The Buccaneers

The Buccaneers

1956 - United Kingdom

Future Hollywood actor Robert Shaw (The Sting, Jaws) made his small screen debut as ex-pirate Dan Tempest, the leader of a small band of freebooters who roamed the Caribbean Seas in the 1720's on their ship The Sultana. 

The Deputy Governor of New Province persuaded Tempest and his men to fight on behalf of the Crown against the advancing Spanish, and so began 39 episodes of swashbuckling adventures and the first pirate series for the small screen. Made by Sapphire Films and ITC the series was filmed at Nettlefold Studios, Walton-On-Thames with sea sequences shot just off the coast of Falmouth. The ship itself was already a well-established star having been used as the Hispaniola in Disney's Treasure Island, and the Peaquod in John Huston's Moby Dick

Unusually, the regular cast (amongst who was Roger Delgado, later to star as Doctor Who villain The Master), did not actually appear until episode three, the first two being used to set the scene. Guest stars included future Carry On star Joan Sims and a very young Jane Asher. Shaw was not the first choice to play the lead; the producers cast Alec Clunes (father of modern day TV star Martin) but prospective US buyers CBS thought he was 'too British' for American viewers, and so Shaw, who at that time was struggling and broke, was given the role (Clunes was recast as Governor Woodes Rogers). The series made him but he didn't take long to become disenchanted with the scripts as well as the gruelling schedule that demanded 39 episodes in seven months. 

By the end of the first series America had lost interest in the swashbuckler (showing a preference for Western's) and without the promise of overseas sales the series was cancelled. Shaw found himself hopelessly typecast and his career didn't pick up until 1963 when he appeared as a cold-blooded Russian killer in the James Bond film From Russia With Love. In 1976 he reprised his pirate image for the big screen in The Scarlet Buccaneer...but it was a critical and box office flop. 

Skeleton

Seen this show? How do you rate it?

Published on November 30th, 2018. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.

Read Next...

The Break

A successful psychiatrist and his ex-model wife are celebrating their Silver Wedding. Their very special guest is their closest friend and best man, whose evening is about to become his worst nightmare

Also starring Robert Shaw

Our House

A group of people pool their resources to purchase a house.

Also starring Joan Sims

Cheyenne

Cheyenne Bodie, a half-breed frontier scout travels the Wild West in the years following the Civil War.

Also released in 1956

Super Gran

Stand back Superman, Ice Man, Spiderman, Batman and Robin too. Hang about! Look out! For Super Gran!

Also starring Joan Sims

The Adventures of William Tell

Conrad Phillips starred as the legendary hero from the Swiss settlement of Berglan in Uri, who became a folk hero very much in the Robin Hood mode.

Also tagged Swashbuckling Tv Series

Luke's Kingdom

A family are uprooted from their Yorkshire home by their father in 1829 following the death of their mother, and taken to the other side of the world to start afresh in New South Wales.

Also tagged Swashbuckling Adventure

Billy Cotton

Big band, big sound and big big personality - with a rousing call of "Wakey-Wakey" Billy Cotton introduced an inexhaustible 50 minutes of non-stop music, dancing and comedy in the essential weekend variety revue that was a stalwart of BBC programming for 12 years.

Also released in 1956

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 released in 1956

The Adventures of Ben Gunn

A six-part prequel to Treasure Island which explains how Ben Gunn became a pirate, where the buried treasure in Treasure Island came from, and how John Silver lost his leg.

Also tagged Swashbuckling Tv Series