| Genre: | Detective Drama |
| Creator: | N. J. Crisp Gerard Glaister Cyril Abraham |
| Director: | Prudence Fitzgerald Ben Rea |
| Starring: | Marius Goring Jeremy Sinden Ann Morrish Victor Winding Michael Farnsworth Virginia Stride |
| Opentheme: | symphony 4 D minor Op13, third movement |
| Composer: | Dvorak |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Num Series: | 4 |
| Num Episodes: | 62 (14 missing) |
| Producer: | Gerard Glaister Andrew Osborn |
| Runtime: | 50 minutes |
| Company: | BBC |
| Channel: | BBC2 |
The Expert is a British television series produced by the BBC between 1968 and 1976. It ran for 62 episodes over four series.
The series starred Marius Goring as Dr. (later Professor) John Hardy, a forensic pathologist based in Warwickshire working for the Home Office. It was essentially a police procedural drama, with Hardy bringing his forensic knowledge to solve various cases. He was sometimes assisted in his work by his wife Jo, a GP, played by Ann Morrish; the cases he investigated were usually in conjunction with detectives Fleming (Victor Winding) and Ashe (Michael Farnsworth) of the Warwickshire police.
The fourth series (from 1976) was produced and transmitted several years after the first three (which were broadcast between 1968 and 1971). Several changes were made to the show, as only Goring returned from the original cast. Hardy was now a widower living in Oxford; the only other regulars in this final batch of shows were his secretary Susan Bartlett (Virginia Stride) and his lab assistant Price (Jeremy Sinden).
The Expert was created and produced by Gerard Glaister. The series was one of the first BBC dramas to be made in colour, and throughout its four series had guest appearances from (among others) John Carson, Peter Copley, Rachel Kempson, Peter Vaughan, Clive Swift, Geoffrey Palmer, Peter Barkworth, Jean Marsh, Ray Brooks, George Sewell, Anthony Valentine, Jeff Shankley, Bernard Lee, Lee Montague, Geoffrey Bayldon, Mike Pratt, Edward Fox, André Morell, Brian Blessed, Nigel Stock, Philip Madoc and Warren Clarke.
Main recurring characters across all four series.
| Character | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prof. John Hardy | Marius Goring | ||||
| Jo Hardy | |||||
| DCI Fleming | |||||
| DS Frank Ashe | Michael Farnsworth | ||||
| Sandra Hughes | Valerie Murray | ||||
| Susan Bartlett | Virginia Stride | ||||
| Jane Carter | Sally Nesbitt | ||||
| Vicky Hammond | |||||
| DCS Mowbray | |||||
| Price | Jeremy Sinden | ||||
Most of the original videotapes of this show were wiped by the BBC, mainly from series one and two. As a result, 14 episodes are missing, mostly from series one, leaving 48 surviving. Although many episodes survive only as black and white telerecordings, the series was produced in colour.[1] Series four and one episode of series three exist as their original colour versions.
| Nº | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|
The idea of television series centered around the investigations of a forensic pathologist had previously been pioneered by the Canadian TV series Wojeck (1966-68). A similar concept would later be adopted by the American television series Quincy, M.E. and CSI, and the British television series Silent Witness.