Hot Metal

• regulars:
• Robert Hardy as Russell Spam / Terrence "Twiggy" Rathbone
• Geoffrey Palmer as Harold Stringer [ series 1, episode #13 ]
• Richard Wilson as Dicky Lipton [ series 2 ]
• Richard Kane as Greg Kettle
• John Gordon Sinclair as Bill Tytla [ series 1 ]
• Geoffrey Hutchings as Max Rutherford [ series 1 ]
• John Horsley as Father Teasdale [ series 1 ]
• Caroline Milmoe as Maggie Troon [ series 2 ]
• David Barrass as Jack Thrush [ series 2 ]
• crew:
• Andrew Marshall, writer
• David Renwick, writer
• David Askey, director [ series 1 ]
• Nic Phillips, director [ series 2 ]
• Humphrey Barclay, producer

This sitcom lampoons the journalistic style of Rupert Murdoch and the Fleet Street newspapers as traditional newspaperman and editor Harold Stringer tries to preserve some dignity and integrity while managing editor Russell Spam courts scandal and the sensational in order to increase circulation.

Robert Hardy, well known to Americans for his role as Siegfried Farnon on All Creatures Great and Small and as Winston Churchill in various productions, takes on the dual roles of muckraker Russell Spam and his self-important boss, publisher Twiggy Rathbone.

Harold Stringer was played by the veteran deadpan comic actor Geoffrey Palmer in the first series. He was replaced in the second series by Richard Wilson playing a twitchier Dicky Lipton, hired to replace the missing Stringer.

                            Original
  Episode #     Prod #      Air Date   Titles
_____ ______ ___________  ___________ ___________________________________________

• Season 1

1      1-01                16/Feb/86   The Tell-Tale Heart 
2      1-02                23/Feb/86   The Modern Promethius 
3      1-03                02/Mar/86   Beyond the Infinite 
4      1-04                09/Mar/86   Casting the Runes 
5      1-05                16/Mar/86   The Slaughter of the Innocent 
6      1-06                23/Mar/86   The Respectable Prostitute 

• Season 2

7      2-01                06/Mar/88   Religion of the People 
8      2-02                13/Mar/88   The Joker to the Thief 
9      2-03                20/Mar/88   The Hydra's Head 
10     2-04                27/Mar/88   The Twilight Zone 
11     2-05                10/Apr/88   Crown of Thorns 
12     2-06                17/Apr/88   Unleash the Kracken 


Other Episodes

Special S2                 10/Mar/89    The Rat Sat on the Cat (13 min)