African Patrol
television series
African Patrol is a 39-episode syndicated adventure television series created, directed and produced by George Breakston in conjunction with Jack J. Gross and Philip N. Krasne. It was filmed on location in Kenya for a period of 15 months beginning in January 1957.
Plot
The series relates the adventures of the African Patrol, a unit of police officers based in Nairobi. Paul Derek is an inspector in the unit whose members are specially trained to investigate crime. Their telephone number is 1356.
Cast
John Bentley as Inspector Paul Derek
Tony Blane as Parker
Glynn Davies as Lt. Greer
Background
Many independent American television production companies shot their series outside the United States in the 1950s. Not only did this give audiences a chance to see new locations not shot in a studio but costs were much cheaper, especially as these runaway productions did not have to pay residuals or pay American film union wages.
In the 1950s a genre of American television series set in Africa were so popular and prolific they were nicknamed the "Straw Hut Circuit". Unlike most series that were filmed in the United States and used stock footage of African fauna taken on safari, African Patrol was filmed on location in Kenya.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “African Patrol” is television series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through African, Patrol and television, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “television series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3606254. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1957 and 1356.
Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.
- Identifying works and editions
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “African Patrol”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow African Patrol primary sources, African Patrol archive and African research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “African Patrol” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.