Our Man at St. Mark's

Television series

Our Man at St. Mark's

Genre	Sitcom
Written by	Peter Miller James Kelley
Starring	Joan Hickson Donald Sinden Harry Fowler Leslie Phillips
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	4
No. of episodes	46
Production
Producer	Eric Maschwitz
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	Associated-Rediffusion Television
Original release
Network	ITV
Release	25 September 1963 (1963-09-25) – 28 December 1966 (1966-12-28)

Our Man at St. Mark's is a British comedy television series which originally aired on ITV between 1963 and 1966. Today the series is largely lost, with only 8 out of 46 episodes remaining in the archives.^[1]

It focuses on the parish of St Mark's, with Leslie Phillips starring as the Reverend Andrew Parker during the first season before being replaced by Donald Sinden as the Reverend Stephen Young. Joan Hickson played Mrs. Peace, the housekeeper. The series was originally intended to be called There Was a Young Vicar, but it was decided this sounded too much like the beginning of a limerick and a more respectful title was chosen. The show proved to be a ratings hit, although only six complete episodes are known to have survived.^[2]

Comparisons are often made with another clerical comedy All Gas and Gaiters which aired shortly afterwards on the BBC and was focused on a fictional cathedral rather than workings of an ordinary parish.^[3]

Cast

Main

Joan Hickson as Mrs. Peace (46 episodes)
Donald Sinden as Rev. Stephen Young (39 episodes)
Harry Fowler as Harry Danvers (18 episodes)
Clive Morton as The Bishop (14 episodes)
Leslie Phillips as Rev. Andrew Parker (7 episodes)

Other

Other actors who appeared in episodes of the show included Fay Compton, Francesca Annis, James Beck, Terence Alexander, Joyce Carey, Julian Holloway, Trevor Bannister, Victor Maddern, Annette Andre, Pauline Yates, Derek Francis, David Hemmings, Warren Mitchell, Freddie Jones, David Langton, Peter Vaughan, Michael Gwynn, Patrick Barr, Erik Chitty, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, George A. Cooper, Campbell Singer, Carole Mowlam, Linda Marlowe, Godfrey Quigley, Ann Bell and David Lodge.

Archive status

Of the 46 episodes produced, only 8 complete episodes (episodes 1 & 5 from series 1, episode 6 from series 2, and episodes 1, 3, 4, 7 & 11 from series 3) are known to have survived as telerecordings, due to the wiping of videotapes and destruction of film copies. The unaired pilot episode is also missing. Episode 9 from series 3 also exists, but the sound is missing. One episode (episode 12 from series 2) has some surviving sequences on film, although the sound is missing (most likely due to damage to the prints).