Sexton Blake

ITV aired Thames Television's Sexton Blake starring Laurence Payne as Blake and Roger Foss as Tinker from Monday 25 September 1967 to Wednesday 13 January 1971. In keeping with Sexton Blake's classic print adventures, Payne's Blake drove a white Rolls-Royce named "The Grey Panther" and owned a bloodhound named Pedro. The show was originally produced by Ronald Marriott for Associated Rediffusion, with Thames Television taking over production in 1968. Pedro was played by one or more bloodhounds, which doubled as 'Henry', for Chunky dog food adverts with Clement Freud, and were owned by the then secretary of the Bloodhound Club, Mrs Bobbie Edwards. During rehearsals for the show in 1968, Laurence Payne was blinded in his left eye by a rapier. Typical of the TV show's sometimes-fantastic storylines was 1968's "The Invicta Ray" in which a villain dressed in a costume & hood of sackcloth-like material and, under the rays of The Invicta Ray, became invisible so that he could commit crimes without being seen. Of 50 episodes, only the first episode is thought to still exist.