Concept
The White Rabbit is a 1967 British four-part TV series starring Kenneth More. It is based on the book by Bruce Marshall. It is the last of three mini series More starred in for BBC2 in succession. The series is based on the story of Wing Commander F. F. E. Yeo-Thomas who fought for the French Resistance in World War Two. He is captured and tortured by the Gestapo. Kenneth More as Wing Cmdr. Forest Frederick Edward “Tommy” Yeo-Thomas Denise Buckley as Barbara, his girlfriend Frank Duncan as Commentator Christopher Benjamin as Cadillac Stephen Bradley as Ernst Robert Bruce as Col. Robinson David Collings as Horace Annette Crosbie as José Dupuis, Yeo-Thomas' resistance contact George Hagan as Pierre Brossolette Alan MacNaughtan as Rudi (Gestapo interrogator) Roy Purcell as Col. Brierley Absalom (16 Sept 1967, repeated 20 Sept 1967) The Raising Up (23 Sept 1967, repeated 27 Sept 1967) The Faith (30 Sept 1967, repeated 4 Oct 1967) The Beginning (7 Oct 1967, repeated 11 Oct 1967) Michael Deeley got hold of a feature film script based on the book and managed to get Kenneth More interested. Deeley spoke to John Boulting about it and Boulting got the rights before Deeley could secure them. More loved the script and claimed he spent a year trying to make the film - at one stage they were set to start filming in July 1961 and in December 1961 Variety announced the film would be made by 20th Century Fox. However they could not clear up the rights. "Shouldn't think it would ever be made now," he said in 1962 This detail is omitted in More's memoirs. According to those, he read a copy of the book while in Jamaica making Dark of the Sun. He took it to David Attenborough, head of features at the BBC, and suggested it would make an ideal four-part series. Film rights were held by American producer Hal Chester, but the BBC were able to make it provided they never repeated the programme or sold it elsewhere. The BBC was willing to do this because More had been in the very successful series The Forsyte Saga.