Public Eye

Public Eye

Frank Marker

Most of the ABC Television episodes are lost, while the Thames Television episodes survive intact.

To keep the series fresh the producers would regularly move Frank Marker around the UK. The show was originally based in London's Clapham district, moving to Handsworth in Birmingham, Brighton, Windsor, Walton-on-Thames and finally Chertsey.

The phone number for Frank's Clapham office is given as MACauley 2810. Helen Mortimer (and thus Frank)'s address in series 4 was 24 Sussex Close, Brighton (tel: 851957). Marker's Windsor premises were found at: 93 High Street, Eton, Windsor (tel: 68319 or 67818) - he lived at 3 Willow Court. The office he shared in the final series was: Ronald Gash & Associates, 22a Walton Shopping Precinct (tel: 21109). He then took over the former Apollo Aerials premises adjacent to Chertsey train station, tel: 2499, with digs in Westbury Street.

The Golden Flower Chinese restaurant is visible through the window of Frank's Eton High Street office - but as seen in location work for editions such as "Come Into the Garden, Rose", the eaterie is actually found two doors down from Marker's premises. The Thames production team designed the studio backdrop like this as they felt what actually faced the office was visually uninteresting.

At the start of the second season, Marker moves into new premises in Birmingham which overlook Kane's Timber Yard. Despite the busy sound effects added by the production team to convey the atmosphere of a hectic workplace, the view from his office window regularly depicts the same selection of long-untouched wooden planks, since the scene is a stationary backdrop. By the following series Kane's have been taken over and presumably demolished, as a view of tower blocks has replaced the yard.