A Tribute to Francis Matthews

In an unfortunate coincidence, Francis Matthews has passed away within a week of the death of Rik Mayall, his co-star in the 'Jonathan Creek' episode 'Black Canary' which I reviewed 5 days ago as a tribute to the latter. Once again I'm pushing back my review of 'Blake's 7' Series Three, which fingers crossed will be my next review, but I thought it was right to put together a tribute to Matthews, for me an icon of my childhood years. 

Captain Scarlet to the far right, with Captain Blue and Lieutenant Green in 'Captain Scarlet & The Mysterons'

For generations of children (and I mean generations, plural!) Francis Matthews is the man who provided the voice to a hero, namely Captain Scarlet in the highly successful Gerry Anderson television puppet series ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’, a show that premiered on the ATV Network in September 1967. The series, the next programme produced by Gerry & Sylvia Anderson following the worldwide hit that was ‘Thunderbirds’ would feature puppets that were more proportionate in head and body size to all the Anderson series that had preceded it. It was also notably darker, featuring the sinister alien beings ‘The Mysterons’ who possess the power to replicate a human body for their own ends, giving them the power of ‘retro-metabolism’ meaning they are virtually indestructible and survive injuries that would normally be fatal. Our protagonist is given this treatment in the very first episode but following a serious fall from a car park high in the sky (typical needless Anderson extravagance!) Is revived as a non-Mysteron agent, back on the side of the organisation designed to protect the Earth from the Mysterons called ‘Spectrum’. Captain Black (the series’ regular villain) who is seen at the very beginning of that pilot episode (in human form) in a Martian Exploration Vehicle sent to explore mars is part of a small team that open fire on a Mysteron base after discovering it, mistaking the Mysteron’s surveillance equipment for a weapon. This trigger happy action causes a war between the Mysterons and Earth and a series of retaliations against the people of the earth for the destruction of their base on mars. The first retaliation begins with the transformation of Captain Black from human agent to Mysteron agent. 

Francis Matthews on the right signing autographs with co-star Ed Bishop who voiced Captain Blue at a 2002 Convention. Bishop passed away in 2005. 

As the voice of Captain Scarlet, Francis Matthews would be joined by a collection of experienced actors and voice artiste’s including Ed Bishop, Donald Gray, Cy Grant and Liz Morgan, all playing key roles. Matthews confirmed later in interviews that the inspiration behind the voice of the character was Cary Grant, the famous Bristolian actor who found success in Hollywood. His colleague and friend Ed Bishop (who voiced Captain Scarlet’s friend and colleague in the series, Captain Blue) revealed in an interview in 1982 that the recording sessions for the voices on the show were scheduled twice each month, two episodes a day over a period of eight months. He recalled “We did an episode in the morning and an episode after lunch. They were very, very relaxed sessions. We would all gather in the studio and record together. This was one of the innovations of Gerry's work. Normally, other puppet programmes would do the puppets first and then have the actors match their voices to the puppets. Gerry's people made the puppets work to the persona of the actor. They were really done at a high professional standard. We were all amazed by it.” From those semi regular recording sessions a legend and a classic television series were born, a show that 47 years later still has a timeless, enduring quality which continues to captivate both young and adult audiences and amass a large number of fans. For the last twenty years Matthews has been a regular guest at science fiction, comic and fantasy conventions, an experience that would mystify him slightly. He once remarked in an interview, referring to said fans "They dress up and stare at you when you're signing the autograph, as if you're some kind of extraordinary god!"

Francis Matthews in 'The Avengers' episode 'Mission..Highly Improbable' 

But there was much more to Matthews and much more to his career than being the voice of Captain Scarlet. After a handful of supporting roles in films and television series, he would appear as Doctor Hans Kleve in the first major Hammer Horror picture ‘The Revenge of Frankenstein’ released in 1958, a film that caused quite a stir at the time for its gore content. This would lead to other horror film appearances including Amalgamated Pictures ‘Corridors of Blood’ and later ‘The Hellfire Club’ whilst appearing in a number of notable BBC plays and ITC adventure series such as ‘Interpol Calling’. He would return to Hammer in 1966 for two further feature films, ‘Dracula: Prince of Darkness’ and ‘Rasputin: The Mad Monk’ both starring Christopher Lee as the title character. He would then make two memorable appearances in the surreal ITC spy-fi series ‘The Avengers’ in the episodes ‘The Thirteenth Hole’ and the excellent ‘Mission: Highly Improbable’ between 1966-67 before the debut of ‘Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons’.

Matthews in Dracula: Prince of Darkness, a 1966 Hammer Horror film starring Christopher Lee in the title role 

After his most famous role he would star in 52 episodes of the BBC’s ‘Paul Temple’ series about a crime novelist who solves mysteries. It ran for four series on television, but he also played the part on radio. Throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties he would continue to make numerous appearances in television and many made for television movies, during this period he notably starred in ‘Crown Court’, ‘Taggart’ and ‘Jonathan Creek’ but nothing like the level of work he committed himself to during the previous two decades, presumably because of his busy theatre schedule but also perhaps because by this stage he was able to pick and choose his roles. Between 2002-2003 however he made several appearances in the ITV series ‘Heartbeat’ and ‘The Royal’ as recurring character Dr. James Alway. He would find use for his accurate impression of Cary Grant’s voice again in the 2004 television movie ‘Cary Comes Home’ a celebration of the work and life of the great actor. Matthews last acting appearance on film was in the 2012 British comedy ‘Run For Your Wife’ starring Danny Dyer.

Francis Matthews with George Cole in the 1979 sitcom 'Don't Forget to Write!' 

Francis Matthews died at the age of 86 on 14^th June 2014 after a lengthy and prestigious career as an actor. A wonderful legacy he has left. From his appearances in Hammer Horror to Jonathan Creek, Matthews was a versatile stalwart of British acting. He will be missed. 

NOTE: All production stills and photographs used in this review are copyrighted to the BBC, ITC and Hammer Productions. The Ed Bishop interview is sourced from Starlog #55 (1982). The next review will focus on the third series of the classic BBC science fiction series 'Blake's 7'.