Duck Patrol
Duck Patrol was a short-lived British television comedy series that originally aired in 1998. Produced by LWT for the ITV network, it centred on a river police station by the River Thames. The series consisted of seven episodes: Flying Colours, Out to Grass, Occurrences, The Spirit of the Deep, Duck Turpin, River Rage, The Siege of Mallory Wharf.
| Duck Patrol | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Comedy |
| Created by | Jan Etherington Gavin Petrie |
| Starring | Richard Wilson |
| Theme music composer | Simon Wallace |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 7 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer | Humphrey Barclay |
| Producer | Jamie Rix |
| Running time | 25 minutes |
| Production company | LWT |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | PAL |
| Audio format | Stereo |
| Original release | 19 July – 30 August 1998 |
The script for the pilot episode 'Of Ducks and Men' was re-filmed with some changes to supporting cast and main cast uniforms, and retitled as 'Flying Colours' which then became the first episode of the following series.
Cast
- Richard Wilson as PC Roland "Prof" Rose
- David Tennant as Simon "Darwin" Brown
- Samantha Beckinsale as Gillian "Marilyn" Monroe
- Trevor Cooper as James "Ollie" Oliver
- Geoffrey Hutchings as Malcolm "Sarge" White
- Jason Watkins as Kevin "Taz" Delaney
- Craig Fairbrass as Hero
- Sue Johnston as Val Rutland
- John Biggins as Stan Murdoch
- Jan Ravens as Angie Tennant
Episodes
| Series | Episodes | Originally aired | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | ||||
| 1 | 13 | 19 July 1998 | 30 August 1998 | ||
Series 1 (1998)
Filming for this series began in July 1998 and ended in August 1998.
| No. in series |
No. in season |
Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | "Flying Colours" | TBA | Jan Etherington and Gavin Petrie | 19 July 1998 |
| 2 | 2 | "Out to Grass" | TBA | Sylvie Boden | 26 July 1998 |
| 3 | 3 | "Occurrences" | TBA | TBA | 2 August 1998 |
| 4 | 4 | "The Spirit of the Deep" | TBA | Peter Tinniswood | 9 August 1998 |
| 5 | 5 | "Dick Turpin" | TBA | TBA | 16 August 1998 |
| 6 | 6 | "River Rage" | TBA | TBA | 23 August 1998 |
| 7 | 7 | "The Siege of Mallory Wharf" | TBA | TBA | 30 August 1998 |
Initial success and cancellation
The series unexpectedly proved to be a huge hit for ITV, which hadn't foreseen the show doing well, leading to a mass of black market t-shirts featuring lines from the series, and various other counterfeit merchandise, owing to the lack of genuine articles. A second series and a possible feature-film were both green lit; however both of these were eventually cancelled after the lack of a repeat for the first series saw the series fade from public consciousness. During Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor in Doctor Who, many episodes included Easter eggs and subtle references to Duck Patrol and his character of Darwin, with Tennant citing the series as his best work to date.
External links
- Duck Patrol at IMDb