George Markstein
Encyclopedia
George Markstein was a German-born British journalist
and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplay
s. He was the script editor and co-writer of "Arrival
," the first episode of the British
cult classic
series The Prisoner
, and appeared briefly in its title sequence
. Markstein also wrote for or story-edited other television series, specialising in espionage stories, and jointly ran a successful literary agency
for screenwriters.
, Germany
, but emigrated with his family to England with the rise of Nazism
. It is rumoured that in the 1950s he had worked in British intelligence but there is no historical basis for this. Markstein later became a journalist for the military tabloid, The Overseas Weekly. Due to its scandal driven content, their U.S. G.I. readership referred to the paper as The Over Sexed Weekly. The masthead of the newspaper lists Markstein as head of the London
desk.
He moved into television, first on the factual series This Week
, before acting as story consultant and contributing to multiple episodes of ITC
's Court Martial
(1966), and then joining Danger Man
as story consultant for the last black-and-white episode (1966), then story editor for the two episodes which were made in colour (1967). Around this time he also wrote four episodes for Rediffusion's children's drama series Send Foster (1967), and worked on the script for Peter Yates
's Robbery (1967), a fictionalised feature film based on the 1963 Great Train Robbery
.
announced his decision to leave Danger Man, Markstein edited the basic ideas that McGoohan had worked on since 1962 that became the British cult classic series The Prisoner, created by, starring and often written and/or directed by McGoohan. Together with producer David Tomblin
and the star McGoohan (uncredited), Markstein co-wrote the first story "Arrival," and then settled in as script editor for the series. He later described the job of story editor as "the key man in any series, he is the man in whose hands is the ethos of the series, the spirit of the series, and it is his job to cast the writers and the authors the way a director casts the actors and the stars".
Markstein makes a fleeting appearance at the start of almost every episode of The Prisoner - as the balding, bespectacled 'man behind the desk', to whom McGoohan's character is seen angrily handing his letter of resignation; and played the same, non-speaking character in the episode "Many Happy Returns."
Markstein's view of the series was for a more-or-less conventional action/espionage story. However as McGoohan controlled the series as Executive Producer and owner of Everyman Films, Markstein became increasingly dissatisfied as an employee and ultimately left the series after the conclusion of the initial block of thirteen episodes. A glimpse of Markstein's face remained in the opening credits, but it was without him that McGoohan took the series to its most surreal and existential levels in the final four episodes, and its bizarre conclusion.
, initially as an in-house script editor, then as story editor for the first series of a new counter-espionage drama Special Branch
(1969); the third and final fourth series of spy drama Callan
(1970, 1972); several episodes of Armchair Theatre
(1969, 1971); and the first series of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
(1971). He also acted as producer
for the first series of Man at the Top (1970–71), a continuation of the story begun with John Braine
's 1957 Room at the Top
. Markstein became Thames's Head of Script Development, where he had input into the development of the 1974 Armchair Cinema season made by Thames's new all-film Euston Films
production unit, including one-off drama Regan and its celebrated successor series The Sweeney
.
In 1974 Markstein again went freelance, and co-wrote the screenplay for The Odessa File
, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth
. In the same year, together with Jacqui Lyons, he co-founded the literary agency, Marjacq Scripts Ltd, initially to represent screenwriters, later also thriller writers and computer game authors. The name is a derived from Markstein's surname and Jacqui's forename.
In addition to his interests in Marjacq, Markstein also wrote a number of thrillers, including The Cooler (1974), The Man From Yesterday (1976), Chance Awakening (1977), the historical epic Tara Kane (1978), Goering Testament (1978), Traitor for a Cause (1979), Ultimate Issue (1981), Ferret (1983), and Soul Hunters (1987).
He continued to write for television, including working on two series of Shades of Greene
(1975–76) for Thames, a series of adaptations of short stories by Graham Greene
, for which Markstein acted as script consultant jointly with Greene's brother, former director-general of the BBC, Sir Hugh Carleton Greene. Other series he wrote episodes for included Return of the Saint
(1978), the pilot (Storyboard: The Traitor) and two further episodes of Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
(Thames, 1983, 1984, 1985), and one episode of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye
(Thames, 1986). His final television work was as story editor on the six part series London Embassy (Thames, 1987), based on a book of short stories by Paul Theroux
about the unusual experiences of an American diplomat based in London.
For the cinema he wrote the initial synopsis for the 1982 SAS
embassy-storming film Who Dares Wins
, which was then turned into a novel The Tiptoe Boys in thirty days flat by author James Follett
and then into a screenplay by veteran screenwriter Reginald Rose
. James Follett, who began writing professionally in 1973, has described George Markstein as his "guru", and is still represented by Markstein's company Marjacq.
Following a long illness, Markstein died of kidney failure in 1987.
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and subsequent writer of thrillers and teleplay
Teleplay
A teleplay is a television play, a comedy or drama written or adapted for television. The term surfaced during the 1950s with wide usage to distinguish a television plays from stage plays for the theater and screenplays written for films...
s. He was the script editor and co-writer of "Arrival
Arrival (The Prisoner)
"Arrival" is the title of the first episode of the British science fiction-allegorical series, The Prisoner. It originally aired in the UK on ITV on 29 September 1967 and was first broadcast in the United States on CBS on 1 June 1968....
," the first episode of the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
cult classic
Cult Classic
Cult Classic is a Blue Öyster Cult studio recording released in 1994, containing remakes of many of the band's previous hits.-Track listing:# " The Reaper" - 5:05# "E.T.I...
series The Prisoner
The Prisoner
The Prisoner is a 17-episode British television series first broadcast in the UK from 29 September 1967 to 1 February 1968. Starring and co-created by Patrick McGoohan, it combined spy fiction with elements of science fiction, allegory and psychological drama.The series follows a British former...
, and appeared briefly in its title sequence
Opening and closing sequences of The Prisoner
The opening and closing sequences of TV series The Prisoner are considered iconic, "one of the great set-ups of genre drama."-The Prisoner overview:...
. Markstein also wrote for or story-edited other television series, specialising in espionage stories, and jointly ran a successful literary agency
Literary agent
A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers and film producers and assists in the sale and deal negotiation of the same. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwriters and major non-fiction writers...
for screenwriters.
Life and work
Markstein was born in BerlinBerlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, but emigrated with his family to England with the rise of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. It is rumoured that in the 1950s he had worked in British intelligence but there is no historical basis for this. Markstein later became a journalist for the military tabloid, The Overseas Weekly. Due to its scandal driven content, their U.S. G.I. readership referred to the paper as The Over Sexed Weekly. The masthead of the newspaper lists Markstein as head of the London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
desk.
He moved into television, first on the factual series This Week
This Week (ITV TV series)
This Week was a weekly current affairs series first produced for ITV in January 1956 by Associated-Rediffusion , running until 1978, when it was replaced by TV Eye...
, before acting as story consultant and contributing to multiple episodes of ITC
ITC Entertainment
The Incorporated Television Company was a British television company largely involved in production and distribution. It was founded by Lew Grade.-History:...
's Court Martial
Court Martial (TV series)
Court Martial was an ITC Entertainment and Roncom Productions co-production crime drama TV series that premiered in 1966. Set during World War II, the series details the investigations of a Judge Advocate General's office....
(1966), and then joining Danger Man
Danger Man
Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...
as story consultant for the last black-and-white episode (1966), then story editor for the two episodes which were made in colour (1967). Around this time he also wrote four episodes for Rediffusion's children's drama series Send Foster (1967), and worked on the script for Peter Yates
Peter Yates
Peter James Yates was an English director and producer. He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire.The son of an army officer, he attended Charterhouse School as a boy, graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked for some years as an actor, director and stage manager...
's Robbery (1967), a fictionalised feature film based on the 1963 Great Train Robbery
Great Train Robbery (1963)
The Great Train Robbery is the name given to a £2.6 million train robbery committed on 8 August 1963 at Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn near Mentmore in Buckinghamshire, England. The bulk of the stolen money was not recovered...
.
The Prisoner
When Patrick McGoohanPatrick McGoohan
Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...
announced his decision to leave Danger Man, Markstein edited the basic ideas that McGoohan had worked on since 1962 that became the British cult classic series The Prisoner, created by, starring and often written and/or directed by McGoohan. Together with producer David Tomblin
David Tomblin
David Tomblin was a producer and assistant director born in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England. He was probably best known as the producer, director, and writer of The Prisoner .-Director:...
and the star McGoohan (uncredited), Markstein co-wrote the first story "Arrival," and then settled in as script editor for the series. He later described the job of story editor as "the key man in any series, he is the man in whose hands is the ethos of the series, the spirit of the series, and it is his job to cast the writers and the authors the way a director casts the actors and the stars".
Markstein makes a fleeting appearance at the start of almost every episode of The Prisoner - as the balding, bespectacled 'man behind the desk', to whom McGoohan's character is seen angrily handing his letter of resignation; and played the same, non-speaking character in the episode "Many Happy Returns."
Markstein's view of the series was for a more-or-less conventional action/espionage story. However as McGoohan controlled the series as Executive Producer and owner of Everyman Films, Markstein became increasingly dissatisfied as an employee and ultimately left the series after the conclusion of the initial block of thirteen episodes. A glimpse of Markstein's face remained in the opening credits, but it was without him that McGoohan took the series to its most surreal and existential levels in the final four episodes, and its bizarre conclusion.
Later work
After The Prisoner, Markstein went to the newly merged Thames TelevisionThames Television
Thames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992....
, initially as an in-house script editor, then as story editor for the first series of a new counter-espionage drama Special Branch
Special Branch (TV series)
Special Branch is a British television series made by Thames Television for ITV and shown between 1969 and 1974. A police drama series, the action was centred on members of the Special Branch anti-espionage and anti-terrorist department of the London Metropolitan Police.The first two series were...
(1969); the third and final fourth series of spy drama Callan
Callan
-People:Callan is the birth place of some famous people, namely:* Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers and the Presentation Brothers* Callan also has links with Asa Griggs Candler's family and the Coca-Cola company....
(1970, 1972); several episodes of Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
(1969, 1971); and the first series of The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes (television series)
The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes is a British television series that was co-produced by Thames Television and originally broadcast on the ITV Network...
(1971). He also acted as producer
Television producer
The primary role of a television Producer is to allow all aspects of video production, ranging from show idea development and cast hiring to shoot supervision and fact-checking...
for the first series of Man at the Top (1970–71), a continuation of the story begun with John Braine
John Braine
John Gerard Braine was an English novelist. Braine is usually associated with the Angry Young Men movement.-Biography:...
's 1957 Room at the Top
Room at the Top (novel)
Room at the Top , by John Braine, tells the rise of an ambitious young man of humble origin, and the socio-economic struggles undergone in realising his social ambitions in post-war Britain...
. Markstein became Thames's Head of Script Development, where he had input into the development of the 1974 Armchair Cinema season made by Thames's new all-film Euston Films
Euston Films
Euston Films was a British film and television production company. It was a subsidiary company of Thames Television, and operated from the 1970s to the 1990s, producing various series for Thames, which were screened nationally on the ITV network...
production unit, including one-off drama Regan and its celebrated successor series The Sweeney
The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a 1970s British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, a branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
.
In 1974 Markstein again went freelance, and co-wrote the screenplay for The Odessa File
The ODESSA File (film)
The Odessa File is a 1974 film adaptation of the thriller novel by Frederick Forsyth, about a struggle between a young German reporter and the ODESSA, an organization for ex-Nazis. The film stars Jon Voight and was directed by Ronald Neame, with a score by Andrew Lloyd Webber.- Plot :The plot opens...
, based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
. In the same year, together with Jacqui Lyons, he co-founded the literary agency, Marjacq Scripts Ltd, initially to represent screenwriters, later also thriller writers and computer game authors. The name is a derived from Markstein's surname and Jacqui's forename.
In addition to his interests in Marjacq, Markstein also wrote a number of thrillers, including The Cooler (1974), The Man From Yesterday (1976), Chance Awakening (1977), the historical epic Tara Kane (1978), Goering Testament (1978), Traitor for a Cause (1979), Ultimate Issue (1981), Ferret (1983), and Soul Hunters (1987).
He continued to write for television, including working on two series of Shades of Greene
Shades of Greene
Shades of Greene is a British television series based on short stories written by the author Graham Greene. The series began in 1975, with each hour-long episode featuring a dramatisation of one of Greene's stories, many of which dealt with issues such as guilt and the Catholic faith, as well as...
(1975–76) for Thames, a series of adaptations of short stories by Graham Greene
Graham Greene
Henry Graham Greene, OM, CH was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world...
, for which Markstein acted as script consultant jointly with Greene's brother, former director-general of the BBC, Sir Hugh Carleton Greene. Other series he wrote episodes for included Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint
Return of the Saint was a British action-adventure television series that aired for one season in 1978 and 1979 in Britain on ITV, and was also broadcast on CBS in the United States...
(1978), the pilot (Storyboard: The Traitor) and two further episodes of Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Mr. Palfrey of Westminster
Mr Palfrey of Westminster was a British television drama which ran in 1984–85.-Plot summary:Mr Palfrey is a mild, middle aged man—the epitome of a middle rank British Civil Servant.He is also a spook....
(Thames, 1983, 1984, 1985), and one episode of Philip Marlowe, Private Eye
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye
Philip Marlowe, Private Eye is a mystery series that aired on ITV in the United Kingdom and on HBO in the United States from April 16, 1983 through June 3, 1986. The series featured Powers Boothe as Raymond Chandler's titular character, and was the first drama produced for HBO.-Synopsis:The series...
(Thames, 1986). His final television work was as story editor on the six part series London Embassy (Thames, 1987), based on a book of short stories by Paul Theroux
Paul Theroux
Paul Edward Theroux is an American travel writer and novelist, whose best known work of travel writing is perhaps The Great Railway Bazaar . He has also published numerous works of fiction, some of which were made into feature films. He was awarded the 1981 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his...
about the unusual experiences of an American diplomat based in London.
For the cinema he wrote the initial synopsis for the 1982 SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
embassy-storming film Who Dares Wins
Who Dares Wins (film)
Who Dares Wins is a 1982 British film starring Lewis Collins, Judy Davis, Richard Widmark and Edward Woodward, directed by Ian Sharp. The title is the motto of the elite Special Air Service ....
, which was then turned into a novel The Tiptoe Boys in thirty days flat by author James Follett
James Follett
James Follett is an author and screenwriter, born in 1939 in Tolworth, England.Follett became a full-time fiction writer in 1976, after resigning from contract work as a technical writer for the British Ministry of Defence. He has since written over 20 novels, several television plays, and many...
and then into a screenplay by veteran screenwriter Reginald Rose
Reginald Rose
Reginald Rose was an American film and television writer most widely known for his work in the early years of television drama. Rose's work is marked by its treatment of controversial social and political issues...
. James Follett, who began writing professionally in 1973, has described George Markstein as his "guru", and is still represented by Markstein's company Marjacq.
Following a long illness, Markstein died of kidney failure in 1987.
External links
- An interview with George Markstein, conducted by Chris Rodley in 1984.
- Clip from the 1984 documentary Six Into One: The Prisoner File, via YouTube, which includes edited parts of the above interview
- George Markstein: Guru to James Follett (archived 2009)
- Tribute to George Markstein - James Follett website
- Marjacq