Dick Barton – Special Agent is a radio thriller serial that was broadcast in the BBC Light Programme between 7 October 1946 and 30 March 1951.
[2] The serial followed the adventures of ex-commando Captain Richard Barton MC (Noel Johnson, later Duncan Carse and Gordon Davies) who, with his mates Jock Anderson (Alex McCrindle) and Snowey White (John Mann), solved all sorts of crimes, escaped from dangerous situations, and saved the nation from disaster time and time again.
After the series had been on the air for some time, the BBC (conscious that the biggest audience for the programme was schoolboys) wrote a strict code of what Dick and his chums could and couldn't do, one clause famously stating "Sex plays no part in his adventures."
The series was written by Edward Mason's son Lol Mason, and featured Moray Watson as old Dick Barton, Robert Bathurst as his son Richard, Matilda Ziegler as Richard's wife Sally, Julian Dutton as young Dick Barton and Iain Cuthbertson as Jock Anderson.
The BBC produced a completely new live recording of an original 1951 Dick Barton serial in June 2013, starring Tim Bentinck and Terry Molloy.
Like the original, it ran in 15-minute segments and was again accompanied by the familiar theme tune, the titles playing against an animated dagger and target motif.
The cast of the show was Tony Vogel as Dick Barton, Anthony Heaton as Snowey White, James Cosmo as Jock Anderson and John Gatrell as Sir Richard Marley.
The complete series was released on DVD in March 2009, and in 2010 re-runs of Dick Barton were shown on the British satellite television channel Film 24.
A stage musical, Dick Barton Episode I, Special Agent, written by Phil Willmott, directed by Ted Craig.
In February 2011, BBC Radio 4 and a number of national newspapers reported that 338 episodes of Dick Barton recorded in the late 1940s had been recovered from the NFSA [National Film and Sound Archive] in Australia; these re-recordings, using the original BBC scripts and music cues, starred Douglas Kelly as Barton with Moira Carleton, Clifford Cowley, Richard Davies, William Lloyd and Patricia Kennedy.
The BBC produced a completely new live recording of an original 1951 Dick Barton serial in June 2013, starring Tim Bentinck and Terry Molloy.
(RELEASED: 1989) (RE-RELEASED: 2001 and 2009) 2 STORY 2: 'Dick Barton and the Paris Adventure' (which takes place right after "The Secret Weapon") written by Edward J. Mason.
(RELEASED: April 2011) 3 STORY 3: 'Dick Barton and the Cabatolin Diamonds' (which takes place right after "The Paris Adventure") written by Geoffrey Webb.
(RELEASED: 3 November 2011) 5 STORY 7: 'Dick Barton and the Tibetan Adventure' (which takes place right after "The Smash and Grab Raiders") written by Edward J. Mason.
(RELEASED: 5 January 2012) 7 STORY 10: 'Dick Barton and the Vulture' (which takes place right after "The Affair of the Black Panther") written by Edward J. Mason.
(RELEASED: 5 APRIL 2012) 9 STORY 14: 'Dick Barton and the Case of Conrad Ruda' (which takes place right after "The Li-Chang Adventure") written by Basil Dawson.