The XYY Man — The TV Series
| The XYY Man | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Crime drama |
| Created by | Kenneth Royce |
| Written by | Ivor Marshall Tim Aspinall Murray Smith Edward Boyd |
| Directed by | Ken Grieve Carol Wilks Alan Grint |
| Starring | Stephen Yardley Don Henderson Dennis Blanch Vivienne McKee Mark Dignam Oliver Maguire Johnny Shannon Brian Croucher Fiona Curzon William Squire |
| Composer | Mike Moran |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| Original language | English |
| No. of series | 2 |
| No. of episodes | 13 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Producer | Richard Everitt |
| Cinematography | David Wood Ray Goode |
| Editors | Anthony Ham Tony Smith Brian Tagg |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Production company | Granada Television |
| Original release | |
| Network | ITV |
| Release | 3 July 1976 – 29 August 1977 |
| Related | |
| Strangers | |
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).
