Percy Stuart
| Percy Stuart | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Adventure |
| Created by | Karl Heinz Zeitler |
| Starring |
Claus Wilcke Horst Keitel |
| Theme music composer | Siegfried Franz |
| Opening theme | Siegfried Franz |
| Composer(s) | Siegfried Franz |
| Country of origin | Germany |
| Original language(s) | German |
| No. of seasons | 4 |
| No. of episodes | 52 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Horst Lockau |
| Running time | 25 |
| Production company(s) | Hamburgische Film- und Fernsehproduktion |
| Distributor | ZDF |
| Release | |
| Original release | March 19, 1969 |
Percy Stuart was a German TV series (1969–1972).
Percy Stuart tried to fulfill his father's last wish by becoming a member of his father's English club and in order to get accepted he has to prove that he is worthy. Since some of the members do not like the idea he is confronted by a number of actually impossible missions. Whenever he fails them once he has start all over again. On his missions he is accompanied and observed by solicitor Reginald Prewster (Horst Keitel) who always eventually has to report to the club how it went.
Percy Stuart acts very self-confident and venturesome but still he is also a son who respects his fathers wishes. His father on the other hand seems to have offended the ultraconservative members of the Eccentric Club by leaving Merry Old England in order to make a fortune in the New World (and even more by succeeding in doing so). Even though some of the accredited club members act repeatedly downright grumpy, Percy Stuart would always remain nonchalant.
It is hardly a mere coincidence to find Snyder, Pommeroy and Winterbottom among the names of the members. Their names are familiar to many Germans thanks to the comedy sketch Dinner For One and were so already back then. When the series about Percy Stuart started, the very sketch was already that famous in Germany that even after several decades it is still broadcast on every New Year's Eve. To combine cherished clichés about Britons had already been a formula for the success of the many German Edgar Wallace feature films.
Due to the typical content of the show, which included a great deal of action, Percy Stuart wore the nickname "The German James Bond".
Actually Percy Stuart was much older than Ian Fleming's famous creation. The character goes back to the times before World War I. The first adventures of Percy Stuart were published as pulp fiction in 1913 and described his colourful efforts to become accepted as member of a lodge called the "Eccentric Club" which consisted of high-ranked military officers and civil servants and other influential members of the British upper class. Percy Stuart was the glorification of a British gentleman and his missions could sometimes be described as one-man raids. Subsequently and somewhat understandably the contemporary German authorities regarded this form of entertainment as no longer appropriate once Great Britain had joined World War I and fought against the imperatorial Germany. So Percy Stuart stopped being a British lord and was instead described as an American millionaire.
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Wikipedia