Hannay (TV series) Hannay (TV series) Hannay was a 1988 ITV television series, a spin-off from the 1978 film version of John Buchan's novel "The Thirty-Nine Steps". The film and series starred Robert Powell as Richard Hannay. In the series, Powell reprised the role of Hannay, an Edwardian mining engineer from Rhodesia of Scottish origin. It features his adventures in pre-World War I Great Britain. These stories had little in common with John Buchan's novels about the character, although some character names are taken from his other novels. There were two series, the first with six episodes, the second with seven. "Hannay" was
Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet Fox to have been born "bereft of his wits" and died unmarried and without children at the age of 59. With his death the Baronetcy created for Sir Richard became extinct. Richard Willis appears as a character in Act II of the play Cromwell by Victor Hugo, published in Paris in 1828. In his afterword to "An Instance of the Fingerpost", Iain Pears explains that much of the book's plot was inspired by the career of Willis, and his family's later, unsuccessful attempts to clear his name. Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet Sir Richard Willis, 1st Baronet (sometimes spelt 'Willys')