Perry Mason came to Britain thanks to Maigret

sir – Simon Heffer’s piece on Perry Mason (Hinterland, July 17) brought back memories of 1961 when I was part of a team of programme acquisition executives in offices on the roof of the old Lime Grove studios at Shepherd’s Bush.

The BBC claimed that 80 per cent of programming was produced from its own resources. We were responsible for acquiring the other 20 per cent.

We looked mainly for American comedy and music (Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Bilko, Dick Van Dyke, Perry Como) and long-form drama series (Dr Kildare, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) and always had a couple of Western series on the go, like Laramie and Overland Trail.

Perry Mason commenced on the CBS Network in 1957 but four years later it had still not been selected by the BBC or ITV. The feeling was that this kind of courtroom drama would never work with British audiences, though it was already playing on the Continent and in Australia.

In autumn 1960, the BBC produced Georges Simenon’s Maigret, starring Rupert Davies. This was proving a success on Monday nights.

Production of a second series had not yet commenced when the BBC decided to maintain the Monday night slot with a continuing crime theme. So we were asked to come up with some quick suggestions. We decided to go with 13 episodes of Perry Mason. CBS agreed a special royalty of £1,500 for each 50-minute episode.

Perry Mason had immediate impact. More episodes were bought and it was moved to Saturday prime time. The series continued to be shown through the 1960s and beyond.

Bill Gilbert

William Gilbert Associates Burnham, Buckinghamshire