| Richard Hannay | |
|---|---|
| First appearance | The Thirty-Nine Steps |
| Last appearance | Sick Heart River |
| Created by | John Buchan |
| Portrayed by | Robert Donat (film) Orson Welles (radio) Jack Livesey (BBC radio) Glenn Ford (radio) Herbert Marshall (radio) Kenneth More (film) James Mckechnie (BBC radio) Christopher Cazenove (BBC TV documentary) Barry Foster (TV film) Robert Powell (film, television) David Rintoul (BBC radio) David Robb (BBC radio) Rupert Penry-Jones (BBC TV film) Robert Whitelock (stage) Charles Edwards (stage) Sam Robards (stage) Jorge de Juan (stage) Christophe Laubion (stage) Daniel Llewelyn-Williams (stage) Andrew Alexander (stage) Brian Smolin (stage) Todd Waite (stage) Keegan Colcleasure (stage) |
| In-universe information | |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation | Soldier Spy |
| Nationality | British |
Major-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist John Buchan and further made popular by the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film The 39 Steps (and other later film adaptations), very loosely based on Buchan's 1915 novel of the same name. In his autobiography, Memory Hold-the-Door, Buchan suggests that the character is based, in part, on Edmund Ironside, from Edinburgh, a spy during the Second Boer War, and a British Army field marshal and CIGS. [1]
Hannay appears in several novels as a major character, including:
He also appears as a minor character in:
Robert J. Harris has written The Thirty-One Kings (2017) which purports to be the beginning of a new series called "Richard Hannay Returns" about his adventures during World War II; however the next book in the series, Castle Macnab (2018), is set in the 1920s.
In Combined Forces (1985), a humorous novel by Jack Smithers, Hannay teams up after World War II with the similar heroes "Sapper" 's Bulldog Drummond and Dornford Yates' Jonah Mansel. [2]
Hannay has been portrayed in four film versions of The Thirty Nine Steps respectively, by actors Robert Donat (in the original and most famous film adaptation, directed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1935), Kenneth More, Robert Powell and Rupert Penry-Jones (in a 2008 BBC production). Powell reprised the role for the ITV series Hannay (1988–1989).
Orson Welles portrayed Hannay in a radio play of The Thirty-Nine Steps in 1938, as did Glenn Ford in 1948 on Studio One, Herbert Marshall on Suspense in 1952. [3]
The 1973 BBC documentary Omnibus: The British Hero had Christopher Cazenove playing Hannay in a scene from Mr. Standfast, as well as a number of other such heroic characters, including Beau Geste, Bulldog Drummond and James Bond. Barry Foster played Hannay in a 1977 television adaptation of The Three Hostages .
In the 2000s, BBC Radio 4 adapted four of the Hannay books, each starring David Robb: The Thirty-Nine Steps (2001), [4] Greenmantle (2005), [5] Mr Standfast (2008) [6] and The Three Hostages (2009). [7]
Playwright Patrick Barlow's comedic stage adaptation of the 1935 Hitchcock film opened in London's Tricycle Theatre, and after a successful run, transferred to the Criterion Theatre in Piccadilly. On 15 January 2008, the show made its US Broadway premiere at the American Airlines Theatre; it transferred to the Cort Theatre on 29 April 2008 and then moved to the Helen Hayes Theatre on 21 January 2009, where it ended its run on 10 January 2010. It reopened at off-Broadway venue New World Stages on 25 March 2010. The London show closed on 5 September 2015 after nine years in the West End. In this theatrical adaptation, the character's full name is given as Richard Charles Arbuthnot Hannay.
As revealed through the various novels, Richard Hannay was born in Scotland about 1877; [8] his father was Scottish and had German business partners. He was brought up to speak German pretty fluently. [9] At the age of six he joins his father in South Africa. [8] He becomes a mining engineer, spending three years prospecting for copper in German Damaraland [9] and makes a small fortune in Bulawayo. [8] He takes part in the Matabele Wars, [9] serves two years with the Imperial Light Horse [10] and serves as an intelligence officer at Delagoa Bay in the Boer War. [11] He goes to England in 1914, [8] shortly before the events of The Thirty-Nine Steps .
The First World War breaks out seven weeks after the events of The Thirty-Nine Steps, and Hannay immediately joins the New Army, and is promptly commissioned captain on the strength of his Matebele campaign experience. He is wounded in the leg and neck in the Battle of Loos in September 1915, by which time he had reached the rank of major. Greenmantle, the sequel to The Thirty-Nine Steps begins in late 1915, with Hannay in Hampshire where he has arrived to convalesce after Loos. During the events of Greenmantle, his work as a spy in wartime Europe and Turkey earn him a DSO and CB, respectively. Following this, he returns to regular service in the army and is rapidly promoted to brigadier-general. In early 1917, however, he is called back to the Secret Service to hunt a dangerous German spy during the decisive months of the First World War. As told in Mr Standfast , he meets and falls in love with Mary Lamington, an intelligent, beautiful young nurse and fellow spy. Later, in 1918, now promoted to major-general, he returns to the front lines and participates in desperate fighting following the Germans' massive, last-ditch effort to win the war.
Soon after the end of the war, Hannay marries Mary Lamington, and the following year they have a son, Peter John Hannay. The boy is named after Hannay's two great friends John Scantlebury Blenkiron (an American businessman and spy who had often helped him) and Peter Pienaar ("Mr Standfast"), an old Boer scout who seems to have been a kind of father-figure to him. The family settles in Mary's old home in the Cotswolds, Fosse Manor, Oxfordshire and Hannay (now a KCB) finds peace and enjoyment as a farmer. However, in 1920 or 1921, Hannay again finds himself in an adventure, this time with his wife's help unravelling a kidnapping mystery in The Three Hostages .
His last adventure, The Island of Sheep , occurs some 12 years later when Hannay, now in his fifties, is called by an old oath to protect the son of a man he once knew, who safeguards the secret of the greatest treasure on earth. This book also focuses on Hannay's son, Peter John, now a bright but solemn teenager.
Though the Hannay books stop short of the Second World War, Buchan's last novel, Sick Heart River (published just after the author died in 1940) offers a hint about Hannay's future: dying in Canada, Hannay's friend Sir Edward Leithen hears of the outbreak of war in Europe and guesses that many of his old friends, including Hannay, will have taken up arms again.
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir was a Scottish novelist, historian, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation.
The Thirty-Nine Steps is a 1915 adventure novel by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published by William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh. It was serialized in All-Story Weekly issues of 5 and 12 June 1915, and in Blackwood's Magazine between July and September 1915, before being published in book form in October of that year. It is the first of five novels featuring Richard Hannay, an all-action hero with a stiff upper lip and a knack for getting himself out of tricky situations.
Greenmantle is the second of five novels by John Buchan featuring the character Richard Hannay. It was first published in 1916 by Hodder & Stoughton, London. It is one of two Hannay novels set during the First World War, the other being Mr Standfast (1919); Hannay's first and best-known adventure, The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915), is set in the period immediately preceding the war.
Mr Standfast is the third of five Richard Hannay novels by John Buchan, first published in 1919 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.
David Robb is a Scottish actor.
The Three Hostages is the fourth of five Richard Hannay novels by the Scottish author John Buchan, first published in 1924 by Hodder & Stoughton, London.
The 39 Steps is a 1935 British spy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, starring Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll. It is loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It concerns a Canadian civilian in London, Richard Hannay, who becomes caught up in preventing an organisation of spies called "The 39 Steps" from stealing British military secrets. Mistakenly accused of the murder of a counter-espionage agent, Hannay goes on the run to Scotland and becomes tangled up with an attractive woman, Pamela, while hoping to stop the spy ring and clear his name.
The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg. Produced by Betty Box, it is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.
The Thirty Nine Steps [sic] is a British 1978 thriller film directed by Don Sharp, with screenplay by British playwright Michael Robson, based on the novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan. It was the third film version of the 1915 novel.
Ludovic "Sandy" Gustavus Arbuthnot, later 16th Lord Clanroyden is a fictional character who appears in various books by John Buchan in the Richard Hannay series. These books include Greenmantle, The Three Hostages, The Courts of the Morning, and The Island of Sheep, but not the first in the series, The Thirty-Nine Steps. He also appears in The League of Heroes by Xavier Mauméjean. His particular expertise is in adopting disguises which completely take in Hannay, the "friend [he] knows best in the world".
The Courts of the Morning is a 1929 adventure novel by John Buchan, featuring his character Sandy Arbuthnot. The prologue is narrated by Richard Hannay, so the novel is sometimes included in Buchan's Hannay series. The action is set in Olifa, a fictional country on the west coast of South America.
Sir Edward Leithen is a fictional character in several of John Buchan's novels: The Power-House, John Macnab, The Dancing Floor, The Gap in the Curtain and Sick Heart River. These were published over a number of years, the first in 1916, and the last in 1941, one year after Buchan's death. Leithen's name is borrowed from the Leithen Water, a tributary of the River Tweed, one of many references to the Scottish Borders in Buchan's novels.
Hannay was a 1988 ITV television series, a prequel spin-off from the 1978 film version of John Buchan's 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps. The film and series starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay in the post Second Boer War years.
Peter Pienaar is a character from John Buchan's series of Richard Hannay books. He is described by Hannay as being "five foot ten, very thin and active, and as strong as a buffalo [with] pale blue eyes, a face as gentle as a girl's, and a soft sleepy voice."
The 39 Steps is a parody adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. The original concept and production of a four-actor version of the story was written by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon, and premiered in 1996. Patrick Barlow rewrote this adaptation in 2005.
John Scantlebury Blenkiron is a fictional character who appears in several books by John Buchan, including Greenmantle, Mr Standfast, The Courts of the Morning and Sick Heart River. Blenkiron comes from the United States, and has assisted Richard Hannay. When Hannay first meets Blenkiron, it is revealed that he suffers from dyspepsia and so often drinks boiled milk, eats dry toast and fish. Subsequently he has an operation where a part of his duodenum is replaced by rubber tubing and his digestion is restored.
The 39 Steps is a 2008 British television adventure thriller feature-length adaptation of the 1915 John Buchan novel The Thirty-Nine Steps produced by the BBC. It was written by Lizzie Mickery, directed by James Hawes, and filmed on location in Scotland, starring Rupert Penry-Jones, Lydia Leonard, David Haig, Eddie Marsan, and Patrick Malahide. Following three screen versions of the novel and the 1952 and 1977 television adaptations of The Three Hostages, Penry-Jones became the sixth actor to portray Hannay on screen. This adaptation is set on the eve of the First World War and sees mining engineer Richard Hannay caught up in an espionage conspiracy following the death of a British spy in his flat.
Sir Archibald Roylance was a fictional character created by John Buchan. He appeared in many Buchan novels, never as the protagonist. He was a good friend of Richard Hannay and Edward Leithen despite being younger than them.
The Half-Hearted is a 1900 novel of romance and adventure by the Scottish author John Buchan. It was Buchan's first novel in a modern setting and was written when he was 24 while working for an All-Souls fellowship and reading for the bar.
The Runagates Club is a 1928 collection of short stories by the Scottish author John Buchan. The collection consists of twelve tales presented as reminiscences of members of The Runagates Club, a London dining society. Several of the stories are recounted by recurrent characters in Buchan’s fiction, including Richard Hannay, Sandy Arbuthnot, John Palliser-Yeates, Charles Lamancha, and Edward Leithen.
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