Boon (TV series)

Boon
Created by	Jim Hill; Bill Stair;
Starring	Michael Elphick; David Daker; Rachel Davies; Neil Morrissey; Lesley-Anne Sharpe; Amanda Burton; Elizabeth Carling; Brigit Forsyth; Gordon Warnecke; Saskia Wickham;
Theme music composer	Jim Diamond
Opening theme	"Hi Ho Silver" by Jim Diamond
Ending theme	"Hi Ho Silver", "Texas Rangers", "He's My Friend, He's My Buddy", "We'll Be Friends", "I Can't Stop Thinking About You"
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	7
No. of episodes	93
Production
Producer	Central Independent Television
Running time	60 minutes; 90 minute special
Distributor	ITV Studios
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3
Audio format	Mono (1986–90); Stereo (1991–95);
Original release	14 January 1986 –; 1 May 1995

Boon is a British television crime drama starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of an ex-fireman called Ken Boon. Since 16 January 2017 it has been rerun on UKTV channel Drama.

Premise

Ken Boon (Elphick) and Harry Crawford (Daker) are both old-fashioned 'smokeys' (firemen) in the West Midlands Fire Service. In episode 1 Crawford takes early retirement and moves to Spain to open a bar, leaving Ken behind. Ken attends a house fire in which a child is trapped upstairs. Realising that he must act quickly, he goes into the house without breathing apparatus and rescues the child, but he is severely injured by inhaling toxic smoke. He attempts to prove that he can still make it, but he is declared unfit for duty after collapsing during a practice simulation because his lungs have been permanently damaged, and he is forced to leave the fire service.

He starts a market garden, the Ponderosa, in a village about ten miles outside Birmingham, but finds that it isn't working out. Harry returns from Spain after his wife leaves him for a young hairdresser. Harry has acquired a hotel in Birmingham and offers Ken a job and a home there. On Ken's behalf, and without his knowledge, Harry places a box-number advertisement in a newspaper stating: "Ex-fireman seeks interesting work. Anything legal considered."

Over the course of the seven series of the show Boon does a variety of jobs, then runs a motorbike courier firm, Texas Rangers; two private investigation firms, BDI (Boon-Daly Investigations) and Boon Investigations; and a security firm, CBS (Crawford Boon Security), a partnership with Harry in which Boon is responsible for private investigations and Harry for security. In series 1–3 Harry runs two hotels, the Grand Hotel and the Coaching Inn, and a ballroom, the Plaza Suite. From series 4 he operates a country club, Woodcote Park, and later .

The series moved away from Birmingham to Nottingham at the beginning of series 4, and production moved to Central Television's studio in Nottingham. The Birmingham episodes (series 2–3, and exteriors for series 1) were shot on film, but the Nottingham episodes (series 4–7) were shot on videotape, as were interior scenes for series 1. Apart from the studio interiors of Series 1 all filming was done on location.[1]

Cast

The cast included Michael Elphick (Ken Boon) and David Daker (Harry Crawford). Neil Morrissey joined in the second series as Rocky, his first major television role. Other regular characters were played by Rachel Davies (Doreen Evans), Lesley-Anne Sharpe (Debbie Yates), Amanda Burton (Margaret Daly), Elizabeth Carling (Laura Marsh), Brigit Forsyth (Helen Yeldham), Saskia Wickham (Alex Wilton), Joan Scott (Ethel Ellard) and Gordon Warnecke (Hanif Kurtha). Christopher Eccleston had a small role, one of his first.

Writers

The show's writers included Geoff McQueen, Kevin McNally, Bernard Strother, Anthony Minghella, Tony McHale, Kieran Prendiville and Veronica Henry. Ted Childs was the first executive producer.

Episodes

Series 1

"Box 13" (14 January 1986)
"Fools Rush In" (21 January 1986)
"Answers to the Name of Watson" (28 January 1986)
"Grass Widows" (4 February 1986)
"Unto Us Four a Son" (11 February 1986)
"Glasshouse People" (18 February 1986)
"Northwest Passage to Acock's Green" (25 February 1986)
"Something Old, Something New" (4 March 1986)
"For Whom the Chimes Toll" (11 March 1986)
"Jack of All Tradesmen" (18 March 1986)
"Billy the Kid" (25 March 1986)
"Grand Expectations" (1 April 1986)
"Full Circle" (8 April 1986)

Series 2

"Texas Rangers" (17 February 1987)
"Special Delivery" (24 February 1987)
"Day of the Yokel" (3 March 1987)
"Smokey and the Band" (10 March 1987)
"Taken for a Ride" (17 March 1987)
"Wheels of Fortune" (24 March 1987)
"A Ride on the Wild Side" (31 March 1987)[2]
"Credit Where It's Due" (27 October 1987)
"Trudy's Grit" (3 November 1987)
"A Fistful of Pesetas" (10 November 1987)
"Paper Mafia" (17 November 1987)
"Fiddler Under the Roof" (24 November 1987)
"A Once Fluid Man" (1 December 1987)

Series 3

"Charity Begins at Home" Part 1 (1 November 1988)
"Charity Begins at Home" Part 2 (8 November 1988)
"Topspin" (15 November 1988)
"Have a Nice Day" (22 November 1988)
"Beef Encounter" (29 November 1988)
"Never Say Trevor Again" (6 December 1988)
"Honourable Service" (13 December 1988)
"Peacemaker" (20 December 1988)
"The Devil You Know" (27 December 1988)
"Banbury Blue" (3 January 1989)
"One Reborn Every Minute" (10 January 1989)
"The Fall and Rise of the Bowman Empire" (17 January 1989)
"The Not So Lone Ranger" (24 January 1989)

Series 4

"Walking Off Air" (2 October 1989)
"The Relief of Matty King" (9 October 1989)
"Vallance's Liberty" (16 October 1989)
"Of Meissen Men" (23 October 1989)
"Arms and the Dog" (30 October 1989)
"Sickness and Health" (6 November 1989)
"In It for the Monet" (13 November 1989)
"Do Not Forsake Me" (20 November 1989)
"Love Letters from a Dead Man" (27 November 1989)
"Big Game Hunt" (4 December 1989)
"Don't Buy From Me, Argentina" (11 December 1989)
"All in a Day's Pork" (18 December 1989)
"The Eyes of Texas" (20 December 1989)

Series 5

"Trouble in the Fields" (25 September 1990)
"Tales from the River Bank" (2 October 1990)
"Rival Eyes" (9 October 1990)
"A Night at the Ballet" (16 October 1990)
"Work, Rest & Play" (23 October 1990)
"Bully Boys" (30 October 1990)
"The Belles of St Godwald's" (6 November 1990)
"Burning Ambition" (13 November 1990)
"Undercover" (20 November 1990)
"Daddy's Girl" (27 November 1990)
"Best Left Buried" (4 December 1990)
"Thicker Than Water" (11 December 1990)
"The Tender Trap" (Christmas Special) (19 December 1990)

Series 6

"Help Me Make It Through the Night" (24 September 1991)
"Two Men in a Vault" (1 October 1991)
"Trial and Error" (8 October 1991)
"Coverup" (15 October 1991)
"The Barefaced Contessa" (22 October 1991)
"Lie of the Land" (29 October 1991)
"Lost on the Range" (5 November 1991)
"Pillow Talk" (12 November 1991)
"Cab Rank Cowboys" (19 November 1991)
"Houseguests" (26 November 1991)
"Bad Pennies" (3 December 1991)
"When Harry Met Janice" (10 December 1991)
"Stamp Duty" (17 December 1991)
"The Night Before Christmas" 90-minute Christmas Special (24 December 1991)

Series 7

"MacGuffin's Transputer" (8 September 1992)
"Queen's Gambit" (15 September 1992)
"Walkout" (22 September 1992)
"Deadline" (29 September 1992)
"Away From It All" (6 October 1992)
"Message in a Bottle" (13 October 1992)
"The Sharp End" (20 October 1992)
"Is There Anybody There?" (27 October 1992)
"Minder" (3 November 1992)
"Love or Money" (10 November 1992)
"Blackballed" (17 November 1992)
"Whispering Grass" (24 November 1992)
"Shot in the Dark" (1 December 1992)[3]
"Thieves Like Us" (1 May 1995)[4][5]

DVD releases

DVD	Release date
The Complete Series 1	11 April 2005
The Complete Series 2	20 April 2009
The Complete Series 3	27 April 2009
The Complete Series 4	23 May 2011
The Complete Series 5	12 September 2011
The Complete Series 6	16 January 2012
The Complete Series 7	9 April 2012
The Complete Series 1 to 7 Box Set	29 October 2012

History of the show

According to Jim Hill (co-creator), the name 'Boon' was derived as follows: "Originally called 'Anything Legal Considered', we fell foul of the vogue of the main character's name being all or part of the title. Boon had been derived from an American TV series from the 1950s that Bill Stair and I both watched and liked. It was called 'Have Gun – Will Travel' (1957) – a troubleshooting cowboy answered distress calls. He was called Paladin and was played by the actor Richard Boone. We dropped the E and we had BOON – a modern-day trouble shooter on a motorbike instead of a steed."[6]

References and notes

Filming Locations
For unknown reasons the remainder of this series was broadcast in the autumn of 1987, and is often mistakenly classified as two separate series.
This episode contains clear indications – such as Ken's blossoming romance with Alex Wilton, and Harry's 'news' for Ken which we never got to hear – that it was intended to be sequenced after 'Thieves Like Us'.
Although listed as 'The Final Episode', the storyline clearly indicates that this episode should have preceded 'Shot in the Dark'.
When originally broadcast, the announcer referred to it as a 'one-off-special'. The reason for delayed airing has never been explained.
Personal email, quoted on http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/Boon/background.htm

External links

Boon at IMDb
Boon at TV.com
Boon at epguides.com
Fan site with images, sound clips, episode details, cast biographies, etc.

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[1] Filming Locations

[2] For unknown reasons the remainder of this series was broadcast in the autumn of 1987, and is often mistakenly classified as two separate series.

[3] This episode contains clear indications – such as Ken's blossoming romance with Alex Wilton, and Harry's 'news' for Ken which we never got to hear – that it was intended to be sequenced after 'Thieves Like Us'.

[4] Although listed as 'The Final Episode', the storyline clearly indicates that this episode should have preceded 'Shot in the Dark'.

[5] When originally broadcast, the announcer referred to it as a 'one-off-special'. The reason for delayed airing has never been explained.

[6] Personal email, quoted on http://www.martinunderwood.f9.co.uk/Boon/background.htm