Spy-Catcher (1959–1961) User Reviews

Highly Original.

[screenman · 8/10 · 24 April 2008]

This was a very cerebral series. And as the other contributor mentions - minimalist in the extreme. One room, two people, three bits of furniture, how much more basic can a format get?

Each week, Colonel Oreste Pinto (later mugged-up by the great Benny Hill as 'Arestem Pronto') would interrogate a suspect to determine his authenticity. Was he/she a spy or not?

The real fun of the program was that, at the outset, Pinto knew no more about the detainee than the viewer did. In this way, it was not just an entertaining drama, but a test of audience observation. Throughout the interview, the detainee answered questions and disclosed information, the details of which would corroborate or refute previous admissions. Viewers were then able to pit their wits against the suspect and watch out for the lies just as surely as Pinto.

This was an extremely clever and engaging format and one that would easily work today.

Frankly, it was so simple, economical, and at the same time educational, I am really surprised that it has never been repeated.

Original telly seemed to just die-out around the mid 1970's.

How to make the best of a sparse set and a low budget

[bob-97 · 14 April 2001]

Each episode in this series featured a lengthy interrogation by Colonel Pinto ( played expertly by Bernard Archer) to test whether an apparently genuine Allied serviceman or refugee was, in reality, a German spy. His ingenious methods invariably resulted in the suspect giving himself away. Despite the inevitability of the outcome, the series was a fascinating study of psychological tension. Like the later detective series `Columbo', this was not so much a `who-dun-it?' as a `how-will-he-do-it?'. The series was based on real life - Colonel Pinto was a Dutch intelligence officer working in Britain during the war who was generally regarded as the best in his field. Despite the sparse set (there was just one room, with a table and two chairs), and the small cast, this was an excellent and memorable series.