Season 1 • Episode 13
LatestWandering the streets of London one night with Bunny, Raffles, who is becoming bored and blase about the ease with which he is able to steal from the rich, acts on the spur of the moment and breaks into a house while the owners are actually present. To his astonishment he finds that he has chosen the house of an old flame of his, a long lost love who is already married. He is discovered by this lady in the act of stealing her jewellery, but she confesses to Raffles that she still loves him, and wants him to go away with her. Raffles still loves the lady, but he also loves his life at The Albany, and playing cricket for England, and stealing diamonds. Raffles must find a way of maintaining the status quo.
Raffles was a 1977 television adaptation of the A. J. Raffles stories by Ernest William Hornung. The series was produced by Yorkshire Television and written by Philip Mackie. The episodes were largely faithful adaptations of the stories in the books, though occasionally two stories would be merged to create one. In Victorian-era London, gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, a renowned cricketer, and his friend, the eager but naive Bunny Manders, test their skills in relieving the wealthy of their valuables whilst avoiding detection, especially from the persistent Inspector Mackenzie.
Acting
Anthony Valentine's wolfish grin sells every impossible lie.
Costume
Tailcoats and top hats so sharp they'll cut you.
Writing
Mackie's dialogue gleams with Edwardian wit.
Creator
Philip Mackie
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hornung created Raffles as a deliberate inversion of his brother-in-law Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes — the criminal as gentleman rather than the detective.
This 1977 series was the first faithful adaptation; a 1975 film with David Niven had sanitized Raffles into a romantic hero.
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