Clancy Brothers (Tom, Paddy, Liam) & Tommy Makem acting - Treasure Island (1960) [w/ Hugh Griffith]

Irish folk music legends the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem appear with Oscar-winning Welsh actor Hugh Griffith and Richard O'Sullivan in the TV adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic, Treasure Island. The program was broadcast on March 5, 1960 as part of the DuPont Show of the Month on American television.

In the first scene, Paddy and Tom Clancy play passed-out pirates, who when they awake, drunkenly attack each other. Tom's character, Israel Hands, kills Paddy's pirate and then chases and tries to kill the cabin boy, Jim Hawkins (Richard O'Sullivan). Paddy Clancy sings a small snatch of the sea shanty, "Paddy Doyle's Boots," in this scene.

The music of Paddy Clancy's harmonica can be heard playing "South Australia," while the scene changes. In the following scene, the pirates attempt to hang Long John Silver (Hugh Griffith). Liam Clancy and Tommy Makem appear in the background usually at the top, right-hand of the screen at several points in this scene. Liam can be especially well seen at 6:24 (to the right) and 8:46 (center). Tommy Makem plays a drum roll on a snare drum in the background while Long John Silver is about to be hanged. He also clearly can be seen on the left at 10:44 in a beard (with no mustache). Liam Clancy speaks his one line in the program at 12:04.

Each of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem started their performance careers as actors, not singers. Although Tom Clancy would continue his acting career, this is one of the final acting jobs for Liam and Paddy Clancy and Tommy Makem before they devoted themselves full-time to singing.

A month after the show aired, in an April 10 edition of the Chicago Daily Tribune, Paddy Clancy recalled his fight scene with Tom from this program. The reporter, Marion Purcelli, wrote:

"Brother Patrick [brown eyes, curly hair, raspy voice] suffered a mishap involving brother Tom in another Show of the Month presentation, 'Treasure Island.'

"'I portrayed a drunken pirate who attempts to kill Tom with the jagged end of a broken bottle,' said Patrick.

"'During the scuffle Tom is to stab me in the back. The trick knife he used was the kind that when the blade hit the body, it slid into the handle. The prop had a rusty blade that stuck as it struck my back and I came away with a nasty scratch. Believe me, I had no problem screaming as I was directed to do.'"