Spender
Genre	Police procedural
Created by	Jimmy Nail Ian La Frenais
Written by	Jimmy Nail Ian La Frenais Kenneth Ladd Val McLane
Directed by	Mary McMurray Roger Bamford
Starring	Jimmy Nail Sammy Johnson Berwick Kaler Denise Welch Tony McAnaney Paul Greenwood Peter Guinness
Theme music composer	Tony McAnaney
Composer	Tony McAnaney
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Original language	English
No. of series	3
No. of episodes	21 (list of episodes)
Production
Producers	Martin McKeand Paul Raphaël Peter McAleese
Cinematography	Nigel Walters
Editor	Martin Sharpe
Running time	50 minutes
Production company	Big Boy Productions
Original release
Network	BBC1
Release	8 January 1991 (1991-01-08) – 29 December 1993 (1993-12-29)

Spender is a British television police procedural drama, created by Ian La Frenais and Jimmy Nail, that first broadcast on 8 January 1991 on BBC1.^[1] The series, which also starred Nail as the titular character, ran for three series between 1991 and 1993, finishing with a feature-length special, The French Collection, broadcast on 29 December 1993. A total of twenty-one episodes were produced. The first and second series were produced by Martin McKeand, while the third and final series was produced by Paul Raphaël and Peter McAleese.

The series, set in Newcastle upon Tyne, focuses on the life and exploits of Detective Sergeant Freddie Spender, who was often chosen to carry out more daring police cases. With his criminal sidekick Stick (Sammy Johnson), Spender was regarded as one of the more remarkable TV detectives of the 1990s. The series featured an extensive back story for the main characters, with a number of episodes dealing with Spender's domestic life, his family and circumstances. Some of the storylines were however seen as somewhat dark; one episode featured the death of Spender's wife at the hands of a ruthless gangster, another on the kidnap of one of his daughters.^[2]

Guest stars in the series included Amanda Redman, Rodney Bewes, Frances Tomelty, Julie Peasgood, Jan Graveson, Geoffrey Hughes, Bobby Pattinson, Tom Bell and Ian McElhinney. The series was broadcast on Tuesday evenings in the peak time slot that followed the BBC's flagship Nine O'Clock News. No further series were produced following the feature-length special, despite the popularity of the show, and it being a smash hit for the BBC in terms of ratings with the show regularly pulling in 14 million viewers, and each episode costing upwards of £350,000 to produce. In 1992, a novelisation of the series, written by Nail, was published.^[3] The series has never been released on DVD.

Jimmy Nail initially mentioned the idea of a cop show to writer Ian La Frenais, with whom he'd worked on Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, in 1987. The BBC subsequently commissioned a pilot script, written by the latter, which was enthusiastically received; however La Frenais was too busy to work on further episodes. A producer suggested that Nail should try writing a script, which was also positively received by the BBC. Subsequently, a series of eight episodes was commissioned by the network. Not confident he could repeat the formula for remaining episodes in the series on his own, Nail moved to Los Angeles in 1989 to be closer to La Frenais as he worked on material for the series.^{[citation needed]}

The second and third series were produced by Initial.

Ford provided a new Ford Sierra Sapphire RS Cosworth for each series, which served as Spender's car. Stick drove a Volkswagen Beetle. A number of Ford, Vauxhall, BMW and Range Rover cars were also featured in the series.^[4]

• Jimmy Nail as DS Freddie Spender
• Sammy Johnson as Kenneth Norman 'Stick' Oakley
• Berwick Kaler as DS Dan Boyd
• Denise Welch as Frances Spender
• Tony McAnaney as Keith Moreland
• Lynn Harrisson as Kate Spender
• Dawn Winlow as Laura Spender
• Paul Greenwood as Supt. Yelland (Series 1)
• Peter Guinness as DCS Gillespie (Series 2–3)
• Brendan Healy as Eric (Series 2–3)
• Mickey Hutton as 'Spud' Tate (Series 2–3)

• Spender at IMDb
• Spender at epguides.com