Dick Turpin (TV series) the son of a farmer, returns to England after three years military service in the Mediterranean, he discovers that he and his parents have been cheated out of their farm and his inheritance by the unscrupulous Sir John Glutton, and that consequently his parents have died of starvation. Turpin, who is now bitter and poor, becomes a Highwayman. Cleverly, Richard Carpenter has the series take place after the real life Dick Turpin has been hanged in 1739; the series is set between 1739 and 1740, leaving his fictional TV incarnation to be an anarchic freedom fighter who has been badly
Dick Turpin (TV series) was published by Armada books, London in 1979, and included 8 colour photos from the TV series (128 pages for 60p) a second novel by Richard Carpenter called "Turpin and Swiftnick" () with black and white illustrations by Peter Archer was published by Armada books in 1980 (125 pages for 70p). Three annuals containing photographs, text stories, comic strips and features based on the series were published, two by Grandreams (1979 and 1981) and one by Purnell (1980). "Look-in" magazine also ran a Dick Turpin comic strip drawn by Martin Asbury and written by Angus Allan in 1979 to tie-in