Having dazzled television audiences as the suave Edwardian adventurer in Adam Adamant Lives!, Gerald Harper’s next big series was Hadleigh, which ran for four series made between 1969 and 1976. Harper played the titular James Hadleigh, an extremely eligible bachelor and landowner, who has wealth, property and authority in a small Yorkshire town.
It’s remarkable now to hear such a jolly theme tune (which is revamped for the later series), and to see a title sequence in which Hadleigh is taking part in all manner of upper class pursuits from shooting clay pigeons to riding a horse in jodhpurs. James Hadleigh is so far removed from the world of current television characters as well as from modern Britain that he is quite literally a product of a bygone era, and the series had to be viewed with this in mind. Audiences wouldn’t take too kindly these days to a show about a rich man using his swagger to help the impoverished and right social wrongs, and neither would they be used to the suave, well-groomed style Gerald Harper so effortlessly plays, with his elegant and clipped voice. His impeccable performance remains the driving force of this series, and a large part of its success and continued appeal.
The first season and a half are in black and white, but after Yorkshire Television picked up the series, it began to be made in colour. It’s unusual for an ITV production, since the action is relatively studio-bound and shot on tape, with limited locations on film; so it has a look and feel much more consistent with BBC productions of the era. Straight from the first episode, Hadleigh is offered a cushy job in London working for a newspaper mogul (a lovely guest performance by Bill Fraser) and is torn between the cut and thrust of city life and a media career, and the opportunity to stay in Yorkshire, living in a fine house with servants, and a relatively cushy life. One consideration decides his future: a visit from the feisty and very pretty young Susan (Gillian Wray), a disaffected employee at the local newspaper. With his head turned by a pretty girl, Hadleigh stays in Yorkshire and pursues his romance.
It doesn’t take long to realise that Hadleigh is too honourable and old-fashioned for his own good; and with such high ideals always likely to end up a loser in love. Susan is independent, and from a different world to Hadleigh. In one memorable episode, she is framed in a plot by Greek police who are hoping to blackmail Hadleigh for her release. Using his private jet and travelling over to Greece to rescue her like a knight in shining armour, Hadleigh is determined to secure Susan’s release, as well as the two students she was travelling with, but will it improve his chances of securing the headstrong girl’s hand in marriage?
When he is not pursuing his romance, Hadleigh participates in local life, and as a scrupulously honest squire, he can be trusted to stop local injustices, such as a plot by dodgy antiques dealers from turning over a tidy profit by fixing auctions in the episode The Ring, which features Dennis Chinnery as one of the criminals.
The second series opens with Hadleigh’s country residence invaded by friends and relatives, and much that he dreads these occasions, they are expected of him. Quite a lot of the time Hadleigh is resigning himself to endless games of bridge or long talks about social reform, and this is one of the ways in which it’s apparent how much more slow-paced television was in those days. The good thing about that is there’s plenty of time for character development and the pursuit of ideas; though the downside is that if the former falls short, the scenes can be long and boring; and there are a few stodgy episodes in Hadleigh’s run that fall into the latter category, and it’s a shame that the second series gets off to such an undramatic start.
The series soon picks up again. Hadleigh’s daily activities on the local council are covered, and when one old flame, Mrs Paige turns up to apply for a job for which he is one of the adjudicators, just at a moment when he is going through a marriage crisis, he is torn between his personal feelings for her and his duty to work at his marriage, as well as his duty to the council to reach an unbiased decision. It seems that his old flames are destined to never find happiness in love either. The plot of throwing a potential love interest or temptation in Hadleigh’s way reoccurs throughout the episodes. By the time of the fourth series, Hadleigh finds an unlikely ally in his father-in-law, played by the wonderfully avuncular Gerald James, who is every bit a sucker in love as Hadleigh himself.
At fifty-two episodes covering four series over seven years, Hadleigh is a series that gradually develops from its simple premise and follows the exploits of the lead character through rapidly changing times. The last series ends with an acknowledgement that the tide has turned and a new social order is being established, whilst the old world that Hadleigh called his own quietly disappears forever. Hadleigh is a poignant, but sometimes-slow reminder of a bygone era of British television and British life. It features guest appearances from actors such as Nigel Hawthorne, Donald Sumpter, Gerald James, Michael Elphick and Gordon Jackson, and a charismatic central performance by the wonderful Gerald Harper.
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