‘The Corridor People’ is a curious little show which only ran for four episodes on Granada TV in late 1966. Ostensibly cut from the same cloth as ‘The Avengers’ and ‘Adam Adamant Lives!’ the show was quirky in the extreme, and makes for interesting viewing today. Kronk (John Sharp) is in charge of Department K, a government agency charged with protecting national security. The thorn in his portly side is Syrie Van Epp, a beautiful Persian millionairess who basically seems to spend her life stirring shit and causing problems, Phil Scrotty, a Bogart obsessed private eye is also involved, although he is killed in the first episode (don’t be sad, he is brought back to life in the second).
The storylines are consciously bizarre, involving knock out perfume, reanimated corpses, black power, kidnapping, espionage and international intrigue, all filmed very cheaply and on a few flimsy looking sets. The production is extremely stylised, and the dialogue a mix of the Pinter-esque and panto. The performers occasionally break the third wall and make ironic reference to the conventions of the spy genre, or directly address the audience. It’s pretty weird, quite slow, but it’s very watchable.
A clip is required, really, so here’s the opening few minutes of the first episode ‘Victim As Birdwatcher’. The music is by Derek Hilton, who also did the theme for ‘Big Breadwinner Hog’.
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