In another design for PBS, Chwast advertises the BBC series Charters & Caldicott, first shown in the UK in 1985. These two snobbish, cricket-obsessed English gentlemen, apparently oblivious to events unfolding around them as they bumble around Europe before World War II, had first appeared in Hitchcock’s 1938 film The Lady Vanishes. But as they assist others and help with crimes, they also emerge as stalwart defenders of civilized values in the darkest of times. The two were so popular that they went on to appear in another three films by 1943. This British television series brings viewers up to date; in the 1980s, the men are now retired but their peace is again disturbed when they discover a woman’s corpse. Chwast’s streamlined Deco design with its limited color palette suggests the 1930s origins of these dapper characters, while the eye-catching motif of the woman’s legs and shoes in the foreground hints suggestively at future adventures.
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