Generic Tie-In Dump

[allthingshorror]

I just couldn't be bothered to list em...came from the loft, as myself and Mrs Horror are soon to be moving to Norfolk and I have to decide what to keep - have some fond memories of some of these books. Could this be used as a generic tie-in dump Dem?

[dem]

Aug 16, 2009 15:18:36 GMT @allthingshorror said:

I just couldn't be bothered to list em...came from the loft, as myself and Mrs Horror are soon to be moving to Norfolk and I have to decide what to keep - have some fond memories of some of these books. Could this be used as a generic tie-in dump Dem?

Can't see any reason why not, it might even spawn a few threads. Here's some we made earlier (Vault MK I again), will sort some more tomorrow if opportunity arises.

Chris Barlas - Man About The House (Sphere, 1977)

Take two girls and one guy, put them under the same roof - and you've got a recipe for laughs!

I'll f**k**g bet.

Richard Gallagher - The Stewardess Strangler (World Distributors, 1972)

Lard-arsed Private Eye Frank Cannon's impersonation of a Stewardesss Strangler in action.

Jess Shelton - Daktari #1: Mystery At Wameru (Nel, March 1967)

Blurb:

Here's the first in a series of stories based on the fantastically popular Ivan Tors TV series DAKTARI.

In MYSTERY AT WAMERU a thrilling tale of diamond smuggling in the wilds of the African jungle, you will meet all your TV favourites:

Judy the Chimp whose startling discovery first uncovers the smugglers' cunning plot.

Clarence the Lion whose cross-eyes do not prevent him from spotting a villain.

Daktari himself - Marsh Tracy, his beautiful daughter Paula, the stalwart Hedley and the dashing Jack Dane - characters who have already won a place in the heart of Britain's viewing public.

The Columbo of the big cats goes boss-eyed, nails bad guys, restores harmony to the jungle, etc.

[ripper]

I have the Cannon tie-in The Golden Bullet, in which FC is hired to track down a missing woman. It's standard fare, but passes a few hours very nicely. I was also a fan of the TV series.

[dem]

four personal favourites ....


Vic Crume - The Partridge Family:Terror By Night

A Holiday in Hell for the rock star family as their tight-fisted road manager books their vacation at eldritch, legend-haunted Witches Hollow!

Richard Gallegher - Cannon: The Stewardess Strangler

Big-boned Frank is framed for a silk-stocking murder by corrupt cops.

Mike Jahn - The Six Million Dollar Man: The Secret Of Bigfoot

Sworn enemies at the outset. Steve Austen and Sasquatch join forces to defeat invaders from outer space.

Chris Stratton - Then Came Bronson #3: Rock!

With a little help from those ever-friendly, entirely reasonable Hell's Angels, the planet's most law-abiding Outlaw Biker keeps the peace and delivers baby at the Folk & Truth festival.

[doug]

Thanks!
I really feel old now! I had that PF book as a kid.
Danny Partidge was an inspiration for an entire generation of children back then.

Take care and a happy Yuletide!

Doug

[ripper]

I liked The Partridge Family, Cannon and Six Million Dollar Man, but I can't remember seeing Then Came Bronson.

Does anyone know if the Cannon tie-ins were written in the UK? Also,were there any tie-ins for the David Jansson series Harry O, a series which I enjoyed greatly, but haven't seen for two decades or more.

A Merry Xmas to you, too, Doug, and also to Dem and everyone else on the forum :-D.

[dem]

A very happy Christmas to you too, Rip and Doug.

Have had a lot of pleasure from these, too. Fred. E. Smith's attempt to do justice to Lord Brett Sinclair & Danny Wilde is maybe a little flat, but the Baker and Garforth novels make for very lively reading.

Frederick E. Smith - The Persuaders: Book 2;

W. Howard Baker - Danger Man: Storm Over Rockall

John Garforth - The Avengers #4: Heil Harris!

Richard Carpenter - The Ghosts Of Motley Hall

Antonia Barber - The Amazing Mr Blunden (Puffin, 1972)

Blurb:
It was such an old house it sometimes seemed to Lucy that all the past was gathered up inside it as if in a great box; as though it had a life of its own that continued to exist just beyond the reach of her eyes and ears. And did the amazing Mr Blunden, who knew so much about them, mean to hurt or help them? Could she really help those troubled ghosts from another age?

The cover shows Laurence Naismith in the Hemisphere production of The Amazing Mr Blunden. Produced by Barry Levinson. Written for the screen and directed by Lionel Jeffries, the film also stars Lynne Frederick, Garry Miller, Rosalyn Landor and Marc Granger. The film is released by Hemdale.

[pulphack]

Oh for a scanner - well, actually, I have got one, but I'm useless at uploading. Slate and chalk - you knew where you were with those...

Tie-ins are mostly rubbish, I suppose, and really only had a justification pre-video/dvd/youtube etc, but when they're original stories then they have a charm that can't be got any other way.

The wonderful William Johnston is a case in point (bet I've spelt it wrong again) - if nothing else, his barmy Get Smart books are always worth a read, sometimes a bit like William Burroughs goes all sit-com on your ass, and definitely better than the show (which was one hell of a let down when I saw it after reading those as a kid).

John Garforth is a bit of a forgotten man - his Avengers books come a close second to McNee and Leslie's, and his novelistion of Sexton Blake and The Demon God is still the last non-reprint Blake to hit the shelves. It's not as good as his Avengers stuff, but worth a look.

My vote for best lost tie-in goes to David Ray for his two Ratcatchers books - All In A Day's Work and The End Of The Fourth Reich - which were published by Panther in 1966. Taut, tight, not a word wasted, they thrill at 140pp each. The series itself is lost - only the title sequence and five minutes of one show are on youtube - like so many Redifussion shows that went west when the franchise changed. It starred Gerald Flood, Glyn Owen and Philip Stone as three agents working out of Whitehall and was more LeCarre than Avengers in tone. Owen played an ex-policeman and was the guy with a conscience; Flood was a suave public school educated spy and the cold Bond type; Stone was their rigorous spymaster. All three were known TV faces in their day and the series was pretty successful, if forgotten now because of its lost status.

The books stand up in their own right - worth looking for.

[ripper]

A couple of tie-ins that I have had in the past:

Danger Man: The Exterminator (W.A. Balinger 1966)
Land of the Giants: The Hot Spot (Murray Leinster 1969)

I didn't get to see The Ratcatchers, but from what I have read and from PulpHack's description, it sounds similar to the later series The Sandbaggers, a series which also spawned two tie-ins: a novelisation by Ian Mackintosh and an original novel by Donald Lancaster (Willian Narshal).

[dem]

Some more. Really liked the first two, reluctantly abandoned The Munsters, haven't got around to the others (only found Upstairs, Downstairs this morning) but the Jessica Fletcher looks especially tempting. Very pleasant surprise earlier in the year when Diagnosis Murder/ Monk author Mr. Goldberg popped onto the board for a chat.

Lee Goldberg - Diagnosis Murder: The Silent Partner (Signet, September 2003)

John Theydon - Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons (Armada, 1967)

Morton Cooper - The Munsters (Avon, 1964)

John Hawkesworth - Upstairs, Downstairs (Sphere, 1973)

Blurb:
It is 1905. In the streets of London hansom cabs jostle for space with the new-fangled motor car; in Eaton Place a parlour maid works a ten hour day for £20 a year.

The Bellamys reside in Eaton Place: above stairs Lady Marjorie runs the house and plans her husband's future in the government. Below stairs, Rose and Sarah, the maids, pursue their duties beneath the ever-watchful eye of Mr. Hudson, the butler.

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS is an intimate and fascinating novel of Edwardian life based upon the enormously popular London Weekend Television series.

Gareth Roberts - Cracker: To Be A Somebody (Virgin, 1995)

Cover design: Slatter-Anderson

Blurb:
TO BE A SOMEBODY
Put something in a cage, it'll start to behave like an animal.

Fitz is in a casino, gambling and boozing and smoking himself half to death and never quite getting round to going home to Judith.

Elsewhere in the city, an Asian shopkeeper is stabbed. Murdered.

A skinhead has been seen leaving the shop. DCI Bilborough is sure he's dealing with an isolated racist attack. Fitz is sure it's more complicated than that. As usual, Fitz is right. But Bilborough has vowed never to ask Fitz for help again, and DS Jane Penhaligon has her own reasons for loathing Fitz. It's not going to be an easy case.

But neither the police nor Fitz know just how bad it's going to get, as one man embarks on a series of revenge killings —starting with the Manchester police.

Granada Television's award-winning crime dramas created by Jimmy McGovern now available as thrilling novels

David Deutch - Murder She Wrote #4: Murder In Two Acts (Star, 1986)

Blurb:
Mystery writer Jessica Fletcher can't seem to complete any of her murder mysteries these days, what with having to deal with real life murders on both sides of the Atlantic.

But it's all in the family – so to speak. First of all, her cousin Emma, a London music hall singer, mysteriously disappears after a series of attempts on her life, leaving Jessica to find the party which wants the singer dead. And then in NewYork, Jessica's niece, an actress in a TV soap opera, becomes the main suspect in the killing of the show's producer.

But Jessica surprises audience and actors alike by exposing the murderer, proving that whether in London or New York, all the world's a stage.

[dem]

We've threads for Dempsey & Makepeace, and Kojak: Girl In The River, but don't think we've had one for Charlie yet. It's not that i don't remember it being on tv, more I never heard of it before in my life.

Victor B. Miller - Kojak: Requiem For A Dead Cop (Star, 1975)

Blurb:
48 Hours To Clear A Dead Cop's Name

A cop found dead with $10, 000 on him. Things begin to add up. Like he's been on the same trail for 18 weeks without a score yet the gang he tailed pulled one job after another.Some things didn't add up but you couldn't use those in court. Time for Koiak to play his desperate hunch.
Based on the Universal Television Series

Adapted frorn the episode Requiem For A Dead Cop. Teleplay by Richard Adams & Jack Laird
Story by Jack Laird
Novel by Victor B. Miller

Jesse Carr-Martindale - Dempsey & Makepeace 1: Make Peace, Not War (Futura, 1985)

Cover photograph Richard Mclaren

Blurb
THEY DON'T AGREE ON TACTICS - BUT THEY GET RESULTS
Lieutenant James Dempsey and Detective Sergeant Harry Makepeace are a very special team. Dempsey is a brash, street-wise New York patrolman assigned to London because his tough tactics have got too hot for the Big Apple.

Makepeace is an ambitious, upper-crust cop with an electronics degree – and she's a woman. They're partners, but they're definitely not buddies – until their battles against some of the most daring and vicious criminals in the country draw them together.

Then Makepeace innocently walks into the middle of a Triad heroin deal. Dempsey is at hand with a loaded gun. But he's infiltrated the ruthless drugs ring – and his orders are: kill her!

A novel of fast-moving adventure and high tension based on London Weekend Television's gripping new all-action series.
Don't miss Dempsey and Makepeace's other adventures:

2. BLIND EYE
3. LUCKY STREAK

Michael Brandon as Dempsey - Glynis Barber as Makepeace - Ray Smith as Spikings
Produced and directed by Tony Wharmby
Series created by Golden Eagle Films
A London Weekend Television Production

Nigel Williams - Charlie (Methuen, 1984)

Photo: Tom Hilton

Blurb:
Drawn from his own original screenplay for the peak-time ITV serial starring David Warner, Nigel Williams' brilliant novel is an intriguing whodunnit set against a background of inter-union rivalry and double-dealing over multi­million pound pension funds. Charlie Alexander is a shambling private detective who is suddenly confronted with a dead body - whose chief form of identification is an address book with Charlie's name in it. Searching for the killer (who may also be after him) and with the intermittent aid of the murdered man's wife, Charlie stumbles through a series of alternately comic and dangerous encounters to a tense and ironic climax.

This is Nigel Williams' fourth novel. His first, MY LIFE CLOSED TWICE, won the Somerset Maugham Award. He is also a successful playwright, most notably with CLASS ENEMY.

CHARLIE a four-part film serial for television
Starring David Warner
Screenplay by Nigel Williams
Produced by Graham Benson
Directed by Martin Cambell

[ripper]

Hi Dem. What did you make of the Upstairs Downstairs book? There seem to be a few around...Rose's Story, Hudson's Story etc. My mother had a couple but at the time I wasn't interested in reading them, but I may well give one a go. Do you know if they are novelisations or original stories? I think that the spin-off series Thomas and Sarah got its own tie-in. I watched a lot of episodes several years ago and I thought it knocked the spots off Downton Abbey (only seen a couple of episodes but that was enough for me).

I, too, have no recollection of watching Charlie. Since it starred David Warner I would imagine it would have had a fair bit of publicity at the time but if I saw it then it has left no impression on me at all.

[dem]

Hi Rip. I've another Upstairs Downstairs, (see below), but am yet to get around to either. Have never watched Downtown Abbey, but caught a number of Upstairs Downstairs episodes when ITV3 began repeating them on Saturday mornings late last/ earlier this year, found them very entertaining. Not sure if the books are straight adaptations from the series, but there are at least ten of them. Wouldn't mind a crack at "The War Tio End All Wars".

Michael Hardwick - Mr Bellamy's Story (Sphere, 1974)

Blurb:
The future of a promising Member of Parliament in Edwardian England could easily depend upon the patronage of the aristocracy. And the position of Richard Bellamy, MP, was particularly delicate. The son of a humble country parson, Mr Bellamy was married to the Earl of Southwold's beautiful daughter, Lady Marjorie, and his career was closely watched by her conservative family.
Yet Richard Bellamy was a politician with liberal inclinations at a time of great change. The Tory views of Victorian England were fading under the new era and Richard could sense the coming of a new age.
In this fascinating account of Richard Bellamy's rise from obscurity to success Michael Hardwick has captured the atmosphere of the Edwardian age and the character of the master of 165 Eaton Place.
MR BELLAMY'S STORY is based on a character from the award-winning London Weekend Television series UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS.
Cover depicts David Langton as Mr Bellamy

Also in the 'Upstairs, Downstairs' series in Sphere Books :
UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS
MRS BRIDGES' STORY
MR HUDSON'S DIARIES
THE YEARS OF CHANGE
ON WITH THE DANCE
SARAH'S STORY
ROSE'S STORY
IN MY LADY'S CHAMBER
`THE WAR TO END WARS'
ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

[ripper]

The TV series spanned the Edwardian era to the crash of 1929 if I remember correctly, so plenty of scope for original stories if these books are like that, and the blurb hints at it, though it's hard to know for sure. Watching the series reminded me just how good the standard of acting was. I thought Gordon Jackson was superb. Also, a great surprise was John Alderton turning up as a bit of a hard man and rogue in his portrayal of Thomas...very different to what he is best remembered for, but surprisingly convincing. I will really have to get a couple of the books.

[ripper]

Two novelisations picked up from a charity book stall in my local Co-op at 75p each.

The Duchess of Duke Street: The Golden Years by Mollie Hardwick (Mayflower 1976)

A Family at War: To the turn of the Tide by Jonathan Powell (Futura 1971)

Both novelise episodes from the two series. I can't remember too much about A Family at War, apart from the title sequence showing a sand castle on a beach with a Union Flag on top and the tide rolling in to sweep it away. I think Duchess was a BBC saturday night offering, in basically a broadly similar mould as ITV's Upstairs, Downstairs, and I did quite like Gemma Jones in the lead role. Apparently, Hayley Mills was cast but had to withdraw due to finding out she was pregnant.