TV Cream

Independent Producers

MERTON PARK STUDIOS

The leafy SW19 garden suburb played host to over 130 no-nonsense second features from 1942 onwards, usually crime based, usually featuring a car chase down the same nearby hill and in front of the same local landmarks. Two anthology strands dominated proceedings – the Edgar Wallace stories (preceded by the titular writer’s revolving head) and the Scotland Yard/Scales of Justice series of true crime dramatisations introduced by dour, jowly criminologist Edgar Lustgarten. Stars of all stripes, from Arthur Askey to James Mason, Harry H Corbett to Michael Aspel, passed through the Merton Park gates, until their last feature, Scales of Justice drama Payment in Kind, in 1967.

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