Turtle’s Progress (ITV 1979-1980, John F Landry, Michael Attwell)

Turtle’s Progress was in fact a spin off of The Hanged Man which aired in 1975 and starred Colin Blakely as a businessman who fakes his own death to discover who is out to get him. Turtle and Razor Eddie were two minor characters in that series, a pair of petty crooks and here they are still petty crooks who accidentally steal a van that is full of stolen safety deposit boxes. Naturally the owners of said boxes will do anything to get them back but Turtle and Eddie have their own ideas. The pair set up a company called “Guaranteed Security Inc” which they use as a front to deal with the “safe return” of key items from the boxes.

Each of the boxes, whether they contain money, documents or incriminating photographes, leads to a mystery for the boys to get involved with. The show has that same down at heel milieu as shows like Minder, Fox and Out (although shot on video unlike the film of the other shows) but hasn’t been as well remembered as any of them.

The boys local pub was The Robin Hood where Turtle’s Aunt Ethel (whom he lodged with) was the barmaid and Superintendant Rafferty was the policeman trying to bring the boys down (Rafferty was played by James Grout in the first series but a leg accident led to him being replaced by David Swift for the second batch of episodes).

In The Hanged Man Razor Eddie was played by Gareth Hunt but he was involved in The New Avengers and a possible movie career by the time of this series.

production details
UK | ITV Network – ATV

RUNNING TIME: 60 Minutes | NUMBER OF EPISODES: 13 | AIRDATES: 23 April 1979 – 11 July 1980

CREATOR: Edmund Ward | THEME MUSIC: Alan Price | PRODUCERS: Joan Brown, Nicholas Palmer | EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: David Reid

cast
JOHN F LANDRY as Turtle
MICHAEL ATTWELL as Razor Eddie
RUBY HEAD as Ethel Wagstaff
JO ROSS as WPC Andrews
JAMES GROUT as Supt Rafferty (season one)
DAVID SWIFT as Supt Rafferty (season two)

THE EPISODES
SEASON ONE 23 April – 11 June 1979
1. EPISODE ONE (23 Apr 79)
2. EPISODE TWO (30 Apr 79)
3. EPISODE THREE (7 May 79)
4. EPISODE FOUR (14 May 79)
5. EPISODE FIVE (21 May 79)
6. EPISODE SIX (4 Jun 79)
7. EPISODE SEVEN (11 Jun 79)

SEASON TWO 30 May – 11 July 1980
1. EPISODE ONE (30 May 80)
2. EPISODE TWO (6 Jun 80)
3. EPISODE THREE (13 Jun 80)
4. EPISODE FOUR (27 Jun 80)
5. EPISODE FIVE (4 Jul 80)
6. EPISODE SIX (11 Jul 80)