Public Eye is a British television drama series that ran from 1965 to 1975, for a total of seven series. It was produced by ABC Weekend TV for three series, and Thames Television for a further four. The series depicted the cases and investigations handled by the enquiry agent Frank Marker (Alfred Burke), an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. The title is a twist on the more usual "private eye". Background The series was created by writers Roger Marshall and Anthony Marriott with the aim of getting away from "square-jawed" heroes of the type featured in Hollywood movies—a wish shared by Alfred Burke, the actor chosen to play Marker. This aim allowed for flexibility in the structure and plot lines of the episodes; each individual episode usually dealt with an individual case for Marker, but story arcs spanning several episodes, or in one case an entire series, were produced during the life of the programme. Marker's work ranged broadly, from routine matters such as gathering evidence for divorces (at a time when British law required evidence of infidelity or other compelling reason for annulling a marriage) or creditworthiness enquiries, to more exotic investigations such as tracing missing people (or in one case, a prize-winning whippet). Many of the narratives conclude with Marker leaving a situation as it was at the beginning of the episode—for example, in "The Man Who Didn't Eat Sweets", he fails to tell his client that she is one of her husband's three wives. Episodes produced by ABC Television 1965–1968 The first episode of the series was broadcast (in black and white) in January 1965 and was set in London, although very little (if any) location work was actually performed and the episodes were mostly confined to the TV studio. Of the 41 episodes produced by ABC, only five are currently known to exist in television-broadcastable format—the rest being victims of the common television company policy of wiping. However, two episodes from the first series remain. In "Nobody Kills Santa Claus", the second episode of the first series (transmitted 30 January 1965), Marker plays comparatively little part in the plot. The episode does establish key aspects of Marker's character: his modest lifestyle arising from his modest fees for his work—the oft-quoted "six guineas a day plus expenses" (which became £6.30 a day in the later Thames-produced episodes, once Britain converted