Crane

"Crane" was the first TV series I recall that was shot on location in Casablanca and the format was unusual, too, with the "goodie" - Crane - who was a smuggler and the "baddie" - Colonel Sharif Mahmoud - who was the Casablanca police chief trying his best to catch Crane at it (smuggling, that is!). My sympathies were always with Mahmoud, played by Gerald Flood. A handsome, elegant actor (a lost art these days), he was very much the hero of the piece, a much more attractive character than the "lantern-jawed" Crane, as played by Patrick Allen. Other series regulars were Sam Kydd as Orlando O'Connor and Layah Raki as the token belly-dancer female, with Leonard Trolley as Mahmoud's long-suffering subordinate, Shaab. I would love to see some of the episodes again, but time has passed and I learn that the show is unavailable. Such a pity, as it was fun, with more than a touch of glamour. I will always fondly remember "Crane".

I think a digital channel should be made available for Nostalgia TV. We could have re-runs of programs like Crane which I remember as a kid and really liked it. the parents thought it complete tripe ,but what the hell.

There is loads of stuff out there in old TV land that would be great fun to see again. Programmes like Adam Adamant, the dreadful Nationwide, really old Corrie, etc etc. I am a member of the original TV generation when there was an innocence about TV and can remember all sorts of rubbish!

I remember Crane (or crumple clock as Pater called him) as a daring rogue battling against swarthy foreign officialdom. Great!

Patrick Allen also did the Voice over for the government nuclear warning film so his voice might have been the last one we ever heard!

Unlike other 'Crane' reviewers with impressive memories, pretty much all I remember about the series is Laya Raki. She was, to me as a teenager in the early 60s, simply the most beautiful, exotic, sexy female on TV. Appearing in tight, low-cut dresses that seemed to be sprayed-on to her fabulous curves, she was like a creature from another planet. With her strange exotic accent, she played Halima who ran the small bar owned by Mr Crane. Her cleavage was a thing of wonderment, as were her sensual and expressive lips. Her whole persona radiated sex. She said in an interview at the time that Patrick Allen (who played Crane) criticized her for not wearing a bra, but she argued that she didn't need one. Check out the contemporary photos of her in a see-through night dress by Peter Basch and you can see she was absolutely correct. I savored every second she was on screen, and I probably resented all the other characters when the camera turned to them instead. Crane was the highlight of early 60s TV for me, and for one reason only - Laya Raki. A woman who has had the most remarkable life, for example escaping Nazi Germany as a teenager in the 1940s, Laya is (according to Wikipedia) still alive and living in LA. Someone should write a biography.

Sad to read that the "Crane" series has been all but wiped out of existence, like the early "Avengers": anything in black-and-white format must have been considered not worth keeping after colour came in."Crane" was panned by the critic of one daily newspaper (probably the "Daily Express") who said they should have 'lowered the boom' on it. Allen always seemed to play the same, two-dimensional,blustering/ bullying,authority-types-trapped by his voice and square-jawed looks-but he filled a niche and stayed around and he's hard to forget.Suave, forgotten, Gerald Flood was a good actor, probably better than Allen, but was not so lucky in having to take the 'ten-a-penny' 'supporting-part" roles that he didn't deserve to be stuck with.Sam Kydd was always Sam Kydd and seemed to be forever in demand for playing those surly/chirpy,below-decks characters: a pity about his early death.

This series, although short, captured my imagination, and I loved the interaction between the characters. There were some laughs, but mainly the drama was gripping, but entertaining.

I would recommend that if you did not catch the Crane first time round, you work darn hard to catch the re runs.