Sun 25 May 2008
Q. E. D. CBS, 1982. Cast listed below.
“Q. E. D.” are the initials of Professor Quentin Everett Deverill (Sam Waterston) who, on a self-initiated exile from Harvard University in the year 1912, ends up in England, where he puts his scientific abilities to good use in having a fine time going on far-fetched adventures and solving crimes, and in the process, saving the world more than once.
I only vaguely remember this series when it was on. It lasted only six weeks, although I’m sure more were planned. The sets and general ambiance, with the series filmed in the UK, are nicely (if not lavishly) done. The performances are doubly fine — I’ll get to the primary cast shortly — but the stories themselves are creaky and old, disconnected and disjointed, too short of material for the hour time slot, and frankly, rather dull.

I’ve found a few photos to use here on the blog, and since I still don’t know how to embed videos here, you’ll have to follow the link to see a long clip from the first show, including the opening credits, complete with the light-hearted type of music that signifies that this is going to be a comedy as well as a serious adventure. (And how can you not look at Sam Waterston in the image above and not at least smile?)
But when you watch too many episodes in as short a time as I did — just over a week — the music will also all but drive you up a wall, or into a moat, or some such more or less drastic means of trying to avoid it.
Sam Waterston — Professor Deverill. An engaging light-hearted performance that’s pitch perfect for the part.
A. C. Weary — Charlie Andrews. American newspaper reporter based in England.
George Innes — Phipps. Cockney taxicab driver hired by Deverill as a chauffeur, butler, valet, lab assistant, and cook.
Caroline Langrishe — Jenny Martin. Deverill’s secretary and secret admirer, although Charlie’s eyes are always fondly looking upon her. (She suddenly appears at the beginning of the second episode, not having been in the first, which ends with another young woman apparently having taken the job.)
Julian Glover — Dr. Stefan Kilkiss. Deverill’s nemesis, the man who would rule the world by various nefarious means, only to be thwarted several times over the course of the series.
Thankfully, though, Kilkiss’s role is dropped by the fourth episode, his name and face no longer appearing in the opening credits. There are, after all, only so many ways, someone can take over the world, even a diabolically clever genius.
Having been kept from firing rockets at London in the first episode and the pilot for the series, there is only one way to go from there, and that’s down. Assassination plots and the winning of motor races simply do not compare, either in magnitude or innate possibilities.
When I saw Deverill described by wikipedia as being a Sherlock Holmes type of mystery solver in Edwardian England, I jumped at the chance to obtain DVDs of the complete series, but alas! There is very little deduction, although the last two shows seemed be heading in that direction, but unfortunately, too late.
Episode list:
1. 03-23-82. Target: London.
2. 03-30-82. The Great Motor Race.
3. 04-06-82. Infernal Device.
4. 04-13-82. The 4:10 to Zurich.
5. 04-20-82. To Catch a Ghost.
6. 04-27-82. The Limehouse Connection.
In “To Catch a Ghost,” for example, Deverill and company are required to find the culprit behind the ghosts haunting Jenny’s aunt’s castle of a home, and perhaps it’s the best episode of the series. “The Limehouse Connection” is the grittiest of the six, taking place as it does in the opium dens of Limehouse, London’s original Chinatown, and the underground boxing matches of the era, but I’d also have to add that when you get down to details, the story itself doesn’t hold a lot of water.
In spite of the weak plots that contained too much filler for this fellow — the uniformly favorable comments by others on IMDB are due to a rather common combination of nostalgia and faulty memories — I grew fond of the cast over the course of the six episodes and ten evenings, and believe it or not — faults and all — I would have willingly watched more of them if I could have.
January 16th, 2009 at 1:42 am
I remember watching this show in the early 90’s on TV, and still recall the To Catch a Ghost, and the main characters: hero, sidekick and female love interest.
January 16th, 2009 at 8:22 am
It’s been eight months since I watched all six episodes, and I still remember them. I don’t know what this series and cast of characters had, but they certainly do stay with you.
— Steve
August 15th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
How did you manage to get hold of all the episodes? It’s not available on DVD either in North-America or in Europe, as far as I know. I’m curious about the show, keeping in mind your warnings.
August 15th, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Back when I reviewed the series it was available on a collector-to-collector basis. But I did a search for it just now, and it seems to have gone into hiding again — none showed up.
Copies are out there, though. Just keep looking!
December 8th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
If you enjoyed this series, I suggest you find some of the “Thinking Machine” stories by Jacques Futrelle, which this resembles far more than Sherlock Holmes. (Coincidentally, Futrelle died in the very year this series is set, on the Titanic.)
December 25th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
Couldn’t disagree more with your “assessment” of the show, an assessment, by the way, with no empirical evidence to back it up whatsoever.
I found Q.E.D. to be one of the lost gems of the 1980s. I will leave it there because, unlike the blogger MysteryFile, I don’t have the space to wax on about the quality of the show. I will only say that I enjoy Hawkesworth’s other work, found the acting exemplary, found the mise-en-scene appropriate, and found the plots of the shows intriguing enough to keep me watching and I am a very discriminate viewer of television and film. Q.E.D. obviously has a lot of the Holmes, Edison, and steampunk (someone else said Q.E.D. is mor dieselpunk than steampunk).
While nostalgia is indeed a factor in how many people “remember” or perhaps better misremember TV shows (the nostalgia for what I find to be crap like The Brady Bunch, Saved by the Bell, Gilligan’s Island, and California Dreams, for instance), it is not at play in this instance. I had never seen Q.E.D. until Dec 2010.
December 25th, 2010 at 2:44 pm
Woland
I’m pleased to know that you enjoyed the series, even though your assessment, while appropriately detailed, boils down to the fact that while we both watched the same shows, you happened to have liked it more than I did.
This happens — and I certainly take no offense if someone disagrees with me — but I’m not sure what sort of empirical evidence you are demanding of me. I’ve stated exactly where I think the various stories fell short, and I pointed out those I thought were better than the others.
(Your referring to other series as “crap” certainly made me stop and wonder. Although crap they may be, I know of no empirical evidence you could produce that would justify such a statement, other than the fact that you think they stink.)
I think Q.E.D. was headed in the right direction when it was canceled, although at this late date, I’m sure it would be difficult to discover what kind of stories they were planning to do next.
Overall I chalk the series up as a missed opportunity, but a pleasant one, as I hope my last paragraph suggests.
December 25th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Serge, I watched the show on youtube. It is all there thanks to a poster. Thank yahweh for youtube.
March 3rd, 2011 at 1:01 am
I just finished all six episodes from a DVD I was able to find on the web. You can also download them as bit torrents, if you know how to do that.
I remembered Q.E.D. when I watched it first run in 1982, I believe during the summer months. I always thought that I’d like to re-visit it again. Glad I did.
Q.E.D. was not the greatest series on TV but one of most interesting and one that stayed with me for almost 3 decades! There must have been something there to make me seek it out again.
I think that, in the right hands, a redux of Q.E.D. would kick but today. It would have to be a total re-do with new actors and such. If I were involved it would have a lot of steam, early petro vehicles and more interesting plot lines. I’d also make the Killkiss character more evil and have him weave in and out of plots. Since the original series was in the 1912 time frame, the Titanic should figure into the mix as well.
In closing, I’m grateful to have been able to revisit Q.E.D. even if the source was from old VHS re-broadcasts from Quebec, Canada. Thank you to whoever taped these and made them available.
May 28th, 2011 at 4:40 pm
What a great show. I bearly remember it from the eighties. I would put this show up against any on television today.
March 9th, 2013 at 8:17 am
I’ve been trying to trace a TV epsiode for years that I can recall from memory : I think it may have been ‘To Catch a Ghost’. Has anybody seen this episode who could perhaps confirm :
This was an English TV series during the 1980’s (at least I’m almost certain it was a TV series…possibly a TV Movie)
This one particular episode had a spooky theme where someone was trying convince a woman (named Jenny/Jennie) that the house was haunted.
Each night Jenny would be awakened to hearing a ghostly voice call her name and she would see her bedroom door ajar and a light. This happened a few times during the episode.
This was something like an episode of Midsomer Murders…except it well preceded that series. Perhaps it was Ruth Rendall. I think this would have been around 1987 or 1988 at the latest.
It was set in the English countryside. I seem to remember horses and stables. I also remember that the woman who was trying to frighten Jennie was an older middle-aged woman.
The ‘ghostly’ scene happened to Jennie each evening. She would wake up and hear a ghostly voice call her name from outside her bedroom door and a there was also a light under the door and the eerie noise effect (much like the sound of a harp)
March 9th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
I have a feeling that you’ve come to the right place. I’ve not seen the episodes in this QED series since I wrote this review, but the one you’re looking for sure sounds like the next to the last one.
March 9th, 2013 at 7:07 pm
#11. Yes Jay, the series was Q.E.D. It is available in the collector’s market so look at places like ioffer.com, sell.com, and ebay. YouTube at one point had full episodes to view but have since disappeared. It could always return.
I was a huge fan of this show when it premiered, but watching it about a year ago I was disappointed. At the time it aired the series was unique, unlike any American TV at the time. Since then British TV has become easier to find and this no longer seemed all that special.
But I am glad I watched it again (and for free on YouTube). Hope you find it.