In 1976 the first of Royce's novels was adapted for British television by Ivor Marshall. The series ran for three episodes, which covered the one storyline with
Stephen Yardley starring as the main character. Co-starring were
Mark Dignam as shadowy civil-servant and
MI5 officer Fairfax,
Don Henderson as his nemesis DS George Bulman and
Dennis Blanch as Bulman's assistant, DC Derek Willis. The series, produced by
Granada Television, was successful enough for a second series of ten episodes, containing original stories written for television, to follow in 1977. Both series were released as a complete box set via the Network imprint on 26 February 2007. Although the television adaptation openly depicts a person with
XYY syndrome as having criminal tendencies, it was highlighted following the series' broadcast that in real life, there is no connection. An early academic paper studying the
conditional probability fallacy resulted in the myth becoming
conventional wisdom in the 1970s, but subsequent research has not found any evidence for it. The subject was also touched on in an episode of
Doomwatch, "By the Pricking of My Thumbs...", written by
Robin Chapman. When the series came to an end, the characters of Bulman and Willis were considered popular enough to merit their own spin-off series,
Strangers, which followed in 1978. Five series of
Strangers were broadcast, before a second and final spin-off series,
Bulman, followed in 1985. The popularity of the character of Bulman resulted in Kenneth Royce writing three further novels featuring the character: ''No Way Back (Hashimi's Revenge)
in 1986, and later The Judas Trail
(1996) and Shadows'' (1996). ==Cast==