Yellowthread Street
| Yellowthread Street | |
|---|---|
| Genre |
Action Crime Mystery Thriller |
| Developed by | Ranald Graham |
| Starring |
Ray Lonnen Doreen Chan Bruce Payne Robert Taylor |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Keith Richardson |
| Producer(s) | Ranald Graham |
| Running time | 52 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Yorkshire Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Audio format | Mono |
| Original release | 13 January – 7 April 1990 |
Yellowthread Street is a 1990 ITV police drama about detectives of the Royal Hong Kong Police developed and produced by Ranald Graham based on the novels by William Leonard Marshall.
In the Yellowthread Street series, the detectives of the Yellowthread Street police station in fictitious Hong Bay, Hong Kong -- DCI Harry Feiffer, a European born and raised in Hong Kong; Senior Inspector Christopher O'Yee, half-Chinese, half-Caucasian American, and all neurotic; and the ever-bickering team of Inspectors Auden and Spencer -- attempt to find the rational basis for inexplicable and seemingly bizarre crimes. For example, in 1988's Out of Nowhere, DCI Feiffer must figure out why in the pre-dawn hours, four people in a plate-glass-filled van with Chinese opera blaring out the tape deck were driving on the wrong side of a deserted motorway, miles from the nearest on-ramp, before dying in a violent collision with an oncoming lorry. And why, moments before the collision, did one of the passengers shoot the van driver?
Thirteen fifty-minute episodes were made.
Cast members included: Ray Lonnen, Bruce Payne, Robert Taylor, Tzi Ma, Mark McGann and Catherine Neilson. Tetchie Agbayani appeared in one episode.
Yellowthread Street Novels
- Yellowthread Street (1975)
- The Hatchet Man (1976)
- Gelignite (1976)
- Thin Air (1977)
- Skulduggery (1979)
- Sci-fi (1981)
- Perfect End (1981)
- War Machine (1982)
- The Far Away Man (1984)
- Roadshow (1985)
- Head First (1986)
- Frogmouth (1987)
- Out of Nowhere (1988)
- Inches (1994)
- Nightmare Syndrome (1997)
- To The End (1998)
Cast
- Ray Lonnen as Ch. Insp. Alex Vale
- Doreen Chan as Det. Jackie Wu
- Bruce Payne as Det. Nick Eden
- Robert Taylor as Det. Peter Marenta
- Tzi Ma as Det. Eddie Pak
- Mark McGann as Det. C.J. Brady
- Catherine Neilson as Det. Kelly Lang
Episodes
| Episode | Title | Written by | Directed by | Viewers (millions) | Original airdate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | "Power Play" | David Wilks | Ian Studdard | TBA | 13 January 1990 |
| 2 | "The Lost Man" | Eric Wendell | Roger Cheveley | TBA | 20 January 1990 |
| 3 | "Key Witness" | Robert Hammond | Syd McCartney | TBA | 27 January 1990 |
| 4 | "Middleman" | David Wilks | Roger Cheveley | TBA | 3 February 1990 |
| 5 | "Angel Eyes" | Lawrence Gray | Syd McCartney | TBA | 10 February 1990 |
| 6 | "Fan Tan Man" | Steve Burns | Roger Cheveley | TBA | 17 February 1990 |
| 7 | "Rummy's Cut" | Claude Harz | Gerry Mill | TBA | 24 February 1990 |
| 8 | "Sprint Runner" | William Marshall | Gerry Mill | TBA | 3 March 1990 |
| 9 | "The Red Pole" | Steve Burns | Ian Studdard | TBA | 10 March 1990 |
| 10 | "Chinese Boxes" | Phil O'Shea | Ian Studdard | TBA | 17 March 1990 |
| 11 | "Slicing the Dragon" | Robert Hammond | Syd McCartney | TBA | 24 March 1990 |
| 12 | "Big Circle" | Steve Burns | Gerry Mill | TBA | 31 March 1990 |
| 13 | "I Knew a Man" | Lawrence Gray | Tim Dowd | TBA | 7 April 1990 |
Reception
The series was well received by most, however one reviewer opined that "its chiefest goal seemed to have been to explore just how very badly a dramatization can corrupt and befoul the ideas and characters of a book"[1] On the other hand, many viewers celebrated the new technology involved with the production, including the fact that this was one of the first British TV series to use stereo sound as opposed to mono, and was the cause of many teenagers to plug in hi-fi speakers to their TVs for this reason alone.