Daniel Pike (The View from Daniel Pike)

Created by Edward Boyd
(1916-89)

Forget Scotland the Brave — this is Scotland the Hard…

DANIEL PIKE is a Glasgow-based private investigator and debt collector who was featured in a fondly remembered but short-lived Scottish television series in the early 70’s. He’s a hard man who decorates his office with pictures of riots, violence and atrocities committed by humans against humans. He’s described by some as looking like a “well-dressed cement-mixer.”

He’s got a mouth on him too. After brushing off one potential client whose daughter he has once tracked down, he returns to his office only to find the same man sitting behind HIS desk, going through his bills. “Do I have to marry you to get rid of you?” he asks.

Later, when on the hunt for the daughter again, he has this exchange with the owner of a hotel as he checks in:

PIKE: (CASUALLY) This young lady …
HAMISH: Miss Stevens …
PIKE: She have a little red Mini?
HAMISH: She has indeed. Are you acquainted with her?
PIKE: No. I just like little red Minis.

And follows it up with this when he catches up with the owner of the Mini in question:

NELLY: I’ve been talking to Hamish MacKenzie . He mentioned my name and you asked if I had a little red Mini.
PIKE: I’m hooked on little red Minis. I’ve got a pocketful of lump sugar for feeding little red Minis.
NELLY: So you didn’t know I was up here?
PIKE (after a moment): Was reading this crappy book the other day. Bloke kept going on about something called the Fallacy of the Central Position. You know, the feeling that the sun shines out of your particular backside.
NELLY: Not with you.
PIKE: The world’s filled with little red minis.

Still, Pike did had a softer side–he even had a blind jazz pianist girlfriend, Sweet Sam. Both Pike and Sam’s characters had originally made their debut in an 1971 in an episode of Menace, an anthology series.

Pike’s creator was Edward “Eddie” Boyd, a well-known Glasgow scriptwriter for radio, TV and film. The series had a devoted following, but has–as far as I know–never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray. To add insult to injury,  two episodes (‘A Slight Case of Absalom’ and ‘Four Walls’) have been lost, apparently for good.

TELEVISION

• THE VIEW FROM DANIEL PIKE
  (1971-73, BBC2)
  Two seasons
  15 50-minute episodes
  Created by Edward Boyd
  Writers: Edward Boyd, Robert Barr, James McTaggart, Nick McCarty
  Directors: Quentin Lawrence
  Produced by Anthony Coburn, Keith Williams
  Starring Roddy McMillan as DANIEL PIKE
  Also starring Beth Robens
  • SEASON ONE
  • “Philomena and the Tattie-Howkers” (November 25, 1971)
  • “The Manufactured Clue” (December 2, 1971)
  • “Little Bird lost” (December 9, 1971)
  • “The Short Price Premium” (December 16, 1971)
  • “A Tale of Two Cities” (December 23, 1971)
  • “So This is Olympus” (December 30, 1971)
  • SEASON TWO
  • “Big Fleas, Little Fleas” (December 31, 1972)
  • “Credit Where It’s Due” (January 7, 1973)
  • “Away Match” (January 14, 1973)
  • “None So Blind” (January 21, 1973)
  • “Pig in the Middle” (February 4, 1973)
  • “A Slight Case of Absalom” (February 11, 1973)
  • “Four Walls”” (February 25, 1973)

SHORT STORIES

• “Four Walls” (1974; The View from Daniel Pike; by Bill Knox)
• “Good Morning, Yesterday!” (1974; The View from Daniel Pike; by Bill Knox)
• “Philomena and the Tattie-Howkers” (1974; The View from Daniel Pike; by Bill Knox)
• “A Slight Case of Absalom” (1974; The View from Daniel Pike; by Bill Knox)
• “A Tale of Two Cities” (1974; The View from Daniel Pike; by Bill Knox)

NOVELIZATIONS

• The View From Daniel Pike (1974; by Bill Knox and Edward Boyd) | Buy this book
  A collection of short stories, adapted by Bill Knox  from television episodes. Knox also wrote a series of police procedurals set in Glasgow.

FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

• “Like a P.I. following cryptic clues. I’ve ended up here. I’m looking for someone see, guy they call Eddie Boyd. Know him? Scribbled around on the radio a bit – The Same River Twice. Curlews in Autumn, very noirish with a sweet twang of Caledonia coming down the Glen. But it’s his TV show I’m really after–The View from Daniel Pike. Man, if I could lay my hands on a DVD of that, I could retire a happy Dick. Any answers welcome, even if they ain’t true, no questions asked. And thanks for the website.”
  — Raymond

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Scotland the Brave
  Scottish Eyes

Respectfully submitted by Dale Stoyer.