Callan
Callan (TV series)
Callan is the title of a British television series set in the murky world of espionage. Originally produced by ABC Weekend Television and later Thames Television, it was aired on the ITV network over four seasons spread out between 1967 and 1972...

, Bastedo from The Champions
The Champions
The Champions is a British espionage/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure series consisting of 30 episodes broadcast on the UK network ITV during 1968–1969, produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company...

and Evans from The Power Game
The Plane Makers/The Power Game
The Plane Makers is a British television series made by ATV for ITV between 1963 and 1965.The series focused on the power struggles between the trades union and the management on the shop floor of an aircraft factory, Scott Furlong Ltd, as well as the political in-fighting between the management...

, and the first episode featured on the cover of the Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...

. However, the show failed to capture the public imagination, and no further series were made.

No episodes survive in the BBC archive, though there is a recording of the pilot.
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