Spyder's Web was a British crime drama television series produced by ATV for ITV and broadcast in 1972. It starred Anthony Ainley as Clive Hawksworth and Patricia Cutts as Charlotte "Lottie" Dean as two secret agents working for the mysterious Spyder organisation in the interests of the British government.
Overview In common with many other such series of the time, Spyder's Web adopted an ironic approach to its subject matter. The Spyder organisation used as its cover a down-at-heel film company, Arachnid Films, and only Dean and Hawksworth were in on the secret; the company's other employees, Wallis Ackroyd and Albert Mason, believed the cover to be genuine. Indeed, Dean claimed to have won awards for her documentaries. Hawksworth, the "action man", was a knowing caricature of the steely-eyed, jutting-jawed heroes of former times, and was alleged to have been "steeped in Bulldog Drummond from an early age". (His response: "We were just good friends.") Five of the thirteen episodes were written by Roy Clarke, who created and wrote Last of the Summer Wine. The programme ran for just one series.
Home media The series was released on DVD by Network in 2011. Eleven of the episodes do not survive in colour: only episodes seven and nine of the release were presented as colour episodes.
Cast Patricia Cutts as Lottie Dean Veronica Carlson as Wallis Ackroyd Anthony Ainley as Clive Hawksworth Roger Lloyd-Pack as Albert Mason Peter Sallis as Grovnik Henri Szeps as Policeman
Episodes
# Title Writer Director First broadcast1"Spyder Secures a Main Strand"Roy ClarkeDennis Vance21 January 19722"The Executioners"Alfred ShaughnessyJames Gatward28 January 19723"Romance on Wheels"Roy ClarkeJames Gatward4 February 19724"The Hafiz Affair"Roy ClarkeDorothy Denham11 February 19725"Life at a Price"Frank DriscollDennis Vance18 February 19726"Emergency Exit"David EllisDavid Wickes25 February 19727"Red Admiral"Alan HackneyJohn Cooper3 March 19728"Lies and Dolls"Alfred ShaughnessyDennis Vance10 March 19729"Things That Go Bang in the Night"Marc BrandelIan Fordyce17 March 197210"An Almost Modern Man"Roy ClarkeDennis Vance24 March 197211"Nobody's Strawberry Fool"Robert HolmesJohn Cooper31 March 197212"The Prevalence of Skeletons"Marc BrandelIan Fordyce7 April 197213"Rev Counter"Roy ClarkeDorothy Denham14 April 1972
References
External links
Spyder's Web episodes ranked from worst to best