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, all untitled and 25 in Season Two, 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, followed by Det. Sgt. Russell and Det. Sgt. Perryman, and finally by Det. Sgt. Gregg. 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. 236 episodes were made in total. 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, interrupted by an actor's strike, and no more were made.
Cast
Missing episodes
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, "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 25 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.
