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Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

television series (1969–1970)

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 29, 2026
Entity authorityQ1860596 ↗
Source-derived summary

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and produced by Monty Berman, and was first broadcast in 1969 and 1970. In the United States, it was given the title My Partner the Ghost.

ITC Entertainment produced a single series of 26 episodes in 1968 and 1969, which was aired from September 1969 to March 1970. The pilot episode was first broadcast in the United Kingdom on 19 September 1969 by ATV in the Midlands. London Weekend Television broadcast the pilot two days later on 21 September 1969.

The series was remade in 2000, starring Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer.

Plot

In the initial episode, "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner", Marty Hopkirk is murdered during an investigation but returns as a ghost. He chooses his partner, Jeff Randall, to be the only main character able to see or hear him, to solve his own murder. Unfortunately, Marty chooses at the end of the episode not to return to his grave before dawn and is therefore to be trapped on earth for a century.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)” as television series (1969–1970). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1969, 1970, 1968, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Randall, Hopkirk and Deceased can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the arts & letters register because the source frames it as television series (1969–1970). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 29, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1860596. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1969, 1970, 1968 and 2000.

Critical limits

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.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) primary sources, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) archive and Randall research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)” 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.