The Third Man (TV series)

The Third Man
Genre	Mystery
Created by	Graham Greene
Starring	Michael Rennie
Country of origin	United States United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of seasons	5
No. of episodes	77 (7 missing)
Production
Producer	Felix Jackson
Running time	30 minutes
Production company	National Telefilm Associates
Original release
Network	BBC Syndication (USA)/NTA Film Network
Release	23 January 1959 (1959-01-23) – 1965 (1965)

The Third Man is a TV series which ran from 1959 to 1965. It was based on the novel and film The Third Man and starred Michael Rennie as Harry Lime. In the TV series, Lime is an international private investigator.

The series was a co-production between the NTA Film Network and the BBC. The first twenty episodes were shot at 20th Century Fox studios in Hollywood. Later episodes were filmed at Shepperton Studios and Associated-British Elstree Studios (Associated British Picture Corporation) in England.[1]

Initially eight episodes were lost due to the BBC’s junking policy, but on 4 October 2024, the Film Is Fabulous project announced the episode "The Man Who Wouldn’t Talk" had been recovered and returned to the BBC archive. In addition, they announced the recovery of a version of The Man With Two Left Hands,[2] which was in better quality than the one that existed.

Cast

• Michael Rennie as Harry Lime
• Jonathan Harris as Bradford Webster

Episodes

Season 1 (1959–60)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
1	1	"One Kind Word"	Cliff Owen	Iain MacCormick	2 October 1959 (1959-10-02)
2	2	"The Man Who Died Twice"	Paul Stanley	A.J. Carothers	9 October 1959 (1959-10-09)
3	3	"Death of an Overlord"	David Orrick McDearmon	David Swift	16 October 1959 (1959-10-16)
4	4	"The Best Policy"	Julian Amyes	John Player	23 October 1959 (1959-10-23)
5	5	"The Indispensable Man"	Paul Stanley	Jack Laird	30 October 1959 (1959-10-30)
6	6	"Sparks from a Dead Fire"	Paul Stanley	Robert Yale Libott	6 November 1959 (1959-11-06)
7	7	"Three Dancing Turtles"	Julian Amyes	John Kruse	13 November 1959 (1959-11-13)
8	8	"Hollywood Incident"	Paul Stanley	Richard Berg	20 November 1959 (1959-11-20)
9	9	"A Question of Price"	David Orrick McDearmon	Harry Brown	27 November 1959 (1959-11-27)
10	10	"The Importance of Being Harry Lime"	Julian Amyes	Iain MacCormick	4 December 1959 (1959-12-04)
11	11	"Barcelona Passage"	Cliff Owen	Gilbert Winfield	18 December 1959 (1959-12-18)
12	12	"Listen for the Sound of a Witch"	Arthur Hiller	Hagar Wilde	1 January 1960 (1960-01-01)
13	13	"A Collector's Item"	Julian Amyes	John Player	8 January 1960 (1960-01-08)
14	14	"How to Buy a Country"	Paul Stanley	Robert Yale Libott & A.J. Carothers	15 January 1960 (1960-01-15)
15	15	"Dinner in Paris"	Anthony Bushell	Iain MacCormick	22 January 1960 (1960-01-22)
16	16	"The Third Medallion"	Paul Stanley	Milton Gelman	29 January 1960 (1960-01-29)
17	17	"The Angry Young Man"	Arthur Hiller	Richard Berg	5 February 1960 (1960-02-05)
18	18	"High Finance"	Julian Amyes	Anthony Steven	12 February 1960 (1960-02-12)
19	19	"Castle in Spain"	Arthur Hiller	Stanford Whitmore	19 February 1960 (1960-02-19)
20	20	"Toys of the Dead"	Anthony Bushell	John Kruse	26 February 1960 (1960-02-26)
21	21	"The Girl Who Didn't Know"	Arthur Hiller	Iain MacCormick	4 March 1960 (1960-03-04)
22	22	"A Deal in Oils"	Julian Amyes	Alun Falconer	11 March 1960 (1960-03-11)
23	23	"A Man Takes a Trip"	Paul Stanley	Jameson Brewer	25 March 1960 (1960-03-25)
24	24	"A Pocketful of Sin"	Arthur Hiller	László Görög	1 April 1960 (1960-04-01)
25	25	"The Man Who Wouldn't Talk"	Anthony Bushell	John Player	8 April 1960 (1960-04-08)
26	26	"The Tenth Symphony"	Anthony Bushell	Iain MacCormick	23 April 1960 (1960-04-23)
27	27	"Trouble at Drill Hill"	David Orrick McDearmon	David Swift	13 May 1960 (1960-05-13)
28	28	"The Man with Two Left Hands"	Julian Amyes	John Warwick	27 May 1960 (1960-05-27)
29	29	"As the Twig Is Bent"	Arthur Hiller	David Chandler	3 June 1960 (1960-06-03)
30	30	"A Box of Eyes"	Julian Amyes	John Kruse	10 June 1960 (1960-06-10)
31	31	"An Experiment with Money"	Julian Amyes	Margot Bennett	24 June 1960 (1960-06-24)
32	32	"Broken Strings"	Paul Stanley	Richard Collins & Milton Gelman	1 July 1960 (1960-07-01)
33	33	"Five Hours to Kill"	Arthur Hiller	Oliver Crawford	8 July 1960 (1960-07-08)
34	34	"The Widow Who Wasn't"	Anthony Bushell	Lindsay Galloway	15 July 1960 (1960-07-15)
35	35	"Death in Small Instalments"	Julian Amyes	Rex Rientis	22 July 1960 (1960-07-22)
36	36	"Harry Lime and the King"	Anthony Bushell	John Graeme	29 July 1960 (1960-07-29)
37	37	"Dark Island"	Paul Stanley	Ed Adamson	5 August 1960 (1960-08-05)
38	38	"Confessions of an Honest Man"	Paul Stanley	Merwin Gerard	12 August 1960 (1960-08-12)
39	39	"An Offering of Pearls"	Cliff Owen	Margot Bennett	19 August 1960 (1960-08-19)

Season 2 (1962–63)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
40	1	"A Question of Libel"	Stuart Burge	Graham Greene & John Warwick	2 July 1962 (1962-07-02)
41	2	"Mischka"	Robert M. Leeds	Graham Greene, Tom Gries, & Mary C. McCall Jr.	9 July 1962 (1962-07-09)
42	3	"The Cross of Candos"	Robert M. Leeds	Graham Greene & Ben Perry	16 July 1962 (1962-07-16)
43	4	"Happy Birthday"	Paul Henreid	Graham Greene & Philip Saltzman	13 August 1962 (1962-08-13)
44	5	"Queen of the Nile"	Paul Henreid	Graham Greene & Robert Sherman	20 August 1962 (1962-08-20)
45	6	"Calculated Risk"	Paul Henreid	Mary C. McCall Jr. & Fred Schiller	30 March 1963 (1963-03-30)
46	7	"No Word for Danger"	Robert M. Leeds	Vincent Tilsley	6 April 1963 (1963-04-06)
47	8	"Lord Bradford"	Robert M. Leeds	Anthony Steven & Vincent Tilsley	13 April 1963 (1963-04-13)
48	9	"King's Ransom"	David MacDonald	Anthony Steven	20 April 1963 (1963-04-20)
49	10	"Hamburg Shakedown"	John Newland	John Kruse & Mary McCall	27 April 1963 (1963-04-27)
50	11	"The Unexpected Mr. Lime"	Robert M. Leeds	Peter Yeldham	4 May 1963 (1963-05-04)
51	12	"Diamond in the Rough"	Paul Henreid	Richard Levinson & William Link	11 May 1963 (1963-05-11)
52	13	"Portrait of Harry"	Robert M. Leeds	John Player	18 May 1963 (1963-05-18)
53	14	"Man in Power"	Robert M. Leeds	Robert Leslie Bellem	25 May 1963 (1963-05-25)
54	15	"Meeting of the Board"	Paul Henreid	Robert Sherman	8 June 1963 (1963-06-08)
55	16	"Hansel and Son"	Robert M. Leeds	Lee Berg & Mary C. McCall Jr.	15 June 1963 (1963-06-15)
56	17	"Act of Atonement"	Robert M. Leeds	Robert Sherman	13 July 1963 (1963-07-13)
57	18	"Ghost Town"	Robert M. Leeds	Richard Levinson & William Link	27 July 1963 (1963-07-27)
58	19	"Gold Napoleons"	Robert M. Leeds	P.K. Palmer	3 August 1963 (1963-08-03)
59	20	"Bradford's Dream"	Robert M. Leeds	Anthony Steven & Vincent Tilsley	10 August 1963 (1963-08-10)
60	21	"The Way of McEagle"	David MacDonald	John Player	17 August 1963 (1963-08-17)
61	22	"Who Killed Harry Lime?"	Robert M. Leeds	Philip Saltzman	24 August 1963 (1963-08-24)

Season 3 (1964)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
62	1	"A Question in Ice"	Robert M. Leeds	John Warwick	27 June 1964 (1964-06-27)
63	2	"I.O.U."	Robert M. Leeds	Leslie Edgley (as Robert Bloomfield)[3][4]	4 July 1964 (1964-07-04)
64	3	"A Crisis in Crocodiles"	Robert M. Leeds	John Warwick	1 August 1964 (1964-08-01)
65	4	"Judas Goat"	Paul Henreid	Robert Sherman	8 August 1964 (1964-08-08)
66	5	"A Little Knowledge"	Robert M. Leeds	Raymond Bowers	15 August 1964 (1964-08-15)
67	6	"The Day of the Bullfighter"	Paul Henreid	Philip Saltzman	22 August 1964 (1964-08-22)
68	7	"Mars in Conjunction"	John Ainsworth	Phyllis White & Robert White	5 September 1964 (1964-09-05)
69	8	"The Big Kill"	Paul Henreid	Robert Sherman	12 September 1964 (1964-09-12)
70	9	"Frame Up"	Paul Henreid	Gene Wang	26 September 1964 (1964-09-26)

Season 4 (1965)

No. overall	No. in series	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original air date
71	1	"The Trial of Harry Lime"	Robert M. Leeds	Michael Gilbert	16 July 1965 (1965-07-16)
72	2	"Members Only: Part 1"	Robert M. Leeds	Unknown	23 July 1965 (1965-07-23)
73	3	"Members Only: Part 2"	Robert M. Leeds	Unknown	30 July 1965 (1965-07-30)
74	4	"The House of Bon-Bons"	Robert M. Leeds	John Kruse	6 August 1965 (1965-08-06)
75	5	"The Man at the Top"	John Llewellyn Moxey	John Warwick	13 August 1965 (1965-08-13)
76	6	"Proxy Fight"	Unknown	Unknown	20 August 1965 (1965-08-20)
77	7	"The Luck of Harry Lime"	Paul Henreid	Gene Wang	27 August 1965 (1965-08-27)

Archive status

Out of a total of 77 episodes, seven are missing: three from the first series and two each from the second and fourth.[5] On 4 October 2024 the Film Is Fabulous project announced the recovery of 'The Man Who Wouldn't Talk', which brought the number of missing episodes down from eight to seven. They also announced they had located a 16mm film recording of 'The Man With Two Left Hands' which was a significant improvement on the poor-quality domestic videotape copy previously known to exist.[6]

• Series 1 Episode 5 30.10.1959 "The Indispensable Man"
• Series 1 Episode 22 11.03.1960 "A Deal in Oils"
• Series 1 Episode 23 25.03.1960 "A Man Takes a Trip"
• Series 2 Episode 7 06.04.1963 "No Word for Danger"
• Series 2 Episode 8 13.04.1963 "Lord Bradford"
• Series 4 Episode 5 13.08.1965 "The Man at the Top"
• Series 4 Episode 6 20.08.1965 "Proxy Fight"

References

1. Page, Don (7 June 1959). "The Third Man: Harry Lime Will Be Newest TV Hero Harry Lime to Be Hero". Los Angeles Times. p. G8.
2. "Lost Third Man TV Show! | Film is Fabulous". 4 October 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.
3. Gorman, Ed; Greenberg, Martin H. (2004). The World's Finest Mystery and Crime Stories: 5: Fifth Annual Collection. New York : Tom Doherty Associates. p. 30. ISBN 0-765-31146-1.
4. The Third Man – I.O.U.: Full Cast and Credits. IMDb.
5. "The Third Man". TV Brain.
6. "Lost Third Man TV Show! | Film is Fabulous". 4 October 2024. Retrieved 15 December 2024.

External links

• The Third Man at IMDb
• The Third Man at CTVA
• The Third Man at epguides.com
• The Third Man at Episodate.com