MICHAEL SEELY talks to me about CALLAN.

First broadcast on FAB RADIO INTERNATIONAL at 19:00 on September 21st 2025.

This week’s show features the return to VISION ON SOUND of one of our guests MICHAEL SEELY, the prolific archive TV author, researcher, and publisher of several books which forensically explore topics as diverse as THE NIGHTMARE MAN, DOOMWATCH, and the almost totally forgotten R3, through his SATURDAY MORNING PRESS imprint.

MICHAEL got in touch with me because, earlier in the summer I’d been giving the TV series CALLAN a long-overdue re-watch, because it felt as if it had been far too long since I’d seen any of the surviving episodes from the black and white series which began on ABC television in 1967 after a successful pilot as part of the ARMCHAIR THEATRE strand, and was popular enough to be picked up by THAMES TELEVISION and continue into the colour era, eventually having four series of containing 44 episodes of which 34 survive.

It was also remade as a feature film in 1974, and was resurrected for a one-off television play in the early 1980s.

CALLAN is one of those somewhat legendary series from the 1960s and 1970s which gets talked about a lot – often in hushed, awe-filled whispers – in archive television circles, so I make no apologies for returning to the subject today.

I’d been extolling its virtues online and claiming it as a classy example of how writing, direction, and performance can build suspense and tension in a multi-camera studio situation, push the boundaries, and create something terrific, occasionally shocking, and utterly intense within those limitations.

MICHAEL popped up to remind me how brilliant EDWARD WOODWARD’s intensity was, and how it sells the whole thing and, after an exchange of messages, we both agreed that his return to the show was long overdue, and the following conversation, recorded on JUNE the 18th 2025, is the result, and I do hope that you enjoy it.

PLEASE NOTE - For Copyright reasons, musical content sometimes has to be removed for the podcast edition. All the spoken word content remains (mostly) as it was in the broadcast version. Hopefully this won't spoil your enjoyment of the show.