Randall and Hopkirk, Take One


In my last post, I reproduced an article from 2016 looking at the two different sets of opening titles on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Having two or more iterations of a piece of work is somewhat more commonplace in the world of graphic design and, appropriately enough, there was a different set of designs proposed for the R&H Blu-rays which never saw the light of day. As you will see, they came very close to being produced, as I still have fully typeset versions in my archive. This work was all done seven years ago, and I can no longer recollect the reason why the designs were altered. Usually, any amendment to my original designs would be at the behest of Network CEO Tim Beddows, who signed off on everything – usually with no quibbles, but occasionally he'd balk at something. I know he hated the colour pink, so it may have been that the proposed sleeve for Volume Three didn't meet with his approval. On the other hand, I may have taken the decision myself: the idea was to have a different coloured background on each sleeve, which would have given a rainbow effect when the spines were laid side by side in the final box set. And as a designer, there's nothing I hate more than rainbow colours (although I made one recent exception with the colourised Gerry Anderson set). To me, a good design needs a good colour scheme, and when you've got all seven colours of the spectrum present, the result is visual overload. I only ever did the first three sleeves in this iteration, before settling on the somewhat austere black and white and orange version that made the final cut.

Here, then, for the first time in public, are those unused Randall and Hopkirk sleeves. If you're wondering why the cover images are all monochromatic, it's simple: there was a better choice available from ITV's black and white scans.


Print-ready, typeset version of Volume 2

Photoshop background for volume 3






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