The New Adventures of Charlie Chan

Earl DerrBiggers' character, Charlie Chan, was allegedly based on true-life detective Chang Apana, and had for many years appeared in numerous cinema versions. However, he'd been away from our screens for fourteen years when this series of 39 half-hour TV episodes were made (the first five of which were filmed in the USA). 

In this series J. Carrol Naish starred as the Chinese proverb-quoting detective, father to many children, although aided here by 'Number-One Son', Barry Chan (James Hong). Charlie, now retired, had moved to London and, now slimmer and more advanced in years, was hoping to retire from a life of crime solving. No luck there, then. 

In this series he was helped further by two British detectives, Inspector Marlowe (Hugh Williams) and Inspector Duff (Rupert Davies, who would later star in the title role of another famous fictional detective series, Maigret). Also making early TV appearances as guest cast were Honor Blackman, Francis Matthews, Raymond Francis, William Franklyn, Leonard Sachs and Patrick Troughton.

Published on January 11th, 2019. Written by Noel Onely for Television Heaven.