A retired MI5 lieutenant-colonel finds that the intelligence game is a difficult habit to break.
After more than fifteen years of service, 55-year-old widower Jack Goodall (Robert Urquhart) has retired from MI5 to a quiet life in Eastbourne. His former employers, however, have other ideas. Goodall possesses a potent sixth sense, an intuitive nose for intrigue that makes him invaluable. He is frequently pulled back into the world of espionage by his former handler, Millbrook (Donald Churchill), the Head of Section at a discreet British security department. Reluctantly, Goodall puts his retirement on hold to sort out agents, pacts, and negotiations for his country’s security.
Producer Richard Bates, fresh from his work on Helen: A Woman of Today, conceived this series as a direct response to the plot-heavy spy fantasies he had previously worked on, including The Avengers. The programme was constructed as a character study, more concerned with motivation and psychology than with the mechanics of espionage. The deliberately archaic spelling of “Aweful” in the title was intended to mean “awe-inspiring,” reflecting a protagonist who was a quiet, unassuming patriot with a love for Elgar and Turner. This was a non-spying spy series: a thoughtful, human-scale drama that stood apart from the flamboyant action of its genre predecessors.
Broadcast: ITV – LWT, 6 Episodes, Fridays, 5 April – 10 May 1974
Producer: Richard Bates
Music: Albert Elmes
Writers include: Roger Marshall, Trevor Preston
Directors include: John Reardon, Jim Goddard
Main Cast: Robert Urquhart (Mr Jack Goodall), Donald Churchill (Millbrook), Isabel Dean (Alexandra Winfield)
Guest Cast includes: Eleanor Bron, John Ringham, John Franklyn-Robbins, Gerald Case, Faith Kent, Godfrey Jackman, Jeremy Pearce
