Callan: Dramatised short stories

James Mitchell – the man who devised CALLAN and who wrote many of the scripts for the TV series – also wrote several books and short stories. The latter were published in the Sunday Express and four of them have recently been dramatised by Peter Mitchell – James Mitchell's son – and released on a set of CDs.

I bought them a week ago, and have now had a chance to listen to them and I thoroughly enjoyed them ... once I got used to the voices of the actors playing the main roles. (I like to listen to recordings of books and plays whilst painting or modelling as I find it helps me to concentrate.)

The four stories are:

• File on a Deadly Deadshot by James Mitchell, adapted by Peter Mitchell
With Lonely posing as his gentleman’s gentleman, the section’s top operative David Callan is sent to a country estate in Northumberland to infiltrate a rich men’s shooting party. One of his companions is an assassin but which one? High living and high stakes on the grouse moors as Callan attempts to work out which of the dead-shots is a man-hunter.
• File on a Classy Club by James Mitchell, adapted by Peter Mitchell
Callan finds the odds are stacked against him when he poses as a high roller at London’s top casino. His mission is to lose all his money, but he almost loses his life when he stumbles into an East German spy cell. Perhaps a card sharp from Lonely’s past can help Callan turn the tables.
• File on an Awesome Amateur by James Mitchell, adapted by Peter Mitchell
Callan and Meres are despatched to a cultural festival in Venice to snatch a Russian poet from under the noses of the KGB. But the success of the mission depends upon the expertise of amateur sleuth and keen ornithologist Cynthia Widgery. Feathers fly on the Grand Canal ...
• File on a Harassed Hunter by James Mitchell, adapted by Peter Mitchell
Callan is drawn into a dark secret when Hunter invites him to fly to Newcastle for a trip to the theatre. The plot thickens when an alcoholic actor and a decoy called Prenderghast lead Callan to one of the KGB’s most proficient killers. The setting for the denouement is far too close for comfort.

The cast list includes:

• Ben Miles (Callan)
• Frank Skinner (Lonely)
• Nicholas Briggs (Hunter)
• Jane Slavin (Liz)
• Tam Williams (Toby Meres)
• David Rintoul (Baumer)
• Justin Avoth (Endicott)
• Glen McReady (Minns)
• Louis Tamone (Lorimer/Waiter)
• Mark Elstob (Karl/Judd/Willis)
• Robert Portal (Bulky Berkeley/Lubov)
• Annabelle Dowler (Amparo Soller/Barbara Jackson)
• Gyuri Sarossy (Marty Rivers)
• Beth Goddard (Cynthia Widgery/Auntie Gertie/Adrienn)
• Teddy Kempner (Evan Lang/Joe 'Plastic' MacNamara)
• Leighton Pugh (Petrov)

Each of the CDs has a short 'extra feature' at the end that discusses one or more aspects of the dramatisation of the original story or of the casting of the characters, and this was a very welcome and unexpected bonus.

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The synopses of the stories shown above comes from the publisher's website. The CDs were released by Big Finish in 2018.