Picture above: Ian Hendry and Hildegard Neil in The Adventures of Don Quick episode ‘The Higher The Fewer’ [1970].

Recently discovered rare London Weekend Television promotional still for the episode ‘The Higher The Fewer’ which was first transmitted on Friday November 13th 1970.

Picture: Rear of Photograph. Ian Hendry and Hildegard Neil in The Adventures of Don Quick, episode ‘The Higher The Fewer’ [LWT 1970]

The Adventures of Don Quick [1970]

Video: The Benefits of Earth [1970]. The only episode known to have survived from the 70s.

Picture: Ian Hendry in The Adventures of Don Quick. TV Times Cover from 31st October 1970

Source: Wikipedia

The Adventures of Don Quick is a science fiction comedy television series that ran from October–December 1970, on ITV. Starring Ian Hendry and Ronald Lacey, six 50 minute episodes were made, shown in a 60-minute time slot. As of 2008, only the first episode exists, the other five are now missing. A technologically impressive 30 foot model spaceship was built in the studio for the series.

Plot summary

The show was a science fiction satire based on the characters of Don Quixote, with astronaut Captain Don Quick (Ian Hendry) and Sergeant Sam Czopanser (Ronald Lacey), members of the “Intergalactic Maintenance Squad”. On each planet they visit, Quick attempts to set right imaginary wrongs, often upsetting the inhabitants of whatever society he is in. The plot bears some resemblance to the five Penton and Blake stories by John W Campbell, about two astronauts who travel the Solar System meeting strange races.

The Higher The Fewer. The pair land on Melkion 5 where the population live in 2,000 storey high skyscrapers. The upper floors are for the upper classes and the lower floors for the lower classes. Quick decides to change all of that with disastrous results. James Hayter as Hendenno, Hildegard Neil as Mrs Arborel, Derek Francis as Arborel. Written by Peter Wildeblood.

Hildegarde Neil

Hildegarde Neil (born 29 July 1939), also credited as Hildegard Neil, is an English actress.
Born in London, and raised in South Africa, she first appeared on television in a BBC schools’ television production of Julius Caesar in 1963 and after that appeared mostly as a guest artiste in a variety of TV series over the last 40 years. She has also appeared in several films and on stage, both in the West End and touring.

Personal life
She is married to actor Brian Blessed – since December 28, 1978 – and has a daughter with him, Rosalind, who is also an actress and represented by the same agent as her mother. Ian Hendry also worked with Brian Blessed in the very first episode of the TV series The Sweeney, titled ‘Ringer’ [first aired on 2nd January 1975].

Stage Appearances
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• Neil spent a season at the Royal Shakespeare Company playing a variety of roles including “Gertrude” in Hamlet.
• She played Lady Macbeth in Ewan Hooper’s production of Macbeth at the Greenwich Theatre, which opened on 18 February 1971.
• She directed Roan School for Girls’ production of As You Like It in 1971.

Film and Television

Neil has featured in a number of films and is, perhaps, best known for the following roles:

• Eve Pelham, wife of Roger Moore’s Harold Pelham in “The Man Who Haunted Himself“, directed by Basil Dearden.
• Cleopatra, opposite Charlton Heston’s Antony, in the 1972 production of ‘Antony and Cleopatra‘.

Heston asked Orson Welles to direct, but Welles turned it down, so he decided to do it himself. The film was shot in Spain. Heston re-used leftover footage of the sea battle from his 1959 film Ben-Hur.

Neil’s television career has spanned six decades with notable roles including No Hiding Place, Jason King, Van Der Vaalk, The Protectors and The Professionals.

Source Wikipedia: Hildegarde Neil

Until next time,

Neil Hendry
Editor, Official Tribute To Ian Hendry

Further Reading

A detailed account of the life and work of Ian Hendry in the new biography:

Read: ‘Send in the Clowns – The Yo Yo Life Of Ian Hendry’ by Gabriel Hershman

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