Roy Markham
Created by Sterling Silliphant and Robert C. Dennis

In this short-lived American TV series, which started as a summer replacement, that tried to cash in on the success of PERRY MASON and PETER GUNN (and preceded Burke's Law), consummate pro Ray Milland starred as suave, wealthy, educated, expatriate Brit ROY MARKHAM, a successful, but rather bored criminal attorney who decides to take a more hands-on approach to criminal law, becoming a private investigator. The show was developed from an episode of the anthology show Suspicion entitled "Eye To Eye."

Roy didn't have an office, just an answering machine. At first he had an asisstant, John Riggs (played by Simon Scott), to do most of the legwork, but that only lasted a few shows. For the most part, Roy worked alone. Although based in the Brash New World of 1960 New York City, his cases, ranging from corporate fraud to blackmail and murder, took him all over the world.

Markham, ever the distinguished gent, favoured tweeds, scotch and soda, and those most elegant of early sixties props, cigarettes. Alas, the show never really caught on, despite consistently convincing performances by Milland. "This is run-of-the-mill private eyeball stuff," ventured one critic, "The plots come out of a meatgrinder."

Writer Sterling Silliphant was also responsible for creating cowboy eye Sam Logan, better known as The Man From Blackhawk.

TELEVISION

• MARKHAM
  (1959-60, ABC)
  30-minute episodes
  First telecast: May 2, 1959
  Last telecast: September 22, 1960
  Writers: Sterling Silliphant, Robert C. Dennis
  Directed by Richard H. Bartlett
  Produced by Joseph Sistrom and Warren Duff
  A Miranda-Revere Production
  Starring Ray Milland as ROY MARKHAM
  Also starring Simon Scott as John Riggs (1959)

NOVELS

• The Case of the Pornographic Photos (1961, by Lawrence Block, AKA You Could Call It Murder)
  Lawrence Block assured me that this wasn't a novelization, but an original story using characters from the show. According to fellow Rara-Avian Mario Taboada, "At the tender age of 22 or 23, Block was already in command of the full arsenal. Parts of this book are dynamite. And I note with pleasure that Block was *not* imitating Chandler."

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.