Send Foster

Send Foster

1967 - United Kingdom

Johnny Foster is a junior reporter on the Redstone Chronicle, a job that introduces him to some interesting people, some funny and some frightening.

Johnny was played by Hayward Morse, son of British actor Barry Morse who was familiar to viewers at that time as the police officer chasing after Richard Kimble in The Fugitive. Interviewed for the TV Times in 1966, Foster said "I always wanted to be an actor, but if I thought I'd get as much fun out of life as Johnny does I might have given journalism a go."

Hayward said of his character: "As a cub reporter he gets sent on all the so-called dull jobs. But they often turn into really big stories. He runs a 1932 Morris which is the love of his life. That's been the hardest part for me personally. It's meant I've had to learn to drive."

Send Foster

Send Foster also starred Patrick Newell (The New Avengers) as the Chronicle's crusty chief reporter Mr. Harding and Polly James (The Liver Birds) as Susan, the girl who runs the newspaper's front office. Guest stars during the series' run included Clive Dunn, Garfield Morgan, Patsy Rowlands and Brian Wilde.

Send Foster

The series also boasted some top class writers such as George Markstein and Victor Pemberton.

Episodes varied from the light-hearted, as in the case when he gets involved with the local pop scene, to the socially significant as in The Drama Critic in which a visit to a village amateur dramatic club seems like a boring assignment for our intrepid reporter. However, when he wields a savage pen, trouble follows, and Johnny learns not only about other people but about what sort of person he wants to be.  The series certainly didn't shy away from sensitive subjects and tackled racial inequality in one episode, I'm Not Coloured-I'm Black, in which Johnny finds that a colour bar is operating in Redstone and goes undercover as a waiter to expose it.

Send Foster

In an era when children's television filled the late afternoon schedules Send Foster was one of five new children's programmes starting the same week; 1 - 7 July 1967.

Send Foster
Hayward Morse and Polly James featuring in a TV Times fashion article in 1967.

Published on July 1st, 2020. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

Happy Holidays

Comedy serial written by Peter Ling (co-creator of Compact and Crossroads) made by the BBC Children's Television department and broadcast throughout the school holidays of 1954.

Also starring Clive Dunn

Thorndyke

Edwardian murder-mystery series in which the first real forensic scientist of detective fiction is put to the test

Also starring Patrick Newell

Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons

In the year AD2068, Earth's elite Spectrum force is bought into action when war is declared on the planet by the Mysterons.

Also released in 1967

Circus Boy

A ten-year old boy is adopted by a circus clown after his trapeze artist father is killed in a tragic accident.

Also tagged Childrens Drama

Edward Woodward as Callan

Edward Woodward as the troubled yet still deadly agent. With consistently hard-hitting, uncompromising scripts and uniformly excellent support playing from a talented core cast

Also released in 1967

The New Avengers

John Steed is back! With his new team of Purdey and Gambit, they find themselves facing new and deadly dangers in the bizarre world of espionage.

Also starring Patrick Newell

The Good Old Days TV show

Mock Edwardian entertainment that proved so successful that it ran for 30 years and in the process introduced around 2000 performers

Also starring Clive Dunn

Number 10 tv series

A whole host of stars feature in this historical anthology series telling the stories of seven Prime Ministers and their time in office at London's most famous address

Also starring Garfield Morgan