The Rat Catchers

Based in Whitehall, The Rat Catchers were a highly secretive band of men who officially didn't exist, but whose job it was to ensure the security of Britain and the Western Alliance. 

The three main characters were international playboy Peregrine Pascale Smith (Gerald Flood) an Oxford educated managing director and cold bloodied, but expert spy, Brigadier Davidson (Philip Stone) the analytical brains behind the organisation, and newcomer Richard Hurst (Glyn Owen) a former Scotland Yard Superintendent. 

The series was a far cry from the glitzy world of the superspy as being portrayed in the cinema at that time, and more like the bleak underground world seen through the eyes of James Mitchell's Callan, which began its televisual life just around the time that The Rat Catchers was ending its.

Published on January 24th, 2019. Written by Laurence Marcus for Television Heaven.