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Press, 15 January 1986, Page 15

The 8.8. C. wartime drama series “Secret Army” (above) will return to T.V.N.Z.’s “new season” of programmes beginning in February. Other popular series, such as “Dynasty” and “Dallas” return then too. In addition there will be new series from a host of established favourites — “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers,” “Night Court,” “Falcon Crest,” “Miami Vice,” “The Bill,” “Magnum PI,” “Knight Rider” and “Cagney and Lacey” to name but a few. But there are also some

brand new shows, most of which have been making a big impression on the ratings on their home territories. The first of these is “The Equalizer” which will screen on Mondays at 9 p.m. It is an American series with a British star — Edward Woodward of “Callan” fame. He plays a retired British secret agent who now runs a one-man private detective agency in New York. Another who quit his previous job for a bit of piece and quiet is the former Detective Inspector Bulman of “Strangers.” He

found himself a nice little shop where he could potter away at his hobby of fixing antique clocks — but his retirement is far from peaceful. He will be back in a spin-off series called simply “Bulman.” Then there is that Australian series “Return To Eden” in which the newlymarried husband tipped his wife out of a boat and into the waiting jaws of a Northern Territory crocodile. Having escaped the crocodile, the badly-injured wife was rebuilt by a plastic surgeon and thus equipped with a new face, new body

and new identity, and set out to stalk her former husband (who by this time had shot through with her loot and her best friend). Having set the scene with that mini-series, there is now a whole series devoted to the story and it will screen on Tuesdays on One. On the comedy front there will be more of “Brass,” “Are You Being Served,” “Allo, ’Allo,” “The Crosby Show,” “Me And My Girl,” and a repeat of “The Secret Life Of Edgar Briggs.”

For those familiar with the humourist Tom Sharpe there is a treat in store with the 8.8. C. adaptation of “Blott On The Landscape.” Essentially it is the story of a planned motorway extension through an artistrocratic English stately home, but in the hands of Sharpe it becomes an epic farce resulting in general anarchy. “Minder's” George Cole stars as the homeowner Sir Giles Lynchwood, Lady Maud (his wife) is played by Geraldine James of “Jewel In The Crown,” whilst others in the cast include Simon Cadell of “Hi De Hi” and Julia McKenzie. “The Brothers McGregor” is a new comedy from the creators of “Brass.” Cyril and Wesley McGregor are half-brothers, notable chiefly for the fact that Cyril is white and Welsey is black. They made their debut in an episode of "Coronation Street” when they turned up at Eddie Yeat’s engagement party, but now they have been developed into full-blown characters in their own right for this new sevenpart series.

One of the hits of 1985 was the Welsh television production of “Robin Of Sherwood” which starred Michael Praed in the lead role. Praed went on to feature in “Dynasty,” leaving Harlech Television with the task of finding a new Robin Hood. Sean Connery’s son Jason will take over in the new series.

Another new series, “The Beiderbecke Affair,” delves into the world of door-to-door salesmen and their shady deals. James Bolam stars as a disgruntled schoolteacher trying to trace the saleslady who sold him a dud set of records by the legengary jazz trumpeter Bix Beiderbecke. “Wynne and Penkovsky” is a serial based on a reallife spy thriller about the British spy Greville Wynne and his Russian contact Colonel Oleg “Alex” Penkovsky. Penkovsky was instrumental in alerting the West to the Soviet missile build-up on Cuba, but both he and Wynne and eventually trapped by the K.G.B.