Thirteen Against Fate
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| Thirteen Against Fate | |
|---|---|
| Written by | Based on 13 non-Jules Maigret stories by Georges Simenon. |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Producer | Irene Shubik |
| Original release | |
| Network | BBC1 |
| Release | 19 June – 11 September 1966 |
Thirteen Against Fate is a British mystery thriller series, comprising thirteen individual stories by the Belgian writer, Georges Simenon.[1] There are no links between each story, other than the original author, and no story features Simenon's most famous creation, Jules Maigret. The series' producer Irene Shubik described the series at the time as “these plays are not for the squeamish. They are not light detective stories, but intense psychological studies of individuals deeply involved in the aftermath of murder or death.”[2] Intended to be more of a psychological series than the usual British detective serial of the time, The Daily Telegraph described the first episode as "[a]n intelligent television crime series that concentrates on the character of the criminal instead of the almost invariably successful process of detection is overdue."[3]
Thirteen episodes were produced by the BBC and broadcast on Sunday evenings between 19th June to 11th September 1966.[4] [5]
Long thought almost entirely lost, only three episodes were known to survive. In 2010, a further ten episodes were recovered by the British Film Institute from the American Library of Congress as part of a extensive archive haul of over 60 dramas produced by the BBC and ITV made between 1957 to 1969.[6] These titles form part of a collection that was donated to the LOC by US National Educational Television, the forerunner of PBS, through its channel WNET/ Thirteen New York.[7] The entire series now exists complete in the archives.[8]