Public Eye is back on British television thanks to those nice people at the Talking Pictures television channel. Quite probably one of the best detective series to come out of the telly box ever, Public Eye debuted in 1965 on ITV and chronicled the exploits of one Frank Marker - a rather grubby looking enquiry agent in a dirty mac three years before Columbo purchased his...
Obviously its broadcast cannot go without celebration so I've dug up this little gem from the golden age of TV tie-in toys. Devotees of The Man from UNCLE may recognise the product as a thinly disguised version of the UNCLE toy trenchcoat that is now much sought after at collectors fairs and online auction sites. Back in those days, it was almost a tradition that toy manufacturers would merely adapt existing products to suit current trends and licences. And this was no exception.
Mint versions of the Public Eye Detective Outfit Playset can go for literally tens of pounds these days and are rarely seen intact (if at all). I certainly haven't seen one on sale.
Ever.
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10/10/2018: Edited to add this spoof modern Radio Times cover I knocked up for the series and posted on Twitter.
One of the first silly merchandise mash-ups I did was a selection of paperback book covers for a UNIT spin-off series based on the design of the UK Man from UNCLE paperbacks that once littered the shelves of second hand bookshops in my youth. You can see them here
I had always intended to go back to them and create fuller covers with proper blurb, better photos and more accurate fonts. I finally got the urge a few days ago.
However, in searching the internet for source material, I came across the US covers for the original UNCLE novels which, arguably were more on-brand than their UK counterparts. They looked more hip as well..
So I diverted my original intention into creating new covers based on these for Doctor Who's seventh season. I hope you find them at least vaguely amusing.
Back in the 70s I used to frequent second hand bookshops. Indeed, there used to be a few in Derby where you could take your old paperbacks and exchange them for either a bit a cash or something new to get your teeth into. Certain books became very familiar in these places. Not necessarily because they were crap and unwanted but simply because there were dozens of them. The novels based on 'The Man from UNCLE regularly cropped up.
I have to say I ended up with a near complete set over the space of a few months simply by keeping my eyes open and having 10p or so spare in my pocket. To be honest, the novels themselves were often unreadable drivel based losely on the successful TV series. At the time, it wasn't a crime to produce merchandise that had little relevance to the brand it was part of. You only have to look at the Doctor Who annuals that World Distributors inflicted on kids each Christmas. But the best thing about the books were their often lurid titles - "The Stone Cold Dead in the Market Affair" is a classic.
Anyhow, this is a roundabout way of saying I was inspired to create some more 'Doctor Who' merchandise that has never been released. Last year I posted three covers for paperback books based on "The Men from UNIT" that bore more than a passing resemblance to those UNCLE novels. They were quite popular with my Facebook book friends and that nice Mark Gatiss fellow even tweeted me to say that he thought he had a set of them somewhere.
I've managed to dig around my loft and having failed to find anything of interest, I've knocked this complete set up just so I can say I now have the complete set. (You can click on the image to enlarge it) Sad to day that I failed to obtain the complete set of 'Man from UNCLE' books back in the 70s and I now only have one. I still haven't made it past the first chapter.
But I'm sure these little gems would be read and dog-eared by the end of the week.
Mint versions of the Public Eye Detective Outfit Playset can go for literally tens of pounds these days and are rarely seen intact (if at all). I certainly haven't seen one on sale. 
