No Hiding Place

No Hiding Place carried on from where the TV series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet left off. Murder Bag featured 55 episodes. 30 in Season One (16 September 1957 to 31 March 1958), all untitled and 25 in Season Two (30 June 1958 to 1 April 1959), all titled, and all featuring the word "Lockhart" as the first word of their title. All episodes were 30 minutes long and featured Raymond Francis as Superintendent Lockhart. Backup sergeants and others changed regularly. The murder bag in the title carried 42 items which were needed in the investigation of a crime. The show was produced live in the studio.

In Crime Sheet, Lockhart had now been promoted to Detective Chief Superintendent. The writers of the series revealed to the TV Times in 1962 that Lockhart could not be promoted above this rank, as he would no longer be expected to visit the crime scene, thus hindering the potential of the storylines. 17 episodes of 30 minutes were produced from 8 April 1959 to 9 September 1959. Due to Raymond Francis contracting mumps, the final episode of Crime Sheet did not feature Lockhart but Chief Superintendent Carr, played by Gerald Case.

No Hiding Place continued to follow the cases of Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart at Scotland Yard, with a new longer one-hour format allowing for more story and character development. He was initially assisted by Detective Sergeant later Inspector Harry Baxter (Eric Lander), followed by Det. Sgt. Russell (Johnny Briggs) and Det. Sgt. Perryman (Michael McStay), and finally by Det. Sgt. Gregg (Sean Caffrey).

Still largely studio-based, the series now included more pre-recorded film segments. A decision was made to cancel the series in 1965, but there were so many protests from the public and the police that it started again for another two years.[2][1] 236 episodes were made in total.[3]

Detective Sergeant Harry Baxter was there from episode one until episode 141. Midway through the series he was transferred to E Division's Q Car Squad and promoted from Sergeant to Inspector, a rank he retained when he returned to the Yard in 1963. Baxter had his own short TV series, Echo Four-Two. Unfortunately the show suffered from poor scripts and of 13 planned episodes, only 10 were made (30 minutes each, 24 August 1961 to 25 October 1961), interrupted by an actor's strike, and no more were made.

Murder Bag and Crime Sheet are considered lost television series; according to www.lostshows.com, no complete episodes of the former exist, and only one survives of the latter. However, one episode of Murder Bag (retitled Mystery Bag),[4] "Lockhart Finds a Note", was found in the form of a film telerecording from Australia, and included on Network's ITV 60 compilation box set. The longer-running No Hiding Place fared marginally better than its predecessors, although only 26 of the 236 episodes produced are known to exist in either a full or partial form. This figure includes episodes known to be held by the National Film and Television Archive and those held in private collections. Some early episodes were broadcast live and were not recorded.

• No Hiding Place at IMDb
• British Film Institute Screen Online
• No Hiding Place Episode Archive Status
• Eric Lander obituary