randall and hopkirk / man in a suitcase soundtracks on vinyl

Eyed on the wall and begging to be purchased, played and loved to death, seriously I must have had a bang on the head for not nabbing these on the spot however our affections where turned by the spotting of a dinky little Nick Drake box set – the naffly titled ‘tuck box’ – I’m pretty sure Nick would smile at the attention and interest he garners these days but must similarly cringe at the woeful whoring around of his work by the majors to make a quick buck. Anyway more about that later, for now two releases just sneaked out by the network imprint see for the first time on vinyl the appearance of the randall and hopkirk and man in a suitcase soundtracks. The former scored by Edwin Astley – who you may recall choreographed ‘spring and port wine’ to immense effect – featured the lush ghostly tones of the criminally underused Harpsichord, the collection housed in a striking full colour jacket extends to 9 tracks and includes the magically haunting title credits along with key note incidental variations – in short along with ’the persuaders’ and ’vendetta’ one of the best soundtracks ever to grace a tv show. As to ’man in a suitcase’ dulled and cheapened by its use as the theme to TFI in the 90’s – the main credits by Dr Who man Ron Grainer who’d already established his credentials with his score for ’Maigret’ was no slouch in the memorable tune department turning his hand to ’to sir with love’ and later returning to TV with the haunting ’tales of the unexpected’ theme, that said the incidental work here is supplied by Albert Elms responsible for ’the champions’ and a large part of ’the prisoner’. again housed in full colour eyed catching sleeves this set comprises of 14 tracks – apparently very limited…….

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