Avenues and Alleyways by Tony Christie - the utterly brilliant theme tune from the ITC series The Protectors (the early 1970s series that is, not its namesake from back in 1964). Written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callandar, the song is an absolute belter not to mention a real ear worm (sorry about that)!
During the 1960s and early 1970s ATV/ITC produced a raft of action adventure series and, ever with an eye to the US market, Lew Grade often ensured that there was an American star heading the billing. For The Protectors Robert Vaughn of Man From UNCLE fame was chosen to play lead character Harry Rule. It is understood Vaughn and producer Gerry Anderson fell out over the direction of the show. Vaughn was allowed to direct one episode, but Lew Grade considered that this episode was one of the worst programmes he had ever seen!
Robert Vaughn was brilliantly supported by the other main cast members Nyree Dawn Porter as Contessa Caroline di Contini and Tony Anholt as Paul Buchet,
It's often forgotten that The Protectors was produced by Gerry Anderson who was offered the opportunity to work on the show by Lew Grade. Although Anderson had produced another non-puppet TV show (UFO) and a feature film (Doppelganger) before this, The Protectors marked a complete break from the usual science fiction themes of the Anderson stable.
A challenge for the show's writers and directors was that it had a very limited 25 minutes running time compared with the normal 50 minutes for the action adventure genre. Another constraint was that to shoot episodes in European locations and to keep it within budget, the programme was filmed on 16mm film (unlike its stablemate The Persuaders! which was shot on 35mm and was given a much larger budget).
Despite all this - and more than a few weak episodes - The Protectors was well-received and is fondly remembered. But it was Tony Christie's amazing singing performance of the song Avenues and Alleyways that lent the show such energy.
After a second series of The Protectors was produced, Gerry Anderson went back to his more familiar territory of sci-fi with the production of Space 1999.
The show sold reasonably well overseas. In France it was called 'Poigne de Fer et Séduction' (Iron Fist and Seduction), in Italy 'Gli Invincibili' (The Invincibles), in Spanish speaking countries 'Los Protectores', In Japan プロテクター電光石火 (Protector - Lightning Fast) whilst in Germany it was called 'Kein Pardon für Schutzengel' (No Let Up For Guardian Angels).
Between them, songwriters Murray and Callandar (often writing together) composed a string of well-known songs by huge stars, including: How Do You Do It?; I Like It; You Were Made For Me; Even the Bad Times are Good; The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde; Ragamuffin Man; Hitchin' a Ride; and I Did What I Did For Maria.
Lyrics: Avenues and Alleyways (written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander)
Sleep like a baby, my little lady
Dream 'til the sunrise creeps into your eyes
Dream 'til the sunrise turns on the day
In the avenues and alleyways
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Abel and his brother fighting one another in and out of every dive
The avenues and alleyways
where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle see the rough and tumble
listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later in the morning paper read about the way he died
Wake up my pretty, go to the city
Stay through the daytime safe in the sunshine
Stay 'til the daytime turns into night
In the avenues and alleyways
where a man's gotta work out which side he's on
Anyway he chooses chances are he loses
no-one gets to live too long
The avenues and alleyways
where the soul of a man is easy to buy
Everybody's wheelin' everybody's dealin'
all the low are livin' high
Every city's got 'em can we ever stop 'em
some of us are gonna try!
