It was in the Summer of 1970, when the heroes of children's adventure shows were still either adults or puppets, that Thames television launched one of their most successful children's fantasy series - Ace Of Wands. The series portrayed the adventures of a young magician, Tarot, and his assistants Lulli Palmer and Sam Maxted. As well as having a stage career as a conjuror and escapologist, Tarot spent much of his spare time solving mysteries and crimes of a bizarre or magical nature. As with many serials of that time, the format was a series of multi-part stories (as in Doctor Who, Sexton Blake, Orlando etc) with the usual story length being three twenty-five minute episodes.

Trevor Preston and Pamela Lonsdale created the series. Preston is best known these days for his contributions to Euston Films' series such as The Sweeney as well as Out and Fox, both of which he created. Back in the sixties and early seventies, a great deal of his work was in adapting existing stories for children's television including The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe in 1967, The Incredible Adventures Of Professor Branestawm, a 1969 Thames production, and The Tyrant King. Preston remained faithful to the fantasy elements of there earlier serials with his stories for Ace Of Wands although his reason for writing it points also to his later work: "The kids were watching the cop/crime series so I decided to write for them a kids cop/crime. The series turned out very close to the original idea."

Preston had very little to do with the later episodes after Pamela Lonsdale handed over the producer's reigns to John Russell in 1972. He saw scripts by other writers before production but set no storylines. "Some of them," he says, "were very good, especially those by P. J. Hammond." Preston's favourite story was "Seven Serpents, Sulphur and Salt", also a favourite of Pamela Lonsdale, and Michael Mackenzie who played Tarot.

Unlike Preston, who later wrote almost exclusively for adult drama series, Pamela Lonsdale continued to produce series for the younger viewers and was Executive Producer responsible for Children's Drama at Thames Television for five years until she turned freelance at the end of September 1984. She was producer of the first two series of Ace Of Wands and as well as creating the series with Trevor Preston she also directed one story - the superb "Seven Serpents, Sulphur and Salt". Before Ace Of Wands she worked on several other children's series including the excellent Smith, The Queen Street Gang (whose timeslot, when vacated, was taken over by Preston's The Tyrant King) and, with Preston, The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe for ABC TV. Pamela says, "I view the series with great affection and it was in fact one of the most successful shows we have ever transmitted." The series did well abroad and sold to several countries including Canada, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Yugoslavia and Thailand.

Restrictions set for the series were various. Not more than to 2½ to 3 minutes of outside filming could be used per 26 minute episode. Filming was limited to within 30 miles of Teddington studios, allowing the crew the whole of London and the Thames. Two permanent sets were constructed, these being Tarot's apartment complete with security and looking devices, and Mr. Sweet's bookshop, plus a maximum of two extra sets per episode. A cast of ten per episode was allocated, including regular cast.

The original title for the series was Tarot and other names for the hero were considered such as Chandos, Marcos, Dom, Zadig and Omega. The title Ace Of Wands refers both to the lead character Tarot and also to a card in the tarot pack. The divinatory meanings of the card, which is also known as the 'Ace of Batons', point to intuition, creativity, originality and artistic inspiration - all aspects of Tarot's character.

A relatively unknown actor was chosen to play Tarot - Michael Mackenzie. Then in his late twenties, Mackenzie had only been acting for three years, having previously trained for a career in law. Most of his work at that point had been in the theatre, although he had appeared in series such as Rogue's Gallery and Doctor In The House and was perhaps a surprise for the series lead. In such less-enlightened times, magazines like TVTimes made much of the fact that Mackenzie's then wife, actress Ann Holloway, was already had one of the leads in the sitcom Father, Dear Father and thus had previously been more successful than he. Mackenzie himself claims that he had no idea what he was doing at first, apart from making sure he looked good in the trendy clothes and fast cars. His aim was to convey the impression of great inner strength plus mental and spiritual development, but to be relaxed too. His special research only involved learning what the Tarot cards were and learning tricks from famous magician Ali Bongo, the show's magic adviser. In the event he and the part fitted hand-in-glove and it would be hard to imagine a more experienced actor doing better in the role. Despite this, little of Mackenzie's subsequent work was in television and he has spent most of his time since Ace Of Wands in the theatre, with brief fantasy excursions on television in The Omega Factor and Blake's 7. This latter appearance featured either a great co-incidence or a wonderful in-joke. Mackenzie plays a guard on board the ship taking Blake and other convicts to Cygnus Alpha. During an escape attempt he is distracted by Vila, played by Michael Keating - the method of distraction? Vila shows him a card trick! In 1985 he made a brief appearance in Edge Of Darkness and he later went to Russia to make an American mini-series Peter the Great. After a great many years absence, his face became familiar once again as the devious Dr. Turner in Cardiac Arrest.

"I liked any story in which I was allowed to drive the BMW bike, or the cars fast, or when we could bring Ozzie the Owl into things," recalls Mackenzie. "Although I've forgotten most of the stories, I can remember most of the villains! That was one of the great strengths of the series, the baddies were terrific, great fun to play, which is why we got so many good actors to play them ... such as Russell Hunter as Mr. Stabs."

Tarot was an enigma to the outside world, and it was originally planned that he would always perform in a mask. He was very handsome, very intelligent and, so the Thames press-releases would have it "could defend himself with the grace of a matador." Primarily he liked to solve mysteries and combat crime. He lived in his own private 'pad' (as the jargon was at the time) which was originally to be on top of a London sky-scraper, although was relocated to the upper floor of a warehouse. He also owned an E-type Jaguar.

Tarot, had an assistant, as magicians do. Twenty-three year old Judy Loe, then a newcomer to television, played Lillian Palmer, known by her nickname: Lulli. As well as helping Tarot with his act on stage, she had a telepathic link with him which enabled them to communicate with each other even when several miles apart. Lulli had met Tarot when Tarot, driving with Sam in his Jaguar, sensed Lulli's mind nearby and lost control of the car, resulting in a collision with Lulli's beach buggy. Discovering their telepathic link, Tarot asked her to be his aide, and the twenty year old orphan agreed. An ex-Oxford University student, she had studied philosophy but had left, bored, after a year. She was vulnerable because of her femininity, but also had the guile unique to females. Since Ace Of Wands, Judy has worked an various TV shows including Goodnight And Godbless, Missing From Home and Revelations. The third member of the team, and the first to be cast, was Tarot's loyal cockney friend Sam Maxted, played by Tony Selby, who was generally known for 'heavy' roles. As well as helping with his stage equipment as stage manager, Sam was Tarot's 'right-hand' man and could be relied upon in a fight (which was seldom as the production team knew that fights in the confines of a TV studio did not work) or for opening locks and gaining entrance. Sam had been a seaman, gravedigger, fish porter, fair-booth boxer and bodyguard. After two spells in the nick he had hit hard times and was a sack-and-chain man for an old escapologist when he met Tarot. He lived at Tarot's apartment creating the trick props, lights and music for Tarot's act. Sam's mode of transport was a BMW motorbike. Selby was later best remembered for his role as Corporal Marsh in Get Some In! and later for his roles in Hideaway and as Glitz in Doctor Who.The fourth regular was Mr. Sebastian Sweet, an antiquarian bookseller played by veteran actor Donald Layne-Smith. Mr. Sweet often acted as Tarot's front man, using his many contacts at universities and other places, such as the bizarre Charlie Postle, to help Tarot's investigations. Frequently though, it is these friends who are themselves the cause of Tarot's investigations. Now running an antiquarian bookshop in Bloomsbury, the sixty-year-old man enjoyed an international reputation as a lepidopterist and entomologist. He had a remarkable knowledge and a vast array of books on all subjects. A true and amazing eccentric, he dressed in tweeds and rode a Moulton bicycle.

Completing the team was Ozymandias, played by Fred, a Malayan fishing owl. Ozzie's main purpose was to sit on his open perch in Tarot's flat looking inscrutable, and this he did very well, Fred Owl was owned by Tony Travers and was well trained to avoid wasting recording time in the studio. He was loved by all, particularly Lulli, although Sam jokingly referred to him mainly as a "mangy lump", or a "cross-eyed cuckoo".After a while, the cast were able to take more control of the scripts and iron out any inconsistency of character or story continuity. Mackenzie relied a lot on Preston or director John Russell at first, as both wanted it to be as way-out as could be allowed for what was officially a children's series.

One more person connected with the show throughout, although only credited from season two onwards, was Ali Bongo, the series' full-time magical adviser. Ali subsequently worked with Paul Daniels and the late David Nixon. During Ace Of Wands he was relied upon to coach Mackenzie in the art of performing his tricks in front of the camera in a manner that looked professional. According to Mackenzie though, the most difficult thing that Ali persuaded him to do was to make a speech as his guest at a Magic Circle dinner! In addition to his role as magic coach, Ali also built specialised props for the show, such as the snake in "The Power of Atep", the smoke bombs in "Now You See It, Now You Don't" and even played the mummy in "The Eye Of Ra".The only item of merchandise connected with the show was a record of the theme song written by Andrew Bown and Trevor Preston. Recorded by Bown and titled "Tarot" this record was released on the Parlophone label (R5856) after recording in July 1970. It is identical to the music used on the episodes, although the Preston's lyrics underwent some changes between initial draft and recording. The record was backed with the incidental music track "Lulli Rides Again". Deleted in February 1971, copies are very hard to find. The remaining music used on the series was stock from various sources. Other merchandise for the series was proposed in the form of a comic strip in "Look-In", the new Junior TV Times launched in 1971, and a paperback book. Neither of these came about since Preston was determined to write all the new material himself, and the rates offered for such work were too low.

Only two directors were used on the first series of thirteen episodes - John Russell and veteran Michael Currer-Briggs, both of whom directed two stories. Russell was, in fact, to remain with the show throughout its three series, directing six of the fourteen stories and eventually taking over the producer's chair.

The first series was not, perhaps, quite as magical as the latter two. Although the villains themselves had magical powers throughout each series, the first concentrated on slightly more conventional 'crimes' whereas later stories sometimes featured no obvious 'crime' at all. Sadly, the original production files on the series have been lost or destroyed by Thames, and details of recording are non-existent bar a few details an the first season, The opening tale, "One And One And One Are Four" was allocated much location shooting, at the Ham and Petersham Rifle Club on May 15th 1970 and Highgate Cemetery on May 20th. The story went to studio for videotaping on 26th May and 10th June with "The Mind Robbers" recorded on the 1st and 15th of July. There was then a break for the publicity run-up to telecast with a photocall in London for the regular cast on July 26th. "Now You See It, Now You Don't" was recorded on August 12th, and the final story "'The Smile" was made over August and September with some location work, during which Fred Owl caused a lot of problems by refusing to leave a tree!

The series began transmission in July 1970 with "One And One And One Are Four" by Preston and directed by Russell. It involved Tarot and company being asked to recover an invention stolen by Madame Midnight (Hildegard Neil) and her accomplice Teddy Talk (Michael Standing). The device, which when used for good can cure paralysis, is of course a deadly weapon in the wrong hands. This was an oft-used plot: the theft of a new invention to be used for evil.

Story two, "'The Mind Robbers", was written by William Emms, a writer brought on to the show from Callan suggested to Pamela Lonsdale by her husband, Reginald Collin, and directed by Currer-Briggs. Tarot is asked to find two missing government ministers who have been captured by Señor Zandor (Vernon Dobtcheff) and his assistant Fat Boy. Zandar captures Lulli and uses her to trap Tarot in his bizarre house where they encounter goats, a donkey, a Zulu warrior and many other strange figures. Needless to say, Tarot manages to turn the tables on Zandor in the nick of time.

The only two-parter, "Now You See It, Now You Don't" was written rapidly by the late Don Houghton, also a Doctor Who writer at the time, and featured Christopher Benjamin as Falk, a villain who occupies a houseboat full of computers and Nazis. The climax of the story takes place in Battersea Power Station and director John Russell was given permission to shoot the final scenes inside the real power station, thus giving the episode a greater air of authenticity, instead of building a smaller studio mock-up as was originally planned.

The season closed with "The Smile", another Preston story, in which Tarot comes up against Tun-Ju (Willoughby Goddard) and Mrs Kite. Tun-Ju is an art thief and after successfully stealing Venus he embarks on a more audacious plan to steal the Mona Lisa. Fortunately he is thwarted by Tarot, who during the story is exposed to mind wiping machines and other fiendish inventions created by the huge oriental villain.

In the first season, when Tarot and Lulli were in ESP contact, the camera would close in on Mackenzie's eyes. During these scenes Mackenzie would wear large black contact lenses, and an image of Judy Loe's head would be superimposed over them. For this Judy Loe stood on a black set in a black velvet catsuit to be filmed by a separate camera. For the second and third seasons, Mackenzie retained the contact lenses all the time as he felt they helped give Tarot a special feel. A lot of trick photography was used an the show, some of it still experimental at this stage. Ace Of Wands was one of the first Thames shows to make extensive use of chroma-key, and also used inlay, plus a locked-off camera so that people or things could appear or disappear. But all the tricks that Tarot did, Mackenzie tended to do himself, some of the conjuring acts were clearly impossible to achieve without stopping the videotape and cheating the viewer.

Season two opened in July 1971 with one of the best tales, "Seven Serpents, Sulphur And Salt". This three part story, the last to be written by Preston, concerned the exploits of Mr. Stabs or rather Estabis (excellently portrayed by Russell Hunter), an evil magician of the Brotherhood whose headquarters were in the eerie taxidermist's shop. Aided by his smelly sidekick Luko and the spirit Polandi, Stabs sets out to get the missing segment to the Secret Seven Serpents which is in Tarot's possession and use the power he gains to discover Flameld's formula for turning base metal into gold. After several near defeats, Tarot eventually gains victory over Stabs using his powers of ventriloquism . Stabs, believing he is hearing a voice of a power higher than himself, disappears in a puff of smoke leaving a pair of white gloves behind him. Viewers in the Thames area were very lucky as the story was shown again in London only - in July 1973, a much deserved repeat.

This story contained one of the few 'gimmicks' in the series. Stabs' powers stem from his hand and all his spells required him to point at the object or person who was to be the victim and chant a rhyme which always began with the words 'Hand of Stabs' (e.g. Hand of Stabs - Turn this fool - Into a fish - Without a Pool). Trevor Preston recalls seeing kids in the street doing 'Hand of Stabs" as one of his fondest memories of the series.  This was the only time episodes were broadcast out of production order.  This story was in fact the last of the four of season two to be completed.  It was obviously and rightly regarded as being the strongest and therefore most suitable for a season opener.  The remaining three stories were screened in production sequence - as were all six stories of season three.

"Seven Serpents..." was followed by "Joker". another favourite of Pamela Lonsdale's. Written by Peter J. Hammond, this three part story saw Tarot on a the trail of a troupe of entertainers who specialize in giving shows to school children. Led by Uncle Harry (Dermot Tuohy) their show featured a ventriloquist's dummy, the Joker of the title. During the ventriloquist's act, the dummy's eyes would turn white and a strange sound was heard, causing the children watching to go berserk and wreck their classrooms. The use of both the dummy and other playing card characters was very sinister.

P. J. Hammond was invited to write for the second season and came in under the impression that the show had reached the stage where new writers with fresh ideas were necessary. He always looked for quirky storylines and inventive villains which he felt were missing from the earlier episodes. Overall of the series, Hammond remarks: "Ace Of Wands was very good for me. It was great fun to do and allowed free reign to the imagination. In a way one could say that it perhaps helped to inspire me with my own project, Sapphire And Steel."

Don Houghton's "Nightmare Gas" followed, and drew heavily on his two recent Doctor Who tales, "Inferno" and "The Mind Of Evil" for ideas. The story concerned the theft of some cylinders of the deadly hallucinogenic H23 gas by Thalia Smith (Isobel Black) and her taciturn brother Dalbiac (Jonathan Newth). Thalia had once worked for the gas' creator, Dr Richard Winthrop, and on learning that the gas was to be destroyed arranged to hijack the lorry containing the canisters. Winthrop visits Mr. Sweet and asks him for help in recovering the gas which first induces sleep and then nightmares which appear so real to the dreamer that after twenty-three minutes the victims die from shock. Lulli drives Winthrop to see Brigadier Connaught, another of Mr. Sweet's many friends, but they are captured en route to the beach buggy by Thalia and Dalbiac. Both are taken to Thalia's headquarters, but Lulli is able to communicate to Tarot some information about her new prison - a windmill. Tarot follows but is captured and the gas is used on him.

A diamond gives its name to the final second season story, 'The Eye of Ra". It is a diamond reputed to have magical powers, one of which is the ability to turn people into chalk statuettes. A wheelchair bound chess-master Ceribraun (Oscar Quitak) wants to obtain the diamond. He tries to force Tarot to steal it for him by kidnapping Mr. Sweet and making it appear he has been turned to chalk. His statuette is then knocked over and smashed by accident causing Tarot to think Mr. Sweet has been killed. Lulli, as well as Mr. Sweet, finds herself a prisoner of Ceribraun and his servant, Fredericks, and in trying to rescue her, Tarot finds himself on Ceribraun's giant robotic chess board being crushed by two huge chesspieces.

After the second season, Judy Loe and Tony Selby left the cast. Both had other commitments and so Pamela Lonsdale had to find replacements for the third series. Judy Loe had obviously been dissatisfied with her part for some time and was later quoted as saying: "My part was 'decorative' even in a children's programme. I was allowed some intelligence, but was always having to be rescued by the man. Maybe this is the basic structure of society or maybe it's just how men see themselves."

Thus it was decided that Lulli would have left Tarot to get married and Sam would have gone into the road haulage business, both rather out-of-character actions. For the third season the characters of Chas and Mikki were created after discussions between Trevor Preston, Peter Hammond and John Russell. Petra Markham, who had previously worked with Michael Mackenzie in Albert And Victoria joined the cast as Mikki with Roy Holder as Chas. Holder had appeared in Ace Of Wands before, playing the Jack in a group of playing cards in 'Joker". Mikki Diamond, a journalist, shared a studio with her brother Chas, a photographer, above a London street market which was the setting for the first story in the third and final series.

In order that none of the magical elements of the earlier episodes were lost, Mikki also found she had a telepathic link with Tarot and later helped him with his stage act too. Chas was easy going, cheerful, loyal and determined like San had been. The two new characters were thus slightly contrived to stick to the original format with minimum change. The other notable changes included the fact that Tarot now operated from a house boat named "Joker III" moored on the Thames.

Pamela Lonsdale also left the show between seasons two and three. She had been asked to set up a pre-school series, Rainbow, which she describes as "something of a challenge'. In 1975 she won the British Academy Rediffusion award for this series. Four years later she was appointed executive producer responsible for children's drama at Thames and also worked on the series Shadows.

John Russell who had directed half the stories so far took over as producer. This season was longer than the standard thirteen week or one quarter run and comprised a six-story/twenty-episode format as opposed to the four/thirteen combination of the previous two years. Despite the extra burden of the producer's role, Russell still found time to direct two of the last six stories including the best of the final reason "Peacock Pie". The stories were recorded in two blocks of three.

Donald Layne-Smith, who, as Mr. Sweet, had appeared in every previous story except "Joker" was in only two of the last series, "The Power of Atep" and "Mama Doc", and was now based at a university as opposed to his bookshop. Another change in the line-up was Ozymandias who was now played by Fred II, the younger brother of Fred who had become bored with his television stardom. The credits for the show though continued to read "Ozymandias - Fred Owl"

Season three opened with "The Meddlers", P. J. Hammond's second story and the one in which we are introduced to the characters of Chas and Mikki. In this story, a group of street musicians seem to be at the centre of a series of disasters designed to scare the stall-holders away from a London market. Aided by the bizarre Mockers - the local 'prophet of doom' who travels around on a tricycle with its own pulpit, and Mr. Dove - who watches from a nearby tower block through his binoculars - the plan nearly works. The secret, buried deep beneath the market, proves worthless, The reason that Dove was mainly an observer was that he was allergic to unclean air and thus lived inside a huge luxurious airlock. He is eventually buried when a nearby building crumbles down on his white chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce. Filming for the story was extensive and took place at Shadwell Market in Watney Street off the Commercial Road in Wapping. The opening episodes are highly atmospheric, but the ending is an anti-climax and never fully explains the spirit Mikki senses in Thompson's warehouse.

Ex-Doctor Who and Timeslip writer Victor Pemberton's first story, the for part "The Power Of Atep" has Tarot on his way to Egypt following simultaneous dreams both he and Mikki have experienced. This, and a meeting with medium John Pentacle lead them to Atep's tomb. There they encounter a high priest and finally Quabal - Tarot's double and former stage partner. For his part as the high priest, Michael Mulcaster had to look completely bald and be made up heavily in gold. As well as the usual mummy cases and wall paintings, the tomb set also contained a ten foot high statue, fashioned from polystyrene by Allister Bowtell. One of Mackenzie's least fond memories came from this story. "I wasn't keen an being chucked into the Thames bound hand and foot in a strait-jacket," he says. Again, the story promises much, but the rational ending, in which the power of Atep - so evident in the serial - is dismissed as tricks on the part of Quabal, is severely disappointing.

The next story "Peacock Pie" was again from the pen of P. J. Hammond and like his previous two stories was directed by Russell. A marvellous story, it contained some of the best moments from any of the three series and an excellent performance from Brian Wilde as Henry T. Peacock, better known since for his appearances as Mr. Barraclough in Porridge and as Foggy Dewhurst in Last Of The Summer Wine. Peacock's power lies in that of suggestion and early scenes involved Mr. Peacock using torn up strips of newspaper as bank notes and causing a couple of security guards to deliver a consignment of cash to Mr. Peacock's lodgings under the belief that it was a bank. Later, having tracked him back to his house, Chas suddenly finds himself in a room without a door and Tarot, having trodden on a brick in the yard outside, imagines himself to be on the edge of a very high building, Mr. Peacock's old landlady, Mrs Macfadyean also comes under his spell and is seen gazing into a mirror at a reflection of her own face as she was when she was a young woman. The story ends, not so much with a triumph for Tarot, but with Peacock getting bored with the illusions he's been created. The. final scene shows Peacock taking a lonely walk on his island, away from the rest of the world. The story was Hammond's favourite, and another of Mackenzie's too. "I also liked the lovely, gentle, story with Brian Wilde as Mr. Peacock," recalls Mackenzie. 'That was good because Tarot didn't really win and couldn't cope with Mr. Peacock; it was just that Mr. Peacock stops being mischievous!."

"Mama Doc" by Maggie Allen who later worked on The Omega Factor, followed next. A left over script from the second season, it was a very sinister story for children, also the only one to feature Mr. Sweet throughout. Professor Darian disappears and Tarot finds a connection with a doll's hospital run by the eccentric Mama Doc (Pat Nye) where people get turned into dolls. The main set, looking like the interior of a dolls house, had to be made to look very large in proportion to the actors. The wallpaper used had its pattern enlarged five times normal size and adding confusion, one wall was composed entirely of mirrors. On top of all this, designer Philip Blowers had to find 200 different dolls, many of which had to be re-clothed by costume designer Patti Rogers to match the dolls' costumes worn by the actors and actresses. Although the style is sinister, the direction is slow and Tarot's eventual resolution to Mana Doc's deranged plans is less than satisfactory.

Victor Pemberton's second story, "Sister's Deadly", was quite different to his first. A very confusing tale, it starts with Chas visiting, in his professional capacity, Mathilda Edginton's 100th birthday party. When he returns home he has no memory of the party or the fact that he robbed the village post office shortly afterwards. While trying to uncover the cause of these events, Tarot learns that Mathilda Edginton died two years earlier. The bizarre reason behind these events lies in a plan by the old ladies at Bliss Cottage to kidnap the Commander-in-Chief of British Land Forces. A twist in the story reveals that one of the old ladies is played by actor James Bree, his disguise hiding the ex-Major behind the kidnap plot - thus necessitating the pseudonym of Henrietta Rudkin in the closing credits.

The final story, "Beautiful People" begins in a small village fête. The fête is run by two beautiful girls, Dee and Emm, and a very handsome man, Jay, and when Mikki is refused entry Tarot decides to investigate. He finds that valuable consumer goods are being offered as prizes despite the fact that no money is being made. The trio running the event are a group of extra-terrestrials who have the ability to control otherwise inanimate objects, such as vacuum cleaners and hand mixers! After being drugged by the aliens, Tarot and co. return to London in an attempt to contact one of the girls and discover their true purpose. Mackenzie feels that this was also one of the best stories, "The one with the beautiful extra-terrestrial jokers who programmed machines to go crazy."

The final serial concludes with a last act which seems at odds with the narrative presented in the first three-and-a-half episodes. The "Beautiful People" go back home to their parents - two learning computers. Tarot follows, and then Chas rigs an explosion to destroy the machines. The explosive detonates... and the closing credits roll, not confirming if Tarot, Mikki and Chas are safe or not.

And that, as they say, was that. When "The Beautiful People" was written and produced there was no definite decision made on whether or not the series would return. There was talk of a fourth series and Michael Mackenzie wishes there had been one. "It was very popular, but somebody different took over as head of Children's programmes at Thames and obviously wanted to do their own thing. The result was The Tomorrow People which, although it ran longer, wasn't, in my opinion, as original, as good or as imaginative, but then I'm biased!".

Fortunately three stories, all from the final season, had networked repeats, these being "The Meddlers" and "Peacock Pie" in 1973 with "Sisters Deadly" in 1974. That was the last time Tarot and Lulli, Sam, Chas, Mikki, Mr. Sweet or Ozzie were seen on our screens. As is (or hopefully was) the policy of most television companies, the master tapes of the first two seasons have been erased, although Thames Television International do still possess all the third season episodes in a variety of forms. Described by Trevor Preston as "typical vandalism by a television company", we shall forego the dubious pleasure of adding to this remark.

In 1975, Russell Hunter reprised his rôle as Mr. Stabs in a one-off play in the Shadows series called "Dutch Schlitz's Shoes" (transmitted 8th October 1975). Written by Preston and produced by Pamela Lonsdale, it featured Mr. Stabs and Luko (this time played by Kenneth Caswell) breaking into the home of Sir Arthur Inchwood (Gordon Gostelow) to steal from his private collection the magic black glove of Mendoza. While searching through Inchwood's collection, Stabs tries on a pair of shoes once belonging to the gangster Dutch Schlitz and gets taken over by the dead gangster's persona.

After a repeat of the Shadows episode in 1977, there was a further seven years of 'silence' until 1984 when Thames and Pamela Lonsdale produced another Preston one-off, "Mr. Stabs", (transmitted 2nd July 1984), this time under the Dramarama banner. Featuring David Jason as Mr. Stabs, it was a prequel to both previous Stabs tales and showed Stabs gaining his gloves, having beaten the great Melchisedek, and the right to practise his evil doings on the world of mortals. Luko also featured in this story, this time played by David Rappaport, as did Polandi, as Stabs' adversary, played by Lorna Heilbron. In "Seven Serpents..." she revealed to Mr. Stabs that she had already met Tarot. She warns him, "Beware Mr. Stabs, human or, no, do not underestimate this Tarot. He has a mind like quicksilver - and his skill is phenomenal. It is possible that he has the power - and is not fully aware of its potential. But Tarot is also an avenger, a righter of wrongs, a brilliant mind dedicated to fighting evil, greed and corruption." There was a chance that "Mr. Stabs" might have become a series, but following the departure of Pamela Lonsdale from Thames fairly soon afterwards made this appear unlikely - and so this came to be. The episode was repeated in 1985.

Would the series stand up again as well today? Pamela Lansdale and Peter Hammond believe it would, especially in the light of the Callan re-runs from the same era that did so well on Channel 4. Mackenzie agrees, "Yes, it was a good format, visually very exciting and just as good if not better than a lot that's on now. I suppose the clothes and hairdos would look very dated indeed, but that, I think, would be the only drawback." Only Trevor Preston has reservations on this point, "No. Kids need much more, they have become used to the sheer size and excitement of big screen films ... Star Wars, etc."

White the fantasy genre so prominent in the late sixties and early seventies has seen a revival in recent years, we haven't seen anything quite like Ace Of Wands since. Of course, in 1997 another series featuring a magician solving mysteries, albeit without the fantasy element, debuted on BBC1 - Jonathan Creek.

"Take what you can from yesterday, the rest beg - steal - or borrow."

Special thanks are due to P. J. Hammond, Pamela Lonsdale, Michael Mackenzie and Trevor Preston plus Harry Tabeart and Alison Cramond of Thames. Thanks also to Phil Kendrick, Mike Preston and Alan Smith and to Pam Watson who remembers that Tarot liked salt with his boiled eggs - where did she get that from?

Additional background information to the series can be located in the Archive section where Trevor Preston's series proposal and various versions of the writers' guide may be found.

The basis of this section is an article, co-written with Andrew Pixley, which first appeared in issue 6 of Time Screen.