michael_gothard_archive

Harry Fielder, an actor, extra, stuntman, and stand-in known as “Aitch”, had long career in film and TV, and remembered working with Michael.

"I worked with Michael a couple of times in the past ["When the Spirit Moves You" and "The Last Valley"] and the best one was Ken Russell's "The Devils" ... where we worked for a few months down at Pinewood Studios.

... I loved the way he worked ... "The Devils" was hard work for all the actors and Michael at his best ... Michael was playing a really nasty guy, but off set he was a quiet man and we had many laughs with all the cast and crew.

Michael was always word perfect.

He's still in my memory, good guy to work with."

Aitch on IMDB

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This is a story about a crook, Calvin P. Bream (Anton Rogers), trying to sell fake bonds to an even bigger crook, Miklos Corri (Kieron Moore).

Michael Gothard plays Miklos’ henchman, Perrin. The Randal and Hopkirk (Declassified) fansite says of his performance: "An honourable mention also for Michael Gothard, who delivers a memorable second string villain."

Calvin calls in Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt), of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), to try to get him out of the mess he’s got himself into, in dealing with a more dangerous operator than himself. Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) helps out in his usual incorporeal manner.

They all spend a lot of time in comic deceptions, comic drunkenness (Calvin Bream is unusual in that, when he is drunk, he can see Marty Hopkirk) stake-outs, telephone conversations and negotiations - which is probably just as well, because the fight scenes leave something to be desired.

Like "Department S", "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)" was filmed at Associated British Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England.

Both "When the Spirit Moves You" and the Department S episode in which Michael appeared, "Les Fleurs du Mal", were produced by Monty Berman, and had Frank Maher as stunt co-ordinator.

It looks as if Michael is wearing the same long grey coat throughout the later part of "When the Spirit Moves You" as he was wearing in the graveyard scene in "Les Fleurs du Mal."

WTSMY (119)

Michael Gothard was to work with Mike Pratt again, when Mike appeared in an episode of “Arthur of the Britons” - “People of the Plough.” In that instance, it was Mike who played a bad guy, Mordant, to Michael Gothard's Kai.

Saxon blood, Celt persuasion (18)

Harry Fielder was an uncredited stunt double for Mike Pratt, and Michael Gothard was later to work with Harry again on "The Devils."

IMDB entry

Eye for Film review

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In this episode of the spy series, Department S, Michael Gothard plays the principal villain, Weber. His name is often mentioned, but he is not seen until halfway through the episode.

Weber and his girlfriend Danielle, enigmatically played by Edina Ronay, are on the trail of some money, which has been stashed by an accomplice, who sent them an equally enigmatic clue to its whereabouts before he died.

They compete with the heroes of Department S to figure out what the clues mean, but they unwittingly lead the Department to the loot, and are arrested.

Like "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)", in which Michael was to appear in January 1970, “Department S” was filmed at Associated British Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England.

Both "Department S” and the episode of "Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)" - “When the Spirit Moves You" - were produced by Monty Berman, and had Frank Maher as stunt co-ordinator.

It looks as if Michael is wearing the same long grey coat in the graveyard scene in "Les Fleurs du Mal" as he was to wear throughout the later part of "When the Spirit Moves You."

Watch extracts from Les Fleurs du Mal, including Michael Gothard's scenes as Weber on Youtube.

Series overview from TV Rage:

In the mid-1960s, England's ITC Productions churned out series after series with apparent minimal effort. The amazing thing is that very few, if any, of these shows appeared to be a quick knock-off. The company that gave us the classics The Saint, The Prisoner, and The Avengers was also responsible for a most underrated classic -- Department S.

The series did follow a "formula" of sorts, as most ITC shows had three lead characters (usually two men and a woman) and a number of them featured an American (e.g., Stuart Damon in The Champions). That is the only thing "formula" about this series.

Department S ... was an elite branch of Interpol. Their function was to solve the unsolvable. Run-of-the-mill cases never crossed the Department's desk. Their assignments were more along the lines of finding out how a plane managed to land in London without a crew or any passengers, how the population of an entire village disappeared overnight, or why a man walked into a morgue and shot a corpse. The writing was exceptional, providing these and many other baffling oddities.

IMDB entry

Stills from the DVDs

LFDM BW (1)