Episodes

• All On Tape: Broadcast – Saturday 31st October, 1959
• Man Hunt: Broadcast – Saturday 7th November, 1959
• Point of No Return Broadcast – Saturday 14th November, 1959
• Child’s Play: Broadcast – Saturday 21st November, 1959
• Time Factor: Broadcast – Saturday 28th November, 1959
• Traitor’s Gate: Broadcast – Saturday 5th December, 1959

Character: Peter Vauxhall

Some Background

Little is known about this six-part series that was made by ATV (Associated Television), written by Roddick John (who would later write episodes of ‘The Saint’, ‘Z Cars’ and The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre’), and both produced and directed by John Nelson Burton. Burton only joined ATV in 1959, so ‘Epilogue To Capricorn’ was his first piece of work cor he company. He would go on to direct episodes of ITV’s ‘Play of the Week’ ‘Love Story and ‘Sunday Night Theatre’

Broadcast under the banner of ‘The Saturday Special’, the series star was Jean Kent, who played Lady Kerwin in 5 of the episode, Adrienne Corri* as Jill Howard (thee episodes) and Peter Wyngarde as Peter Vauxhall – three episodes: ‘All On Tape’, ‘Point Of No Return’ and ‘Traitors Gate’.

It was fortuitous that the series went out live as, initially, Peter’s character was only meant to be in the first two installments named above, but such was the furore at his departure (both ATV and The TV Times were to received a deluge of complaints from fans), he was brought back for another episode.

*Peter would appear with Adrienne Corri in the ITC series ‘Sword of Freedom’: ‘The Sicilian‘ (1958) and the Department S – ‘The Man Who Got A New Face’.

Series Synopsis

Six-part serial about a World War II mystery which is being documented for the British government’s War Office. Robert Faulkner (Richard Johnson), a foreign correspondent is called in by the War Office to compile a dossier on a disastrously unsuccessful top secret wartime operation called Operation Capricorn. It becomes evident that the operation was not a failure because of bad luck, but because of somebody’s treachery. The question is – whose?

Top secret information about Operation Capricorn is recorded on tape, and is highly compromising to several people. Stolen, it becomes dynamite.

Critic’s Comments

“After such a weak cliffhanger last week, I must confess that if I watch further episodes – and at the moment I’m not inclined to – I will only watch because Peter Wyngarde is in it. For me, this actor is always a delight to watch, though I think they must have twisted his arm to make him say the dialogue.” Guy Taylor – The Stage: 5th November, 1959

Peter’s Comments

“Epilogue To Capricorn’ probably had the most excruciatingly bad script I’d ever had the misfortune to read. It probably had one of the best titles for any series in the world, but definitely the worst script. So, the actors got together with the director, who was wild and crazy and was eager to do different things, and he said: “What do you want to do then?” I said, “Throw away the script; throw it in the bin and we’ll just ad-lib. We more or less know what the characters are and we could take it from there.” It became a top TV series of that time, because nobody knew what was happening.”

A bit of Trivia

~ While Peter was very fond of Adrienne Corri, he absolutely hated Jean Kent, who he described as a “Prize bitch”! There were numerous clashes between the two on set. The fact that the series went out live didn’t help the situation any, since Kent would try to ruin any scene Peter was in. ~ The series has often been listed with the alternative title, ‘Suspense’. This is incorrect. ‘Suspense’ was an anthology series also produced and directed by John Nelson Burton, which ran from 1959 to 1960, but ‘Epilogue To Capricorn’ had no connection to.