Dick Barton Special Agent

(1946 - 51)

Dick Barton Special Agent was a radio phenomena between 1946 and 1951. Broadcast on "The Light Programme", Dick and his companions Jock (Alex McCrindle) and Snowy (John Mann) ruled the airwaves attracting over 15 million listeners.

The show was given the prime time slot in the early evening right after the news making Captain Richard Barton, ex Commando, a national hero in post war Great Britain.

Noel Johnson was the first to play the smooth crime busting Barton, passing on the Baton later in the Radio series to Duncan Carse and Gordon Davis.

Dick Barton also spawned these 3 movies starring Don Stannard:

• Dick Barton Special Agent, 1948
• Dick Barton Strikes Back, 1949
• Dick Barton at Bay, 1950

The movie series ended when Stannard was sadly killed in a car crash.

In 1979 Barton returned, this time to the small screen, played by Tony Vogel, in a 26 episode series produced by Southern Television, where once again Dick and his friends sped around the country in Barton's Riley defeating mad scientists with death rays etc.

Dick Barton has also been brought to stage by the Warehouse Theatre Company touring Great Britain since 1998 with Phil Willmotts version of the Special Agent.

Few episodes survive of the original Radio show, but in 1972 to celebrate the history, Noel Johnson returned to recreate those great days when his theme tune "The Devils Gallop" was a roll call to all to gather around the family Wireless.