Sherlock Holmes Fabian of the Yard The Big Man Third Man Zero One Scotland Yard Edgar Wallace Studio Series
Colonel March Martin Kane Dial 999 International Detective The Pursuers Mark Saber Man from Interpol The Cheaters
Charlie Chan The Invisible Man 4 Just Men Interpol Calling Danger Man African Patrol Euro b/w Series 1960's Filmed Series
See also: Stryker of the Yard

Dinosaur TV CRIME/ ADVENTURE
The black and white detective series is my favourite type of tv, and I am always thrilled to hear from fellow collectors about episodes that have been rescued from oblivion.

What's your Favourite Crime Series?
By 1960 the half hour series format had reached its zenith, and though Danger Man was head and shoulders above all others, it's not a crime series, so my own favourite is The Pursuers.
On the right, see a cast list from an elusive cinematic detective series that was shown on ITV in the early 1960's. Which company made these short films?
Here's the Answer.

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Fabian of the Yard (made in 1954 and 1955)
with Bruce Seton as "one of England's greatest detectives."
Remarks one character of him: "I never saw such a single-minded man in all my days."

0 Bombs in Piccadilly 12 The Executioner 16 Robbery in the Museum 30 Nell Gwynn's Tear

Plenty of research is still needed into this seminal, but today very elusive series. The book Fabian of the Yard, published in 1955, described cases of the great Fabian, though it's unclear whether all the cases described were filmed for this series. Stills of action however from these episodes clearly indicate the following were made:
Bombs in Piccadilly, Robbery in the Museum, The Deadly Pocket Handkerchief, Blackmail, Marita and the Count, Murder in Soho (aka The Antiquis Murder), I Get Myself Arrested, One Way of Learning the Charleston, Celluloid Alf, The Snatch Racket, Death on the Portsmouth Road (aka The Wrotham Hill Murder), The Black Butterfly, The Beer Bottle Murder.
In a British archive, the following episodes were definitely noted to be extant recently: Little Girl, Beer Bottle Burglar, Celluloid Alf, Death on the Portsmouth Road, Marita and the Count. This archive also holds the following hitherto completely unknown stories: 4am Phone Call, The Samba Case. Of course, these may be alternative titles for known episodes.
Des Martin's great site has detailed cast lists of some episodes.

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00 Bombs in Piccadilly
At times this pilot is almost a silent film, with reliance on narration rather overdone.
It begins with Inspector Fabian at Pepper's Bottle Room being presented with a medal by 'the boys.' This story explains why.

Outside a cigar shop in Piccadilly Circus, a terrorist plants some sticks of dynamite. There's an explosion and Fabian and his assistant Sergeant MacKenzie are soon sifting through the debris. In the rubble Fabian uncovers a parcel "ready to go off now." Gingerly he puts it down, and with a bystander Charlie happily at his elbow, the inspector defuses the bomb himself. But more bombs follow and some explode, twenty innocent people injured.
A phone call from fanatics demands World Peace or perversely London will face more bombs. Fabian gets a lucky break when he spots a known terrorist Carl Paxton in the street, and the man is followed, past a playground with young children, before Paxton senses he's being followed and manages to shake Fabian off.
A nark, Frankie (probably uncredited Robert Raglan) informs the police that Paxton's men have been meeting in a stable in Hoxton. Police swoop on the building in Nunnery Lane, but the terrorists have cleared out. However in a smouldering fire, Fabian pulls out a charred piece of paper, which is sent to the lab.
Another tip leads him to a bombed out house. "I'll kill to stop war," is how Paxton explains his misguided philosophy to Fabian. Again Paxton eludes the police.
The charred paper shows Harry's Cafe is the meeting place for the gang. PC Wetherby ("I can look after myself"- Ann Haslip sic) goes undercover to the cramped cafe in Soho to keep an eye on Harry (Howard Lang, not credited). There she is picked up by the bombers and learns some useful secrets, which she can then phone through to Fabian.
Unarmed police raid the addresses she has provided, and the villains are chased along a canal. They leap on a barge and there's a punchup on board the moving boat. Several splash into the water of course, though Paxton escapes, Fabian in hot pursuit, tackling him on a steep railway embankment.
At the conclusion Bob Fabian tells us his medal was inscribed "for bravery." The late King gave him a medal too

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12 The Executioner

A bobby on the beat just misses spotting the Bath Tub Murderer (Peter Swannick), who has just executed his fifth murder in eighteen days, that of Andrew Haggerty.
What’s his motive? “Even a psycho has to have a motive.” Until Fabian and his assistant (Robert Raglan) can work that one out, the police are at a dead end.
Now we move to Jim and Marian (Elspet Gray). She was a friend of Andrew’s when they had been children. This is the link between all the murders. But the killer, Mr Porter, is confident he won’t be caught, as he confides to his late son Robert. He tells the photo of his boy that he now has only one to trace and then kill, Marian Courtland. And there in the parish magazine are details of her forthcoming wedding to James Keyes.
Fabian is getting warm as he questions teacher Miss Langley. She remembers the victims, and one of their friends Bobby Porter. Fabian even questions Bobby’s father, not yet suspecting him. Porter tells the detective that his son is currently working in Brazil.
Next, to the church, where the chatty vicar (Noel Howlett) recalls all the murdered people had years ago been involved in a tragedy whilst on a Sunday School picnic, during which a young lad was accidentally drowned. His name? Robert Porter. His father had, quite unfairly, held the youngsters to blame.
Along a dark street, The Executioner walks towards his victim’s rooms. “Robert’s giving a party,” he tells Marian. “You left Robert to die in the river.” He knocks her down. Then switches on the bath water. Just as he is dragging her into the bath, Fabian arrives. The two struggle, and just in time, Marian is saved from being The Executioner’s final victim.
Bob Fabian himself rounds off the story, reminding us that it was routine police work that solved this crime.
Note- appearing uncredited as an expert (‘Peter’) at the Yard, is Peter Cellier

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16 Robbery in the Museum
Arising, Dracula-like, at dead of night from a coffin in the Egyptian Room of the Warwick Museum, a thief helps himself to uncut diamonds on display. “A very tired and frightened man,” poet Ken Masters (Emrys Leyshon) catches the bus home where his wife (Josephine Griffin) and young daughter Jane, penniless, await his return.
Fabian and his assistant Sgt Jim Jarvis (John Stone) work out “this joker did not break in.” Thus suspicion falls on members of staff, much to the disgust of the owner Wynn-Jones (a nice comedy cameo from Charles Lloyd Pack). The hiding place used, the sarcophagus, yields a clue- a piece of tweed fibre from an old coat. “You better find the owner,” is the rather obvious order Fabian is given by his superior, who tries some detective work of his own, not at all cleverly.
Fabian questions all the gem cutters in London without success until an informer Nick tells of a barmy fellow who spouts poetry, and who wears a rough tweed jacket.
To Bayswater, where Fabian poses as an unemployed person, where he spots his man at the Unemployment Exchange. Having learned where he lives, Fabian turns into a building inspector to search Masters’ house. “My heart went out to Mrs Masters and the child,” when he sees the squalour in which they have to live. In the toilet cistern he finds the stones.
When did you last have a square meal?” he asks. He obliges by providing the family with a nice meal in a very chummy way.
Concludes the real Fabian “He wasn’t a criminal at heart.” His sentence was a light one.

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30 Nell Gwynn's Tear
At an exhibition of Royal and Historic Jewels at Pym Art Galleries, a visitor denounces the star attraction, Nell Gwynn's Tear, once presented by King Charles to Nell herself, as a fake.
She claims to possess the original, purchased from a Jeremiah Rugeley (Noel Howlett). The woman is Janet Tedford (Kathleen Byron), who lives with her sister Doris (Isabel Dean), who is a girl friend of Nicholas Bardwell (Alexander Gauge), who had authenticated the diamond as genuine when their late father had purchased it many years ago. Though Bardwell is an expert, he claims he hasn't seen this "exquisite" diamond since 1930, and anyway "it's too well known for agents to attempt to sell imitations under the counter."
Doris complains to Inspector Fabian about Bardwell, and entrusts him with her diamond, which is examined by an expert (Jack Melford). He declares it a fake, even though he values it at £10,000.
Fabian can see the sisters are trying "to take Bardwell to the cleaners," and Bardwell and Rugeley deny ever being involved with the sale of a fake. But in the latter's shop, Sgt Wyatt (Robert Raglan) finds machinery that will create forgeries: "a windfall for us," he smiles. It is indeed, for Bardwell's fingerprints are found on one fake, and that's the cue for Bardwell to disappear, having succumbed to blackmail from Janet and Doris, to buy back the fake diamond.
However he sends a message that he will meet Fabian at his solicitor's, but gets nervy and runs off. Fabian gives chase and Bardwell takes refuge on a Thames pleasure cruise, but at Tower Pier, the "biggest art forger of modern times" is arrested: "the things of beauty that meant so much to him could never be his again."
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Adventures of the Big Man (1956)
starring Wayne Morris as Bill Pierce,
a detective attached to a large London store.
This series was the new production from the makers of Fabian of the Yard (Charles Wick), but it proved to be an utter flop. Wayne Morris in the lead role might have US-appeal, but he was hardly a charismatic star.

3 Baby Sitter (May 21st 1956, BBC)
Man With Hammer Attacks Housewife are the headlines after Mrs Judson is knocked unconscious by an intruder. Jane Ramsden (Margaret McGrath), a buyer in the Infants department had been babysitting nearby for her sister Lois, and she notices the man. After newspaper publicity she gets scared she might be "silenced" and her fears are compounded when she's phoned at home and warned "you talk too much. If you don't learn to keep your mouth shut, you're not going to be around very long." But her boyfriend Harry (a young Nicholas Parsons) advises her not to start "imagining" things! But who could blame her for these fears when she receives a written note- I'm Watching You.
Bill Pierce is concerned for the store's valued employee and arranges a police tail for her. He and Inspector Gregg (John Harvey) visit Mr Judson who's worried that he himself has no alibi for the time of the attack. Yet suspicion seems to fall on their handyman Fred Hall (Laurence James) who has done various odd jobs for the family in the past.
Now we meet Hall. His wife Doris (Helen Christie) suspects he's been up to something as he's in the money. He's been writing forged cheques, stolen from Mrs Judson, one of which Doris unwisely gets cashed at the store. Seeing the net closing after a visit from Bill, they realise there's only one thing to do, "leave town."
With Mrs Judson now dead, Bill chases after Fred Hall in an exciting chase in which Fred temporarily eludes capture by jumping on a bus. But Bill follows by taxi straight to Jane's room. Fred's sworn to silence her ("if it's the last thing I ever do...") but just as he's about to throttle the poor babysitter, Bill leaps to her rescue

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The Third Man with Michael Rennie as Harry Lime
The Beeb's most prolific, most awful filmed series. Jonathan Harris as Lime's right hand man Brad, was the only redeeming feature.

3* Hollywood Incident
5* Sparks from a Dead Fire
6* Trouble at Drill Hall
7* The Man Who Died Twice
9* Dark Island
11* The Third Medallion
12* Castle in Spain
14* Listen to the Sound of a Witch
16* A Pocketful of Sin
18* As the Twig is Bent 		19* Broken Strings
21 The Best Policy
22 One Kind Word
23 Three Dancing Turtles
26 Barcelona Passage
27 Collectors Item
29 High Finance
30 Toys of the Dead
31 The Man with Two Left Hands
32 The Man Who Wouldn't Talk 		36 Harry Lime and the King
39 Death in Small Installments
40 A Question of Libel
42* Cross of Candos
43* Happy Birthday
44* Queen of the Nile
45* Calculated Risk
47* Diamond in the Rough
48 King's Ransom
49 Hamburg Shakedown 		50 Unexpected Mr Lime
52 Portrait of Harry Lime
55* Hansel and Son
56* Act of Atonement
57* Ghost Town
58* The Gold Napoleons
60 The Way of McEagle
62 A Question in Ice
63 I.O.U.
64 Crisis in Crocodiles 		65* Judas Goat
66 A Little Knowledge
67* Day of the Bullfighter
69* The Big Kill
70* The Frame Up
71 House of Bon Bons
73* The Luck of Harry Lime
74 The Trial of Harry Lime
76/7 Members Only
Note * means an American made story

It's incredible that despite this series of 39 films of "mid Atlantic nothingness" proving a flop, a second series of 38 films was also made. A contemporary account was spot on, when it claimed "Michael Rennie walks through these films like a man in a trance. He hardly permits himself to smile, he hardly opens his mouth to talk, and the only bit of action he allows himself to make is when he dodges a bullet.The trap the makers have fallen into is they haven't made up their minds whether their lead is a hero or villain. He is not black, he is not white. You cannot hate him. You cannot like him."
An apposite comment, specially as some films were made in America, others in Britain. The first British series was made at Shepperton. The shooting of these first British films was dogged by union disputes. After an enthusiastic reception marking the start of shooting of the British films at the Dorchester on 18th June 1959, production finally commenced on 6th July only for NATKE to stage a one day strike on 20th July, and ETU two days later. An overtime ban added to the acrimonious dispute. After various changes in personnel and working practices, shooting began in earnest in late August. The second series of British films saw production move to AB Elstree Studios.
Footnote- 1958 publicity suggested originally James Mason was to have played Harry Lime. I don't think it's recorded why he didn't do the series, though he was a very wise man.
Question- Which actor, later himself a famous tv detective, made a few appearances in the series as Inspector Shillings? Answer .
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The Hollywood Incident
Inspector Roberts of the LA Police is after an escaped Nazi war criminal, Bruckner, who, back in '45, used to do business with Harry Lime.
Harry is in town to sell another fine painting for $85,000 to his old client film director Marcel Genet (Lorne Greene). He's an unusual director, for he claims he can't afford it. In fact, he's recently purchased some pictures by an up and coming artist named Mansa. They are "magnificent," agrees the disappointed Harry. But after Harry has taken his leave, Genet rips up one of these paintings.
Harry wants to learn more about this artist, and goes to the gallery who sell his works. However it's the young assistant there, Miss Page, who really catches Harry's eye. "You owe no apologies," he tells her, "for any part that shows." Yuk. She tells Harry that she has never met this artist, but knows he speaks with a German accent. Ah. Harry gives her a kiss. She says, "you have a very one track mind." One dimensional, I think she meant. In return for an introduction to Genet, she gives Harry the artist's address. Brad takes her to the studios.
Inspector Roberts has the unsurprising news that the artist is the wanted Nazi. But he is not at his home. He is hiding in Genet's office, after more blackmail money. Allegations of Genet's collaboration during the war.
As rehearsals continue under Genet's direction, Harry and Roberts comb the studios for the criminal. "There he is!"
Just time for one more kiss for Miss Page.

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Sparks from a Dead Fire
An anonymous European femme fatale has left a handful of uncut diamonds of first quality for Harry Lime.
At the Blue Danube Club, Harry finds this Woman, Elena, as she sings a sultry song. She's the niece of Anton Radek, a friend from Harry's Vienna days. Harry hands back the diamonds to Radek, who really wants Harry to finance his find of a diamond mine, perhaps the finest "since Kimberley."
Radek doesn't want to do a deal with the International Diamond Company, whose charming representative, Charles Biddy (Sebastian Cabot) is eager to obtain the concession. But Radek now disappears after Biddy's assistant is found dead in Radek's wardrobe. This forces Elena to come clean with Harry. She is actually Anton's wife- just why the deception, is unclear. As Harry listens stiffly, woodenly even, she recounts her dull if romantic tale: "the world was full of tomorrows" etc.
Luckily Harry has friends who know where to look for Radek. He is lying on his deathbed, he knew he was dying. He killed Biddy's helper because "he knew too much," having been ready to betray Biddy- it seems rather irrelevant in the circumstances. Radek entrusts his gems to Harry with his dying breath.
The final scene is of Biddy buying the rights to the diamond mine, Harry receiving a fat commission and Elena, well she's unconsolable. Perhaps Harry might be too, as for once, he doesn't get to kiss the girl.

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Trouble at Drill Hall
Yet another worker has suffered an accident at the Deepwell oil complex, falling into a sump of oil. Harry and Brad want to know why four men have died recently at their wells. In charge of the site is Vince Gabriel (Robert Wilfe) and he disputes what rumour is having, that there is a jinx. Indeed Eddie Dodds claims that someone is out to sabotage Harry's investment.
"Accidents don't usually happen that often," agrees the local sheriff.
Brad pores over the company accounts whilst Harry, obviously unconcerned, admires a beautiful employee at their hotel. "I'm fabulously wealthy," is his chat-up line, and that certainly seems to hook Lisa (Elaine Stewart). Harry even proposes, though he's only just met her, in another of those unbearably cliched Third Man scenes.
But their spell is broken when Harry spots an old mate, Pete Kebble (Elisha Cook), who has recently been fired from Deepwell by Gabriel. "I want to tell you about some things you don't know about," he tells Harry darkly.
"Harry, you're getting handsomer by the minute," is Lisa's even more ridiculous line, once their spell is resumed.
Another interruption as news is received of another death, Eddie's. The remaining workers down tools and only Gabriel is there when Harry arrives. As Brad suspects Gabriel of cooking the books, Harry challenges Gabriel with their suspicions. Certainly Vince Gabriel seems all eaten up.
"Wine soaked bum" Pete advises Harry, "get rid of Vince and your troubles are over."
Harry again faces Gabriel with the facts, but an explosion interrupts their fisticuffs and No 3 rig catches fire and the two of them race to prevent the flames spreading. Harry spots the saboteur and captures him- it's Pete who admits all: "I needed the money." About to reveal his paymaster, Pete is shot dead as the sheriff arrives on the scene: "figured it was him all along!"
Harry reprimands him and the sheriff falls into the flames, which are really taking hold now of Deepwell. More explosions, before things are brought under control.
Later Harry is toasting Vince, but becomes distracted by Lisa once again, now clothed in a gold dress with "Mata Hari sleeves." Concludes the despondent Brad: "I just wish she were deductible."

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The Man Who Died Twice
There's a dead man in Harry's bath! Harry thought this man had actually died two years previously!
Before Harry has time to gather his thoughts, the police are knocking on the door of his San Francisco hotel room. How on earth do the cops fail to spot the corpse? Well, Brad pretends to shave the dead man. Jokes Harry after the police have left to Brad: "you'd make a terrible barber!"
The body disappears and Harry is pursued by the obligatory beautiful woman, this one named Martha (Ilka Windish), some sort of Marta Hari figure, toying with Harry as Harry helps his old mate Koralis, for the consideration of $150,000 to get out of America. Of course Harry outwits her and tells her "there are too many faces between us, and those faces would always keep us away from each other."
To this corny dialogue, I can add a few other choice bits of bunkum:
Harry to Brad: "You've seen too many private eye shows on television." That's when Brad suggests how the corpse had been taken from their room. When Brad is proved correct, he nicely throws the line back at Harry.
And one more to make you squirm:
Martha adoringly to Harry: "Has any woman ever turned you down?"
Harry: "I'm afraid so."
Martha: "Some women are fools."

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Dark Island
Note- no Brad to lighten this grim story.
You know we are in London as Big Ben is striking. On behalf of his client, Andresi (Alan Napier) is asking Harry Lime to trace a stolen golden goblet by Cellini.
The scene shifts to Istanbul, you know we might be there because of the music. The local police warn Harry not to see Hakim, so of course Harry does just that. When Harry is shown the genuine Cellini, he nearly smiles, as big a smile as Harry Lime ever betrays. He returns with it to his hotel room, but there a man claiming to be an Interpol agent knocks Harry out and steals his wallet and passport. The Cellini is untouched, oddly.
Andresi escorts the recovered Harry to his client's heavily guarded island home. General Marius (Abraham Sofaer) has a collection of rare and unknown paintings by Henry Juvet, portraits moreover of people long thought to be dead. Juvet has recently died, his final work is even more extraordinary- it's of Harry Lime himself. Looking at it, one could discern it is no masterpiece. No wonder Harry studies it, puzzled.
Harry is now introduced to the general who is planning a return to power in his country, despite his shady history, "Napoleon had his Elba..." Harry is invited to take on the post of Foreign Minister as he's "the best in diplomacy," but the offer is declined "with pleasure." However it seems Harry cannot refuse. He is to be kept on the island a prisoner.
He's not the only one. An ageing but still beautiful film star Marie (Patricia Medina), once of course an intimate of Harry, is a fellow prisoner. "He's mad," she warns Harry. Recently Marie had tried to escape with Juvet, but it had been a failure, Juvet being killed.
So Harry decides to play along and tries to drive a wedge between Marius and his chief adviser Andresi. "Your time is now," urges Harry to the frustrated colonel, though Andresi urges caution. Andresi is correct in this, but rather incorrectly has to shoot his master, "I had to save your dream."
So now the island is open again, and everyone can leave.
We conclude with Harry enjoying a meal with Marie, who is talking of a possible comeback
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The Third Medallion

In a Berlin bombsite, a plot is hatched against Harry Lime- "he's the one to use."
"An innocent temptress" calls at Harry's New York studio, "you may call me Martine." She persuades Harry, despite Brad's misgivings, to fly with her by private jet to meet Sandor (Nehemiah Persoff) at his luxury Villa Vedura. He is after a mere 500 million dollar hoard of French bullion, sunk during the war. If Harry could locate a medallion, Sandor could obtain a vital clue as to the location of the wreck. Only three of these French medallions were ever awarded for outstanding bravery.
Martine assists Harry in his quest for the medallion. "I'm always willing to learn from a girl like Martine."
Donner is the agent who knew about the French counterspies and Harry flies to Berlin to obtain the names of the three receipients of the medals. The third was Arthur, "the best," who escaped and disappeared in 1943, "the Shadow with the Voice." The first was Adele, more easily traceable. Harry is now in Marseilles to contact her. Once in love with Harry (of course), she has now seen the light and become a nun (or was it because she could not marry Harry??) She still has her medal. "I shall pray for you," she concludes. Well, he needs it.
Back in Berlin Donner is done in. He has a medallion- "is this some kind of joke?"
Harry 's long travels end back at Sandor's mansion. He is paid $200,000 for the third medallion, which it turns out he had all the time, because he was the other recipient of the medallions- of course I should have remembered how brave Harry was.
He was stringing Sandor along all the time. He know about the plot to frame him, naturally he did! But Martine draws a gun. It is Sandor she shoots. "Why?" Well perhaps we will never know. Or care. At least Adele's prayers were answered- though not mine

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Castle in Spain
Brad is quite agitated that Harry Lime hasn't informed him about the purchase of a 45 roomed medieval castle in Spain, "a quarter of a million dollar white elephant." Why, it's "unsaleable."
Shrewd old Harry though may have a buyer. She's Miss Jocelyn Davies from Vienna, so Harry and Brad fly to Austria to clinch the deal. "What the devil's going on?" Harry asks Steiner (John Banner) of the Viennese police. Apparently someone has attempted to kill Miss Davies, so she has gone into hiding, no-one can see her.
But at your typical jolly zither-playing Viennese restaurant, Harry gets friendly with a girl called Christine, who is Jocelyn Davies' social secretary, they kiss, and she takes him to her home. It's all a put up job, as Harry's old enemy Hauptmann is waiting to see Harry. He's now calling himself a Count, and is all set to become Miss Davies' fifth husband. Harry is the only one who knows of his evil past as a Nazi war criminal, and the attempt to kill his fiancee was only a ruse to ensure Harry doesn't split on Hauptmann. "Leave Vienna, Lime," he asks. Harry will, if the castle is bought- for $250,000 as agreed.
So the deal is signed, she purchases the castle as "a wedding present for the man I love." He feigns surprise when she gives him her lavish gift. It was Christine's idea, she adds. Hauptmann looks puzzled, she was supposed to be in league with him. Christine explains her motive: she knew Harry could expose Hauptmann, and she wants revenge for her family who were victims of his Nazi atrocities. "She is raving," protests Hauptmann, but Harry is easily able to expose the butcher, giving him a severe punching as a bonus. Christine apologises to Jocelyn for her subterfuge. But it ends happily as she decides to purchase the castle, "there we will both forget"
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Listen For the Sound of a Witch

James Clark (Raymond Bailey) asks Harry to go and pick up the five million dollar option on a castle in Portugal.
On the flight over, he has to sit next to a beautiful girl. She's a good talker is Caroline (Suzanne Pleshette).
She tags on as Harry goes by riverboat from Lisbon. Other passengers include those also on Harry's flight- Cyril Nathan and Salvatore a wine merchant. There's also the sinister looking Mouk who warns them of werewoves and witches, though you couldn't say Harry is at all phased- "some of my best friends are werewolves. I'm part werewolf myself." That explains a lot.
Finding the castle is difficult. No local has heard of the place. But cash loosens tongues. But "you must make the journey by daylight." Of course, for at night wolves and witches lurk.
In this remote spot lives Paolo, who's life Harry once happened to save. He warns Harry not to go, but is killed. With his dying breath, for even Harry can't save him this time, he gives instructions as to how to reach the castle. Go to the river and listen for the sound of a witch....
Caroline follows Harry, who reaches the river. The sound of a WINCH! There is a quarry, what is going on here? The pair are attacked and deposited in a cage dangling in mid air. After a long wait, for no obvious reason, the cage is lowered and Harry then ascends to the top where he finds his castle. At the foot of the stairs lies Nathan, dead. Salvatore is here also, a rival buyer for the castle. Mouk appears then Caroline holding a gun then her grandfather Josiah. He's after the option.
Surprise! Mouk turns out to be a policeman and arrests Salvatore for Nathan's murder. Conveniently, that's Harry's rival gone. So Harry can exercise his option, and the castle is bought. Not a werewolf in sight!

(Note- no Brad in this story, too scared of all those werewolves?)

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A Pocketful of Sin
In Paris, a man staggers into Harry Lime's office and collapses, a knife in his back. No identification on his person, though he carries a cheque made out to Harry for $100,000. Signature illegible.
The Banque Parisienne refuses to cash the cheque, but point Harry in the direction of one Renee du Farge.
She runs a dance studio. "We have been expecting you." She explains the dead man was one of Hitler's leading chemists. One Bruno Wunderlich had silenced him having stolen his secret formula for a fuel. Wunderlich is now planning to sell to an anti-Western power.
Harry puts out a story that the formula Wunderlich has is mere "scientific gibberish," and that he has the genuine document. He wants $300,000 for it.
The enemy are flying in a professor to authenticate Wunderlich's document, but Harry arranges for his friend to replace the expert in order to denigrate Bruno Wunderlich's document. "It's nonsense," pronounces the replacement expert, right on cue. He tears the worthless paper up, chucking it into the fire. Police arrest Bruno, and Harry sells his formula to the foreign agents. But as they pay in counterfeit cash, the deal is off anyway. Of course by now, Harry has the genuine formula which had been quietly swapped with the one chucked in the flames.
Harry just has time for a dance with Renee, plus one kiss

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As The Twig is Bent
Using a title, a quotation from the immortal Virgil, is rather over the top for this story, which, had he been alive, Virgil might well not have wrote quite the same.

Harry Lime must fly from New York to Genoa, interrupting a big deal, and a date, in order to see Bellano urgently.
This rich Italian lives in a magnificent palace, his daughter Elena shortly to marry into one of the wealthiest families in the country, even though she still has time to ogle Harry. In a nutshell, the problem is that Harry's shady past has come back to haunt him. Twelve years ago, he had stolen the valuable painting Mother and Child from a marquis, substituting it for a clever forgery which somehow noone noticed. Bellano was Harry's client, but now he is being blackmailed about the picture. For $100,000 Harry agrees to switch forgery and original.
"You have a lovely smile," Harry tells Elena, who has asked Harry not to do it. Harry has to, to cover his own reputation.
"Do you know who did it?" Elena asks Harry, when he stumbles over her father's corpse. Harry however still continues with his task. Elena's fiance tries to stop him, at the point of a gun, but of course Harry outsmarts him.
He calls on the marquis on the friendliest of terms. In a quiet moment, Harry makes the switch. Just in time. However it seems Harry didn't need to make the switch because the marquis had earlier arranged his own switch. Which picture is the original, who knows? (Apart from Harry of course.) The marquis had, it seems, already learned of Bellano's theft, and had been blackmailing him. "He was an evil man." Harry warns that he must pay for his crime, though apparently Harry himself seems immune from prosecution for his part in the original theft. But he does return the $100,000 to Elena, with a knowing smirk.

No, the twig may have been bent, but possibly Virgil would have written a more intelligent script- sic transit genoa limey. Or, in American, this was bunkum.

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The Best Policy

The first British made story of this series starts at New York airport, with Harry and Brad booked on to Flight 920 to London. Harry however seems more interested in a posh lady and her poodle.
The sycophancy continues on the plane as Harry chats up the stewardess Susan, and even promises to remember her in his will. His mind wanders to the lady and the poodle. He tells Brad about how he first met her in Lucerne... Harry had been entrusted by a Viennese baron to bring his daughter Martha (Venetia Stevenson) to him. He'd not seen her for many years, but his interest in her seems to have revived now she is of age, and to inherit 8 million.
Harry finds her at the Hotel du Lac, and sort of kidnaps her, driving her back to her daddy. But she snatches the car keys and leaps out. Harry catches her and the two face a long trek through the snowy mountains. She is frightened, she says, though she never sounds it. Shelter is found in a well furnished but empty hut.
This not being the swinging sixties, all they do is reminisce over her past, Harry being remarkably perceptive when he tells her, "it doesn't sound like too happy a life," adding that he thinks her father "is a bad type."
Next day is her birthday. She isn't afraid now, help- I think she loves her kidnapper. She has the chance to get away when a visitor drops in, but she don't want to leave dear Harry. Must be mad. At least he realises he shouldn't have kidnapped her. But that realisation comes too late, for the Baron has found them. "You're very like your mother," he tells his surly child. But Harry springs one shock, he tells the baron he is going to marry Martha. There's a fight and the Baron is shot, accidentally. End of kidnap.
Back in Lucerne, Harry has renoucned the marriage idea. "I'm not the sort of man for you." At least he's honest.
But Harry gets a cheque for $50,000 from one Cyrus Proctor, for reasons I won't bother to explain. That money was used to set up Harry in legitimate business. "I've been honest ever since," he tells Brad. So that gives Harry the cred to enter Britain legit

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One Kind Word

With his familiar wooden stare, Harry watches at the bedside of a patient (Mai Zetterling) in a London hospital.
Her sad tale is related by Harry Lime.
In the days when Harry was a black marketeer, on a New Year's Eve in a very quiet Viennese bar, Harry had met Hanna. She had already drunk nine double cognacs, and she asks him pathetically for "one kind word, just one." Harry comes up with a good one, "you're very beautiful." But despite the hour, he's pretty observant too, as he adds, "you're very unhappy." As though we hadn't noticed.
Shadowed by Inspector Shillings (Rupert Davies), she takes him to her home, which is surprisingly well furnished. Her fags, Harry notes, are US army issue. He's curious as to how she is so wealthy. "People deal with me" in Vienna, Harry proudly says, so who is his rival? In fact her accomplice is hiding in her bedroom. "Perhaps you will find out for yourself," she smirks. He realises now she is an old acquaintance from his time in Alexandria.
As he leaves, someone shoots at him, a rotten marksman, unfortunately.
An American colonel tells Harry his "reputation stinks," so maybe to redeem himself he can aid Inspector Shillings who wants to catch Hanna. "I didn't think she was up there with the angels," replies Harry drily. Shillings explains she is in the pay of Prokrian (George Pastell), Harry's rival, who besides smuggling drugs, cigarettes etc also smuggles people across the border. Since so many refugees have ended up massacred, Harry agrees to help.
He keeps his date with Hanna. He looks carefully round her flat, adding by way of explanation, "I just wanted to know who might shoot me, if I make love to you." For some inexplicable reason, it seems she used to love him. Prokrian emerges to shoot Harry, but she prevents the tragedy and shoots her boss instead. The soft hearted Harry allows her to disappear before Shillings can catch her- "you're a sentimental fool."
So that is why Harry is at her bedside now. I am sure you wanted to know

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Three Dancing Turtles
Blame John Kruse for writing this hokum. Blame Michael Rennie for such deadpan monotony.
Harry Lime is taken by donkey (no comment) to a mountain fortress in Sicily at the invitation of on-the-run Gaby (Bill Nagy). "When I climb higher than a bar stool, I usually get danger money," is his corny line as Gaby offers him $85,000 to prove him innocent of jumping bail after being accused of smuggling narcotics which had been found by customs in his 'boat.' (However when we see his ship Andromeda it's clearly an outsize in boats.)
Mary Halliday (Louise Collins) is a tourist Harry picks up in the Italian seaport where the boat lies in dock. However finding it proves very difficult, and Harry is distracted, not for the last time, by a corpse in his hotel bath. It is actually Gaby's brother. The police find the corpse, but Harry has by now fled via the balcony.
He follows a hearse to the docks and stumbles on the sign Tre Tartarughe Ballerine, a sign that the Andromeda is nearby. It's found in a very poor state. Oddly, Miss Halliday is there taking photos. Inside the hull of the ship, all is a mess. The bulkhead has been removed. Miss Halliday, who proves to be a reporter, explains it had been made of platinum. Clearly Gaby and his brother had fallen out over the platinum. If you care, the stuff has been hidden in a coffin. Obvious really. Senseless too. In another coffin lies Gaby. Harry punches the undertaker whose heart is pierced by a jagged edge of platinum. No real logic or cohesion to the whole adventure.

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Barcelona Passage
A typically convoluted storyline, with several fine actors sadly wasted.
But at least Harry is absolutely silent for once! He listens patiently as an insurance investigator persuades him to buy a ship that's sailing to Barcelona. As no legal powers can enable a bank robber who's on board to be arrested, by pretending to buy the ship Harry will be able to get on the ship. Thus in mid ocean, Harry and Brad come on board, ostensibly to inspect their proposed purchase. Brad immediately feels seasick and is able to contribute little to all the excitement, or should I say nonsense.
Look- there is the bank robber, Jan, who has nicked $500,000 from the National Exchange Bank. He cuts an odd figure, an ex-professor, and seemingly gloating in his reputation as a robber who cannot be arrested. Harry makes a beeline for his girl friend Eva (Dawn Addams), of course. He is less happy however, when someone bangs him on the nut. At least there's nothing in it to damage. When he comes to, Eva is proposing a 50-50 share of the loot. "What are you going to bring to the partnership?" asks Harry naively. What a daft question. She kisses him, that's her answer.
Harry's tactics become clear. Jan is an inveterate gambler and Harry fixes a game of poker with him. Eva also joins in, as does the Marquesa (Ferdy Mayne). However the latter is a notorious card sharp, and a suspicious Jan backs out. He's rumbled Harry, "what are you going to try next?" Harry tries playing head to head with Jan at Vingt Et Un. But there's no need for such subtlety now as Eva has found where Jan has hidden the cash- in the hold. Of course, it turns out to be her trickery. The real Jan is dead in the hold, now it's Harry's turn. But he's rescued by the purser, alias a secret agent (Jack Hedley). "I got suspicious because everything seemed too easy," explains Harry blandly
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27 Collectors Item
The late Earl of Barset has disposed of his available property to avoid inheritance tax, so his four heirs are left only a Ming jar each. One is for his son Mark, another for Arletta his 'companion,' a third for nephew Charles and the last for his granddaughter Diane (Eileen Moore). She's the only one who ever cared for the earl, according to the solicitor, and she is given an extra letter: "contact Harry Lime" it reads.
Harry meanwhile is elsewhere and rather puzzled why the earl hasn't mentioned a rare necklace in his will, that Harry had sold him. He wants to buy it back- it must be hidden in one of the jars since only three are known to exist. The fourth must be a fake, made to conceal the necklace.
Arlette is first to be asked. "Am I collector's item?" she enigmatically asks Harry, whose response is to kiss her. "You must go now," she warns, but hands him her front door key. But no jar.
Charles is broke and keen to sell however, but the new Earl of Barset, Mark, is keen on buying the rare Ming vases himself.
Arlette is found murdered, lying beside a smashed jar. It's actually Mark's jar which she had smashed in a rage. Arrest of new Lord Barset.
All this time Diane has been trying in vain to meet the elusive Mr Lime. As Brad watches in growing surprise, he offers her £216,000 17/- for the jar. "Sheer lunacy. It can't be worth that." Worse is to follow- Harry then smashes the jar! Even more shock horror. But then the reason for Harry's seeming madness- inside was the Collector's Item, the beautiful necklace. Whilst Brad continues his baffled look, Harry escorts Diane off to Paris.
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High Finance

From an East African bauxite mine, director general J Van Elst phones Harry Lime about the natives being restless.
Asa result, share prices are falling, and Brad advises Harry to sell up quickly. But before Harry "jumps out of windows," he decides to fly there to find out more. He also needs to know who has shot J Van Elst.
It's caviar for Harry and Brad, as they stop off en route at Brussels. The founder of the feast is, of course, a beautiful woman, she's named Simone and her father is governor of Belleville, our heroes' destination.
WV Praag is new director general of the mine, and says Van Elst had been killed by one of those restless natives, motive revenge, for he had recently been sacked.
Due to the riots, the government has ordered the mine to be closed and Praag strongly advises Harry to sell those shares. "The situation is hopeless," agrees Brad. But Harry is remarkably unconcerned, spending the evening with Simone and her father, who becuase of his ill health, is to retire from his post. Harry surprises them by telling them that far from selling, he is going to buy more shares!
A reporter interrupts Harry's examination of Van Elst's office. He's Paul (John Bentley) who had obtained a secret report Van Elst had prepared before his death. Evidently his phone call had been about this discovery.
"Papa's been kidnapped by the natives," cries Simone. Harry of course knows it's all a ruse to try and force Harry to sell up, "it had to be pretty important," agrees the shrewd shareholder, "for a governor to step out of line."
The final scene is no great shock. Harry is comforting Simone, very woodenly

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Toys of the Dead
Note- An uncredited Oliver Reed is in the cast as Dame Lavinia's secretary.

Dame Lavinia (Isabel Jeans) has a task for Harry Lime- "our minds dance to the same preposterous music," is her absurd line.
Today, she brings him an oriental necklace, 1250 years old, from Ceylon. Harry is required to talk to Toni, who sent it, and who claims he has lots more of the same.
Deep in Ceylon's interior, Harry and Brad check in to the Grand Hotel. "Hotel is closed," claims the terse manager Mookajee. Yet a young girl called Shani, who proves to be Toni's sister, has better news- they can stay. She seems to run the hotel, as her father is paralysed. She's frightened. The guests are taking the place over, she tells Harry, who is ever willing to provide a listening ear, especially to an attractive lady. One guest is a local jewel expert, Batlivenga.
Harry hands Toni Dame Lavinia's payment for the necklace, but he is scared and says he knows nothing about it.
That night there's an explosion in the nearby temple. Mookajee shoots at Harry, as ever missing his mark, though Harry is just slightly injured.
But next day he's well enough to explore the temple and finds a horde of jewels, like the one Toni had sent Dame Lavinia. In fact Toni had already discovered this treasure, but has been tied up by Batlivenga and his cronies, since they have also discovered Toni's secret. Brad is also forced into the cave by Mookajee, "the man with the dreadful name." Batlivenga plants explosives at the temple entrance, Toni, Brad and Harry still inside, but of course Harry turns the tables, and it's Batlivenga who is trapped inside, the valuable treasure buried for ever in the rubble.
"The toys of the dead are safe once more." What a shame. What a shame, I mean, that this story was ever filmed

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The Man Who Wouldn't Talk

A woman claiming to be Harry Lime's secretary cancels an appointment made to see Harry, so she can see him herself. However Jackie (Moira Redmond) is not actually Harry's proper secretary, she just wants to see the great man urgently. Any chance of £1,000 she asks. Inevitable really, she is an old friend of Harry's though he hardly recognises her, for he last knew her as a fourteen year old with glasses. He prefers the newer version.
Her father is an important Foreign Office offical in line for promotion. She explains she needs the money to find Martin, her fiance, whom her father has forbidden her to ever see again. Martin had been due to fly in to London from Zurich, but though she had waited for hours at the airport, he failed to come. "I nearly went out of my mind." Then she had received a note telling her to go to 23 Leyman Street Fulham. A man there had promised to tell her where Martin is, for £1,000.
Brad stumps up the cash. "Not tax deductible," he warns Harry. Jackie hands it to the man who is called Talbot. The information is not really value for money- Martin is in prison.
Jackie goes straight there, and meets the insalubrious character. He's not at all communicative. "Martin, say something." All he says is "I don't know you."
Next day, Harry accompanies Jackie to Leyman Street. They find Talbot, dead. He worked for detective Arthur Schillings (Rupert Davies), but according to his boss, he was earning extra cash on the side.
Harry consults yet another underworld pal, "you know who pulled the strings." Harry gets his £1,000 back and learns "Talbot was a rat who was killed by mistake." Anyway, "the deal's washed up." It is all to do with Jackie's dad and his work at the FO. Martin was a spy, so no wonder Jackie can never see him again.
This review from a 16mm film

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Harry Lime and the King
"I don't like foreign places," announces Brad, as he lands with Harry Lime at Hamsing airport, only to be escorted by a colonel, the chief of police (Sydney Tafler) to jail. Harry is suspected of planning to assassinate the king. The allegation has been made by the unusual Fawzia (Marla Landi), who claims Harry had once jilted her. Harry however has never seen her ever before. More to the point, she's a government agent.
"It's dreadful," cries Brad, who has shown solidarity with his boss by also opting for the jail, which is actually a pleasant hotel suite, if barred and guarded. Brad turns in for the night, but Harry gets out of his room when he finds his guard has been knocked out. But then he is overpowered. He comes to, in the arms of Fawzia, but then up marches the colonel to accuse the bewildered Harry of murdering his guard. However Fawzia extricates Harry, taking the blame herself. Harry is put back in his barred room.
Here, Harry has another visitor, you'll never guess... Fawzia. Naturally, Harry wants to know what she's up to. he knows really, of course, but he just wants to hear her explanation. So do we.
Harry is taken to the Prime Minister (John le Mesurier) who discusses the oil concession that was Harry's reason for coming to the country. There had been an agreement of 50-50, but the arrival of international crook Martin Clearwater (Phillip Friend) had persuaded the PM to get himself a more favourable deal.
But into this game of bluff walks the young king, soft spoken but firm, eager to meet his "would be assassin." Harry attempts his own bluff, confessing to trying to kill the king, but implicating the colonel.
"Not a bad story," concedes the king, "sounds quite convincing." The king is evidently wise beyond his years and can see Harry for what he really is (or maybe foolish beyond his years...) and he orders Clearwater to be deported.
The witness against Harry, Fawzia, is produced for the king to examine. But a quick gunshot from the colonel exposes the real villain behind it all, and he is captured. The oil concession is sorted out. All ends well.
Brad has slept through it all. When he awakes, there is Fawzia cooing Harry's name, in his arms

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Death in Small Installments
Brad is on the phone to Muriel when there's a knock at the door. In falls a stranger, dead.
"Not very satisfactory," concludes Inspector Newton, when he's spun this unlikely tale. The only clue to the dead man's identity is that his clothing is French.
It so happens that Harry and Brad are flying to Paris next day, at the request of old Nick (a Frenchman that is, not the devil). However the old man is too ill to see them, his junior partner Paul March (Laurence Payne) explains. Ten years ago Nick's son Victor was killed, and though police decided it was not murder, Nick has worn himself out trying to find the man whom he holds responsible, Pierre. Nick's daughter Roxane (Lisa Gastoni), asks Harry not to join the fruitless quest, for she's been "living with the dead" for too long.
But Harry gets to see bedridden old Nick, who wants Harry to promise to kill Pierre himself.
Harry does examine the reports of the numerous private detectives who have sought Pierre in vain. Roxane tells Harry more about Victor who was "no good," though his father could not see it. But shrewd old Harry spots she must know where Pierre is. And does he also guess that it is Pierre who is trying now to poison Nick? For Nick is now delirious and has to be treated by the family doctor.
Harry has a heart-to-heart with this Pierre who has taken a false identity in Nick's household. Pierre and his accomplice make steps to make Harry "disappear," though I regret to tell you this fails and Inspector Newton pounces, even though he's on foreign soil, to arrest Pierre, who had killed the first detective to spot his identity, and this he was going to reveal to Harry, which is where we came in. Perhaps Brad should never have opened that door
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A Question of Libel
This is one of the better Third Man scripts, written by John Warwick.

On page 12 of Pride and County magazine is an article by the editor Gerald Black on the low moral fibre of England. To back up his point, he describes a village near Winchester, where the editor alleges live, 1) a blonde habitual shoplifer, 2) a titled lady who writes poison pen letters, and 3) a hotel keeper who has been embezzling hunt club funds. Though noone is named and the village not specified, Harry Lime, as owner of the magazine, is being sued for £100,000 each by the three people who feel they have been libelled.
The editor (Ralph Michael) insists what he has written is the truth, even though he cannot prove it. If Harry can prove it is true, he's in the clear, so he takes Brad to the village of Highfield to visit the owner of the inn George Freeman (Sydney Tafler). The lawyer acting for him, Diana Barrett (Barbara Shelley) is chatted up by Harry in his inimitably awful manner. As is another of her clients Miss Wyvern (Nyree Dawn Porter), an actress. Lady Millicent Bridges (Athene Seyler) is the other member of the trio sueing Harry. She takes in every stray dog in the district ("a handful of trouble" she confides to Mr Lime), and even apologies for her part in the libel action. But she does deny the charge of writing poison pen letters.
All three seem to have lost something as a result of this article: Freeman the local council election, Miss Wyvern a good acting chance and Lady Millicent the opportunity to open her house to the public.
Black asks Harry to meet him urgently, but before this can take place he is pushed out of the window (Black that is, not unfortunately, Harry). Worse is to come, when Brad's investigations only show that nothing in the editor's article was true.
So Harry calls a meeting of the three and their lawyer. He hands them each a special edition of Pride and County. Is it a retraction? Not so, there's a revealing account of a libel suit fraud! The clever Mr Lime has worked out that Gerald Black had written the original article in collusion with the three, so they could sue poor Harry. Freeman is the brains behind the scheme but when he had "found his conscience," Black had needed to be silenced. Case closed.
Magnaminously Harry dates Diana Barrett.

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Cross of Candos
Harry Lime has bought a painting, not any painting, but a Rafael, from an old friend in Greece. But when Plato Kazantis' package arrives, all it contains is a note to go to Athens to collect it. "Highly unbusinesslike," comments a disapproving Brad.
Nevertheless, he and Harry go to Greece and board Kazantis' millionaire yacht. The real reason for Plato's ruse is now revealed, it's confession time. When he was only a lad, he had stolen a gold cross from his village church. He gives Harry the thankless task of tracing it, after he sold it all those years ago, to he doesn't know whom. Where to start?
Harry begins with another old friend, taxi driver Arto. He suggests the dealer might have been Zorba, oh no, he's dead now. So try Charles Rochard, says Arto. He's an art dealer, and Harry knows a crook when he meets one. He offers a bargain to Rochard, an El Greco Plato prizes, for the cross.
As Harry waits for developments, Rochard's young assistant warns "Rochard is not a nice man." That is stating the obvious, though he isn't that ghastly a person, to be frank. Harry is given the address of a rich collector. It's a large Gothic mansion. Lauber would indeed like the El Creco for the cross. But even he sees it is a rather one-sided bargain- the El Greco is worth a fortune, the cross a mere $15,000. Proudly Lauber shows Harry his priceless collection of stolen Rembrandts, Rubens and the like. Having got his El Greco, he draws a gun to shoot Harry. However Harry has a trick up his sleeve, and tells Lauber all his paintings are fakes obtained via Charles Rochard. Harry proves his point and is given the cross. However it was a bluff by Harry- Lauber's paintings are genuine, if stolen. Plato is given the cross, and he promises to return it and confess his sin.
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Happy Birthday
It's Brad's birthday, and Harry Lime is splashing out $7,500 at Pierre's shop for a "surprise" present, the stamp that will complete his Moldavian collection. For apparently Brad is an expert on nineteenth century Moldavian stamps.
His eyes open even wider than usual when Harry presents him with the stamp, the Moldovian Maidens. It's a "bonus," explains Harry. However Harry is not so shrewd in philatelic matters, and after his initial joy, Brad detects he has been given a fake. He takes his complaint to Pierre.
But the forger has silenced Pierre, who had not appreciated he was being used by a forger. His eyesight is not what it was. Correction, his eyesight was not as it was, for he is now dead.
Brad catches sight of the killer, and reports to the police that he's "early 30's, medium height, dark hair."
Result- Brad is next on the killer's list. Thanks to Harry's intervention, all the shots miss Brad. Isn't it fortunate that Harry can recall a few "forgers from the old days"? One is Felix and his partner John, who is the killer. Felix was "the best engraver in the business," but claims to be clean now, and points Harry in the direction of Chick Maple, who is now in San Francisco.
Harry flies there, Linda Landers, Pierre's secretary, sees him off at the airport, with a kiss.
Now he's off the scene, she can tip off John where Brad is holed out. Brad lets her in to his apartment, John pushing in after her. However the police are waiting to arrest them. Of course the wily Harry knew it all, and is there to see the finish.
He apologises to Brad that his present is a fake. But Brad seems unperturbed, as he believes forgeries have their own intrinsic value
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44 Queen of the Nile

In Alexandria, Alex is offering to fill up Harry's freighter with needlework, "the finest silk brocade," handmade by the monks of Yemen. Brad values the consignment at $270,000.
Count Alex is to be married on the morrow, to Diana Westerbury, yet another friend of Harry's, from seven years back. ("I'm told you know everybody Mr Lime." How true!) The best drawn character in this story is Caroline, Diane's mother (Norma Varden), yet another old sparring partner of Harry's. She never did like Harry. She enjoys saying to him "silly things" that "just pop into my head." I could give her a few choice thoughts also.
Inspector Shahar questions Harry about his deal with Alex. Caroline protests about this interrogation, why, she knows the count is on the level, she's had him checked by private detectives. Even so, Shahar has a right to be suspicious, as he has discovered a priceless bust called The Queen of the Nile hidden in the cargo of silk. "Looks as though you finally got me, inspector," is Harry's corny comment.
"The great Harry Lime" is under arrest, but allowed to potter round town until his trial. "Why did you do it Harry?" asks Diane, "always ready to make a fast dollar." She points her gun at Harry. Brad looks shocked. But good old Harry proves to her that he's not to blame.
Yet another old acquaintance of Harry's is "humble" antique dealer Tejurmain, Harry inquires about rare artefacts, including The Queen of the Nile. After a scuffle, Harry finds he has $10,000 on his person.
The marriage is off. Caroline has insisted Diana finishes with Alex. But she has made one mistake, they all do. The $10,000 Harry found was in one of Caroline's personal envelopes. It's she who had been trying to smuggle this Queen of the Nile, but not for its intrinsic value, merely to discredit Alex. The naughty woman.
"Better luck next time," Harry bids adieu to Inspector Shahar. How right had this official been in his earlier observation: "somehow you always manage cleverly to escape." "Can't we just forget about it Harry?" begs the criminal. Yes let's.

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45 Calculated Risk

Harry and Brad are in Hong Kong to deliver a sealed bid for a construction company. Seven and a half million- and that's apparently a deliberately low bid!
Agent Reeves accepts the case with Harry's bid, but no sooner received than it's stolen from him: "maybe a competing firm wanted an advance look at our bid so they could undercut us," seems a rather too obvious explanation.
Whilst Brad, in the best comedy tradition, attempts to purchase a 32 dollar suit from a Chinese gent, Harry calls on old pal Easy to see if he has any knowledge of the thief. Later Easy is shot, and just when he'd found something out!
Then in a bar, a girl approaches Harry to inform him the envelope with the bid can be retrieved: just catch the cable car and then.... A car draws up, the shadowy driver demanding 100,000 dollars for the return of the envelope. 50,000 promptly proposes Harry.
Harry later returns to this same lonely spot to hand over the cash. He receives the envelope, all very straightforward. But Harry isn't as dumb as he looks. Reeves is the crook, Harry having discovered this through some convoluted logic, all to do with a cat.
So a happy conclusion as we hear Harry utter that corny cliche to the bar girl "you and I could have had lots of fun together."

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47 Diamond in the Rough -

250 thousand for a diamond if it's properly cut- and naturally Harry knows the right man do do the cutting- Karl van Root.
He lives in La Jolla with his granddaughter Lisel: "you've grown up, Lisel" notes the observant Harry. But grandfather can't help. He says he's retired: "diamond cutting is for younger men: age is the enemy of precision." Harry ain't fooled however. He spots Karl's cutting tools have been used quite recently.
In his hotel, Harry encounters a dead man who had earlier told Harry he was watching van Root. He claimed to be an insurance agent and when Lisel reveals to Harry that grandad is being forced by crooks to recut a stolen necklace, wise old Harry knows what to do. "Why didn't you go to the police?" is his rather obvious question to her. Apparently grandad had killed someone years ago, so it's a case of blackmail. The only advice Harry can give her is... go to the police. "I shouldn't have told you," adds Lisel, growing up fast.
"Nice timing" by Brad enables Harry to catch the crooks and the terrible truth about Karl van Root comes out. But a bit of quick thinking by the clever Harry and Karl's face is saved. "Mr Lime, you're a wonderful man!"

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King's Ransom

Liz discovers the dead body of her uncle in his bookshop. The last words scribbled on his notepad read 'Harry Lime.'
Harry is mugging up on the English Civil War, when Inspector Stephens of Oxford City Police arrives to question him about the dead man, Geoffrey Ormesby (Mervyn Johns). Last February Harry had given him money.
"This is terrible, Mr Lime, "cries a wide eyed Brad. Harry's story is that Ormesby had told him about a "lost treasure," made of gold, worth about half a million pounds. Apparently King Charles, of Civil War fame, had entrusted Ormesby's ancestor with this treasure. Now Geoffrey has inherited a book in code, which may yield a clue to its whereabouts. The philanthropist in Harry had given Ormesby £500 to buy a decoding machine.
Recently Ormesby had contacted Harry again, giving the key to the code, "I now know where the treasure lies."
Harry learns from Liz that her uncle had had two appointments on the day of his death.
Dr Parkin (Barry Jones) is the author of the definitive book on the Civil War, and he poo-poos the treasure theory. He forgot he was supposed to see Ormesby, so they had never met that day.
Prof Lionel 'Beastly' Beasley also claims not to have seen Ormesby that day. He identifies Robert, Liz' boyfriend as being seen running away from Ormesby's house the night of his death. Robert admits he owed the man a lot of money and that "I found him dead with a knife in him."
Bradford finds a notepad with the name Parkins on it, not Parkin. He phones everyone in Oxford with that name. He's Rev PJ Parkin (Brian Oulton) who had been asked by Ormesby for permission to open up his ancestor's vault in the family church. Harry speeds there and has no difficulty prising open the lid of the tomb. "Light please, vicar." But it's empty.
Harry leaves the key to the code with Dr Parkin, who that night enters the church for the treasure. He's the murderer of Ormesby, killing him because his book would have been discredited. Harry then reveals that though the coffin is bare, the gold had been melted down, for underneath the leaden surface of the lid, it's solid gold.
Liz is going to be "terribly rich." Harry does quite well out of it too.

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Hamburg Shakedown

Harry is commisssioning a sculptor to make an unusual statue carved out of butter to commemorate an event five years ago. This is the ungripping tale of why.
Harry had been travellling with Brad from Denmark to Hamburg on a "museum piece" of a train. Fellow passengers in their compartment were Mr Lloyd, a large scale custard manufacturer, and young Susie (Annie Farge).
When the train reaches the border, she hides her ring in a package of butter. The customs officer, however, confiscates it for hygienic reasons and she gets in rather a flap about it, part of her elaborate con trick. Kind Harry despatches Brad to retrieve her ring while Harry continues on the train with Susie, who spins Harry her transparent tale about her kidnapped father, for whom she is to raise his ransom by pawning her ring. "All I want is papa back."
Brad, in Denmark, chases the butter which has been donated as part of a large food parcel to an orphanage. He has to melt down a huge amount of butter, to the bemusement of the owner, before he gets hold of the ring.
In Hamburg, Harry and Susie book into a one star dump of a hotel. The 'blackmailer' phones, ordering Susie to pay 50,000 marks. Come alone. Her father speaks to her, only we see that the voice is a tape recording.
Harry supplies the cash from his own pocket. She takes it to pay the ransom.
Brad brings Harry the ring, "a most unusual ring," worthless in fact. Harry thinks it very funny.
At the police station, Susie admits that rich Mr Lloyd had been her original target for the scam. She'd changed however to Harry, her "dearest, nicest.... favourite goof." The police chief thinks it very funny.
That was five years ago. Now Harry is preparing a celebratory meal with that statue of butter. It's for the charming but mildly sickly Susie, just out of jail. She thinks the statue is very funny. Well, so long as everyone is happy, except me perhaps

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The Unexpected Mr Lime
The SS Demetrio Bay is nearing its destination, Beirut. Lopez, a sailor, starts to send a cable to Harry Lime in New York, but is thrown overboard.
Kuvati (Peter Illing) is in charge of Lime's Beirut operations, and with his daughter Anna welcomes Harry and Brad to their country, and arranges for them to look round the ship which belongs to Harry, as soon as it is in port. But in their hotel room at the Royal, they watch the ship catch fire. On board had been a cargo of cars, sewing machines, and even dynamite.
"Deliberate arson," concludes the local police chief (Peter Arne). If the insurance company concurs, Harry stands to lose $730,000, enough to make even Brad worried. "It's just money," is Harry's attitude.
First officer Nicholas Shearer is in league with Kuvati, but gets cold feet and offers to tell all to Harry. For $10,000. But Shearer is knifed in the back. However Harry is soon on to the truth, that Kuvati is behind a gun smuggling racket. Kuvati admits it, adding he has only a short while to live, and had been trying to leave his daughter a reasonable inheritance. But he didn't kill Shearer, so who did?
Anna was the last to have seen Shearer alive- she had been begging him to leave Beirut, but he had been alive when she left him. In fact, the captain of the vessel (George Colouris) is the guilty man, and though he attempts to kill Harry, he is drugged and handed over to the police.
For once Brad gets the girl at the end, well in a way he does. Barmaid Gina (Catherine Woodville) is taking Brad out, on a tour of a camel saddle factory.
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Portrait of Harry Lime

A collector has died at the age of 95. He had purchased a painting back in 1903 from Renoir himself, Dejeuner Dans La Foret. "I want that painting," Meyrick (Bernard Lee) informs Harry Lime, who agrees to try and buy it for him from the executors.
"That's the only millionaire I don't like," notes Brad of the scheming Meyrick. As Brad distastefully suffers French cuisine and other abominations of the land, Harry is enjoying the local pleasures with an artist, Veronique (Delphi Lawrence). Oh, and he does buy that Renoir, for $600,000 too.
"That's very good," he says of the picture she has been sketching of the lugubrious Brad. It's Brad's, and he takes it back to the hotel, leaving Harry to chat with "talented, beautiful" Veronique in her studio.
When he rejoins Brad, he gets the bad news, the Renoir has been stolen. Not insured either.
Veronique is now painting Harry's portrait. "This painting is you," declares Brad, rather untruthfully I felt, for it bears only a passing resemblance to the attractive but wooden features of Mr Lime.
However she is actually painting two pictures of the great Harry (as if one weren't enough!), the second is for Meyrick. Behind one is hidden the stolen Renoir.
The police seem no nearer to recovering Harry's property. Brad is questioned by the French police chief, who sourly comments that Brad isn't like Harry Lime who enjoys "the wines, womens and chantings." This is a rather well acted scene, if awfully hackneyed, by Jonathan Harris with George Pravda.
Back to London, where Harry has to advise Meyrick the Renoir is still missing. "There's something wrong, Brad," Harry confides later to Brad, for Meyrick seeks hardly concerned about the theft. Or was Harry talking about the actual picture of himself, which is such a poor likeness? However Brad seems to have taken an inexplicable liking to it, and hangs it in his office admiringly. It takes all sorts.
But the picture has to be taken down again, as Veronique requests it is loaned for an exhibition of her talent, sponsored by Meyrick. At the gallery there's a fight and Harry is shot, or rather a bullet hits him in his portrait. You see, Harry has worked out what has been going on, and has retrieved his picture, plus of course that Renoir hidden in the back. Not that Harry seems that concerned, he's busy kissing Veronique
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Hansel and Son

This is almost tragic, for Harry Lime's valuable cargoes are being stolen from European ports. Someone inside Harry's vast organisation must be leaking advance information about shipments. Suspicion falls on the Norwegian firm of Hansel and Son.
But Olaf Hansel is an old friend of Harry's, as honest as the day is long. Harry has sent a private eye, Sven, to make doubly sure, but when Sven is killed, it's off to Norway for Harry and Brad. Sven's last cable had warned that the chief suspect for the leakages was Olaf's own son Edvard.
Harry and Brad stay with Olaf, Edvard and Olaf's daughter Gerda, though relations are strained when Olaf is told Harry suspects a security leak. But Harry doesn't reveal on exactly whom suspicion has fallen.
Edvard gives Brad the books, then dashes to his boss Andersen worried about being found out. But he's worried too over Sven's killing. "You can't go around killing everyone who might find out," he tells Andersen rather lamely.
Olaf senses the worst, Harry trying to spare the old man until he has definite proof.
He sets a trap by getting Brad to announce that his inspection of the books will shortly uncover who is behind the thefts. So that night, with everyone asleep, Edvard tries to remove the offending files. Too late he realises he's caught in a trap. Harry listens to his confession as well as his excuses for his crimes. Olaf interrupts them, without hearing the whole truth. At last he realises he has thwarted his son's intiatives and offers him equal shares in the firm. But Edvard must atone for Sven's murder and tries to force Andersen to confess. Andersen's response is to silence Edvard, though in a shootout Andersen is shot in return. "There's no need for a doctor."
Olaf is naturally distraught, though perhaps it's as well he never finds out about his son's criminality.

A very poignant story, possibly, so poignant Harry doesn't even have time to date or even kiss Gerda!

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Act of Atonement

Henry Vincent Mott is generously providing funds for a new hospital. His spoilt daughter Victoria (Nora Hayden) is to manage the project with the help of- you've guessed it- Harry Lime. But suddenly "the great man" has a heart attack, Mott that is, not Harry Lime regrettably. Harry comments on his death rather callously, "St Dismus will have his hands full with Henry Vincent." Brad queries this, as this saint is the patron saint of thieves.
Matt Stacey, Victoria's new attorney, hands Harry a cheque for $75,000, a pay off for his work on the hospital project that she has now cancelled.
Harry and Brad want to know why, so travel to Maine where she gives them the brush-off. But Harry decides to hang around, and puts up in a backwoods hotel run by the faintly tedious Jedidiah (John Qualen). "It's dangerous around here," warns old enemy Ballerino, who is also staying at the hotel. It certainly is, when a rifle is trained on Harry, when he goes to talk to Victoria by a lake. She urges Harry to go back to New York, but when he refuses, she warns, "anything that happens now is your own fault." That includes a shot, which misses Harry, as ever.
Victoria is being forced to sign a document by Stacey, signing over her inheritance to Ballerino. "It's my money," reasons the gangster simply. But Harry has seen through the whole scheme. Victoria's dad had been the respectable face for Ballerino's underworld activities. Unless she pays up, her father's reputation will be in ruins, he will be exposed as a crook. "The truth has to come out," urges Harry. He persuades her to continue this "finest gesture of his life," and pay for the hospital. Despite her fears, she follows his advice and refuses to pay up the "several million dollars."
Brad spots that the files Victoria's father has left her can indite Ballerino for tax evasion. But the gangster is under arrest anyway, because Jedidiah is taking him in- what for? shooting at Harry. "Who is this hick?" demands the blustering Ballerino. But Jedidiah has the authority, and the FBI are soon pressing that more serious charge of tax evasion. "This is all a terrible misunderstanding," protests Ballerino as he is taken away.

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Ghost Town

Eddie Collins at the Desert Door in Arizona phones Harry Lime to warn him. But this was just a joke, he insists to the men who sees him phoning and kill him.
When Harry and Brad visit this desert hotel, Fox, the manager, assures them that business is fine. He shows them where bartender Collins had died- the sheriff explains that he had been thrown from his horse.
Enter the beautiful dame, Monica Sellers, an artist who is staying at the hotel, room 12. Naturally she's an old pal of Harry's.
"S'pose Lime starts nosin' around?" hired hand Rich asks the manager. But Harry's nosing is mostly with Miss Sellers, who is shrewd enough to sense Harry's not just here for the vacation.
However, next morning she is nowhere to be seen. Her car is there, it has driven four miles since last evening, but there's nothing in the desert nearer than 10 miles distant. Except an old mining settlement, now a ghost town.
The scene switches here, clearly a set from a slightly more opulent film, or maybe an old closed movie studio. Among the rubble, Harry and Brad peer, looking for Monica presumably, when gunshots force them into cover. In drives the sheriff who searches the derelict old bar. "Empty." The snipers has gone. No sign of Monica either.
Back at the Desert Door, Harry searches the manager's room, examining the books. He finds evidence of a gambling racket that Collins was gonna snitch on to Harry. Brad is left to point a gun at Fox and call the sheriff, while Harry drives back to the ghost town.
It's a kinda half High Noon as Harry faces up to Rich, whose guarding Miss Monica Sellers, who had spotted the gambling equipment near the bar. There's some sort of surprise as Harry catches the big man behind the racket. But not enough 'surprise' to stir any discerning viewer

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The Gold Napoleons
A Tang horse has been bought by Harry for a client, Liaquat as a present for his fiancee Miss Syra Taradi. He always pays in gold, and he hands over $100,000 worth of gold coins, over a corny joke about Harry's huge profit on the deal.
Brad weighs the coins. "I don't trust that man, Mr Lime, I never have."
After Liaquat has left, Paul, a dealer in gold calls. He offers a price for the 5,882 Gold Napoleons, $115,000. "I don't trust that one either, he wears cologne."
On his yacht, Liaquat has an argument with his fiancee and she runs off. When Harry calls on him to seal their deal, he finds only Liaquat's corpse. There's a knife in his back. A servant, Ali, had overheard Miss Taradi arguing with his master. She seems the guilty party.
An expert is shown one of the coins and declares it to be made of lithinium, a worthless metal often used by old forgers. Back at the office, Brad is knocked out, and the dealer Paul, with Ali, steal the chest. "Finally, after eleven years," Paul gloats. It's their bad luck that Harry happens to return and he is greeted by Miss Taradi. She asks his help, for, she says, she is innocent of the killing. But Harry calls the cops. Then he has it out with the robbers, and the police arrive to arrest them.
Brad reveals the sudden interest in lithinium, it's been renamed nowadays as platinum, worth a great deal more than even gold.
Harry gives Miss Taradi her horse: "I have my reasons." She thanks him in an appropriate way.

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The Way of McEagle
Prospects of "an excellent business deal" have lured Harry and Brad in a rickety car to the Scottish Highlands, any contract to be signed "by midnight tonight, or not at all." But the locals are out to spot 'em: "they'll repent the day they came to Strathclyde."
Apparently the road to their destination, the castle of the laird Tim McCriach (Laurence Naismith) is impassable, so Harry rests at the Eagle Arms where Helen McEagle (Eileen Moore) welcomes Harry. "It's a strange country," she tells him.
It is for Brad! In search of a phone, he's taken on a wild goose chase: "I'm being kidnapped!" For unexplained reasons, he's taken to the laird who, despite protest, takes him for Harry Lime. Both he and Harry separately hear of the typically Scottish family feud between the McCriachs and the McEagles. Whilst Brad tries to digest haggis, Harry is kept away by Helen's charms. He tells her at twenty to midnight, "I'm not really a fool." No comment.
Helen explains it's her birthday tomorrow, the day she comes into property, currently being held in trust by McCriach. (Why him, if there's a feud on?) She wants to keep her land. Harry's response is to take the whole bunch of McEagles to face the McCriachs. Brad is suffering to the sound of the bagpipes when the clan burst in.
There's a lot of Scottish ballyhoo, ended when the wise Harry scolds the lot of 'em: "why don't you stop fighting like children?" And so it all ends happily ever after
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A Question in Ice

Brad is looking apprehensive, as Miss Muffin (Vanda Godsell) is flying in to demonstrate her wide variety of pancake mixes, for a new business venture that Brad has urged on Harry. When Harry is called away urgently by a phone call from Luigi in Italy, poor Brad is left to taste pancakes alone.
Harry has been paying Luigi for the past 18 years to keep his eye on a glacier. Major Harry Lime had been delivering $50,000 to one Alberto to aid the French resistance, who had tragically fallen into this glacier. Harry is alleged to have stolen the money, but now Alberto's corpse has finally drifted to the foot of the glacier, Harry knows he will be able to prove his innocence. Not that he was convicted of any wrongdoing, but Alberto's father, ex-partisan General Dino (Marius Goring) is certain of Harry's guilt. At the hotel where Harry checks in, the General has arranged for a military style court, attended also by the hotel manager, the cashier Pepi (Oliver Reed), and Simon, a journalist from America. The result seems predetermined, "it's Harry Lime who's going to die here... Harry must pay according to partisan law." Indeed the guard rail on the balcony in Harry's room has been removed. But Alberto's daughter Nina (Joanna Dunham) is unhappy with her grandfather's high handed actions. The suave Mr Lime however assures her the money will prove he has been telling the truth. As a precaution, he has asked Luigi to keep guard by the glacier, but during the night an unseen figure attacks him and removes the knapsack with the cash...
Back in London, Brad is tasting such delights as Bacon Pancake ("I knew you'd like it!"), but, worried for his employer's safety, rushes off to Italy.
The trial of Lime. Nina cannot believe nice Harry could have killed her father. "There are some people you do believe." Well, she is pretty gullible. But by a clever application of logic, Mr Lime is able to show who attacked Luigi and stole the money. Pepi "is the only one who could have done it." Pepi confesses, adding he had burned the money as it was all in Italian lire, now completely valueless.
As Brad dashes to the rescue, he finds Harry kissing Nina, "thank you for worrying about me, Brad." But Brad ends up pleased, since Miss Muffin's pancakes have not gone down well in England, and "the English haven't done anything terrible to the United States since the war of 1812."

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63 I.O.U.

Vienna 1945, and Max saved Harry's life. Now Max Kruse (Theodore Marcuse) is offering Harry "the opportunity of a lifetime," a coffee plantation in the quaintly named Costa Semana. Some coffee tasting with Brad proves it's good coffee but the unstable political situation is worrying, with the country under the thumb of aged and hated El Presidente.
The plantation is only a ruse however, as when they meet Max explains he "wants out" as he's a virtual prisoner in his own mansion. He holds Harry to that favour he owes him. As a "man of honour" good old Harry must help him get out of the country.
Enemies of El Presidente, who are planning his overthrow warn Harry that it has only been Max's ill gotten money that has kept the president in power for so long: "he swindled our people." What can the wonderful Mr Lime do? He decides to help both and asks Max for half a million dollars: "you drive a hard bargain, Harry!" Brad sums it all up: "Mr Kruse doesn't deserve to escape after what he's done to this country."
Night, and Max Kruse is driven out of the country in a coffin. The hearse is stopped, but it's a decoy enabling Harry to succeed in his mission. But there's a poetic end, as the half a million is used to bring about the downfall of El Pres, and safely away in Rio, Max meets a poetic end, well rather a messy one actually

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Crisis in Crocodiles
"My zip is stuck- would you like to help me?" That's the greeting Brad gets from model Arlette as he enters Mr Lime's office. "I shall dine alone tonight, monsieur," she adds. Brad makes no response.
Harry is told he's inherited 20% of Australian Enterprises from the late Julian Roper of Sydney. 18 years ago, this Australian had been daft enough to save Harry's life, but why has he left part of his business to Mr Lime? His two children inherit 40% each.
Down under, Julie (Jill Ireland) and Bill (John Meillon) are running the crocodile skin business. Their only rival is one Rankin (John Barrie), who winds Harry up the wrong way: "get out of Australia- now," he orders Harry, though for what reasons is not clear.
Harry doesn't seem that popular with Bill either: "lay off" my sister he warns Harry. Harry's not that popular with me either, though I wasn't the one shooting at Harry, because I wouldn't have missed. Who tried to shoot him? "Do you really think I want to see you dead?" asks Julia, very unconvincingly.
A phone call tips them off that Rankin has planted a fire bomb in their office. "There's a great deal more to this than you think," Harry tells Bill and Julia. So the wise Harry amazingly agrees to Bill taking the ticking bomb (!) and planting it in Rankin's warehouse. "This is extremely unwise," warns Brad, rather unnecessarily. But it's part of Harry's master plan. He tails Bill, defuses the bomb, and exposes Rankin, who had been attempting to get Bill caught placing the bomb. In fact Rankin's warehouse is full of waste products for he's all but bankrupt. So Julia and Bill have a nice monopoly in crocodile skins. For me, it's perhaps a pity that bomb didn't detonate
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Judas Goat
Cable: re- 15 million dollars of road building machinery to South East Asia. The Prime Minister refuses to pay Harry Lime.
So Harry whisks out there, but Prime Minister Mai Di Tan refuses to meet Harry or explain. However his alluring secretary Wanda Soo meets Harry in secret to tell the great man that it was his involvement in an old currency fraud that is behind the reneging of payment. Why does she tell him this? You guessed it- she is one of Harry's million and one old friends! "Please be careful," she warns.
Brad accompanies Harry as the pair gatecrash Tan's mansion. Tan apologises, he knows the accusation is false, but that's politics! So to seal the deal, and get his money, Harry offers to prove his innocence. This is what Tan really wants. He has Harry followed as he visits the ageing Julia, flatters her ("sweetens her to death"), for she is an old pal of the prince's, in order for her to tell him where the old prince Puma Diau (Abraham Sofaer) is hiding. He can prove Harry's innocence, but since the revolution in his country, he has been in seclusion, afraid of his enemies, the current government. Julia reveals he's living in a ruined city.
Harry has just got himself introduced to the prince, when Tan's men swoop. This had been Tan's devious method for finding Puma Diau in order to eliminate him. So it looks like he and Harry are for the chop, as Harry despite the threat berates Tan's tyranny. But Harry, naturally, had worked out the whole plot and has brought reinforcements in the shape of the police.
"There will be a new and honest government," promises the prince. And one that uses Harry's expensive machinery.
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66 A Little Knowledge
"Ole" is the only Spanish Brad knows, and it proves to be a running gag that at least makes this story just bearable. He's in Madrid with Harry and, adds Brad, "something terrible" always happens when Harry's in town. Harry looks unconcerned, as usual, even when the "something terrible" proves to be a beautiful woman.
An anonymous letter is delivered with an address, to where Harry travels to encounter the young beauty, secretary of Snr Garcia. But they know of no reason why Harry should visit them. Returning, even Harry looks puzzled: "whatever the reason, I don't like it," he confides in Brad.
He's right of course. Cpt Ramirez (Ferdy Mayne) warns Harry he has been sentenced to death by the underworld! Bang, bang! But the shots miss, more's the pity. To try and learn why he's under this threat Harry calls on Mendoza (Roger Delgado), allegedly the biggest criminal in the whole of Europe.
Another shot at Harry. Missed again, the idiots! "Old friend" Mendoza emlightens Harry, in this thin plot, which, if it weren't for Bradford Webster's entertaining remarks would be even more awful. In case you want to know why the order had gone out on Harry: "A friend of mine thought I had done something I hadn't" is Harry's profound explanation.

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Day of the Bullfighter

Harry and Brad are viewing some faded film footage of a bullfighter. He has now retired, has Luis Compos, down to his family ranch in Mexico. But he has stopped his payments on Harry's loan. So Harry flies down there to find out why. Brad accompanies, though he is worried that he might encounter his nemesis again, one Miss Skipworth.
At his opulent family ranch, Compos and his wife greet Harry. He is coming out of retirement, he tells Harry, so he can make some money, as his ranch has inexplicably started to run at a loss. A Juan Rodriguez has offered to purchase his property, but Compos will not give up his family's heirloom so easily.
Rodriguez is puffing a fat cigar in his spacious office. "Someone is deliberately trying to ruin Compos," Harry tells him bluntly. Rodriguez's response is to offer to buy Compos' promissory note to Harry, but naturally the great man refuses.
Next Harry is taken to the mysterious and alluring ex girl friend of Compos. "There are some worthwhile sights in Mexico I haven't seen," is Harry's corny introductory line to her. She wants that promissory note also. Allegedly she has a soft spot for Compos, and wants him to stay on in his ranch, but is Harry Lime fooled by her altruism? No!
Brad has cautiously wheedled out the information from Miss Skipworth that Rodriguez is definitely trying to foreclose on Compos. Compos has tripped, or rather been tripped down some steps, and though not too badly injured, cannot now make his comeback in the ring. The magnanimous Harry graciously extends the period of Compos' repayments.
"Harry darling" returns to the alluring female, ex-film star Lita, to find her in the arms of Rodriguez. The truth is she had been ditched by Compos and was seeking her revenge on him. Harry has seen through them.
Rodriguez apologises to Compos and apparenly all ends happily ever after.

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The Big Kill
Like a child, Harry Lime is playing with a consignment of toys, when Ingrid Garson phones to warn him, "it's a matter of life and death." Whose? Harry's!
In her apartment, she introduces Harry to her husband Matt's best friend, Roy. They are worried because Matt is due out of jail, and he has vowed to kill Harry- "it's hard to believe." Well no, it isn't! Matt blames Harry for sending him to prison for eight years, convicted of embezzling $120,000 from Harry's company whilst working for Harry Lime. "Prison has twisted him so."
Ingrid evidently hasn't been living off the cash- "the money must still be hidden," concludes Brad. Officer Ned is also keen to retrieve the money and he's watching Harry's office in case Matt shows up there. Harry is as ever calm, he is sure the money will "turn up."
In fact Ingrid and Roy are hoping to grab the money off Matt when he picks it up from where he'd hidden it. A happy Matt has no inkling of his wife's treachery. In a twist, Matt tells her he is going to return all the money to his employer!
This he does. Brad looks very suspicious. Harry listens to Matt's apologies. He even offers Matt a job: "after what I did...?" When he has left, Roy and Ingrid come in with a gun. "It's on the desk," states Harry, still calm, as they grab the money. Harry had guessed all along. He has taped this conversation, Officer Ned listening in, and they are under arrest.
I must be getting old, I found a few tender moments in this daft story

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Frame Up
Harry is in San Francisco, tenth floor room 8. On behalf of Sun Fat Sing, Catherine calls to negotiate on Harry's "ridiculous" $127,000 bid for some jewellery. She is making "herself comfortable" on Harry's couch when enter an outraged husband. Harry's seen this sort of thing before, as have us viewers, but this man shoots Harry, but only in the arm however.
Lt Marrell questions Harry who remains uncommunicative. Harry then questions Sing about the woman, but he knows of no such person. Sing does suggest Harry asks Kenneth Palmer, but he ain't at home, according to his butler Richland. He's staying at his country place, but when Harry gets there it's deserted, except for one corpse, knifed in the back. Harry beats a quick retreat.
For $5,000 Richland tells Harry who this Catherine really is. She's called Jennifer Reiner, married to rich Phillip.
After buying a jadite brooch from Sing for $10,000 Harry plans to send it anonymously to Mrs Reiner. Brad looks worried. "You're not serious." But it's Brad who carries the present, and hands it to Phillip Reiner. Of course he is jealous.
Jennifer realises the brooch must have come from Harry and goes to ask him why. He "plays it like a French farce" though without any of the humour. Indeed there is nothing to laugh about here. Lt Marrell finds himself preventing Harry from being arrested for Palmer's murder, as the murder weapon has as yet not been found. Actually Harry has hidden it in a police car!
Harry accuses Richland of the murder of his master. He's been in cahoots with Jennifer who loves him. But she's not that much in love for she tries to silence him with her gun. The pair collapse in tears as Harry hands them over to Lt Marrell. I'd collapsed in tears by this time too
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71 House of Bons Bons
A Swiss sweet factory unexpectedly makes a profit of over 76,000 dollars. The trouble is, Harry had only bought it for the sake of an old friend Heinrich Miren (an effusive Martin Miller) as a "dud," a loss maker.
So it's to Zurich for Harry and Brad to inspect the factory, the House of Bons Bons. They meet a happy staff: "your ugly duckling investment turned out to be a beautiful swan," the poetic Miren confides to Harry.
But what is the secret of their success? It's all down to sales manager Leon Kruger. "We never appointed him," says Brad. So how did he get the job there? Harry questions the chief accountant Blodin (Paul Whitsun-Jones) who is feigning illness to avoid meeting Harry. He's got some secret to hide, but Harry will never learn it now, as Blodin is stabbed to death. The reason: a lot of smuggled goods are found in his room.
Returning to the factory, Brad and Harry find nothing suspicious in a search, except their rather awful tasting chocs. But the truth slowly dawns on Harry, with the emphasis on the Slowly. When he's realised how smuggled goods are being taken from the place, a giant eight foot man (on stilts) attacks him. He's easily foiled (it's unclear how such an ungainly person could possibly hope to succeed) and it's left to Harry to explain that the chocs had been wrapped in "solid gold foil," a neat smuggling racket.
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The Luck of Harry Lime

A sombre doc pronounces his verdict- JB Masters has only a short time left. JB sees it as his chance to get even with old enemy Harry Lime, who had got the better of him in a business deal.
JB's scheme starts with Professor Lyle Fraley who has hit on hard times. For $50,000, he's persuaded to tell Harry of a site that is floating on oil. JB then tries to get Harry to fund the oil well jointly with him: "don't take my word," JB assures Harry, just consult Fraley.
Fraley's daughter Julie notices he is very agitated and soon Fraley is dead, possibly committing suicide.
But Harry knows better, accusing JB of Fraley's murder. JB admits all, but as there are no witnesses, Harry can't prove anything.
"An extremely twisted mind," is Brad's verdict on JB.
JB's daughter Diane (Lizabeth Scott), who inexplicably declares a secret yen to marry Harry, delivers a $500,000 cheque from JB if he will marry her. Harry's gallant reply is that he never accepts money from women. Brad looks faintly disappointed.
In an unlikely twist, Harry, ever the shrewd one, guesses it really might be a genuine oil strike. When proof is forthcoming, he is able to gloat over JB, who is shown up for the cunning schemer he is in fromt of Diane. She walks out on her dear father, thus bringing on JB's last fatal heart attack. "Poor JB," is all Diane can say. I was speechless too
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The Trial of Harry Lime
Justice has at last caught up with Harry Lime for he's in the dock at the Central Criminal Court, charged with income tax evasion to the tune of £800,000. His plea is not guilty.
His alleged partner in crime is Theodore Ratteau (Esmond Knight) of Inrenational Nitrates, his third wife Madga (Margit Saad) had begged Harry to help her dying husband, even though they were sworn enemies. The wheelchair-bound Ratteau had entrusted Harry with a valuable collection of diamonds, which he wanted to return to his old prospecting partner Jack Tanner. Some suggestion that the ruthless Ratteau might have diddled him. Jack is now dead, so his son Michael (Peter Reynolds) is to be the beneficiary of Theodore's generosity. He runs a theatrical shop in the Charing Cross Road, and Harry hands him the diamonds, which Michael suspects are fakes. They are not, insists Harry, they must be worth a million!
Inspector Brace (Duncan Lamont) questions Harry about the diamonds now that Ratteau has died. Tanner is dead too, stabbed in the back. Missing are the diamonds, of course. Further probing uncovers the surprising news that this Michael Tanner was unrelated to Jack Tanner.
It seems a clear case of Ratteau trying to avoid inheritance tax, and Harry has colluded with him. But Harry, out on bail, accuses Magda of lying at the trial. She is alone in her house and admits sacking her loyal chauffeur, Charles Martin, who she says, had been insolent.
Harry plays a hunch, "a long shot," and Martin is arrested trying to get out of the country with his red headed girl friend Corinne, and the diamonds.
Thus the case against Harry collapses. Politely, the judge asks Harry why he really gave Michael the diamonds. Harry explains they were actually fakes he had made up, as he had never really trusted Ratteau. But he promises he will return the real diamonds to the undeserving Magda
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Members Only (a 2 part tale)

The exclusive Palm Bay Club is run by the countess (Margaretta Scott) and is so exclusive no outsiders even know who are the members, who live their lives in solitary exclusion from the world.
Paul Clark wants to buy a beach on the island where the club is situated. His nephew James, sent to negotiate the deal, has failed to report back, so Harry Lime is engaged.
He and Brad book into the only hotel on the isle, run by Mr Parker- "I don't trust that man," Brad observes to his boss. Brad also dislikes his room as there's a lizard there, and he is unimpressed by Parker's explanation that it's there to eat mosquitoes.
Only other guest is Sara (Betta St John) who is up to something, though the biggest mystery is why this last story of the series was extended to fifty minutes, since the storyline is so thin it could have filled just one programme length. But it does mean Harry has bags of time to dance with Sara, and kiss her.
Harry and Brad are vetted for membership at Palm Bay. Some 'friends' from the old days are members. But Harry turns down their offer. He and Brad are locked in. End of Part One.

Part two: "this is ridiculous Mr Lime, and I refuse to remain here for the rest of our lives." For all members of the club are millionaire crooks, hiding from the law. "Some kind of accident" awaits Harry and Brad, though Aldrina (Nadja Regin), only daughter of a crook to be born in the place, is making eyes at Harry. She explains that James had tried to escape and was executed.
"There's always a way out of every place," Harry confidently asserts, and he promises to take her with them. She shows how to switch off the electrified fence that guards the grounds of the club. Off that night creep Harry, Brad and Aldrina, unaware that the countess has got wind of their escape, and has ordered the current to be switched on again as they climb the fencing. But her plan mysteriously fails, and she ends up electrocuted herself. The other crooks emerge from their lair to try and prevent the three escaping, but they run straight into the arms of the FBI, guided by Sara.
There's a frosty moment as Sara and Aldrina vie for Harry. Myself, I really had been hoping that as it was the final throes of this abysmal series, they'd have allowed Harry to have been frazzled on that fence.

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Zero One
Starring Nigel Patrick as Alan Garnett, head of airport security.
The official blurb described this BBC series thus: "Activities of International Airline Crime Detection." Anyway, we consider this the BBC's best effort to imitate ITV! By recruiting ITC personnel such as Aida Young, perhaps that is not surprising! However, in 1961 commercial TV had moved to the hour long format, in effect making this 1962 made series obsolete.

Assistant director Geoffrey Helman kindly sent this photo of himself working on the series.
Name the fine British actor on the left of this photo. Answer.

13 Deadly Angels - A beautiful fairy doll. It's dismembered to reveal its contents. Ah Chen of International Air Security in Hong Kong is then killed, resulting in Garnett flying in to continue the investigation into dope smuggling. Chen's junior Jerry Wang tells how Chen had befriended and helped him, taking him from the orphanage where he had grown up. Garnett visits this Mission of Light and Hope, run by Rev Judd BPeteer Maddern) and assisted by Len Fu (Jacqui Chan). The money to run the mission is obtained from pedalling toys across the world that they make there. Garnett is impressed with Judd's kindness towards his ch rackets when arg t , for the wire that makes up the halo of a fairy, is identical to the piece of wire clutched in Chen's dying hand.
The bank account of Judd is inspected: "not exactly a fortune," notes the manager. But hold on, there's just been a deposit of $15,000. When Judd is asked to explain he is unconcerned: "suspicion is your business, mine is faith."
The next export consignment of dolls is opened by customs. Every doll is smashed. Nothing. Garnett checks on a second crate, and with Judd and Len Fu watching, he smashes a doll. Len Fu protests, and with reason, for "your angel dolls," he advises the shocked Judd, "have been carrying heroin." It was Len Fu, and she rants against his other worldliness. Her mute accomplice is in the wings, and she spurs him on to finish Garnett off ("if you love me, kill him"). It is Judd who ends the violence. Len Fu runs off, but in her haste, is run over by Jerry's car.
At the airport, Judd bids Garnett farewell. Garnett generously donates the $15,000 to pay for all those dolls he had smashed.
23 Ghost Strip - 200 miles from nowhere is a remote African landing strip. A forced landing here finds noone manning the place. Jimmy Delaney phones Garnett from Nairobi about the mystery and he's asked to investigate.
The only two workers at the strip are Renston and Smith, "decent chaps" according to local police chief Rogers (Maurice Hedley). But where have they got to? "This place gives me the willies," declares pilot 1, whilst the other (John Bonney) observes "the tea was still hot," just like the Marie Celeste. Yet tea had been laid for three, so who else had been there? The only other plane there has broken down, and in it Jimmy finds bars of gold, stolen in a recent robbery. That night Ahmed who is guarding the plane has his neck broken. Rogers decides to fly off for reinforcements, leaving Jimmy and the gold as "bait." In the dark bushes Jimmy crouches, and finds the bodies of Renston and Smith. Amidst the croaking of frogs and the sounds of African night life, he waits. Then gunshots- Jimmy has to shoot a dangerous looking snake. That noise drives off the killer.
But he emerges next morning with a gun pointed at Jimmy, who is ordered to repair the stricken plane. But his gun has no cartridges and so the thief and murderer is caught. "Good show," exclaims the returning Rogers.
38 The Body - Two New York villains take the frozen corpse of hoodlum Happy Jack and ship him air freight to London. However the declare the body as that of Sir Philip Humbolt, who disappeared into obscurity ten years ago. The pair are Archie Vance (Hugh McDermott) and "his number one playmate" Ziggy. Air security chief Alan Garnett is an old acquaintance of Vance who declares "I'm a reformed man." Garnett is not going to believe that! What Archie hasn't explained is that he's working for a relation of Sir Philip called Cecil (Jeremy Lloyd), who has traced his uncle, now living happily in a doss house. Cecil will inherit the unspent fortune "when the old man k>icks off," but that event needs hastening. However they don't want to get into any murder rap, so this is their plan....
Step One- Collect Happy Hack's coffin from the airport. However Garnett doesn't trust that "warped, bent, calculating mind" of Archie's and traces Cecil to his home.
Step Two- Poison the real Sir Philip, just to knock him out, not to kill him. There's a nice moment as the incompetent Ziggy wonders if he's drinking the doped drink instead of Sir Philip.
Step Three- Archie poses as a doctor, and takes Sir Philip away to a 'hospital.'
Step Four- switch bodies and get Bronson, Sir Philip's solicitor, to identify the body. "RIP," sighs the solicitor. "Alleluia," responds Archie.
But Garnett has been watching proceedings and the bodies have not quite been swapped back when the police break in. "Archie, haven't you got a body too many?" quips Garnett, as Happy Jack lies frozen on the floor. Archie shakes Garnett's hand as he is taken off to jail.
This is a tongue-in-cheek tale that ends with Sir Philip sitting up in his coffin, very much alive, but a little mystified
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Martin Kane starring William Gargan
There had been several American series about Martin Kane, but this is the seriously forgotten British series starring the creator of the role.
A pilot was made in July 1956, and with the series approved, shooting at Elstree Studios commenced about February 1957, lasting 19 weeks. 39 stories were made in total.
Some location shooting was done, including an episode with scenes shot in Paris with Gargan and Betty McDowall (possibly #3 Passport Ring Story). ABC, who made the series, stated that it was "made on location in all the countries of Western Europe," but although this was one of the first British filmed series to use extensive location shooting, I can't believe it was that far ranging. The series was sold to Spain, dubbed in Spanish. The series was screened in USA from the middle of April 1957.
Picture Question- with William Garagan on the right and Lee Patterson left, is semi regular policeman in the centre played by who? Answer
1 Missing Daughter- American girl Louise Wilson (Kaye Callard sic) staying with her dad in a Monaco hotel, disappears. She's eloped with her boy friend James Richards (Martin Benson) a notorious industrial diamond smuggler, and they've set sail for London in his yacht Lucinda. But though she's suspected of being an innocent courier for him, no diamonds can be found on her by Inspector Henley (John Warwick) when she comes ashore. Richards risks coming into London himself and eludes a carefully laid trap. A chase leads to Tower Bridge where he has a launch waiting. Down the Thames race the boats until the criminal is captured.
2 The Boxer - "Kidnapping is almost unheard of in Britain," explains Martin Kane for the benefit of his US brothers. Championship boxer Joey Reardon (Lee Patterson - who else?!) is phoned-"we have got your wife" (Lisa Gastoni). Throw his next fight and she'll be OK. The crooks (Leonard Sachs and Kenneth Griffith) are traced by Inspector Page thru the background noise of a jet factory on the phone line and when the cops swoop there's a final chase round the crooks' back garden. All that's missing is the washing on the line!
32 Race to the Finish - A lesson on the evils of gambling. "The Sport of Kings and sometimes crooks," Kane tells us. Brandon Hall (Peter Illing) and his partner Max Laymer "prey on hapless suckers who would bet beyond their means." Such as John Parker (Gaylord Cavallaro) who "borrows" £500 from his boss Forrester to bet on dead cert Saucy Sue. Of course it loses and he realises he's been "played for a sucker."
Forrester engages Kane to investigate his valued employee Parker. Mrs Parker (Ann Sears) appears to know nothing of her husband's heavy gambling, but at the Ashton Machinery Company Kane learns Parker had been paid cash for an order which has not yet been delivered. Weary of his crimes, Parker agrees to cooperate when Inspector Page arrests him. At the end there's a chase round the racetrack to arrest Hall and Laymer. This isn't entirely convincing as the sound of gunshots has clearly been added afterwards.
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Crime/ Adventure series live/ on videotape

Sadly, stories screened 'live' have been lost in the ether, while too many 'taped' stories were wilfully destroyed by philistines, some of whom like David Attenborough should have known better. We must be thankful that Granada, in particular, had a much more responsible attitude to their archive.
Dixon of Dock Green Maigret Z Cars Sherlock Holmes Adam Adamant Probation Officer The Man in Room 17
Boyd QC No Hiding Place Riviera Police The Rat Catchers A Game of Murder Ghost Squad The Corridor People
Police Surgeon The Avengers Redcap The Protectors Public Eye Sergeant Cork Mr Rose
Colour code in the above chart only of the producing companies: BBC A-R ATV ABC Granada

The Man in Room 17 / The Fellows
For some background on this Granada series, plus outlines of earlier stories.

Synopses of the stories with Richard Vernon as Oldenshaw and Michael Aldridge as Dimmock:
1.5 The Millions of Muzafariyah (July 9th 1965) - with Barbara Jefford, Hugh Burden and Gerard Hely.
An attempt on the life of an official in the Foreign Office brings Room 17 into contact with the Middle East. They discover that although the official was stabbed only once, he has two wounds.
1.6 The Seat of Power (July 16th 1965) - with Michael Gough, David Horne and Colin Jeavons.
A top agent from a foreign power is sent over to this country. Room 17 discover his apparent intentions but it seems much too easy a task for so experienced a man. Has he a more sinister objective?

Pictured: Jill Booty with the two men of Room 17 in the background.

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Sherlock Holmes (1965-8)
Douglas Wilmer created a fine Sherlock Holmes in this BBC series. Nigel Stock provided staunch support as Dr Watson
Pilot (1964): The Speckled Band - directed by Roger Midgeley
Who is whistling at dead of night in the creepy old house?
Julia Stoner is to be married shortly, she'll be relieved to get away from her domineering stepfather's gloomy place. "You're going to live happily ever after," her sister Helen tells her.
Not so, for that night there's a scream and Julia is dead. But the cause is far from clear.
Two years have passed, and now Helen is engaged to Percy. She tells her fiance that her stepfather has insisted she sleeps in Julia's bedroom until the marriage. Indeed, he forces her to do so. That night Helen hears a whistle. She jumps out of bed and runs away to consult SH.
She is shaking with fear, afraid of her stepfather. A cheetah and a baboon he has brought back with him from India, are his pets, making him even more frightening, she tells the great detective. Dr Watson of course is all "at sea," especially baffled over Julia's dying words, Speckled Band.
After she has left, with a lighter heart, the wicked stepfather himself, Sir Grimesby Roylott (Felix Felton) bursts in to warn SH to mind his own business.
Undeterred, SH and Dr Watson travel down to Roylott's home. Nearby they meet some surly gipsies- one is wearing a speckled handkerchief round his neck.
Now SH examines Helen's new bedroom. A ventilator links the room with her stepfather's. In the latter room is a saucer of fresh milk.
That night, Helen lies petrified as Grimesby prowls the house. SH and Watson gain entry via her bedroom window. "What a nightmarish place!"
They wait.
A scream, but this is from Roylott. A swamp snake had entered Helen's bedroom via the ventilator, down the bell rope. SH had beaten it off, and the snake had fled to savage its master, "violence recoils upon the violent."

1.1 The Illustrious Client (1965)- directed by Peter Sasdy.
Sir James (Ballard Berkeley) is seeking SH's aid in preventing the dangerous Baron Gruner from killing "a man of great significance." He has already implemented the first stage of that scheme, by becoming engaged to the innocent Violet (Jennie Linden).
Peter Wyngarde's Baron has an edge, irascible, almost frightening as you fear for the besotted Violet who can't see through her love for this egocentric. She will hear nothing against his "noble nature" for the very good reason he has been so open and honest with her about his disreputable past, even to accusations that he killed his first wife.
SH's first move is to contact at a music hall a petty criminal called Shinwell Johnson. Proof positive against the baron is what Shinwell is asked to supply.
Then it's face to face with the baron in his sumptuous home. They exchange unpleasantries as both stand confident in their positions. Now the baron seems foppish, bantering, yet still menacing in warning off SH.
Miss Kitty Winter (Rosemary Leach) from Islington is the person Shinwell comes up with. She is sure the baron has committed two other murders. He keeps a leather book, his 'collection' of his women conquests.
Dr Watson has mugged up on another passion of the baron's, Chinese pottery, so he can offer him a rare Ming saucer, as a distraction while SH and Miss Winter search his study for the leather book. But it must be admitted Watson is no match for the baron who sees through him, "what is the game?" Too late he understands what SH is doing. The book is snatched, but Miss Winter has her own revenge, acid in the baron's face. Though naturally the good doctor rushes to his side, he's now a disfigured martyr. That at least is how Violet will see him, until she is shown the Lust Diary

To the earliest TV version of Holmes

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ADAM ADAMANT LIVES! (1966/7)
"It's his courtesy viewers admire. The way he puts every woman on a pedestal and treats her like a rare flower." Alongside the perfect star Gerald Harper was Juliet Harmer as Miss Jones.
The BBC gave this their best shot in an attempt to emulate the fantasy that made The Avengers so unique. It's nice this series has received some sort of recognition following its dvd revival, although it's very hit and miss with a few absolutely brilliant stories but also a number of scripts that are best forgotten
For my reviews:
1.1 A Vintage Year for Scoundrels 8*
1.2 Death has a Thousand Faces 7*
1.3 More Deadly than a Sword 0*
1.4 Sweet Smell of Disaster 9*
1.5 Allah is Not Always with You 2*
1.6 The Terribly Happy Emblamers 5*
1.7 To Set a Deadly Fashion 3*
1.8 The Last Sacrifice 1*
1.9 Sing a Song of Murder 8*
1.10 The Doomsday Plan 8*
1.11 Death by Appointment Only 7*
1.12 Beauty is an Ugly Word 7*
1.13 The League of Uncharitable Ladies 7*
1.15 The Village of Evil 5*
1.16 D for Destruction 2*
2.2 Black Echo 4*
2.13 A Sinister Sort of Service 6*
Question- Who sang the title song for the series? Answer
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1 A Vintage Year for Scoundrels
A castle at Windsor in 1902. To the strains of Strauss, Adam Adamant dances with Louise, his only regret, he cannot marry her, his work for King and Country too important.
In a lonely house in Stepney, he goes to rescue the kidnapped girl. Her adbuctor lures AA to the top of the rickety building. He falls, and is imprisoned by the mastermind, "you fiend." AA is placed in suspended animation, "a living death," worse the knowledge he'd been betrayed by Louise.
It's 1966, on a London building site is found buried "a man in a block of ice." As it melts, we meet AA once more. Not aged 99, as he should be, he totters round not comprehending his changed situation, baffled by modern street traffic. It's a fine premise for a series.
A young tom girl takes pity on him as he fights against the underground escalator, "what infernal place is this?" he cries. In a daze he warns her, "let go of me, boy," though when he collapses she takes him to her home, how is not made clear.
Georgina Jones is an icon of the sixties and he finds her modern language and ways strange, confusing. "You're supposed to be dead," she tells him, as she nurses him back to modern reality.
She lives above a discotheque where she also works, the business paying protection money to the grasping Margo Kane. As a warning to pay up, Gramps who runs the club is heartlessly murdered. Georgina is an eyewitness but Margo orders her silence. Listening in, in increasing disgust has been AA, "madam, what kind of creature are you?" Yet he's not fit enough to stand up to this bully.
Miss Jones, as AA quaintly always calls her, later explains it all, and "God willing" he grabs his sword and works himself back to fitness. However he is still not A1 when Margo and sidekicks Hoggett and Hicks burst into the club after Miss Jones has grassed. AA is knocked out and taken prisoner.
When he comes to, he awakens in Margo's evil clutches. Callously, she informs him Miss Jones is dead, but that's not quite true, Margo is going to make it appear AA has done Miss Jones in. "Death has no terrors for me madam," AA stands up to the brute.
To finish them both off, Margo is employing "a touch of the old Victoriana," gas, but "all is not yet lost," as AA struggles across the flimsy set to switch off the gas tap with his teeth. Thus when Margo's cronies come to check the couple are dead, they are surprised, indeed defeated, only Margo escapes, cunningly taking Miss Jones as her hostage. The relentless "fancy boy" finds Miss Jones perched on the edge of a rooftop, held only from death by Margo. With incredible dexterity he saves the one and finishes off the other.
As he bids Miss Jones farewell, AA has grasped that there is still a job for him in this modern world. A fine first adventure that set a high standard that not all the later writers reached. But this Tony Williamson opener is certainly in the best Boys Own tradition

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2 Death Has A Thousand Faces
Two leatherclad motorcyclists have corned Rex at Miss Jones' club. In a back alley he's taken, there duffed up and killed. But Miss Jones has been handed something by Rex, and she is then followed across London. She heads for an underground car park in a visually impressive scene, but none too exciting until she's cornered. But she's wisely fled to AA's new abode, and "no quarter" is shown as the yobs scurry away quickly.
Miss Jones hands AA what the villains had been after, a stick of Blackpool Rock. Yet no ordinary stick, for inside is a document, some kind of diagram, but what?
Reluctantly, AA agrees to take Miss Jones to that seaside resort and there's film of them touring the town in an open topped bus, AA pointing out the famous Tower he had officially opened himself. The search is on for the rock manufacturer, the source is traced to a fairground. There, a Punch and Judy man, William Sims, saves AA from an apparently accidental rifle shot. "Glad to be of assistance." AA chats up a stall assistant Susie (Sheila Fearn) and learns about Jeffries (Michael Robbins) who is organising this year's celebrated illumations, and about Madam Delvario (Stephanie Bidmead). She runs a Horror Museum which the "Victorian idiot" visits, given a personal tour by its owner. He takes note of numerous black light bulbs, apparently to be used in the illumination display. When she leaves him alone, he is nearly felled by an executioner. "One of your waxworks seems to have melted a little," he coolly informs Delvario as he exits.
The plot is now clear. From a council officer, AA learns that Delvario owns the North Mile, a poor relation to the Golden Mile where the illuminations will glow. If she could destroy that area, her North Mile would take over! That map Miss Jones had been given turns out to be a circuit diagram of the Golden Mile lights. Miss Jones and Sims are following Jeffries who is arranging for the black bulbs to be installed as part of the great display. However AA's assistants are rumbled, and captured. Susie is made to drug AA, thus all three are tied up in the Horror Museum. Miss Jones is first to be placed on the rack. Unless AA tells all he knows she is for it. "You have the face of evil on you, woman." So AA is forced to reveal all he knows of their scheme. Single handed, he finishes off Delvario's helpers and Susie helps by dumping the evil woman in a bath. The main switch for the illuminations is at the top of Blackpool tower, she tells AA. Here, AA prevents Jeffries from pulling the fatal switch, you know who falls over the edge.
To finish, AA offers Sims the post of manservant, his main job might be to keep Miss Jones at bay, "oh you rotten lot"

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3 More Deadly Than the Sword

This story saw the standard started by Tony Williamson plummet, with this poor script from Terence Frisby that has none of the dash of the first stories, though Gerald Harper does his best to add the necessary glamour.

"Only you can perform the mission," AA is told by a Whitehall character who is being blackmailed with compromising photos. To avoid a crisis, British plans East of Suez must be handed over. For Queen and Country, AA is reluctantly despatched to make the payoff, and try and discover the identity of the blackmailer.
Thus AA packs his bags as he shows Miss Jones his "spooky" pad for the first time. Despite his protestations, she "follows him round the world like a puppy dog," all the way to Japan.
His destination- the Lilac Tree Geisha House where in the Willow Room he is offered, but politely declines, traditional hospitality. However a geisha entertains him, turning out to be Miss Jones in disguise. He reprimands her, then sneaks to The Pine Room when McLelland, an Aussie, offers him the photos, but he apparently doesn't take the bait. The unwitting Aussie is followed across Tokyo to a manufacturer of miniaturised cameras, Ikezawa.
After AA has packed off Miss Jones for London, he returns to the camera hq and is attacked by three samurai, attacked but not beaten. They're no match for him, though he fails to spot where the photos are hidden. However later he receives a film of his breaking in to the place with the instruction, Bring The Documents.
So it comes to pass that at the appointed hour, the plans are handed over for the photographs, all very gentlemanly. Less honourable is Ikezawa's next action, as AA is knocked out. Further, compromising photos are taken of AA, then he is tied up and left a prisoner, alongside Miss Jones, who had been snatched on her way to the airport.
As Ikezawa prepares to discredit AA with the pictures, hour hero wriggles free, just in time to interrupt McLelland developing the "saucy" prints. They are destroyed, and with the gloves off, and screeching Japanese he confronts the mastermind, who is accidentally shot by McLelland. A touch of karate eliminates the remaining opposition, enabling AA to secure those original blackmail photos

Return from the orient to
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1.4 The Sweet Smell of Disaster
"A major breakthrough," that's HB27, claims its happy inventor. "there's enough stuff to take care of half a million people."
Now renamed BK27, the wonderdrug has fallen into the hands of unscrupulous Ben Kintilly (Charles Tingwell) who runs a washing powder manufacturing business, which booms when he offers a free blue carnation with every packet. But that contains the drug, and one sniff...
AA is at home for the first time here together with Sims and Miss Jones. She has purchased Cloud Seven, the new detergent, but AA dislikes the free gift intensely, for its an imitation flower!
But he is curious as to how Britain's Sky High Soap Suds have managed to corner the market, and he interrupts BK's latest planning meeting at his hq. This is Phase One, he is telling his salesmen, next we're going to take over the whole country. AA is knocked out as a spy, and though BK apologises, he knows AA knows. AA has gone straight to a Mr Spalding in Whitehall to report on the "growing evil," but isn't this only modern sales strategy, which the Edwardian has little understanding of? Yes, Spalding is under the influence of BK27 himself, and so are Sims and Miss Jones. They are almost inebriated with enthusiasm for the product, "you have become an addict," pronounces AA sorrowfully.
He investigates the death of the inventor- Kintilly had shot him once he had secured his formula. AA snoops round BK's factory, only to encounter "blundering" Miss Jones who is yielding to her craving for more BK27 by breaking in also. "I'll go mad if I can't find some." AA's quest is rewarded when he discovers an antidote. Miss Jones recovers, "it's gone, the awful feeling's gone," she smiles.
AA attends BK's sales conference. BK's secretary Miss Mathieson (Adrienne Corri) lures AA with her irresistible perfume as BK addresses his delegates. He toasts Cloud Seven in the style of a Nazi rally, and tells his men he is withdrawing the product. Consternation all round. (Hence the shortage which occasioned Miss Jones break in earlier.)
Miss Mathieson has now lured AA into a roomful of the carnations, "have you smelled one yet?" AA is clearly immune, so she resorts to her gun. He's not on their Privileged List and is knocked out.
With 99% of the country now hooked, BK gloats, "I want it all, this is a takeover, the government, the banks, the lot." Charles Tingwell clearly is enjoying his role. To the world he announces on tv his new selling scheme direct to the public. "The fiend," cries AA who is now locked in a room, alongside the inevitable Miss Jones, and they are slowly being gassed. The wily AA sets off the fire sprinkler system which mixes with Cloud Seven to form a frothy mass into which AA struggles with BK while Miss Jones gives a foamy lesson to Miss Mathieson. Covered in froth, the victors emerge. A distribution of the antidote is quickly instituted.
Robert Banks Stewart's fine story ends with a nice little exchange between our hero and Miss Jones regarding his marital status. Perhaps this was the nearest the series came to rivalling The Avengers' world domination plots, yet stands in its own right as a treasure
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1.5 Allah is Not Always with You
The first graphic scene is of a lady being tortured. Breaking free of her captors, and though injured while escaping, she makes for the one man who can help her- AA to be sure!
"A lady to see you sir," the urbane Sims announces, carrying her in his arms. She has barely time to tell AA before she expires. A warning of evil. Ahmed at the Fluffy Club.
"Abandon hope..." etc utters AA as he enters said premises, "have you no shame?" he inquires of Miss Jones, who has obtained a job here as a Fluffy Girl, and performs the start of a funky dance with him. Ahmed is a gambler, involved in The Big Game, and Miss Jones turns into his "lucky charm." AA is more busy rescuing another Fluffy Girl, Miss Helen Mars (Jennifer Jayne) from some roughs, though she has hoodwinked him, for she is part of the management led by Vargos who are planning to swindle Ahmed.
The first phase is to see Ahmed in debt to the tune of a quarter of a million pounds, "Never can I hope to pay back such a sum." Vargos makes him sign a promissory note that he will repay the money when his father, a powerful sheik dies.
AA entertains Miss Mars to lunch, Sims as chaperone naturally, and she asks about how times have changed and makes him agree to come to the club again so protect her. In reality however, the gang want to keep their eyes on AA. Meanwhile Miss Jones is enjoying a meal with Ahmed who tells her of his appalling money troubles, and that his father is currently in London for an operation.
When Miss Jones calls on AA, is it jealousy when she sees Miss Mars leaving? She tells him what she has found out and he immediately warns the sheik, surrounded by his opulence. The sheik in his turn rather takes a shine to Miss Jones, offering to buy her for his harem!
With the sheik's straightforward operation now imminent, AA resolves to discover what exactly Vargos is up to. He sips champagne with Miss Mars, unaware that Miss Jones has already been found out and held prisoner. At The Big Game, he inquires why Miss Jones isn't working here tonight, his companion knocks him out and when he comes round he is tied up alongside Miss Jones. Poor Ahmed is there too, having understood the depths to which Vargos has dragged him. The villain leaves them with the parting "this time there'll be no awakening."
He's wrong there, for AA taunts his guard, overpowers him and ruthlessly silences him. Freeing his fellow prisoners, they dash to the hospital and penetrate the evil plan- Miss Mars is one of the nurses and the surgeon is none other than Vargos. There is an unseemly disturbance in the theatre as the plot to take over the sheikdom is thwarted
Return unscathed, hopefully, from the Fluffy Club to
Adam Adamant Lives! Menu

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6 The Terribly Happy Embalmers

"It's all for the best," a man tells his friends, "before I go." A typical Brian Clemens plot as Sir George Marston steps into his coffin with a final farewell.
At the undertakers, Fred Percy (Arthur Brough) revives him, only for that gent to shoot him, dead this time.
Miss Jones is explaining all about ids and repressions to a bemused AA, "you can't believe that, he exclaims in disbelief when she tells him about psychiatrists and hypnotism. That's just what he undergoes at the hands of Dr Velmer (John Le Mesurier at his laid-back best), though Adam's childhood memories rather baffle the doctor. He sees "dear Louise" once again, before he reveals he is a financier with tax worries. "He'll take any way out," Velmer later notes to his partner Wilson.
Sunnyoaks health clinic is the recommended cure, AA "walking straight into something dangerous." That's Miss Jones' view, and maybe she's right for he's now being examined, alone by an attractive nurse, Susan. Alone later that evening he does some snooping, but when he is found out he pretends he is fantasising. But it's no fantasy that while he sleeps, he is measured up for his coffin.
Miss Jones does her own snooping at Percy's and finds a coffin with a living person inside. AA also looks around here, and gets a shock, Miss Jones is inside one coffin!
Velmer and Wilson offer AA a way out of his tax troubles via "a little charade," a new life burying his old. Velmer had got the idea from some man named Adam Adamant, who'd been placed in cold storage, then revived. He doesn't know he's actually addressing AA.
The master has been "cut down in his prime," Sims informs Miss Jones. But she knows the score, indeed at this very moment AA is cosying into his coffin. Miss Jones to the rescue? Not quite, but she does overpower Susan, and distracts Velmer and his cronies as they ready to shoot their victim. A swordfight against Wilson can only end one way. "My dear Miss Jones... I think we might celebrate ... my return from the dead"

Return, even from the dead to
Adam Adamant Lives! Menu

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7 To Set A Deadly Fashion

At a diplomatic party, conversations are being taped. Is it coincidence that AA joins the party?
Mme Oretta is the mole carrying a hidden microphone, though she's unaware of it. She suddenly collapses and dies. Why? "A very interesting question," muses AA for she's the fifth such person to die in similar circumstances. AA vows to discover the motive and track down the killers.
At the Italian embassy, AA sympathises with the widower. It's as well Miss Jones just happens to be following him when he's knocked out, "you look awful."
Couturier Roger Clair (Colin Jeavons) is the man behind the killings. AA attends his fashion show of the latest in ladies' bathing apparel, finding it "extremely worrying." When one model, Miss Jones herself, poses, "ghastly" he cries, turning his head away in shame. Another model Janine refuses to go on, as she sees AA in the audience, and she's the girl who had knocked him out at the embassy. Roger gets his partner Philip to silence her for good.
Miss Jones' dress is fitted with a hidden microphone so the crooks can listen in to AA's plans. After they have learned a few home truths, AA realises their conversation is bugged. "Take off your dress," he writes down, that shocks even Miss Jones, though Simms looks on suitably nonchalant. AA smashes the transmitter, as all is explained.
Alone, AA makes a search of Roger's premises. "Put that sword down, Adamant." But instead he brandishes it and Philip is no more, AA barely escaping with his own life.
But he is taken prisoner and Roger rather kindly, and proudly, shows AA his deadly remote control assassination mechanism, that he will use now on him with Miss Jones nastily delivering the fatal coup, "a fiendish device."
Roger's autumn collection is on show. Miss Jones dons a "pure silk chiffon" with the hidden device. But AA has broken his bonds and the plan is foiled. As Roger puzzles what has gone wrong the fashion show proceeds. But backstage AA is soon dealing with the foppish couturier

Return in the pink to
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8 The Last Sacrifice

In a piece of typical sixties hokum, a secret hooded order meet for some kind of orgy, "when convention is rejected, all is pleasure." However it's more sinister than mere sixties free love, as a high priest welcomes Henry Statton, the newest member, to be called Brother Ram. Blood is the sword of life, apparently, and to validate his membership it must be that a girl has to be sacrificed.
"It's impossible," cries AA, for Statton is from a noble line, he cannot be responsible for the security leak that the minister is informing AA about. Depressed that such an old family should be dragged into the "slough of despond," things turn for the worse when AA finds Statton dead at his home, before AA himself is attacked. But AA overcomes this enemy and ransacks his pockets, to find an invitation to Pearmain Hall.
He knew this stately pile seventy years back, and expecting a welcome of "quiet dignity" he is shocked to find the place has been modernised with all manner of visitor attractions. "Slightly bewildered," he is introduced to Lord Rufus Pearmain by one of the guides, Esta (Jennifer Daniel), fiancee to Rufus. After discussing economics in relation to running a large mansion, AA gets down to the matter in hand, Henry Stattion. A slight frostiness ensues.
There's a similar coldness twixt AA and Miss Jones who has independently obtained work as a maid at Pearmain Hall.
Denver of MI6 is just one of those participating in satanic events at this home. This however is but a cover to obtain secrets from high up officials, of whom the latest recruit is Charles Fowley (Robert Macleod).
You're looking very attractive this evening," Rufus smiles at the new maid, but he's less friendly when Miss Jones is found snooping, and she is bound in chains. Ideal she is, to be the 'guest of honour' at Fowley's initiation, which AA has gatecrashed. But rumbled, he is strung up alongside "the innocent child."
Now this victim is escorted by a hooded "blaggard" to the assembly, "she has been prepared." A camera is loaded to film Fowley. But what it captures is AA who has broken his bonds, and somehow, just as the knife is about to plunge into poor Miss Jones, our hero strikes

Return, cloak and dagger like, to

Adam Adamant Lives! Menu

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9 Sing A Song of Murder

A typically ambitious script starts with a rave up, sixties style, in Miss Jones' pad. This is The Moment is on the turntable, and that makes all the guests stop dancing, depart zombie like to a bank where Miss Jones points a gun at a cashier.
AA is down to the police station to stand her bail. She can recall nothing.
Hypersonic Records had made this trial recording and as AA reconstructs events, Miss Jones is again sent into a trance. "That record, where did you get it?" Drummer Felix Kinkead had brought it- not a very good actor in this story when he shouts- he's part of a backing group working for John Melville (Jerome Willis). Perhaps it's as well he doesn't last long, for he's forced into a Rolls, in which all the occupants except he wear headphones, then dumped outside AA's flat. Zombie like he plods to AA, he's good at acting this, but is stopped from his funny business by AA playing the record. "Sims, the gun." Unfortunate it is that Sims has also gone under the influence of the music and points the gun at his master. But all is not quite lost, except for the departing would-be assassin, for the Rolls squashes him against the car park wall and the bad actor is no more.
Suave Melville, who seems akin to Dracula in that he dislikes the sun, admires AA's tailor and allows his assistant Felina to show AA round the recording studios. Recording manager Hubert Carson (Alex Scott), chalk and cheese with Melville, is at work on a new version of This is The Moment with new discovery, yes, Miss Jones, "zoink!" Hypnotic is how AA describes her, aptly.
The recording equipment, which Carson has created himself, can be adapted to make high frequency sounds that take over the mind, "I wonder what Mozart would have said." "When the record's released, there's going to be the biggest crime wave the world has ever seen," the cash all to Melville and Co. However Carson has his own plan to also make Sound Bombs that will kill off everyone in the city, while leaving all the structure untouched.
AA has learned something of these horrors from the tearful Felina, another enigmatic female. When AA receives a Mozrt LP as a present, special delivery, there's a subliminal message hidden in it, Kill Miss Jones. It's of Symphony No 39, which Sims opens and puts on, mainly to get rid of Miss Jones, for it's not really his kinda music. The message gets through, and grinning, he picks up a dagger to dispose of her. Luckily AA comes home to interrupt any massacre.
As AA and Miss Jones explore the studio, they are taken prisoner, and this time even Sims is added to the mix. In the Echo Chamber they face their doom. But somehow AA is now impervious to the hypersound, and Sims doesn't fare too badly either, and with some help from Miss Jones the evil is prevented.
Last scene is AA enjoying real Mozart, but Miss Jones bursts in with some "decent" records, "with me as the star." Memorable characters make this story, as long as you don't look too carefully for the holes
Dig you man at the Adam Adamant Lives! Menu

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Francis Durbridge
The master of suspense serials has not been treated well by the BBC, who did so well out of him.
Thankfully, here's one complete surviving six part serial from 1966:

A Game of Murder
starring Gerald Harper as Det Insp Jack Kerry,
with Conrad Phillips as Chief Supt Bromford (not ep 5),
David Burke as Det Insp Ed Royce, and June Barry as Cathy White.
Designer: Roy Oxley. Produced and Directed by Alan Bromly.
Others in all episodes were: John Harvey as Charles Bannister, and Christopher Wray as Douglas Croft.
Other semi regulars were: Diana King as Iris Bannister (stories 1,2,4, and 6), Peter Copley as Norman Penn (2,3,4,6), Dorothy White as Doreen Osborne (2,3,4,5,6), Dorothy Frere as Freda Lincoln (1,2,3), John Carlin as Leonard Lincoln (3,4,6) Kenneth Hendel as Cleg Reed (3,4,5), Murray Hayne as Rupert Delaney (1,3) and Patricia Shakesby as Greta (5,6)
Episode 1 (Feb 26th 1966) - With Anthony Sagar as the murdered Bob Kerry, Donald Oliver as PC Collier, Bernard G High as Postman.
Episode 2 (Mar 4th 1966) - With Carole Lesley (billed as Lesley Carole) as Liz Mason, Elizabeth Hopkinson as Brenda Thompson, Alan Hynton as PC Hodges, Bernard Stone/ Derek Martin as Taxi drivers.
Episode 3 (Mar 11th 1966) - With Richard Jacques as Barman.
Episode 4 (Mar 18th 1966) - With Donald Hoath as Det Insp Everson.
Episode 5 (Mar 25th 1966) - With Christopher Gilmore as Dr Friedman, Kenneth Waller as Dr Hasling.
Episode 6 (Apr 2nd 1966) - With Brian Cant as Sgt Fuller, Reg Whitehead as PC Small.

Taped Series Menu

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Episode 1

Bob Kerry, professional golfer, is to play a round on his own today. Liz and Douglas are left in charge of his pro shop in Putney. Before leaving for the course, Bob says goodbye to his son Jack, a Scotland Yard detective, whose workload currently includes the minor case of finding Midge, the poodle of Bob's daily, Mrs Lincoln.
On his way to see a friend in hospital, Jack is stopped by police. They have terrible news. His father has been hit by a golf ball. He has died. A distressed young golfer, Rupert Delaney, had driven a ball straight at Bob in a bunker on the twelfth hole. Accidentally of course. The doctor had taken an hour to get to Bob, too late.
Jack disagrees with the coroner's verdict of accidental death. But then there is some good news. A Mrs Bannister on Kingston Hill, phones to say her husband has found a dog answering to Midge's description. Jack confirms it is Midge, even though her rather valuable collar is missing. He writes a cheque for £5, a reward, to be given to charity.
Driving home with the dog, he sees a Fiat HXC443C, a numberplate his father had written down before his death for some unknown reason. Oddly, the driver of this car is Delaney, his passenger a blonde.
6 Linton Close Knightsbridge is where Delaney lives. But Jack finds him out, and returning to his car, notices a recently dropped lady's scarf. And close by is Delaney, shot dead in the back of his head.
In his pocket, Chief Supt Bromford finds a receipt for a registered letter posted this day to Jack.
Next morning Jack, with Bromford in attendance, awaits the arrival of the post. Bromford asks Jack if he knows a Basil Higgs. The name of the treasurer of the charity named by Mr Bannister to whom Jack had donated his £5 cheque. Why was this cheque in Delaney's flat?
The letter is delivered. In Bromford's presence, it is opened by Jack. "This is why your father was killed," reads the abrupt note. Enclosed is a collar. Midge's.

For my review of episode 2

Start of Game of Murder

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Episode 2

Jack Kerry recounts the whole tale to Supt Bromford, perhaps for the benfit of new viewers! He says the collar had been bought by his dad for Mrs Lincoln. "It seems a perfectly ordinary collar to me." Liz explains Douglas had told Bob Kerry he could buy it at Penn's pet shop. She also recalls Bob had been talking quite earnestly with one posh customer, a lady called Iris, whom he later told Liz he had never met before. This Iris seems have have given Penn a medallion which had been attached to the collar. Some investigation reveals her real name is Cathy White, from Liverpool, and what's more, she was the girfriend of the late Rupert Delaney. He had been backing a show, which had flopped, which starred Cathy.
Bromford interviews Charles and Iris Bannister who admit they had returned Midge to Kerry, but had never taken any cheque for charity from him. "I don't know anyone called Basil Higgs," states Mr Bannister who, furthermore, is not wheelchair bound as Kerry had described. Now Basil Higgs was the payee for the £5 cheque for charity, and that turns out to be an alias of Delaney!
Mrs Lincoln has resigned her job, why she has lied about staying with her nephew instead of admitting she has got another job isn't at all clear.
Cathy (aka Iris) phones Jack, "I'm in trouble." She arranges to meet him at a Notting Hill restaurant, but when he shows up, she runs off. After a chase along the pavement, she leaps into a taxi, he joins her and she claims she never phoned him. "It was a tip-off," she concludes, "they knew I was at the restaurant." Question is, who are They?
Jack Kerry starts to escort her to the police, but on the way she admits she knows who killed Bob Kerry...

For my review of episode 3

Start of Game of Murder

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Episode 3

Cathy White is taken to Jack's home where she tells her overlong story, though it is enlivened by partly being told in flashback. She had moved in with Rupert Delaney after the show he'd backed proved a flop, "we were very happy together." She had overheard Rupert being instructed by a man called Charles to be on the golf course at 10am next day. The name Bob Kerry had been mentioned. Rupert had returned next day in shock, "there was nothing I could do," he had accidentally killed Kerry with his golf ball. Rupert says he had never met Kerry before and asked her to forget all about it. Rupert's boss Mel Harris, whom Cathy has never seen, phoned later about the incident. Then later, the night before he died, she had argued with Rupert and left him. It was over such a trifling thing, a mere dog collar.
The chat is interrupted by an intruder who must have whisked Cathy away, for when Jack comes round, she has gone.
An unannounced visitor for Jack, Leonard Lincoln, nephew of his former housekeeper. He's worried about his aunt, "heading for a breakdown." It's a silly matter, she is gabbling something about Jack has stolen something from her, her dog collar. Jack is happy to return it, but insists she collect it in person. Yet it seems a most ordinary collar, nothing out of the ordinary according to the Yard lab report, nothing that could provoke murder surely.
In his father's belongings, Jack notices a guide book with a ring round a hotel in Aldeburgh. Now that was the place Bromford had said that Charles Bannister and his wife were off to!
At the Golden Plough in Barnes, Jack has arranged to return Mrs Lincoln's dog collar. In return, he has warned her he wants information about Mel Harris. But she never shows up, or rather she shows up later in Jack's flat, dead

For my review of episode 4

Start of Game of Murder

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Episode 4

Jack Kerry is reprimanded for seeing privately the late Mrs Lincoln. Kerry also has to explain to Leonard Lincoln what happened to his aunt. The puzzle is, why she'd told Leonard she was coming to see Kerry. And why did she state she was working at this hotel when in fact she was staying there at £3.15/- a night?
Douglas tells Kerry of his father's secret- he had been having an affair with a married woman called Bannister. Oddly she had phoned Doug last evening about a missing receipt for a pearl necklace. Doug had been asked to post it, should he find it, to a hotel in Aldeburgh.
The Bannisters have reported a break-in, only item stolen is a pearl necklace. A police inspector investigating, later informs Supt Bromford that he had seen in the Bannister's house a wheelchair hidden in a cupboard. This corroborates Jack Kerry's statement that he thought Bannister was an invalid.
Cathy's friend Doreen Osborne had been spotted with Penn the pet shop owner. Kerry questions Penn about this "dreadful woman," who at the moment "has money to burn." 32 Defoe Mansions is where she lives.
Kerry finds her at home but not very forthcoming about Cathy's whereabouts. "She did a bunk," after Delaney died, is all Doreen can offer. But Jack hides in her flat and overhears her on the phone to Mel. Evidently she knows more. When she goes out, Jack pokes around and ends up at the wrong end of a gun, held by Stella, alias Cathy. She says she is so scared she is going to be charged with Rupert Delaney's murder. There's a struggle and the gun goes off...

For my review of episode 5

Start of Game of Murder

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Episode 5

"Suffering from shock more than anything else," Cathy is now recovering. "Are you falling for her?" Inspector Ed Royce asks Jack Kerry. He fills his colleague in on what he has learned about Rupert Delaney. He worked for the shadowy Mel Harris, running a call girl racket. Cathy was the front girl, and blackmail followed. Jack can't accept Cathy was involved. But how to find the elusive Mel?
Doreen, with money to burn, seems the weakest link. Jack finds her weeping, having been beaten up. Mr Penn had been seen leaving the building. "You've got to tell me about Mel Harris," Jack urges her. But she is too scared, so Jack demands the same of Penn. He admits seeing Doreen but says she had been beaten up before he got to her.
A thin story, Ed believes. Is Penn Mel?
Cathy has now recovered enough to confide in Jack. She says she knew nothing about Rupert's business, though she knew Doreen was a call girl. She's never seen Mel Harris. Together they go to question Doreen, but she is now not in her flat.
Jack will take Cathy to Steeple Aston, to hide her away from any danger.
Leonard Lincoln brings Jack the dog collar, which has a zip which conceals a receipt for a pearl necklace. Jack arranges to return it to Iris Bannister. They are to meet at The Danish Cafe, but it is her husband Charles who comes to the rendezvous, "did you have trouble parking your wheelchair?" Jack asks him drily. He wants to know about his dad's involvement, but all he receives is a warning off. The real trouble is that Bannister knows exactly where Cathy has been hidden...

Review of episode 6

To the start of Game of Murder

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Episode 6

The Priory Hotel Steeple Aston is where Cathy is. But Jack had spotted the hidden microphone in Doreen's flat and had given them a "bum steer." Bannister has no hold. Iris phones her husband at the cafe to warn that Mel Harris is watching the cafe. He is driving his grey Jag. When Bannister comes out, he is run down.
Iris is in "a terrible state" and tells all. Mrs Lincoln had gathered incriminating evidence against one of her former employers, Harris, and had tried blackmailing him. Wrongly, she had implied that Bob Kerry was her partner. Her dog Midge had been kidnapped to persuade her to call off the blackmailing. Cathy had sent the dog collar to persuade Rupert to speak out, but that scheme had failed. So who is Mel Harris? And where is he? That we still don't know.
Doreen is in a nursing home in St Albans, to undergo plastic surgery on her disfigured face. Jack asks Cathy to speak to her. "You know Harris," Caths urges her. Doreen is too scared to talk, but Cathy gets her to agree to a meeting, for "I want Rupert's job." To enforce the point, she adds darkly that she knows about Mrs Lincoln.
This works. Harris arranges to talk to Cathy about her proposal. "Play it cool, Jack advises her, "and watch his hands." She does act the part well. "I know why you killed Charles Bannister," she tells him. Mel curses him as "a bloody fool," he'd been trying to peddle narcotics on the side. With Harris increasingly suspicious, Jack intervenes to arrest the boss who is now trying to throttle her.
So all is explained, well almost. And Cathy really is taken to Steeple Aston... by Jack

The End

To menu for Game of Murder

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Dixon of Dock Green starring Jack Warner as PC George Dixon, an Ordinary Copper

A cosy police drama which reflects the integrity of a pre-Z Cars police force. It ended up being derided as an anachronism, but that wasn't the fault of the programme, but of the world that had changed all around.

16 The Rotten Apple - (1956) Fourteenth in a string of robberies is at Alderman Mayhew's home (AJ Brown). The crooks "knows all about the layout of the place." Recently released from prison, the Captain is the obvious suspect, but he's always got a watertight alibi. Next robbery however, the Captain is identified, but the evidence shows he's not guilty of all the others. The breakthrough comes when George Dixon learns PC Tom Carr (Paul Eddington) owes over a hundred quid to a bookie. Dixon's subsequent lecture is almost punishment enough: "there's nothing worse than a rotten copper, the lowest thing that crawls on God's earth."
17 The Roaring Boy - PC Dixon comes face to face with an army deserter, Douglas Beale (Kenneth Cope), who is holed out in the room of his girl Diane (Jennifer Wilson). "Don't be a fool son, give me that gun." But he won't, getting a sadistic pleasure from the power it gives him, and he enjoys arguing with his prisoners. Remarks the disillusioned Diane: "I only hope there's no men in the next world." For Beale has declared "I've always wanted to kill someone." But PC George Dixon gives them both a lesson in morals before pulling the carpet, literally, from under the coward
18 Pound of Flesh - Kay Evans (Dorothy Gordon) reports the theft of her husband's best suit, but why is she lying? "Sounds pretty thin to me," notes the shrewd George Dixon. Blake, an extortionate moneylender is the source of her worries, thank goodness such a "rat" is nicked
19 Father in Law -"A special day" as Andy marries Mary, "nervous as a kitten." Everything goes off well until at the reception a guest, Frank, is robbed of £10. "This is a fine lark," is George's understated response. Chief suspect is Billy the tramp, but George delicately avoids spoiling the occasion and even has time to sing a couple of ditties
120 The Hot Seat (1960) - The family enjoy a weekend break in Paris. They meet businessman Treadgold (William Mervyn), whom George spots as a conman in league with Ames (Kenneth J Warren). So it's a busman's holiday, as the conmen are kind of conned themselves. "All the time you were scorching our pants!" Included are two longish film sequences showing the sights of the city proving Jack Warner and his cast actually went there. "You aren't half living it up," comments a jealous Sgt Flint.
397 Eye Witness (now in colour, 1973)
399 Harry's Back (1974) with Lee Montague
412 Sounds - The job of tracing young Janey whose mother had phoned the police urgently. While the search is absorbing, it slowly loses its initial momentum, until the girl's flat is traced, but where is she and her mother?
413 Firearms were issued - An £80,000 armed bank robbery and police have to be issued with guns so they can close in on the three crooks who are now sharing the cash out. After a tense time of waiting, the house where they are hiding is surrounded and the police move in. One criminal is shot as he tries to escape, but it turns out that none of the men are actually carrying shooters. So a detailed investigation is organised as a matter of urgency by brusque Inspector Donovan (Percy Herbert) whose main concern appears to be press reaction. Questions are asked, still relevant today.
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Maigret
Rupert Davies achieved a well deserved success as the celebrated pipe-smoking detective. That opening sequence of his striking a match to light his pipe, accompanied by Ron Grainer's evocative music was a classic.
Initially the programmes were telerecorded using Kinescope, "just as effective as film and a great deal cheaper." According to another contemporary report they were shot on both 405 and 525 line videotape as well as on 16mm and 35mm film. You takes your choice!
When shooting started the new BBC Television Centre had not been opened so the first two stories were shot at the old Lime Grove studios. Riverside Studios were apparently also used for a few early episodes before the BBC Centre opened officially on June 29th 1960. Rehearsals had already began (at the end of the previous month) and the first episode shot around June 14th 1960. The stories were screened from that October.

36 Death in Mind (November 1962)- Two lonely old women are murdered and the ten million they've left seems sufficient motive. Maigret however risks his career in letting the obvious suspect (John Ronane) escape, with the idea of following him. Has he contacted Emile Radek (Anton Rodgers), an impoverished medical student? When the man who inherits the money (Jerry Stovin) shoots himself, Maigret finds himself taunted by this Radek who is now in the money. "There could be another murder," Radek warns our policeman. But Maigret can play cat and mouse too, and he toys with Radek at the scene of the murders
37 Seven Little Crosses (December 1962) - 'The Sunday man' kills another old lady and the chase is on for eyewitness 12 year old Francois, whose father (James Maxwell) is suspected of the crime. But while Maigret sits at home enjoying his Christmas dinner, Lucas works out the murderer is actually an ex-policeman sacked for drunkenness, who has now kidnapped Francois. At times this story seems like a French Z Cars, though much less coarse
41 Fonetenay Murders (October 1963) - Three murders in a small town where Maigret just happens to be holidaying with a friend, the local magistrate (Alan Wheatley). All killed with a spanner, murders seemingly unconnected. Soon class tensions are mounting, before Maigret reveals the murderer's name- it's Mr Grimsdale! Well, it's actually the local bigwig played by Edward Chapman, for ever immortalised for his role as stooge to Norman Wisdom
52 Maigret's Little Joke (December 1963)- The wife of Dr Jarvet (Michael Goodliffe) has died over the weekend- Inspector Lucas investigates as Maigret is injured. Digitalis is found in her body: "it's impossible!" Unable to resist following the case unofficially, Maigret keeps sending Lucas anonymous little notes with suggestions as to what to look into
Taped Shows Menu

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Z Cars
The BBC's long running series ran to 799 stories! I'll be honest and say I am no fan.
An easy Trivia Quiz question: Who played Barlow's sparring partner, Watt? Answer
Series One. 1 "Four of a Kind" - (Jan 1962) The formation of a picked band of patrolmen with such integrity that our police of today would surely envy
2 "Limping Rabbit" - 14 year old Hilda is missing from home, if it could be called that, more a hovel. Find her toy rabbit and you'll find her
3 "Handle With Care" - How come a toy thief (Arthur Lowe) is in possession of an unstable stick of gelignite? The race is on to intercept his two sons who have now sold the remainder of the jelly to a lorry driver. With off camera explosions, and unsympathetic characters, it doesn't matter what happens next, in a mundane tale only enlivened by Arthur Lowe's strong Midlands accent
4 "Stab in the Dark" - Teenager Sadie is stabbed by her front door. "It should've killed her," but luckily she was wearing a thick coat. Insp Robins (John Phillips) gives a lesson in modern police interrogation, that would make George Dixon's hair curl. The search is on for "a nut with a knife." The suspect- a Tom O'Connor, not the comedian, but a quiet spoken youth: in Robins' hands he's putty. Persistence and graft pays off for the police
5 "Big Catch"
6 "Friday Night" - (February 1962) "It's going to be one of those nights"- starting with a fatal accident. Since this is seen in the studio it is not very convincing, specially when someone periodically sprays some 'rain' in front of the camera. Yet the sensitive treatment of bereavement and the comic contrast of an Irishman with a prison-wish develops nicely a miscellany of mini-plots, concluding with a chase after a jelly gang. But regrettably there are too many characters to develop in the time available to make a satisfying and complete play
7 "Suspended" - Break in at The Cedars, home of wealthy John Wilson (Derek Francis). But he accuses Jock and Fancy of stealing his gold watch. Suspended, "stupid nit" Fancy makes matters worse by nearly breaking into Wilson's home. The plot had potential, but should have been developed more subtly, instead of ending tamely with the real thieves' arrest
14 "Found Abandoned"
15 "The Best Days"
16 "Invisible Enemy"
17 "Down and Out"
18 "Further Enquiries"
20 "People's Property"
21 "Hi-jack!" - The lorry of Les Fielding (Glyn Houston) is nicked outside a transport cafe. His cargo of 21 inch tvs is hijacked. But is Les in on the job? Bob is an old army pal of Les, who is faced with the dilemma, "are you going to knock him off?" I was waiting for the line about filthy coppers, and it came to the very word
22 "Incident Reported"
26 "Contraband"
28 "Appearance in Court"
Series Two. 72 "The Whizzers" (1963)
Series Three. 75 "Made for Each Other" - (September 1963) Jock and Fancy catch a girl (Judi Dench) who's broken into an empty house. Continuity with her black eye in the filmed and studio scenes proves an entertaining distraction in this story of a rebellious "spitfire". Sadly this viewer finds the ending a cop out
76 "A La Carte"
87 "Tuesday Afternoon" - (December 1963) "You expect to see women out shopping, you know, but, I mean, men, well you think they'd be working." In those days a man out on Tuesday afternoons would excite comment! One man's a speeding motorist, another a garrulous shoplifter (Eric Barker in a nice little cameo). These are humdrum sub plots, though pleasant enough in Alan Plater's story, which reaches its peak when a conman is exposed, a man selling cut price houses - for £2,500!! Certainly by this stage of the series, the film and studio scenes are much more seamlessly linked and the main characters have now developed a nice rapport
102 "Happy Families" - (1964) Whilst Watt attempts to sort out his domestic arrangements, Barlow is on the track of some obscene photos, found in the possession of timid eight year old Reg. Barlow traces various kids who have had the pictures, providentially spotting the photographed lady (Catherine Woodville) in the course of interviewing some pretty awful characters- "I just took the photographs for fun"
115 "A Place of Safety"
Series Four. 135: I Love You Bonzo (1965)
136 "Brotherly Love"
137 "A Matter of Give and Take"
Series Six. 519: "A Lot of Fuss for Fifteen Quid" (1970) - Sheila Ashton is the neurotic woman, refugee from the Wednesday Play, who steals from a lady's purse at the bus station. Issues over police methods are raised as CID try to get the victim to identify Sheila, unsuccessfully, then try to make Sheila confess, brick wall, and finally use her son to achieve these ends
Series Seven. 656: "Relative Values" (1972) - Old Mr and Mrs Martin can't pay their bills and kill themselves. Now old George, "living in sin" with Alice, to make ends meet, resumes his old career, and breaks into the post office. The £150 helps pay for a nice birthday treat for Alice. Bert Palmer enjoys his role as the aged gentle thief in his "second childhood." Less convincing is the contrast with a copper's slap-up meal with the girl to whom he proposes
660 "Breakage" - Wandering down a street is a semi-innocent Scotsman (Fulton Mackay) who gets held at the station in a lighthearted storyline that contrasts with a more desperate rooftop drama
Series Eight. 667: "Damage" - What you do, is write a plot on the back of a cigarette packet, then stretch it out. Fulton Mackay is a Scot- that's easy to write, maybe he can improvise some of his lines? He's been robbed. Then there's a depressed man on a factory roof. Threatening to jump. One tale ends happily, the other doesn't. Take your pay for five minutes work writing the story- easy. The only drawback is, this viewer finds the programme so slow he falls asleep
668 "Day Trip" - Dilly is back in Newtown for more shoplifting. In this plodding human drama, that seems to owe more to Coronation Street than a detective series, she breaks into a house and the incredible stalking Det Sgt Hagar finally catches her. For me, Hilary Tindall as Dilly mumbles too many lines, no doubt all too conscious of the defects of this script
Series Ten. 752: "Incitement" (1975) - Yvonne wants to shop her layabout husband Dennis, who, says she, is planning to rob a sub post office. The absorbing interest of the story is on her motives for "she's got more angles than a distortin' mirror"
Series Thirteen and last. 791 "A Woman's Place" (1978) - Saturday night, and there's reluctant agreement to Jane's request to go out on patrol, in this primitive equality-of-women story. Jane is already involved with the domestic troubles of Mary. Her husband Roy traps Jane in his home, he had got wind of his wife's plan to run off with John, attacked his rival, and knocked down a policeman who tried to stop the assault. Now a police siege develops outside Roy's home
Softly Softly
99 "On Christmas Day in the Morning" (1968)- Watt's festive spirit is diminished when he's called to investigate a Christmas Eve theft of property worth £11,000 from guests at the Pentland Grange Hotel- "they came upon the midnight clear." Other jolly seasonal references follow in a rather ordinary Alan Plater script, hardly special Christmas fare
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Riviera Police
In the overall TV Ratings for 1965, this Rediffusion series came fourth, ahead even of No Hiding Place. Surprising another series wasn't produced, in view of its popularity, and only 13 stories were ever made.
The main characters were
Inspector Legrand (Brian Spink), the only character to appear in all stories.
The other three stars rotated their appearances, and were
Lt-Col Constant Sorel, a 28 year old Canadian bachelor (Frank Lieberman),
Supt Adam Hunter, a Londoner seconded to the Riviera Police (Geoffrey Frederick),
and Supt Bernie Johnson, a languid Aussie (Noel Trevarthen).
The theme music was written by Laurie Johnson and titled Latin Quarter.
The titles of all the stories in this series were-
1 Who Can Catch A Falling Star? (Mon Aug 2nd 1965- with all four stars)
2 That Kind of Girl (Aug 9th- with NT plus Bill Nagy, John le Mesurier)
3 The Lucky One Was the Snake (Aug 16- with FL: SEE PICTURE)
4 But the Company She Keeps (Aug 23- with GF plus John Bailey)
5 Duet for Two Guns (Aug 30- with NT)
6 A Shot in the Dark... and Two in the Mid-day Sun (Sept 6- with FL plus Raymond Young, June Thorburn, Paul Maxwell, Jennifer Jayne)
7 Take It Sideways and Pray (Sept 13- with NT)
8 There Comes a Point (Sept 20- with FL plus Laurence Payne, Pauline Letts, Anna Carteret, Patrick Mower)
9 Past Indefinite - Future Imperfect (Sept 27- with NT plus Peggy Thorpe-Bates, Peter Copley)
10 There's Something Moving in the Water (Oct 5)
11 Girl on a Plate (Tues Oct 12- with GF plus Stephanie Randall, Basil Dignam)
12 Bubbles Through a Looking Glass (Oct 19- with FL plus George Pravda, Jacqueline Ellis, Geoffrey Palmer)
13 A Rainbow has Two Ends (Oct 26- with all four stars plus Erica Rogers, Frederick Jaeger, Alan White).
My reviews of these surviving stories:
1 Who can catch a Falling Star?
3 The Lucky One Was the Snake
5 Duet for Two Guns
7 Take it Sideways and Pray
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1 "Who can catch a Falling Star?" (Aug 2nd 1965)-
with Supt Adam Hunter and Inspector Legrand
(Supt Johnson and Lt-Col Sorel also appear, but only on film).

Anna Corelli, "Italy's newest star," is cavorting on the Riviera. These opening scenes on 16mm film are disjointed, but the gist is clear enough: to a Callan-like theme, she's arguing with her boyfriend Tony (Anthony Valentine) over the attentions of a rival, Craig. He throws her over the cliff, but Joan Mayer (Katharine Blake) happens to see him.
Joan's "made some great pictures in her time," but now she's "a drunken lush", with her husband Eric (Alan Gifford) an old-style movie director, "a couple of old has-beens." Eric decides that what Joan knows could be of use to them.
Tony's father, Jerry (Ronald Radd), is one of the biggest European film producers. "Joan's going to make a comeback," Eric tells Jerry in the old story of blackmail.
Supt Hunter with Inspector Legrand question the influential guests at the party where the "limited" actress had been murdered. "We all loved her," is the typical showbiz response, but Douglas is more helpful, he remembers seeing Joan Mayer near where Tony and Anna were arguing.
Hunter also discovers Tony has had several other similar scrapes, though his dad insists "nothing's ever been proved against Tony." Possibly because Jerry puts pressure on the police, Hunter is similarly put under pressure from his superior to go easy. Tony's "a natural killer" insists Hunter, and indeed he's correct.
For Tony is arranging for Joan to be warned off "permanently." High up in the hills, she's happily preparing for her starring role. The assassins shoot Eric and chase after her, as the police arrive. A gunfight and Joan gets away. "We've got to find her," before Tony can finish her off. Jerry is persuaded to cooperate with the police and Hunter goes to where Joan is making a Personal Appearance. Tony is lurking there too. Joan, rather the worse for drink arrives, a shot rings out, a fight and Tony is dragged away. "I'm still a great star," wails Joan, to more Callan-like music
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3 The Lucky One Was the Snake (August 16th 1965)
with Lt Col Sorel and Insp Legrand.

On a mountain road, a marksman shoots at car 138EU06 causing it to career off the road. Nearby a girl is watching.
Canadian Mr Frederick W Mitchell was the driver. He had been making for Paradise in Nice, the Villa Paradise to be precise. The luxury place is owned by Gaston Baghouelle (Harold Innocent), and wild parties are held here. Lt Sorel joins a kind of safari hunt at the mansion, with ladies dressed as animals. "I scratch men to death," warns the scantily clad Marguerite (Wanda Ventham). Sorel claims he's a friend of Mitchell's, and is taken to be a courier. Has he brought "the real thing?" Whatever that means.
Next stop for Sorel is the mortuary, where he is knocked unconscious. Some of Mitchell's effects have been stolen, but nothnig of any significance for most had been burned in the crash. It seems he had stolen some kind of secret back in Canada for he's wanted by police over there. But where is this secret "thing" now?
Sorel returns to the luxury villa to resume his bluff with Baghouelle. $25,000 is the price agreed for the thing. Sorel realises Lisa (Nadja Regin) was behind Mitchell's death, she is after the thing too, and offers $35,000 if he will deliver it to her partner Jeff at an airfield.
From Canada, Sorel is informed that the secret was a lightweight plastic that could withstand high temperatures. A sample was Mitchell's pen, which unbeknowns to the crooks as to its significance, had been stolen from the mortuary. Sorel knows where the pen is- Jeff has, rather strangely, kept all the charred items and there it is. However Baghouelle had been warned of Lisa's doublecross, and claims the pen, only to be shot by Jeff, Lisa and he quickly running off. Sorel gives chase only to be forced to join her and Jeff in their flight by air. A police car vainly chases them down the runway, but Sorel sprays a fire extinguisher in the pilot's cabin and take-off has to be aborted.
"She tried to steal my pen," Sorel playfully informs the police.

There are several way out scenes at the party, and one great visual one with Wanda Ventham in a bikini sunbathing on a grand piano with champagne by the shores of the Med. I am informed that this is how the other half lives

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5 "Duet for Two Guns" (Aug 30th 1965) -
with Supt Johnson and Inspector "Legs" Legrand.

There's a 90 second sequence to start, on grainy 16mm film showing prisoner Harry Borden (Fredric Abbott) leaping from a 200 foot cliff and swimming to freedom. He has "to talk to" the man who shopped him, "respected citizen" the crooked La Salle (John Turner), who still has the gold bullion from their joint robbery "hidden away somewhere." Borden's old acquaintance Supt Barney Johnson is assigned to recapture this "tricky customer," who eludes police by jumping a lorry and sneaks into Nice during a carnival by donning a clown's costume.
La Salle's villa is near here! But the crook is confident his mansion is well guarded by his 'secretaries,' Mike and Jack and he rejects Johnson's rather reluctant offer of protection.
Nearby, with his pal Guido, Harry is planning his attack, whilst safe inside his fortress La Salle plans his reception for Harry. Johnson has to keep a watching brief outside the giant gates that guard La Salle's property. At the point of a gun Johnson is forced by Harry to join him enter La Salle's. "It's a trap," insists Barney Johnson as they easily walk in through the front door. "The best way to beat a gambit," retorts Harry calmly," is to accept it."
"This isn't chess," is Johnson's profound conclusion. But La Salle's trap is beaten, Mike and Jack silenced. No sign of La Salle, he's flown. Jack is forced to reveal where.
Inspector Legrand is tracking all their moves by helicopter: "they're slowing down... a no through road... a cottage." There digging up the garden is La Salle, but not for horticultural reasons, but for the stolen gold. He's shot dead by Harry who ironically ends with "I told you you'd dig your own grave!"
But the police swoop and Harry has to run for it, and Johnson shoots him dead too

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7 "Take it Sideways and Pray" (Sept 13th 1965) -
with Supt Johnson and Inspector Legrand.

The Monaco Grand Prix. Lew Scarsdale (John Meillon) crashed at the Nurburgring a year ago. He still has nightmares about the crash in which a fellow driver died. "I thought I was finished," he tells Jenny, his wife.
But now he's on the Riviera, "lapping faster than Jim Clark," to try and persuade his old boss Jack (David Burke) to let him drive again. "I can win Monte Carlo for you!" But Jack's had enough of Lew's bravado, calling him a "suicide pilot." Against rival Harvey Brooks it'd be like "High Noon, with cars for guns." For Lew blames Harvey for that crash.
But after arson at Jack's garage, Lew's lighter is found nearby by Peter, Lew's best mate. Supt Johnson accepts Lew's alibi, but "someone's trying to get at Jack Dyson," but who or why is a mystery. Then a man in a skeleton mask kidnaps Jack's driver and suddenly Lew is needed to race. Johnson rounds up the kidnapper just as the race is starting.
Lew starts badly, but in those days overtaking wasn't any great shakes as "Lew always comes in with a late run." "What a race this is!"- as Harvey and Lew battle it out. Lew is forced off-line as Harvey regains the lead. Wheel to wheel racing (on sound commentary with some film), "they're going to crash! Someone's in the water." So taking the chequered flag is........ Lew.
Maybe the kidnapper will be forgiven, as he was only trying to help Lew get a seat and Jack to win the race
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Boyd QC
The stories starred Michael Denison as Richard Boyd.
More on the series in the Boyd QC Research Section.
Reviews of 3 stories.
(probably) 2.4 The Balance of her Mind (April 1958) - Boyd is a judge at Hazelford Assizes. Having escaped from Hungary after the uprising, 52 year old Mrs Eva Christoff and her daughter Olga, a qualified chemist, find "life was good" in England. But then a compatriot started trying to persuade them to return to Budapest. The threat by the communists to harm Eva's nieces produces unbearable pressures, but for them, "the answer does not lie in Communism." On 18th January 1958 they attempt to gas themselves. Insp Ireland had found them unconscious in bed
3.9 In Camera (February 1959) - 540 insurance stamps, a cigarette lighter and a compact are all items Elizabeth Wayne (Brenda Hogan, right pf picture) is accused of stealing from her employer. Bolton (John Welsh) of Security at Alison Engineering Company, on the instructions of her boss Mr Morley (Peter Bull) had installed a camera in an office from where items had been going missing, and "nice kind" Miss Wayne had been snapped with her hands in the till. A Mr Tickle (pronounced Tickell, he insists- Charles Gray) of Histon Newspapers takes up this minor case, which thus promotes it to front page news. The only way out seems to be "Quis custodiet, ipso custodes." What else?! As narrator Jack (Charles Leno) tells us: Boyd "revelled" in this trial, though frankly it doesn't require even Boyd's brainpower to work out the truth. A long cross examination of the ailing Bolton leads to "a slice of luck" when Bolton is taken ill under Boyd's questioning. He's taken to his bed, and in his home the stolen cigarette lighter is discovered
(probably) 6.9 What The Eye Doesn't See (January 1964) - Shopkeeper Luigi faces prosecution and a fine of 20 pounds (gulp) for the technical infringement of driving his goods van without a C licence. However Richard Good, an officious ministry inspector (Peter Vaughan), asks "How about 7 pounds and I'll forget about it?" But Luigi tells a policeman (Stratford Johns), and seven pound notes are marked enabling Good to be caught in the very act. Boyd has to defend Good. Is he a "nasty piece of work"? "If he's honest, he's a fool!" Prosecuting Counsel Mostyn (Terence Alexander) looks confident. Boyd pounces on the fact that Luigi wears a hearing aid and significantly wasn't wearing it that day. Is it going to be Perry Mason all over again? Certainly Good's version of events contains no reference to any bribe. However this is one case that Perry, sorry Boyd isn't going to win. "Tight as a lord, bragging he was going to get off," Good slips up and Boyd has to withdraw as on Good's own admission he is guilty. Sentence: Two months in prison for the unfortunately named Good.
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No Hiding Place - with Raymond Francis as Tom Lockhart
Series 1 Series 3 Series 4 Series 5 Series 7 Series 9
Note- since the 60's, I've only seen the stories listed above, none from Series 2, 6, 8 or 10 nor from the forerunners of No Hiding Place (see below).
This was Associated Rediffusion's flagship crime series that ran for ten series. It had made an inauspicious start in 1957 with 57 live half hour stories titled Murder Bag- click for outline details of some of this first series. Advance publicity stated the series was about "how Scotland Yard goes to work from the moment it discovers a murder has been committed." It was said Ray Francis prepared for the part "by visiting police stations and courts and talking to policemen." In 1959 the title was changed to Crime Sheet. Guy Taylor wrote- "Wondering why A-R has so much faith in Chief Supt Lockhart, I looked in on Wednesday August 5th 1959. Remembering the earlier Murder Bag programmes I will admit that the overall production has improved and the series is better for being on film (perhaps he means the linking scenes?), but the storylines still remain corny and just a little too obvious. The characters are black and white. They are not shaded to any degree of reality. The crooks are as crooked as you make them, and the police are just a little too staid and slick. Lockhart is devoid of any warmth or real character." Despite the critics, in Autumn 1959 stories were lengthened to one hour, and No Hiding Place was born. Explained script editor Guy Morgan: "I feel that in the past Lockhart, as head of the Big Five, has been called in on a lot of crimes that were not important enough for an officer of his status. In future he will only deal with that type of case that would make headlines in the national press." Publicity stated "viewers will see more of Lockhart the man," at home with his wife Mary and teenage daughter Jill. However stories they were actually in were few! Mary (Barbara Lott) appears in 1.4 A Genuine Sale of Murder and The Man Who Left His Coat, but anyone know if Jill was ever seen? Before the second series in the summer of 1960, Guy Morgan told TV Times: "I don't want it to appear that crime detection is easy and that all cases are solved by one man....the plots will not solely concentrate on murder, they include a prison escape, a case of alleged police perjury and a bomb scare in a newspaper office." Ray Dicks (executive producer) tells about the addition of Deputy Commander Hutchins:"by showing that even Lockhart can have someone breathing down his neck." More outdoor filming was included to put the stories on authentic backgrounds.
Raymond Francis became a huge star through No Hiding Place, and wrote in 1964- "It's tough going, long hours and all that, but it's very enjoyable. Of course almost everyone calls me Lockhart and when my wife goes shopping at home in Eastbourne, she is always called Mrs Lockhart by shopkeepers!"
In a 1967 TV Times interview Raymond Francis declared- "When Lockhart began, it was a little too early to worry about being typecast. And by the time I woke up to that danger, it was too late." And asked about the future- "well of course I hope it goes on. If it does end for any reason, I think I could take it philosophically." Prophetic words for what was just around the corner- this series only finally came to an end because Rediffusion's contract was not renewed.
In July 1965 according to a TV Times article at the end of series 7, Lockhart had been "in 277 stories." Rediffusion had planned to axe the series at this point, but "viewer demand" brought it back! This would mean that there were 317 stories altogether, with 245 episodes of No Hiding Place. This would seem to me to be a fairly accurate count, but how many are still in existence? In the 1990's, the owners of the Rediffusion archive advertised only nine stories available for tv stations to buy, so if more than a dozen still exist, it would be a pleasant surprise! One Crime Sheet has somehow survived also, and is at the BFI.
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Series One - Opening - a policeman's hand indicates STOP to allow police car 892FPC to leave the Yard and proceed along Whitehall in a northerly direction and on to other London streets. Dt Chief Supt Lockhart is assisted by Sgt Baxter (Eric Lander)
1.17 "Victim of the Dark" (Jan 1960) -
There's a cosy little introduction by Raymond Francis telling us about the remoteness even today of some country districts.
Then a film clip of a large property that would have been worthy of the later Avengers. Margaret (Marjorie Stewart) is returning home after a long spell away, spent in a mental home as we learn later. There's joy on the faces of her daughters Angela and Catherine, but her ex-husband Alfie (Peter Vaughan) is distinctly less welcoming. He'd been the cause of her breakdown, and now he's even married the 'other woman' Jean (Anna Turner) who has borne him two children, young Johnny, "the apple of his father's eye," and six month old Susan. But strangely it's Jean who had invited Margaret to stay. Perhaps it's partly because her marriage is now also on the rocks, because Alfred has been having an affair with their maid Gerte. "I never knew anyone could be so selfish," Jean tells her husband. She finds a sympathetic ear in Margaret, who despite her illness is now more rounded and understanding. But of course "cold-blooded" Alfred resents Margaret's presence. "Don't forget, if anything happens, you're responsible," he warns his wife.
Indeed something does happen. The introduction of these characters has taken up the whole of the first act and is a trifle out of proportion to what follows. Very surprisingly when there's a murder, it's little Johnny who's the victim.
Splashing through the puddles in their car 894FPC, Lockhart and Baxter come to investigate. The child had been killed with a knife in a shed at about 1am. First task is to locate the weapon and any blood stained clothing.
Whilst the search commences Lockhart orders the family to stay in their rooms so he can question them individually. Alfred blames Margaret as "she's been in an asylum." But he's rather suspicious too, as he has a bad cut, got whilst shaving he claims. Viewers must have hoped he's the killer, but he has no obvious motive.
Jean is of course very upset and blames herself. To hurt Alfred, she had made up a story that Johnny wasn't his son.
Gerte admits threatening Alfred after he'd broken a promise to marry her.
With the characters thus well developed, the ending comes too abruptly. As Lockhart questions Marjorie, a torn nightdress is discovered stuffed up a chimney. "Why did you do it?" the police superintendent asks the killer.
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Series Three - The opening sequence showed a policeman holding up his hand authoritatively to allow through a police car (the familiar 892FPC). Whilst this is the same as the series one opening, the pictures then differ. Dt Chief Supt Lockhart is assisted by Dt Sgt Baxter (Eric Lander)
3.6 "The Widower" (Mar 1961) - Here's a gem of a part for Griffith Jones.
Mr Slade-Jones (Griffith Jones) is grief stricken over the death of his wife Amelia, died 26th October 1960. Only been married 3 months, she died of a heart attack. According to his landlady Mrs Nuggett (Gwen Nelson) he has taken a ring promised to her. Furthermore, she believes he poisoned her! But where is he now? Noone seems to be able to give a precise description except Mrs Nuggett who says he had "horns, cloven hooves and a big blue beard." Quips Lockhart who's frustrated by his disappearance: "at least that's something definite!" Meanwhile,"impeccably dressed" Henry has returned home to his real wife, after months of "secret service work." In his specially locked room he keeps the jewellery he's inherited from his deceased 'wife' as well as lots of plants and scientific apparatus. He has to go off to work again, however, and a Mr Fraser-Smith is now wooing another wealthy widow Edith Sudbury (Georgina Cookson). He asks his wife to check her credentials: "Henry, I do hope you know what you're doing," his wife innocently tells him. He does, they're soon married, and shortly the new wife's heart is having "a wee flutter."
Dt Sally Jordan (Rowena Gregory) gets a lucky break when she spots the disputed ring on a woman in a Knightsbridge hotel. Her action leads Lockhart to Henry Potter, a lab assistant who had been convicted of theft back in 1949. A constable recognises the photo leading Lockhart and Baxter to Henry's real home where his wife of course, cannot discuss his top secret work, which is "of a highly confidential and important nature." But a look round his secret room convinces the police that "Mr Potter is preparing the way for his next victim." Indeed he is, waiting like a spider to adminster a fatal dose of nicotine. But in burst the police. Poetic justic ends the case.
3.26 "Dead Ringer" (Aug 1961) - George Berrington (Jack Rodney), a 'painter' (ie a fixer) of horses is wanted for murdering an Epsom stable lad, but the only witness has just been killed in a motoring accident.
His boss, Joe Mulvaney (Peter Vaughan) who's in cahoots with trainer Frank (John Horsley), now finds a dead ringer for the dud Frzser D who's running at Alford Park. Berrington has to make it look like Frazer D. A police expert explains to Lockhart "they switch a good animal to represent an indifferent one, and when the substitute wins they have to produce the genuine horse..." Lockhart completes the horrible sequence "... and so they destroy a good one." Mulvaney starts betting on the outsider, but the odds fall too quickly when Madge, Berrington's wife, places a £3,000 bet on FD. "You ain't 'alf started something." Yes Frazer D wins, but as joint favourite at 4-1 noone makes a packet. Mrs Berrington is questioned why she's chartered a flight from Gatwick to Paris, paid, no doubt, out of her winnings.
The buried animal is found, Berrington lying dead alongside. "I'm going to call my solicitor," snarls Joe Mulvaney when he and Frank are accused of murder. They only admit that they ordered Berrington to kill the horse. "And then," jokes Lockhart, "he committed suicide, fell into the hole and buried himself." But they are cleared as it's finally proved who really did it.
A quick moving story with a flowing plot and characters that gel. This, the final programme of the series, ends with assistant Harry promoted to Detective Inspector Baxter.
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Series Four - The brief opening depicted Dt Chief Supt Lockhart and Dt Insp Baxter being driven in Humber 408CXW.
4.37 "Beware of Weepers" (Jan 1963) -
Out of the snow in a hut, tramps Mort (Reg Lye) and Joss (Duncan Lewis) spot some gelignite. "There's a fortune in this stuff!"
Baxter is just off to watch Fulham ("you ought to be in mourning," jokes Lockhart) when they are called in to investigate the theft of "weepers," unstable pieces of gelignite. "Don't get yourself blown up," Lockhart still in jocular mood warns Baxter, "your intray's still full."
The tramps break into a factory to crack a safe. It's when the jelly explodes prematurely that they discover it's unsafe, and they scarper double quick. Mort ropes in Joe Macclesfield (Danny Green) "a real criminal" to help his next job, robbing a music hall. Another failure! Joe is picked up, in tatters. "All time booby prize" Lockhart awards him, convincing Joe the weepers need to be traced urgently. However, by now Mort and Joss are approaching "one of the big boys" (Harry Fowler) who won't buy, warning them it's too dangerous.
An inebriate woman breaks into the tramps' ramshackle home under a railway arch. She overhears them discussing their problem: "no need to lose our heads!" A sewer on the Brighton Road is where they decide to bury it, but with the woman's info Lockhart and Baxter race to catch them up. The jelly has already been chucked down a manhole: "you need a gas mask for this job, sir." Rashly Baxter radios for help which triggers the explosives. One rather battered explosives expert (Ewan Roberts) glares out of the sewer. A trace of a smile creeps over Lockhart's face.
That perhaps sums up this story in which writer Bill Strutton can't quite decide whether to make a tense drama or a comedy out of a potentially explosive situation

4.40 "Operation Tiptoe" (Feb 1963) -
"Thank you Tiptoes" is how a stylish thief has signed his calling card at no less than 47 robberies in the past two years four months. As the investigating officer is retiring, Baxter is briefed: none of the stolen jewellery has been recovered.
Job 48 is in Kensington, a £1,100 necklace, only recently purchased from Frazer of Knightsbridge. A footprint shows the thief wore crepe soled shoes, and these are eventually traced to a Mr Freelove.
Infidelity proves to be the downfall of the crook. We meet Eddie Frazer (Ian Shand) with his secretary Jennifer. Her husband suspects her and her "fancy pants." We also meet impresario Mendelssohn-Jones who has given a £3,500 necklace to his "baby doll" Michelle Duval. But is his "French oo-la-la" two-timing him? A detective, Guppy Watson is assigned to watch her.
Thus Job 49 proves Frazer's downfall. At Mme Duval's flat Guppy watches Frazer drive up in the snow and climb up to her balcony. Lockhart and Baxter catch up with Frazer alias Freelove, but it's too late- he's dead. Who killed him? Jennifer or her husband, who admits following Frazer, or Guppy or his paymasters? A final scene is at Mendelssohn-Jones' office where the killer stupidly gives himself away.
Well defined characters in this story, though it doesn't quite capture the swagger of the gentleman thief.
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Series Five
5.8 "Expert with Salt" (Aug 1963) -
The opening scenes at a Wimbledon tennis party are far too complex, unsuccessfully attempting to introduce too many characters.
Stockbroker Arnold Gracie (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) "owns one of the biggest broking houses in the City." Together with Derek (Ronald Allen), a scam is planned on Charles Milner, currently staying at the Belvedere Hotel. They have concoted an assay report on a valuable gold mine which Derek, accidentally on purpose, has left behind in a taxi he's been sharing with Milner: "the fish is hooked."
However blonde Gloria, a model friend of Arnold's, and who can't act, get's pally with Australian Sadler (Alan White) who's a con artist himself. He's been brought to this country by Nesta who works for Justine (Naomi Chance) and together they plan to diddle her of "thousands and thousands." But Sadler, an expert himself in the old dodge of "salting" mines to make them appear to contain a genuine seam of gold, gets greedy and tries to muscle in on Arnold and Derek's scam. He breaks into Derek's home and finds a phoney gold mine report. Thus he realises it is indeed a "squeeze" and that Milner is "being taken for a ride." He approaches the swindlers demanding an equal cut. They "kid him along," playing for time.
Keeping a watching brief is Lockhart's team. Non-intervention is their current attitude: "people who are being conned don't appreciate advice- not until it's too late."
In her posh Regent's Park house, Justine receives a report, this is part of Sadler and Nesta's blackmail plan. It purports to be in her late husband's handwriting, implicating him in a gold mine scam. Arnold and Derek's shakedown of Milner is complete, as he hands over £22,400 believing he's investing in shares in a real mine.
Finally Lockhart moves. Sadler's plan is to "retire for life" which indirectly comes true, as he is found murdered in his flat, his pockets cleaned out. Murder weapon seems to be a yellow metallic figure. Odd that Milner claims he saw this figure in Arnold's office. Arnold is about to do a runner when Inspector Baxter catches up with him and he's arrested.
But who killed Sadler? Nesta is questioned and provides, says Lockhart, a pack of lies. However her conviction that Sadler should have had plenty of cash on him rings true. Then Justine is interrogated. Lockhart has discovered it was Sadler who had worked with her late husband to fake a gold mine. More lies. Finally the truth
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Series Seven -
Opening sequence with a camera closing in on the Yard. Lockhart on the phone answers "Lockhart here." Then a picture of the Houses of Parliament with our chief superintendent riding past. His car then picks up his two assistants.

7.14 "Smokey" (Apr 1965) - A potential Derby winner is "the pin-up of the greyhound world." His minder Jerry Dempsey (Donal Donnelly) is in financial difficulties and seeks help from "tough nut" Harry Lavey (Glyn Houston). It's forthcoming to the tune of £300, as long as Jerry fixes the dog. Jerry's girl has "problems of me own" including her unemployed father Smokey Flynn (Liam Redmond) who used to be one of the best greyhound trainers.
Smokey gets wind of what Jerry is planning and tips off the dog's owner Joe Briggs who dashes off to the race meeting where the betting scam is going on and ends up with his head bashed in. The dog that has won the race, The Thief of Bagdad had conveniently broken a hock and had to be destroyed. So when Lockhart arrives on the scene, he finds it difficult to prove any scam has taken place. Nor can he find Smokey who has been hidden away by Jerry, since he knows it was The Queen of Fiji that had actually run in the race. Although a prisoner, Smokey is still able to lecture Jerry, warning him that he doesn't want to end up the same way as he, old Smokey, has gone.
Lavey realises that as Smokey is wise to the scam, he will inevitably talk eventually. So he and his mob decide to arrange for Smokey's 'suicide:' "he's like a dog that can't run any more." Luckily the police arrive in time. Jerry has admitted he killed Briggs as he was on to the scam.
Whilst this is a mainly sympathetic portrayal of the greyhound world, the characters don't come over as entirely convincing and so the story really never quite comes alive
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Series Nine
The opening sequence showed a window being smashed followed by various other crimes.
Dt Chief Supt Lockhart is assisted by Dt Sgt Russell (Johnny Briggs) and Dt Sgt Perryman (Michael McStay).

9.2 "Ask me If I killed Her" (May 1966)-
A filmed scene at a post office introduces Duncan Myers (Derek Godfrey) who is asking if any letters have arrived for him. We follow him back to his work at a college where his wife (Yootha Joyce) is the principal. She realises he is disturbed by the fact that his affair with Anne seems to be over and warns him "don't make a fool of yourself."
Now there's film of Anne (wonderfully played by Mary Miller), walking along a street, watched by Duncan. He finally makes up his mind and joins Anne, who is ecstatic. A sour Mrs Myers goes to the police to inform them "the last time this happened he murdered a girl." He strangled Janet Ainley three years ago in 1963 in a holiday camp, and she's worried he's going to murder again! As Lockhart's busy in court, Dt Sgt Perryman is told to check out her claim, but Lockhart warns him "Peter Treble killed her, you can take my word for that."
So, with Lockhart's doubts ringing in his ears, Perryman interviews Mrs Myers wanting first of all to know why she has taken three years before coming forward. "I think it's possible we've made a mistake," Perryman, after some reflection, suggests to his boss. Lockhart is not amused: "what do you know?" he asks pointedly, with the emphasis on the 'know.' It's true Myers had had an affair with Janet but even though Treble wasn't convicted of the crime, Lockhart is sure in his own mind he was guilty.
Publicity seeking Myers' whereabouts comes to Anne's attention so she suggests he call at a police station just to reassure them he's OK and that he's not returning to his wife. But Myers, perhaps fearing something else, refuses to go.
Another filmed interlude as Anne drives her Mini, discussing her situation with a friend (Shirley Cain), rationalising her thoughts in favour of Duncan. A nagging voice urges her to contact the police, which she does, just to let them know Duncan is fine. The police speed to see the couple but they've run off together to his secret hideaway: "they won't find us here."
Anne and Duncan are discussing his past. His attitude to his late ex-girl friend is very ambivalent, making for some tension. He's getting rather drunk. Is Anne worried he did kill Janet? Yes, he did see her the night she died, but like tonight, he was too drunk to recall what happened. He forces her to express her view, Anne screaming "I think you killed her!"
Lockhart can now spare the time to join in the hunt. He's used his brains and worked out where they might be. Arrival of Lockhart to comfort a hysterical girl.
Myers is questioned, but the evidence proves he is not guilty. Lockhart breaks the news to Anne who is free to do what she wants...

No Hiding Place
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The Rat Catchers
The world of espionage and secret agents.
Gerald Flood starred as Peregrine Pascale Smith, MD of Transworld Electronics. He travels in his Rolls Royce, driven by his chauffeur Miniver. Utterly callous. Susceptible to beautiful women, inclined to conceit.
With Glyn Owen as Ex-Supt Richard William Hurst, security officer at Transworld. Efficient but lacking finesse ie not a gentleman, uncouth even. He shows pedantic attention to detail, still following the police manual which guided him when a detective at Scotland Yard.
Also starring was Philip Stone as Brigadier H St J Davidson, adviser to a government committee on exports and imports. Head of the ultimate-secret unit of British Intelligence. Declared his publicity, 'his only indulgence is feeding his unsmiling face with cream cakes.'
The music for the Rat Catchers was composed by Johnny Pearson. Cyril Coke edited and produced the series.

1:3 The Unwitting Courier (February 14th 1966)
The Brigadier argues with Hurst over his attitude, as they await Peregrine Smith's arrival. There is a problem. Two couriers in Madrid have been killed. The Brigadier wants to use a third, a Mrs Jane Hope-Dawson (Jeanne Moody), but she's not to know she is being used. She is an American sales manager, and Smith's task is to get her to take the information without her realising it.
But in fact she too is an agent, working for the FBI. She flies in from New York, Peregrine greeting her at the airport. But it seems he's been upstaged, a millionaire Harry Beshman (David Bauer) is an admirer and gets in first. He's smitten with her. That makes Peregrine just a bit peeved, much to the Brigadier's later amusement.
Jane makes the next move, bearding the Brigadier in his den. Obliquely she tells him she has come for revenge on the organisation Alpha who had killed their courier. Will he cooperate? He tries to look blank. "We're well past the tea and crumpet stage," she nicely informs him.
One known Alpha agent she is after is already known to the Brigadier. Actually "his name is Hurst," he lies to her. This is all part of the Brigadier's own devious plan.
Jane enjoys a night on the town with Beshman, dining, gambling. Hurst is sent to tail them. An old police colleague notices what he's doing, and warns him off.
"Too obvious," Peregrine tells Hurst later. Beshman also wants to know why Hurst is following them. To find out, he asks Peregrine of all people to help. Cunningly Peregrine suggests Beshman checks up whether Jane is an Alpha agent really after his money. That results in a showdown between Jane and Beshman, a rather one-sided one. Beshman is easy meat, and is out for the count. The story fizzles out as Jane leaves for Puerto Rico without him.
All that's left to do is for poor Hurst to undertake that Madrid courier job
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Redcap (Series One- 1964) with John Thaw as Sgt Mann.
Perhaps I shouldn't write it, but this is one series that it wouldn't have mattered if it had been junked, though now it has been released on dvd:
1 "It's What Comes After" -Excellent story by William Emms. Why has exemplary Cpt Lynne (Keith Barron) suddenly become a bundle of nerves?
2 "A Town Called Love" -Local girl Magda "puts the squeeze" on Army personnel, forcing them to steal to order or be reported for pilfering. Pendlebury (Michael Robbins) is the latest victim, but when Magda is found "carved up" Pendlebury "goes over the wall." Unofficially, Mann also goes to East Germany to bring him home, but he's rumbled by the Commies and an exchange has to be arranged, but not before Mann has given Pendlebury the route how to escape back to the West. Somehow he makes it, without even Simon Templar to help him. Maybe in those days, scriptwriters didn't realise you couldn't just 'pop over' the border.
3 "Epitaph for a Sweat" - In a "god forsaken unit" in Aden, Sgt Rolfe (Leonard Rossiter, appearing to out-Hartnell William) works over a native "wog" who naturally complains. An overlong story of army bullies and political expedience that could still, sadly, apply today
4 "Misfire" -
5 "Corporal McKann's Private War" -
6 "The Orderly Officer" -
7 "Night Watch" - Sgt Graham (Brian Wilde) is "in a mess." He's been busted to private after a court martial in Burma. But his whole platoon under Major Stokely (Allan Cuthertson) are at rock bottom morale, about to "burst and the pus come flying out." Me, I just nodded off
8 "The Boys of B Company" -Strict discipline in a company of cadets, Duffy (Richard O'Sullivan) one shining example. But "nutcase" Bellamy attempts suicide and Pickering kicks over the traces. Sgt Mann, with a few cheap bribes of fags, uncovers an all too familiar tale of sadistic bullying and blind eyes among the senior officers. This is a fine portrait of a young lad promoted without an understanding of the proper use of power. A kind of updated Tom Brown's Schooldays, in which "kiss my boots" can hardly be "horseplay," for it brings its own revenge
9 "A Regiment of the Line" -"The Queen's Own Scottish are back" in Germany long after the war, "one forgets so easily." But old bitternesses end in a riot, then worse when Hughie Scanlan (Colin Blakely) provokes a brawl in a cafe, killing the German bartender. His colonel (James Grout), with his own bitter war memories, is rather obstructive when Sgt Mann investigates, but when Scanlan's mate Tolley absconds it almost seems the case should be closed. An impressive stand off rounds off the story
11 "A Question of Initiative" - A German civvy is run over by soldiers who'd stolen a car on a tough initiative test. As we know the guilty pair, the interest is seeing how Sgt Mann solves the case and deals with the delicate political implications. The final Act nearly does a fine job of fleshing these out
12 "A Place of Refuge" -By gad sir, Major Trust is blowing his brains out. Perhaps it's no coincidence but money has been borrowed from regimental funds. When Sgt Mann isn't "dead careful" interrogating civilian Wendy, the major's girl friend, he's withdrawn from the case, but he still finds enough evidence that she's involved in drug trafficking. The story provides an interesting role for Barbara Jefford as the ambivalent Wendy, "you're not a woman, you're a psychopath."
13 "The Patrol" - Sgt Mann lands in the jungle to get statements from a patrol commanded by two "eccentrics" (Graham Crowden, Robin Bailey). Much crawling round the studio jungle before Mann sees some Action. Truly Awful
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Redcap Series Two (1966):

14 "Crime Passionel" - A respected sergeant is shot dead in a crowded canteen. Why is the truth being covered up?
15 "Pride of the Regiment" - A simple investigation into a pub brawl leads Sgt Mann to the sad story of 'What Price the Hero Now,' Fred Barratt VC. Mann teaches him some home truths about living on past glory. George Sewell gives a strong portrayal of the tarnished hero in Arden Winch's excellent drama
16 "The Killer" - Old friend O'Keefe (Garfield Morgan), the 'Blue Angel of Bolton,' is a sergeant in the "toughest mob" in the army. He wants Mann to uncover a killer he believes is in his unit, so Mann joins them on an exercise. Nevertheless he fails to prevent O'Keefe from ending up with his throat slit. But does Mann then arrest the wrong man? He doesn't exactly cover himself with glory
17 "Buckingham Palace" - At a snowy Cyprus relay signal station, a gambling craze leads to murder. No1 suspect is Cpl Cowell, though Sgt Buckett (William Lucas) knows a Greek called Butros (Peter Bowles) is the guilty man. Sgt Mann plays poker to prove there's been a security leak
18 "Rough Justice" - Impressive script about laxness in an upper crust crack regiment, under its colonel (Terence Longdon), where new recruit Richardson (Edward Fox) is tarred and feathered by his fellow officers, juvenile squirts all of them. Richardson disappears just before Sgt Mann inspects the books, which Richardson had been blackmailed into fiddling
21 "Paterson's Private Army" - A sub machine gun has gone missing from a Jungle Warfare Training School. It had been in the care of Cpl Donald (Colin Campbell) who is a genuine Scot, but some of the cast struggle bravely with their Scots accents, notably Pte Ogilvie (Geoffrey Whitehead), Sgt Burns (John Junkin) and Major Cleghorn (John Horsley). Sgt Mann meets the bitter members of Donald's platoon and the case seems "far too obvious" though I would have called it plain uninteresting. "I'm a bit fogged," admits Sgt Burns, and he isn't the only one. Even Mann has to conclude "it doesn't make any sense at all"
22 "Stag Party" - Terrorists at a Greek base? Or an inside job? A grenade during a strip poker game seems to be an act of jealousy- "it's pretty obvious, if you think about it." Ann Lynn enlivens a dull story, whilst Harold Goodwin as a Greek policeman delivers an odd Anglo-Greek accent
24 "Time Alibi" - AWOL, Cpl Harkness is identified at an ID parade as a robber. Mann has to find out why this "model soldier" has gone "off the rails" in a plot and guest star, Keith Barron, somewhat akin to the first story of the first series. This time it's a girl (surprise!- "I met this girl...") and when the cash is found in Harkness' room it looks pretty conclusive. To prove his innocence, all Mann has to do is break down a naval officer's alibi
25 "The Proper Charlie" - Who beat up Charlie Ringwold, a shy recruit with 2 left feet?
26 "Information Received"- MP Sgt Bamber (James Grout) is accused anonymously of nicking petrol. But Harry Bamber is an old colleague of Sgt Mann who can't believe such a straightforward chap be guilty. The right thief is found and he admits writing the accusation. But, this, Mann's last case, is only now beginning....
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POLICE SURGEON (1960)
Ian Hendry starred as Dr Geoffrey Brent, a police surgeon in London. Only twelve stories were made, the following year Hendry returned as Dr David Keel in, of course, The Avengers.

1 "Easy Money" (September 10th 1960) -
Script: Julian Bond. Director: John Knight.
Just out of Borstal, Jim Clark (Michael Crawford) is arrested when he's found standing by a cigarette machine that has been knocked off, with twenty half crowns on his person. Inspector Bryant (Robin Wentworth) questions the lad, who claims he won the money at the dogs.
Kindly Dr Brent is at the nick to examine Murphy, charged with being drunk. That's over in a moment, and Keel is asked if he can talk with Jim, who claims he is going to be framed. But his story of how he won the cash is easily disproved by Brent when he checks the winners in his evening paper. But that enables Jim to answer Bryant quite easily about which dogs had won that evening at The White City! Bryant is not convinced, but has no choice but to release Jim.
Brent has "a little talk" afterwards with Jim at Ray's Cafe: "what you going to do about that money you stole?"
The doctor is unamused by Jim's youthful bravado in calling the incident "a right giggle," showing up the baffled inspector.
"No sermons please," Jim has had enough questioning. But it's uncanny how Brent can perceive why Jim had stolen that money. Brent urges Jim to earn his money as they argue over morals. Jim sticks to his philosophy, "you don't get nothing from noone these days, not unless you take it."
But when some teddy boys enter the cafe and rile an old man, Jim intervenes, that proves he's not all bad. "You've got to draw the line somewhere." Maybe he will try and get a proper job, though that idea is quashed when the police rearrest him.
Yet the programme offers no solution to what is after all insoluble. These days would the police bat an eyelid at such petty crime and would a high and mighty doctor have any time for such a delinquent?

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The Protectors (1964)
"The criminals and us- we're all in the same business. The difference is, our clients pay us to keep one jump ahead of the criminal mind. Diagnosis? Call the Police. Prognosis? Call WELbeck 3269."
The firm of Souter and Shoesmith Ltd is a specialist in security. From offices in Marylebone, secretary cum Girl Friday Heather Keys (Ann Morrish) is also an expert in art forgery. Ian Souter (Andrew Faulds) went to school, like Prince Charles, at Gordonstoun and served at the end of the war in The Black Watch. His partner is Robert Shoesmith (Michael Atkinson), formerly of the CID, who said of his character, "he playes hunches, he's a creature of instinct." The producer was Michael Chapman.
"Landscape with Bandits"- The Veritas Gallery in Manchester is "not a place for nobodies," wily owner Mr Ware (Gordon Gostelow) currently planning to go big time by buying River at Argenteuil by Monet, which is up for auction at Wheeler and Bond. Ian Souter is in charge of security at this auction house where "you've got to be a millionaire to shop." However the bidding doesn't quite reach this league, partly because doubts have been expressed in the newspaper group owned by Farnham, that the ownership of the painting is questionable.
From a starting bid of £12,000 (laughable by today's standards!) it rises slowly, until a Frenchman, Scionneau (Martin Miller) interrupts the dignified calm, claiming he is the owner. Souter and Shoesmith quietly eject him and the bidding continues, Farnham being one bidder, but Ware hasn't even got to the sale. The winning bid is for a mere £36,500 from a Susannah Lane (Elizabeth Shepherd), but "who is she acting for?"
Souter learns the answer when he delivers the Monet to her home. She's bought it jointly with one Christopher Searle (Barry Justice) an employee of Ware, but who has fallen out with his boss. The pair plan to resell the picture to start up their own gallery, and they ask Ian Souter to look after the Monet until they find a buyer.
The blustering Ware, angry that he has been doublecrossed offers them a maximum of £42,000, but that is rejected. So Ware arranges for a mate called Tinker to duff Searle up. He then promises to get Scionneau back his painting- for a consideration!
Whittle, a solicitor, tells Susannah and Chris he has an prospective buyer for them, a rich French widow. A figure of £45,000 is agreed and Bob Shoesmith is despatched to Paris with the Monet.
Ian Souter, conicidentally, is flying to France on behalf of Farnham, at the same time as Bob is boarding the Golden Arrow with his clients- "roll on the Channel Tunnel," he says presciently.
The train screeches to a halt, and two of Tinker's men snatch the painting. Bob has to break the bad news to his partner, but he and his clients are in for a surprise. The stolen picture was a forgery made by Heather, Ian Souter had secretly brought the real Monet over to Paris himself. He'd been highly suspicious of the French widow story.
So Ware is disappointed, but Susannah and Chris are pleased to sell for £47,000 - to Farnham.
11 "Who Killed Lazoryck?" (6th June 1964) - After serving five years of his twelve year sentence, Pearce Kettner (Esmond Knight) has been released on medical grounds. His daughter Janice (Patricia English) is worried he might do "something stupid" for this "poet pacifist" always maintained he was framed for being a communist spy and killing Peter Lazoryck, a known spy. Chief witness against him had been Lord Keele (Peter Williams), and why has Kettner ordered his secretary Christina to moor his houseboat La Querencia suspiciously near to Lord Keele's home in Bandersly?
"What I have to do must be done alone," he tells his daughter, so how can Ian Souter "protect a man who doesn't want to be protected?" And when Lord Keele is found with a knife in his back Kettner is "the obvious suspect." But luckily, Souter had been watching him on his boat, and can supply an alibi. Nevertheless Souter manages to have a heart to heart with the convicted spy, going over the day he was arrested. Lazoryck had been knocked on the head with a spanner just before Kettner had been going to visit him about his paintings, for he was "a painter of some merit." Keele, who had known Kettner from their Cambridge days, and who was currently working with him on a scheme of cultural exchanges, had lied at the trial, even to the extent of saying Lazoryck had kept that appointment with Kettner that day.
Souter explores Bandersly, in the vague hope of unearthing something that will clear Kettner's name. But the search is interrupted by The Major, a spy who has been caused "considerable inconvenience" by Souter's inquiries. "You haven't a grain of evidence," rightly sneers the confident Major. Though Ian Souter is able to surmise fairly accurately how it must have been. "Keele only did what I told him," corrects the over-confident spy. The chat continues, sipping wine, The Major telling all, as this is to be his last assignment. And Souter's he adds. But he has gabbled too long, and they fight. The Major is shot by one of his own men, then the police drop in, late as ever.
Kettner says he's almost sorry for Keele who'd been under The Major's thumb for years. There's one last traitor to expose, who claims "the party is my life- I had no choice." A familiar epitaph. The last line of philosophy is Kettner's

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Sergeant Cork (1963-6) with John Barrie
The jokey name that workers on the series used for it was "H-Cabs" (ie hansom cabs).
"The idea came to me," the creator claimed, "when I was reading about the history of the CID." He describes Sergeant Cork thus- a bachelor in his 40's living in lodgings in Bayswater.
"Playing Cork has undoubtedly been one of the happiest periods of my life," later claimed Barrie. "We're an extremely contented team. My only ill-comfort as Cork is the clothes I wear- heavy tweed coats. Under those hot studio lights they can be very uncomfortable." But one thing he really had baulked at was having a moustache, until producer Jack Williams told him it was "essential."
66 stories were made from 1963 up until the final series in 1966. However this last series was not networked, and was not premiered in some ITV regions until as late as 1968- proof that it existed on videotape. Each story was strung out to an hour, with John Barrie stolid but uninspiring as the 1890's policeman.
Who played Cork's stodgy asssistant Bob Marriott? Answer

My review of 26 (Series 3#5) Case 5329 "The Case of the Elegant Mistress" (2nd May 1964) - Police dash to a large house when they hear shots at night. PC Elms tends to a dying army officer, PC Peters (Norman Mitchell) cautions the lady with him.
Landlady Mrs Wharton says her tenant, or "guest", Mrs Sanders (Moira Redmond), had been under a week's notice to quit, because she had been entertaining men in her rooms. "It couldn't be more clear cut," at least to Supt Rodway, since she admits shooting Captain Bell, a family man who is in the Coldstream Guards. She even has 50 sovereigns taken from the man who has now died.
Sergeant Cork is puzzled why the accused lady acquiesces in her fate. He learns she had once been married to Sir Morris Hampshire (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) and Bob Marriott is sent to find out more about their failed marriage. But the rich Sir Morris is only anxious for his name to be kept out of any scandal. Rodway, meanwhile, gets Mrs Sanders to admit that she had left her husband after she had wrongly been named in an adultery case as the other woman. Her personal fortune had been left with him, and even more sadly, "they took my children from me."
The rent for Mrs Sanders' flat was paid by Col Scott-Dunning, Bell's senior officer. Dunning does not see eye to eye with Cork, who questions him about his movements the night of the shooting. An alibi is supplied by some other men in the regiment. But he has to admit that Mrs Sanders was his mistress.
Though the soldiers supporting his alibi remain firm, Lt Harding's conscience gets the better of him, and he admits that fifty sovereigns had been bet that wild night, against the keys of Mrs Sanders' flat. Bell had won. Revolted by this degradation, she had shot him in defence of "her virtue." An explanation is offered as to why she has only just revealed this....
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The Corridor People

In 1966 the brilliant Edward ('Eddie') Boyd wrote this regrettably short series, one of several offbeat dramas he created for Granada. A stylish, self-confident programme, full of enigmatic characters. Eddie once said "it's the characters, not me, who decide what happens. Quite often they run away with the story. It's one long improvisation, almost." Yet it panned out jolly well!
The host of inventive and eccentric characters included: John Sharp as Kronk, head of Dept K at the Ministry of Defence. Miss Dunner (June Watson) is his nervous but eager secretary. His yes men are Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound (Alan Curtis and William Maxwell), a double act, two minds that beat as one, as they enter and exit Kronk's office to do his bidding, "blooming messenger boys, that is all we are." On the other side is Elizabeth Shepherd as an enemy agent, the seductive Syrie van Epp ("I do everything very well")- she really exults in her role as a scheming alluring female, a hint maybe of how she played her role in the aborted Avengers film that was scrapped. Whatever her failings there, she makes this series. Acting as one of Kronk's agents, though he's not averse to money from Syrie, is private eye Scrotty (Gary Cockrell), as dingy as his name, in a backstreet office dominated by a giant poster of Humphrey Bogart. Some of his fine lines often reflect the Master too.
The sets were deliberately, if also conveniently, sparse, making for a theatrical mood, but also acting as a contrast to Elizabeth Shepherd's exotic wardrobe. Derek Hilton provided a fine jazzy score. It's a shame only four stories were made, as this series was certainly as way-out as the imminent The Prisoner, without any of that programme's obscure irritations. Offbeat this is, but it is performed with a gusto that proves everyone enjoyed making it and having a laugh at themselves, and at this level, this was, in retrospect, Granada's high spot, along with The Odd Man, in original drama.

Very sadly, these are the only stories made, but at least they are now available on dvd.
1 Victim as Birdwatcher
2 Victim as Whitebait
3 Victim as Red
4 Victim as Black

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1 Victim as Birdwatcher (25th/26th August 1966)-

Capture of a birdwatcher (Tim Barrett). He had been watching the "greater crested train robber," when a glorious white vision had dawned on his binoculars and he had been knocked unconscious.
Syrie van Epp, now in black, has imprisoned this Christopher Vaughan. He owns a crucial share in Templar Cosmetics. "You have something I need," she explains to him. His answer is no.
Sir Wilfred Templar (Clive Morton) commissions Phil Scrotty to find his godson Vaughan, the son of his old cricketing partner. As Scrotty is working for both sides, he gets Sir Wilfred to talk to Syrie's prisoner, though his visit is not much comfort, "bite the bullet" he advises. But the singleminded Vaughan resists everything Syrie and her henchman Weedy throw at him, so Syrie resorts to the ultimate. Now she's in white again, and they are to get married...
Kronk of Dept K has had his minions searching for Vaughan. Sullavan (Windsor Davies) as well as Insp Blood and Sgt Hound. The reason for this fine attention to Christopher Vaughan is revealed by the flighty Candy, the girl friend of research chemist Pym, who had accidentally discovered a scent "that turned her into an imbecile for 24 hours." The effects wear off, though it seems Candy was always like that. Pym has destroyed all his files, and the bottles of the scent, though of course he might still fall into enemty hands...
Kronk has a job for Miss Dunner- shoot the double dealing Scrotty. She enjoys that enormously.
With the Templar share now due to Syrie on their marriage, Vaughan is freed. Yet now he falls into the hands of Kronk who demands that share "in the national interest." Vaughan is blinded by love and cannot accept Kronk's portrayal of his beloved as a future merry widow. So Vaughan is put on trial, charged with being "a wilful and contumacious enemy of the realm." Guilty. Bang! Thus the state inherits his share.
Syrie has had her own problems too. Her faithful Weedy is not so faithful, he's a stiff upper crust type, working for the other side. But Kronk still ain't got the drug and look, Syrie is now ravishing Pym. "I am wearing this--- that nightgown, in his memory," she tells him. Will he tell her his formula...?
To Corridor People episode details

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2 Victim as Whitebait (recorded 24 August 1966 for transmission the following week) -

Hounds are baying, mist swirling as Elizabeth Shepherd camps it up on Graveyard Patrol at the empty grave of detective Phil Scrotty. Not that he was ever dead, an "elaborate hoax." Miss Dunner who had shot him, is hauled over the coals by Kronk her boss, though it wasn't her fault- she'd been given blanks.
The drunken "pet scientist" of Syrie's, Robag (Aubrey Morris), who has hit on this desirable scientific secret of bringing the dead back to life, knows it's "something to do with fish." That must be Whitebait, one genuinely dead body who has just been brought back to life, though it's unfortunate his young wife Abigail has wanted him dead. So she can be ravished by Phil Scrotty.
"My dead husband just walked in the door!" Mrs Abigail Whitebait ("high income bracket, low on IQ") tells Scrotty. He's the living proof of Robag's brilliant discovery. But Robag's not going to share his secret with anyone, for Syrie's henchman shoots him. Miss Dunner is another of their unfortunate victims, failing in her latest mission for Kronk.
"Why aren't you dead?" Kronk greets Scrotty, who is given his next job, to unearth recluse accountant Samson Whitby who can prove Syrie van Epp's employer de Farge is a swindler, doctoring the books to the tune of three million.
In a memorable scene in the park, Syrie pushes a pram containing the biggest baby you ever did see. For a toy, read machine gun. She aims to silence Whitby but "the poet of double dealing," Scrotty himself has the last laugh for it's Whitebait who has been lured to the park bench, who is shot dead for a second time, and all on account of the desirable Abigail. Ditto for Samson, and thus de Farge is immune from prosecution.
Kronk is in hysterics over Scrotty's double dealing, who is far too busy walking into the sunset with Abigail

OK, so the plot is a gigantic muddle with a lot of loose ends, but oh those characters, they really do make up for it all!

To Corridor People

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3 Victim as Red -
"A nut, a real nut" Scrotty tells us of his client who has been searching for his brother these past seven years. There is this manuscript, the blueprint for a fictional robbery that later took place. A train robbery (topical eh?), "how very very strange."
The author, missile expert Col Hugo Leeming (John Woodnut) has now allegedly lost his memory, but he once was in charge of a missile testing station, but disappeared seven years ago, and was presumed to have defected. He was even alleged to have been spotted in a Russian shop buying a record.
In fact he had been kept a prisoner in a seedy boarding house guarded by his landlady, a Mrs Winkle. But he's now escaped, and he has somehow landed up in Syrie van Epp's Rolls. She is keen to "look after" him ("business with pleasure") in a quest for two million quid.
But Kronk wants him and the cash too, since Mrs Betty Kempsford, her "show business career in pieces" (Betty McDowall) was the colonel's first wife and she's also on the trail. Her second husband, the late Abel Kempsford, had been one of the train robbers ("the colonel's lady married the convict's wife").
Scrotty is also engaged by her to find her first husband. Who will succeed?
Well it has to be Syrie, for she has him! She succeeds in unlocking Leeming's amnesia by playing him record after record, until a recording of Please Be Kind reminds him of his ex-wife's big hit.
It is Kronk of course who gets his man betrayed by Syrie: "some people are unlucky at cards, some with women and others with horses. But you, colonel, have been unlucky with gramophone records!"
In this Cold War story, there is of course plenty of double dealing, but Scrotty and Syrie finally corner "The Big Man." Betty has to admit to Kronk that "the party knows best."
Scrotty gets £5,000 for his troubles plus Syrie.

Although the script tails off slightly in the final act, it mostly sparkles as the cast ham it up with relish

To Corridor People

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4 Victim as Black -
"Shoplifter extraordinary" the Queen Mother Helena of Morphalia is back in town, incognito. Syrie van Epp is preening her peacock (literally) when the queen calls on her to ask her to help trace her "half-witted" son King Ferdinand XVIII who is chasing some girl called Pearl (Nina Baden-Semper). She's a black girl, and Phil Scrotty has also been retained by the king to find her- his only clue: one Cinderella-like slipper. when she's found the king wants to marry her. How nice.
Also after her is Theobald Aboo who offers to pay Scotty NOT to find her! To reinforce his point, his two henchmen beat up this "white rubbish." Scrotty winds up in hospital where Syrie comforts him, well at least she's more comfort than Inspector Blood.
From his sick bed, Scrotty persuades Syrie's maid (Pauline Collins) to conduct his search, but as it happens she is an old work colleague of Pearl's - they both were usherettes in a cinema. She tells Syrie where Pearl is, for more money, who tells Aboo.
"I'm not just a pretty face," the searched-for Pearl confides to us viewers in a mysterious monologue on racial tolerance.
Meanwhile of course, Kronk has been watching all of 'em. His department has an absurd machine which can analyse the data and summarise the plot: "The machine speaks... Aboo is after Black World Domination with a European Base." I should have guessed. So the solution is "Keep Morphalia White!" "This is ridiculous," cries Kronk, echoing our own thoughts- has the machine been wrongly programmed? Or has this programme?
For the first time Syrie and Kronk meet as they agree on how to resolve the situation, to Syrie's financial advantage. There's a final sequence as the characters explain their roles:
Syrie tells us "all I do is manipulate the moment," while Aboo tells us "the white man is yesterday." He explains he abhors mixed marriages. Kronk summons the Duty Assassin, to finish Pearl off. King Ferdinand enthuses at his return to his country: "they're even going to give me my own bomb!" A puppet of our government you feel. Rejoicing at this news is the queen. Now she can go shoplifting in her own country. Scrotty lies on his bed of pain, "who's losing, who's winning?" he raves. The last scene belongs to Pearl, a gun trained at her head, in this oddball finish. But I end with a line that sums up this fascinating series, "there are no mad like the sane mad."
Taped Shows Menu

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The Man in Room 17
Room 17 was Somewhere in Whitehall, handling cases that baffle police. This 13 part Granada series started on 11th June 1965 with Richard Vernon starring as Oldenshaw an "ex-Oxford type with a superior IQ," and Michael Aldridge as Dimmock, "Oldenshaw's red-brick equal."
For more background, and episode details

2.1 How to Rob a Bank and Get Away with It (8th April 1966)
This is a typically way-out Granada Friday night offering, but by 1966 this genre was really just past its sell-by date.
Suspicious characters at a bank! "Hand over the money now!" Manager George Horton (Brian Wilde) deals efficiently with the situation, only to be told it's a film, by the latest wave of Cinema Verite directors, the celebrated Saroya, who explains that head of the Wessex Bank, Sir Giles, had granted permission for the project. But Horton is fuming at his not being informed. However flattery convinces this amateur actor that he and his wife should agree to appear in this latest Saroya film.
"A blueprint for a perfect robbery," is this film, and as a precaution Room 17 send Bob Henty to join the film crew.
Rehearsals at the Horton home are proceeding painfully slowly. But there's a frightening development, when Horton receives a phone call stating his daughter Christine has been kidnapped. Is it part of the film? Saroya isn't telling, but he does advise Horton to follow instructions and not contact the police.
Another call from the kidnappers demands Horton opens the vaults of his bank, but to do that he needs the keys of his assistant, Davies, and he's not at home.
What to do? Saroya admits he's actually impersonating the famous director, it's his devious plan to rob the bank. Why such a charade is less obvious.
Room 17 arrange for the police to call at the Horton's: "is this an amateur film?" asks the copper. "The Hortons look tense and frightened," is the report sent to Room 17. Henty has sent them rushes of the film shot at home and the penny drops: "this is a real bank robbery."
The robbery is now taking place as Davies has been contacted. "The climax of our film" as the vault is opened. Horton locks himself inside and demands to see his daughter. But it's a futile gesture, the keys are snatched from him, and he is forced to open the bank safe.
Now the script describes the crooks making for the nearest airport, to a waiting private plane. But the police have read the script and Saroya is caught, though his scriptwriter Simpson (Mike Pratt) flies away with the loot. But at Gatwick Airport ("such an unimaginative place!") he too is arrested.
Taped Shows Menu

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Mr Rose (1967/8)
William Mervyn's character of Charles Rose first made his appearance in The Odd Man and remained a popular feature of Granada's Friday night viewing for several years.
By the time he was awarded his own tv series in 1967, the character created by Eddie Boyd had become considerably less acerbic.

3.4 The Jolly Good Fellow (28th November 1968)
(An interesting edited draft complete script of this story can be viewed on the internet.)
Mr Rose is in his Rolls with Robert Trent, off to St Stephen's College, where he is being made a fellow. But that old trick, a diversion sign, leads him straight into the hands of a lot of masked student loonies."You've just been kidnapped," they inform him, as part of their Rag Week. But a generous ransom and Mr Rose finally reaches the college safely.
An old colleague, Sgt Pilbeam, is there. His job is to guard a valuable modern painting by Daniel Butler, that is being donated to the college by an eccentric millionaire Sir Gilbert Treece. His nephew, Dashwood, is a research student at St Stephen's.
Prof Fawcett gives Rose and Trent a conducted tour of the buildings, including the chapel where hangs a large and valuable sixteenth century painting. The college can't even afford to insure it. They also see the crypt, where Sir Gilbert's picture is being stored, prior to the presentation ceremony on the morrow. Rose and Pilbeam examine the crate in which it is kept, and are shocked to see inside also a copy of the old sixteenth century master.
Rose attends the rag ball, with some very with-it dancers, but poor Trent is assigned to keep watch in the chapel... The door creaks open, and several students overcome Robert.
Next morning Rose awakens him. The painting has gone. "I helped them take the picture out of the frame," Robert confesses, "it's only a rag week stunt." But that's where he's wrong!
Mr Rose orders the students to return the picture in time for the rag week service.
This is a curiously protracted scene, presumably as a whole choir had been paid for, we get three verses of the hymn Lead Kindly Light. I presume, as we are not shown the reinstated painting until the end of this scene, that it is intended as some kind of dramatic device, but it falls flat.
Next scene is the unveiling of Sir Gilbert's picture. In a drawn out final denouement, Dashwood is accused by Rose of replacing the chapel painting with a fake, with the connivance of his so-called uncle. Rose, in his dry way, gives the young man a dressing down.
Then on film, we see Rose walking in the garden reserved for fellows of the college. Yes he was a Jolly Good Fellow, even if, by this story, he was also jolly mellow.
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Sherlock Holmes (1951)
starring John Longden as the immortal detective and Campbell Singer as Dr Watson
The Case of The Man Who Disappeared
Based on the Conan Doyle story The Man with the Twisted Lip
Neville St Clair (Hector Ross), a patient of Dr Watson, has disappeared. A "very old friend" Marie had come to his home one day and insisted he obeys orders, or else.......
Kate his wife (Ninka Dolega), seeks SH's help. She doesn't know who the woman was, but she has found out her husband's alleged place of work does not exist.
SH examines the area around this address, and follows a mysterious match seller through a graveyard and on to Redmead Lane near Tower Bridge. Kate is brought there and spots her husband through a window. In rushes SH to find St Clair dead in the room. When the police arrive the corpse has of course disappeared from the match seller's room. But there is some clothing that belongs to St Clair, and his coat is found underneath the window on the bank of the Thames. The house is a shady opium den owned by Luzatto (Walter Gotell).
Against all this evidence, Kate still believes her husband is alive. "I ought to be kicked from here to Baker Street," jokes SH as he concurs with her. The key is in the bathroom of the house, he adds cryptically.
Kate's intuition seems to be substantiated when she receives an anonymous letter in printed letters cut from a magazine stating Neville is alive. SH of course can deduce much from this missive. It's from a woman.
He breaks into the property of this lady, Doreen alias Marie, at the opium den belonging to Luzatto, to ask her why she'd sent the note. Answer: "Neville told me to." Luzatto had been blackmailing Neville St Clair because he thought he had killed Doreen's husband. Neville had feigned death when SH had found his corpse earlier- incredible that SH was so taken in! Nevertheless, SH persuades her to set a trap.
The crooks break into Baker Street and capture SH. At least they think it's SH, though it's actually DrW. He's taken to Luzatto, who realising the error, orders DrW to write a note to SH ordering him to come to the den. But in breaks SH and there's a fight, during which, with typical sneakiness Luzatto creeps away.
When the fisticuffs are over, the match seller is shown to be Neville, who'd been a virtual prisoner of the evil Luzatto. He's exonerated of the crime he thought he was guilty of, so they all live happily etc etc
Crime Menu . . For the 1954 Sherlock Holmes series starring Ronald Howard . . For the 1965 Douglas Wilmer series

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Boyd QC
starring Michael Denison in the title role, a well-respected, highly professional man-about-the courts. Richard Boyd QC is in demand by all kinds of clients. Some of his cases include murder, fraud, forgery, blackmail and poison pen letters.
One of A-R's big successes, the series ran from late 1956 until 1964, with time off, of course, for good behaviour. I estimate approx 85 stories were made.
Writer of all the stories was Jack Roffey, who also plays a court official.
Introducing each story, and acting as narrator was Boyd's clerk (Charles Leno).
The set was an adaptation of Courts Three and Four at the Old Bailey, though this was never actually referred to, in the stories.

Note on actors in the series.
In addition to those listed below, the following have also stated they appeared in this series, though the actual story is not at present known:
Michael Bates, Mark Dignam, Raymond Francis (most probably series 1), William Franklyn, Jeremy Geidt, Mervyn Johns, David Blake Kelly, Doreen Keogh (series 1), Paul Massie, Jill Melford, George Mikell, Charles Morgan, Isa Miranda (not series 1 or 2), Peter Stephens, June Thorburn, Susan Travers, Selma vaz Dias, Mavis Villiers, Lockwood West.

Series 1 ran for 13 weekly stories, commencing Christmas Eve 1956.
1:1 Her Father's Daughter
Designed by George Haslam. Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
Synopsis: what was the secret of Ruth Martin that turned the case for James Lavers?
The first ever episode.

1:2 The Greenstreet Girl
December 31st 1956.
Designed by George Haslam. Directed by Cliff Owen.
Synopsis: Judy Greenstreet, a secretary, endeavours to evade the amorous advances of her boss. The situation which ensues involves her in a charge of arson.

1:3 The Case of Casanova Jones
Monday 7th January 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott
Cast includes: Junia Crawford.
To quote Boyd himself- "When is a bigamist not a bigamist?" The results of the marital adventures of a soldier, Pte Jones.

1:4 The Ordinary-Looking Man
Monday 14th January 1957
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
A case of diamond smuggling as
Boyd defends Isaac Rosentiel.

1:6 The Light Tackle Job
Monday 28th January 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott.
A violent criminal on the run can be gentle enough with the woman who loves him, but to the public at large he is a potential killer.

1:9 Both Sides of the Story
Monday February 18th 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott.
'The Stage' reported the following were part of this cast:
Betty McDowall... Defence Counsel
Christine Pollon... Helen Porter

1:10 The Light That Was Dark
February 25th 1957, 8pm
Directed by Michael Currer- Briggs
Synopsis: Hate and blackmail provide important elements in this case, where Richard Boyd defends a fascinating and sophisticated woman who is accused of murder.

1.12 The Key of the Door
March 11th 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott
Synopsis: Minks and sables, beautiful furs worth thousands of pounds are stolen on a Sunday afternoon. Only one person could have done it- according to the prosecution.

Series 2 with 12 stories started on 9th April 1958.
2.3 The Shropshire Lass
Wednesday 23rd April 1958 7.30pm
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
Synopsis: Ken Morris pleads guilty. Did his beautiful girl friend know the truth?

2.6 Two Wrongs
May 14th 1958
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
Synopsis: Armed robbery is a serious offence in the eyes of the law. In this episode, the Court's work is made difficult through a case of mistaken identity.

Series 3 ran for 16 weekly episodes from 30 December 1958.
3.2 Nylon Spells Murder
Tuesday January 6th 1959, 10.15pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
Synopsis: When a man has been killed and the case is being considered, a most important factor is time- that is, the time in which the intention to kill was formed. Without that intention, a killing is not murder; it may not even be manslaughter.

3:9 In Camera
Broadcast: 24th February 1959
Directed by Geoffrey Hughes
Cast:
John Welsh... Sgt Bolton
Peter Bull... Morley
Brenda Hogan... Elizabeth Wayne
William Abney... Robert Welsh
Charles Gray... Tickle
Also in cast:
Ronald Leigh-Hunt... Braber
Ronald Cardew... Judge
Graham Leaman... Clerk of the Court
Malcolm Watson...Usher (recurring)

3.12 The Crooked Path
Tues March 17th 1959 10.15pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
Synopsis: 'It worked in the film so it must work in real life' is an attitude encountered in the courts all too frequently.
This week, Boyd defends a case of attempted murder- a case which need never have happened if Bill Whelan had faced up to life's problems.

Series 4 started on 29 June 1960 and ran for thirteen (or maybe twelve) stories.
4:1 A Case of M'Shimba
Wed 29 June 1960 8pm
George Albert Memorial Odapi arrives in England and is soon in trouble with the police.
Boyd, as the man's defending counsel, discovers the defence lies in obscure tribal law.
Cast:
Dan Jackson... Odapi
Barbara Assoon... Martha Shimboko
Millard Williams... Tom Bates
Malcolm Keen... Judge
John Horsley... Mr Fraser
Lawrence James... PC Shaw
Edward Harvey... Mr Hornham
Malcolm Watson...Usher
Weyman MacKay... Clerk of the court
Corinne Skinner/Zoe Adams... African girls
Benny Nightingale/ Slim Harris... African men

4:2 Hell Hath No Fury
Wed 6 July 1960 8pm
Synopsis: Take two women, one man, a pinch of jealousy, a blade of malice- but do not stir these ingredients or you will have a first-class explosion.
Cast:
Gwen Cherrell... Helen Laird
Alfred Burke... Prosecuting counsel
Noel Johnson... Paul Soames
Annette Kerr... Mrs Soames
John Dunbar... Mr Howarth
Peter Collingwood... Mr Moate
Geoffrey Denys... The Judge
Weyman MacKay... Clerk of the court
Owen Berry... Usher

4:4 One for the Road
Wed 20 July 1960 8pm
Directed by Pat Baker
Synopsis: A car in the hands of a drunk can be a lethal weapon and 'one of the road' can lead to sudden death as quickly and surely as the hangman's rope.
Cast:
Bill Kerr... Lewis Gorman
Leonard Sachs... Prosecuting Counsel
Peter Rosser... Harry Bennett
Glyn Houston... Det-Insp Brown
Jeffrey Segal... Dr Martin
Peter Fraser... Peter Dalton
Ronald Cardew... The Judge
Claude Jones... Knowles
Trevor Maskell... Det-Sgt Smithers
Arthur Lawrence... Grindley
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of the Court
Owen Berry... Usher

4:5 Jellied Eeels They're Luv'ly
Wed 27 July 1960 8pm.
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs
Storyline- Rosie's eels and pies are 'doing very nicely,' but her ambitions grow too large against the better judgement of her crafty accomplice Willie.
Cast-
Megan Latimer... Rosie Gould
George Tovey... Willie Walters
Sheila Ballantine... Lottie Machin
Molly Lumley... Old woman
Geoffrey Hibbert... Alf Parker
Patrick Newell... Bert
Geoffrey Denys... Judge (in several of this series)
Donald Eccles... Mr Limpkin
Anthony Sagar... Dt-Insp Douglas
Owen Berry... Usher (also in other stories)
Betty Cardno... Mrs Painter
Mignon O'Doherty... Mrs Toogood
Louise Stafford... Mrs Noakes

4:6 The Decoy Chick:
Wednesday 3 August 1960 8pm
directed by Pat Baker.
The Homicide Act of 1957 divides murder into two categories: 'capital' murder- punishable by death; and 'non-capital' murder- punishable by life imprisonment.
Sometimes as a result, a man's life depends on nothing but a pure technicality. Jim Lyons is a case in point.
Cast:
Bryan Coleman... Prosecuting counsel
Barry Warren... James Lyons
John Barrie... Det-Supt Knott
Diane Clare... Helen Mackenzie
George Howe... Dr Lifford
Harold Goodwin... Stent
Gordon Whiting... Turley
Brian McDermott... Snaith
Reginald Smith... The Judge
Lionel Gamlin... Mr Lermitt
Ian Clark... Standish
Michael Oxley... Webster
Anthony Dawes... Mann
Weyman MacKay... Clerk of the court
Owen Berry... Usher

4:7 Uncle George
10 August 1960 8pm
The story: Every so often someone will try to pervert the true course of justice, and such was the case when Boyd was sitting as Special Commissioner at Springfield Assizes
William Squire... Mr Corby
Redmond Phillips... George Pack
Leslie Weston... Mr Martin
Mary Watson... Joanna Harriden
Barrie Cookson... Jonathan Courtenay
John Kidd... Dr Sullivan
Colin Tapley... Det-Inspector Fuller
Edna Petrie... Miss Ralton
Frank Pemberton... Usher
John Boddington... Clerk

Series 5 ran for 13 episodes, commencing 24 May 1961.
5:1 The Needle Match
Wed 24 May 1961 8pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
David Spencer, international football star, is accused of killing an opposing player by deliberately dangerous play during a needle match.
Pete Murray... David Spencer
Maureen Connell... Ruth Hanson
Sheila Raynor... Mrs Spencer
Wensley Pithey... Mr Wodhurst
John Miller... Judge
Richard Wakeley... Lewis
Peter Welch... Monro
Kent Walton... Commentator
Ronald Mayer... Mr Straker

5:2 The Old Flame
Wed 31 May 1961 8pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Boyd defends a young doctor who is brought before the General Medical Council accused of improper conduct with a woman patient.
Cast:
Barrie Cookson... Dr Matthews
Hal Dyer... Mr Matthews
Fred Hugh... Mr Stunt
Owen Holder... Mr Hakin
Christine Finn... Marion Shaw
Ralph Nossek... Geoffrey Shaw
Alan MacNaughtan... Mr Walton
Langley Howard... President

5:3 Treasure Trove
Wednesday 7th June 1961 8.55pm
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Synopsis: The finding of buried treasure at Staddon Hall involves Boyd in the defence of its owners, the Carpenters.
Cast:
Charles Carson... Oswald Carpenter
Barbara Leake... Phyllis Carpenter
Peter Elliott... Peter Day
Edward Higgins... Dt-Supt Brooks
Ronald Ibbs... Edward Rickard
Leslie Weston... Sam White
Robert Webber... Mr Clark
Horace Sequeira... Judge
Terence Woodfield... Richard's junior

5: 4 Out of the Frying Pan
Wed 14 June 1961 8.55pm
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Synopsis: Boyd QC, acting as Commissioner at the County Assizes, gives a young junior a chance to act for the defence in a case of bigamy.
Cast:
Gillian Raine... Miss Robins, barrister
Noel Howlett... Mr Corby QC
Carl Lacey... Clerk
Pearl Nunez... Emmeline Davis
Dan Jackson... Johnson
Lionel Ngakane... Davis
Donald Hoath... Dt-Sgt Roper
William Douglas... Prison officer

5:5 Family Business
Wed 21 June 1961 8.55pm
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs
Synopsis: Boyd's father is sued for breach of contract over the sale of a collection of jade.
Cast:
Austin Trevor... Brig. Boyd
Phyllida Law... Susan Boyd
Campbell Singer... Col Berringer
Bay White... Mrs Berringer
Donald Stewart... Steinbeck
Moira Kaye... Secretary
Avril Elgar... Valerie Hodges
Nigel Davenport... Meadows QC
Noel Dryden... Solictor
Brian Hayes... Judge
Colin Rix... Court attendant
Malcolm Watson... Associate
Roger Williams... Usher

5:6 Messing about in Boats
Thursday 29 June 1961 8pm
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Synopsis- Steven Blackford and Alexandra Haydon are sentenced to life imprisonment. To Boyd QC something appears wrong with the case and he finds grounds to bring them before the Court of Criminal Appeal.
Cast- Gillian Raine... Miss Robins
Henry McGee... Parker
John Wyse... President
John Boyd Brent... Mr Baker
Richard Clarke... Steven Blackford
Julie Paul... Alexandra Haydon
Ann Tirard... Harriet Haydon
David Evans... Paul Haydon
Frank Seton... Barman
Keith Pyott... Simpson
Jeremy Geldt... Dr Bassett
Pamela Hewes... Miss Trevor

5:7 Findings Keepings
Thursday July 6th 1961 8pm
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs
Synopsis: Once more Jimmy Burris is in trouble- and once more Boyd agrees to defend him. But this time there is a ten year sentence hanging over Jimmy's head if the jury finds him guilty.
Leslie Dwyer... Jimmy Burris
Margaret Bull... Miss Manners
Erik Chitty... Mr Prendergast
Jean Conroy... Barmaid
Chris Carlsen... Reg Carpenter
Manning Wilson... Billy Hilder
Edmond Bennett... First henchman
Max Miradio... Second henchman
Edward Dentith... Police sergeant
Allman Hall... Mr Gregory
Reginald Smith... Judge
Weyman MacKay... Clerk (recurring)
Owen Berry... Usher (recurring)

5:8 The Runabout
Thur 13 July 1961 8pm
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Synopsis: A pretty girl is 'had up' for speeding- a twist of fate finds Boyd defending her at the Old Bailey on a far more serious charge.
Cast:
Penelope Horner... Kathleen Ewen
Ivor Salter... Dt Insp Courtenay
John Wentworth... Mr Ewen
Weyman MacKay... Clerk (recurring)
Barry Sinclair... Mr Fleet QC
William Kendall... Mr Blake
Michael Bangerter... Jonathan Blake
Brian Hayes... Judge (recurring)
Owen Berry... Usher (recurring)

5.9 Sunday's Child
Thursday 20th July 1961 8pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
An elderly couple are charged with abandoning a baby in a country church. There is no doubt that they are guilty but the problem is- whose child is it?
Eileen Devlin... Mrs Douglas
Elsie Wagstaff... Mrs Davis
Oliver Johnston... Mr Davis
Bryan Coleman... Insp Burton
Daniel Thorndike... Mr Barclay
Eric Elliott... Clerk of the court
Anthony Bate... Desmond Francis
Virginia Maskell... May Davis

5.10 Roast Chicken
Thursday 27th July 1961 8pm
Directed by Sheila Gregg
Boyd goes to the country for a weekend's golf- but finds himself helping some friends involved in a case of arson.
Cast:
Ronald Leigh-Hunt... Tom Venning
Annabel Maule... Hilda Venning
Jack Carlton... Martin Vale
John Woodvine... Mr Clovier QC
Reginald Marsh... Dt Insp Holland
Charles Houston... Peter Dunn
Frank Gatliff... Magee
Brian Hayes... Judge (recurring)
Norman Atkyns... Barman

5:11 Death on Tap
Thur 3 Aug 1961 8pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Synopsis: James Wilson is committed for trial on a charge of murdering his wife. Richard Boyd is briefed to defend him.
Cast:
Laurence Hardy... James Wilson
Patsy Smart... Mrs Wilson
Ann Lynn... Betty
Catherine Woodville... Susan
William Devlin... Mr Stanley QC
Tony van Bridge... Inspector Dalston
Geoffrey Denys... Judge
Laidlaw Dalling... Bob Craddock
Sydney Wolf... Usher
Ronald Meyer... Mr Fry

5:12 The Headmistress
Thur 10 Aug 1961 8pm
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Synopsis: To the world, Marion Westbury, headmistress of a school for handicapped children, is a deeply religious and dedicated woman.
When Boyd QC defends her on a serious charge, he soon realises that it is going to be difficult.
The cast:
Gladys Boot... Marion Westbury
Aimee Delamain... Gladys Westbury
Bruce Wightman... Marriott
Dannis Handby... Lever
Ronald Adam... Mr Noel
Reginald Jessop... Inspector Rae
Trevor Baxter... Mr Austin QC
Donald Bissett... Judge
Carl Lacey... Judge's clerk
Billy Milton... Clerk
Hedger Wallace... Customs man
Lionel Wheeler... Prison officer

5:13 The Season of the Year
Thur 17 August 1961 8pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Synopsis: General Braithwaite cannot resist the temptation to poach salmon on his neighbour's estate. But his weakness leads him into deeper water than he bargained for.
Cast:
Roger Livesey... General Braithwaite
Austin Trevor... Brigadier Boyd (recurring)
Michael O'Halloran... McBean
Norman Bird... Police sergeant
Derek Tansley... Mr Draper QC
Brian Hayes... Judge (recurring)
Norman Shelley... De Silva
Harry Littlewood... First poacher
Frank Pendlebury... Second poacher
Owen Berry... Usher (recurring)
Weyman MacKay... Clerk of Assize (recurring)
John Waite... Jury foreman
Alan Tucker... Keeper

Series 6 started in autumn 1963 and was not fully networked.
It seems to have run for 14 stories. I can only supply details for a few, but the titles of the 16 stories were announced by Associated Rediffusion as: 1 Fishy Story, 2 A Conspiracy of Silence, 3 Parlez-vous, 4 What the Eye Doesn't See (see 6.3 below), 5 Pictures in the Fire (see 6.9), 6 By Gas That's Murder, 7 The Fourteen Hundred Dollar Question, 8 Thread of Evidence (see 6.7 below), 9 No Hoper, 10 A Little Learning, 11 Square Peg (see 6.10 below), 12 The Reluctant Persecutor (sic- see 7.1 below), 13 The Case of the Lazy Eye (see 7.2 below), 14 The Hurricane, 15 The Simple Question, 16 End of Term (see 6.10). (Note- it is possible that stories numbered above 14 and 15 were never made.)
Some 'leading actors' announced to appear in this series were Dulcie Gray, Edgar Wreford (see 6.13), Guy Deghy, Kenneth Connor (see 6.3), Leslie Dwyer and Carl Bernard (6.9).

6:3 What the Eye Doesn't See
Friday 8 November 1963 10.5pm
Directed by Pat Baker
The story- As Chairman of the Appeals Committee at Springfield Magistrates Court, Boyd patiently hears the case of Bajendra Singh who was found guilty of serving Dins Dog Food in his Indian curry.
Cast: Kenneth Connor... Bajendra Singh
Roy Dotrice... Mr Jacobs
Jeffrey Segal... Mr Victor
John Woodnutt... Mr Jackson
Patrick Newell... Mr Pyecroft

6:7 Thread of Evidence
Friday 6 December 1963 10.5pm
Directed by Pat Baker
In the Civil Court, Boyd has a hard task defending a young couple, until his Junior comes to his assistance with her superior knowledge- not as a barrister, but as a woman.
Robert Brown... Adrian Marshall
Howard Douglas... Stationmaster
Bill Treacher... Arnold
Frank Littlewood... Clerk
Richard Bebb... Mr Eadey
Mary Yeomans... Mary Dunnett
Richard Thorp... Tom Dunnett
Joy Shelton... Ann Marshall
Kenneth Henry... Judge
Gilliane Raine... Sheila Robins
John Citroen... Douglas Aldwyn

6:9 Pictures in the Fire
Friday 20 December 1963
Directed by Richard Gilbert
A fire at the countess's London art salon, and Boyd finds himself defending her in court.
Isa Miranda... Contessa Anna Maria Villaresi
Carl Bernard... Tarquin Eley QC
Windsor Davies... Mr Wood
Brian Badcoe... Mr Price
Keith Pyott... Judge
Frank Seton... Shopkeeper
William Job... Adrian Marley
Martin Cookson... Usher

6:10 End of Term
Friday 27 December 1963
Directed by Pat Baker
Boyd accepts a dock brief from Bessie Mann, accused of stealing nine cage birds.
Clifford Mollison... Judge
Leonard Trolley... Clerk
Margot Boyd... Bessie Mann
Walter Sparrow... Prison Officer
Patricia Hayes... Miss Twiss
Peter Gale... Policeman
Ernest Clark... Mr Hinson
Owen Berry... Usher (recurring)
Barbara Bruce... Florrie Moss
Robert Hunter... Joshua Ireland

6:13 Square Peg
16th January 1964
Directed by Richard Gilbert
Boyd has recollections of his army days when he finds himself Defending Counsel at a district court martial.
Richard Warner... Sir Hugh Adair
Edgar Wreford... Major Alsop
George Tovey... Smudger Smith
Cavan Kendall... Private Adair
Patrick Connor... CSM Frazer
Hugh Morton... Mr McDermott
Stuart Nichol... President of Court Martial
Edward Phillips... Judge advocate's rep
John Maynard... First Recruit
Martin Appleby... Second Recruit
Clive Marshall... Third Recruit
Shane Rogers... Fourth Recruit
Martin Cort... Fifth Recruit

A final series 7 consisting of just two stories began on 16 September 1964.
(These stories had originally been announced for series six, but evidently there had not been time to screen them.)
7:1 The Reluctant Prosecutor
Directed by Richard Gilbert
16th September 1964
Synopsis:Boyd defends an American driven to crime by his hobby
Natalie Kent... Bessie White
Frederick Leister... Major General Boyd
Charles Carson... Toby Bailey
Terence de Marney... Hiram P Gruber
Derek Nimmo... Mr Barden
Donald Bisset... Magistrate
Cyril Wheeler... Magistrate's clerk
Fred Ferris... Sgt Wilkes
Christopher Wray... Court police officer

7.2: The Case of the Lazy Eye,
23 September 1964.
Directed by Raymond Menmuir.
In the last ever story, Boyd finds himself defending Halfern's Holiday Camps Ltd in a damage claim against them. As he thinks the company is clearly in the wrong it seems an open and shut case - until one witness makes a slip.
Cast:
Jack Melford... Mr Caston
Ernest Hare... Judge
Bert Brownshill... Mr Halfern
Leslie Sarony... Mr Grogan
Eric Dodson... Mr Ormeroyd
Derek Martinus... Mr Cox
Lavender Sansom... Nurse
Joe Gibbons... Mr Western
Anne Pichon... Mrs Western
Sarah O'Connor... Ann Western
Richard Longman... Mr Beresford
Richard Wilding... Usher
Derek Jones... Boy
---

To Boyd QC

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Murder Bag
Brief details of some of these live stories:

1.1 CASE 1: SEPTEMBER 16.
Monday September 16th 1957 9pm
Written and produced by Barry Baker
Directed by Jean Hamilton
When a Scotland Yard detective sets out to solve a murder, he takes with him a 'Murder Bag.' This exciting new series will show viewers how the contents of the bag are used to trap a murderer. The bag contains rubber gloves, small boxes of various sizes ansd shapes for holding clues like hair, ciragette ends, dust etc, a small but powerful magnifying glass, pliers, tweezers- everything the detective needs for his first survey of the crime.

CASE 4: OCTOBER 7
October 7th 1957
Written and produced by Barry Baker
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
When investigating a murder, things are not always what they seem, and an innocent face does not guarantee an innocent person.

CASE 6: OCTOBER 21
October 21st 1957
Written and produced by Barry Baker
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Murder by poisoning can be a very difficult
crime both to trace and to prove,
but it's harder to escape the evidence which
can be provided by using the Murder Bag.

CASE 12: DECEMBER 2
December 2nd 1957
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
According to the local police,
this is an open and shut case,
but when Supt Lockhart arrives on
the scene, he thinks differently.

CASE 15: DECEMBER 23
December 23rd 1957
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by David Boisseau.
Supt Lockhart investigates the theft of some turkeys. It's always happening at Christmas- but this time a man is killed.

CASE 17: JANUARY 6
January 6th 1958
Written by Barry Baker, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by David Boisseau.
In a quiet country village, a man has been murdered. There are plenty of clues for Supt Lockhart to work on, but it is village gossip which gives him a definite lead.

CASE 18: JANUARY 13
Jan 13th 1958
Written by Barry Baker, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by John Moxey.
Supt Lockhart uses the records department as well as the Murder Bag to track down a killer.

CASE 19: JANUARY 20
January 20th 1959
Written by Barry Baker, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Fredric Pusey.
Directed by David Boisseau.
Colonel Boulton is found murdered. The obvious supect is an escaped convict named Lofty Potter. But Supt Lockhart knows Lofty of old, and does not want to prefer a charge just yet.

CASE 20: JANUARY 27
January 27th 1959
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by John Moxey.
A murderer of unusual cunning matches his wits against the combined forces of Supt Lockhart and the Murder Bag.

CASE 21: FEBRUARY 3
February 3rd 1958
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies. Designed by Fredric Pusey.
Directed by David Boisseau.
Amy Carslake, American heiress, is found drowned in her bath. The bathroom door is locked, and it looks like a case of death by misadventure. But a photograph gets publicity, and the affair takes a different turn.

CASE 22: FEBRUARY 10
February 10th 1958
Written by Barry Baker, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
Even the rich can be involved in murder. Supt Lockhart- with the Murder Bag is called in to solve an unusual case.

CASE 23: FEBRUARY 17
February 17th 1958, now at 9.30pm
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies. Designed by Fredric Pusey. Directed by David Boisseau.
A night watchman is attacked, and a valuable consignment of nickel stolen. During the investigation, a case of robbery with violence becomes a double murder.

CASE 24
February 24th 1958
Written by Barry Baker
based on a Story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
To a tramp, two crossed arrows means 'go anywhere away from here,' but to Lockhart they can point the way to a murderer.

CASE 25: MARCH 3
March 3rd 1958
Written by Peter Ling based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by David Boisseau.
An old bicycle pump and the obduracy of a Swiss shipwright, seem to be the only clues in what Scotland Yard calls The Stolen Anchor Case.

CASE 26: MARCH 10
March 10th 1958
Written by Peter Ling
based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by John Clements.
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
Somebody in the gang talked too much, and the police are able to make a swift arrest. This adds up to a motive for murder. But as Supt Lockhart discovers, things are not always what they seem.

CASE 27: MARCH 17
March 17th 1958
Written by Peter Ling based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by John Moxey.
In the grim atmosphere of a prison, murder is committed. Supt Lockhart is presented with many suspects among the convicts.

2.2 (Case No. 32) LOCKHART BUYS A BROOCH
July 7th 1958 8pm
Written by Barry Baker based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Nerini.
Directed by Cyril Coke.
Unpremeditated and senseless killing is one of the most difficult types of murder to solve.

Note: Richard Thorpe also appeared in Murder Bag, in an unknown story.

To No Hiding Place

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Sergeant Cork
John Barrie starred in the title role, with William Gaunt as his assistant Bob Marriott. They appeared in all stories.
Theme music: Philip Green. Producer: Jack Williams.
Charles Morgan, as Supt Rodway starting with the third series, eventually received star billing alongside Barrie and Gaunt. He first appeared in a different character in #10, but became a regular as Supt Rodway in all series starting with series 3 (in all stories except #32, 47, 58).
It was announced that AJ Brown was to join the final series in 1966 as Assistant Commissioner John Thor(!), but I can only confirm his appearance in #43.
Other slightly regular characters appearing in some stories were: Freddie Fowler as Chalky White who was in all the series, but not every tale, on a semi-regular basis. He was definitely in these: 1, 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 14, 18, 19, 29, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 45, 48, 51, 57, 61, 62, 64, 65. Arnold Diamond as Insp Bird in later stories of the first series only (6, 7, 8, 10, 13, 14). John Richmond as Supt Nelson in 1, 8, 10, 12, 14. Carmen Silvera as Mrs Fielding in 2, 9 (she is also in #61 in a different role).
In the second series, Edward Ogden appeared as Sgt Gardner in 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 29, 30, 33, and Barry Raymond was PC Evans in 18, 19, 28, 39.
(Note: These characters are not listed in the cast lists below.)

1.1 Case of the Reluctant Widow
(Saturday June 29th 1963, 10pm)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Christopher Morahan.
If it was murder, who is responsible; the dead man's wife Julie Oxley (Jean Trend)? The young cafe assistant, Clive Graham (Christopher Guinee)? Sergeant Cork discovers the answer.
Others in the cast included: Howard Lang as Drayman, Hazel Coppen as Mrs Benny, Peter Halliday as Dr Cato, Hilda Barry as Kate Oxley, Lucy Griffiths as Lucy Wells, Gerald Case as Major Bradnock, Roger Avon as Insp Moss, Kathleen St John as Harriet, Bunty Bruce as Maria, Sydney Bromley as Tramp, George Day as Constable Page, Anthony Cundell as Police Sgt, Edward Argent as PC.

1.2 The Case of the Girl Upstairs
(July 6th 1963)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Quentin Lawrence. Lucy Beasley (Margaret Diamond) is certain a crime is being committed in her home, and she implores Sgt Cork to investigate. Is she a bitter, frustrated woman, out to cause trouble, or are her fears justified?
Also in this cast: guest star Joseph Furst as Ernst Lukas. Mary Kenton as Charity Beasley, Philip Latham as Arthur J Lowman MD, Meg Ritchie as Jane Beasley, Hilda Fenemore as Nellie, Richard Butler as George Morton.

1.3 The Case of the Two Drowned Men
(July 13th 1963)
Script: Bill MacIlwraith. Director: Philip Dale.
When Sgt Cork and Bob Marriott begin their investigations to find two criminals wanted for murdering a bank messanger, a tip-off takes them to the London waterfront where they uncover a sordid riverside trade.
Also in this cast: Paul Curran as Joe Hornby, Victor Brooks as Sgt Dempsey, Sheila Steafel as Annie Blake, Tony Beckley as Steve Gurling, Judy Child as Ma Strickley, Barbara Archer as Maud, James Mellor as Alf Blake, Georgina Patterson as Nancy Stevens, C Ruthven Mitchell as Sid, and Ray Austin as PC Mercer.

1.4 The Case of the Knotted Scarf
(July 20th 1963)
Script: Jon Manchip White. Director: Philip Dale.
Cork and Marriott are called in to investigate the murder of a retired general's young wife, found strangled in a derelict bungalow in the grounds of an old country house in Devon.
Also in this cast: Brewster Mason as General Langford, Valerie White as Mrs Henderson, Mischa de la Moote as Doctor, Edwina Carroll as Sorya, Royston Tickner as Insp Bolam, Robert Arnold as Jean-Pierre Ducane, Alan Haines as PC.

1.5 The Case of the Stagedoor Johnnie
(July 27th 1963)
Script: Richard Harris. Director: Philip Dale.
Kate Seymour (Eira Heath), a young star of the music hall, receives poison pen letters, threatening her engagement to Hon James Stratton (Michael Meacham), a stagedoor Johnnie. Cork investigates, finding himself in a tense backstage drama.
Also in this cast: guest star Cicely Courtneidge as Bessy Seymour, Robin Wentworth as Harry Marlowe, Jeremy Longhurst as Lord George Creighton, Peter Hoar as Chairman, Fred Hugh as Waiter, John Heawood as Dancer, David Burke as Arthur Stephens, Lyn Ashcroft and Valli Newby as Chorus Girls.

1.6 The Case of the Respectable Suicide
(August 3rd 1963)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Philip Dale.
Mr Bertam, a respectable and deeply religious man, is found dead by his housekeeper Mrs Holland (Diana King). Sgt Cork and Bob Marriott investigate what seems to be a case of suicide.
Also in this cast: June Watts as Polly, Terence Soall as James Lord, Joy Stewart as Sarah Parry, Norman Scace as Rev Septimus Barrow, Robert Young as Typesetter, David Rose as Victor Brandon, Edward Cast as Albert Parry.

1.7 The Case of the Slithy Tove
(August 10th 1963)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Rex Firkin.
An urchin (John Burnham) sees a mysterious gentleman visiting Trumble (Beaufoy Milton), an ex-criminal, in his slum house. Later Trumble is found dead. With the help of the urchin, Cork solves a puzzling case.
Others in this cast: Bruce Beeby as Lake, Ann Lynn as Nora Trumble, John Junkin as Perryman, Edmond Bennett as PC, Robert James as Dr Stuart, Peter Fraser as Sam manners, Hugh Morton as Hotel Manager, Barry Wilsher as Hotel Clerk, and Frank Littlewood as Sir William Watt.

1.8 The Case of the Persistent Assassin
(August 17th 1963)
Script: Fiona McConnell. Director: Geoffrey Nethercott.
Prince Frederick of Silesia (Garfield Morgan) arrives in London on a trade mission for his country. Sgt Cork is made responsible for his safety, and faces the problem of discovering those who are plotting the Prince's assassination.
Also in the cast: Laurence Davidson as Leon Kortner, Redmond Phillips as Mr Smith and Liane Aukin as Irene Stone. Also: Julian d'Albie as Prime Minister, Langley Howard as Yakov, Eric Hillyard as Monte Gordon, Jack Lambert as Insp Henson, Michael Segal as Frank, Sally Bazely as Maria Sondheim, and Nicholas Meredith as Max Sondheim.

1.9 The Case of the Sleeping Coachman (August 24th 1963)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Geoffrey Stephenson.
In spite of severe opposition from the Melrose family, Sgt Cork manages to discover the murderer of a laundry maid, whose body is found in their stable by a drunken coachman.
Cast included: Rosalie Crutchley as Victoria Melrose, Mark Dignam as Sir Henry Melrose, with Beatrice Kane as Lady Melrose, Philip Bond as George Melrose, Barry Linehan as Jim Whittaker, John Harvey as Insp Armstrong, Patricia Clapton as Sarah, Dorothea Rundle as Cook, Stuart Saunders as Matt Bishop, and Patsy Smart as Betsy Bishop.

1.10 The Case of the Soldier's Rifle (August 31st 1963)
Script: Ted Willis from a story by Bill MacIlwraith. Director: Lionel Harris.
A strike at a factory: the army is called in to keep order and during a riot outside the gates a striker is shot. Accident or murder?
Guest star Jane Wenham as Ivy Strong with John Boyd-Brent as Alf Strong, and Neal Arden as Charles Robinson. Also in the cast: Brian Badcoe as Mr Clarence, Tom Macaulay as Mr Cook, Basil Henson as Major Edwards, Anthony Cundell as Sergeant Major, Charles Morgan as Ned Fisher, Douglas Ives as Cleaner, Stephen Hall asPrivate Stringer, Maureen Tracey as Sister O'Reilly, Brian Tipping as Peter Rowlands, Alan Haines as George Duncombe, Jean Marlowe as Mrs Duncombe, Ron Eagleton as PC, and Betty England as Mrs Robinson.

1.11 Case of the Public Paragon (September 7th 1963)

1.12 The Case of Ella Barnes (September 14th 1963)
Script: Eric Paice. Director: Geoffrey Nethercott.
Ella Barnes was o give evidence about conditions of sweated labour in East London to a House of Lords Committee, but before doing so she is found drowned in a canal. Cork and Marriott suspect murder.
Guest star Isa Miranda as Magda Brandel, with Robert Cartland as Brandel, and Gwendolyn Watts as Rose Wolf. Other in the cast: Peter Thompson as Joe Whitlock, Richard Steele as Sgt Evans, James Kerry as Alfred Barnes, Wynne Clark as Mrs Sinkins, Maybelle George as Mrs Briggs, Jack Phillips as Stan, Rosemary Ashford as Barbara Ellis, Colin Rix as Barman, Gladys Bacon as Mrs Poulson, Holly Doone as Maria Brunst, and Gerald Rowlands as Charley.

1.13 The Case of the Gold Salesmen (September 21st 1963)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Lionel Harris.
With Derek Francis as Klein, Newton Blick as Evans, Jill Melford as Tamara Andreyev, and John Lee as Cartwright, Hugh Futcher as Solomons, John Woodvine as Carlyon, Keith Smith as Estate Agent, Noel David as Costumier, William Redmond as Bank manager, and Rica Fox as Cashier.

Second series:

2.1 (14) The Case of the Fenian Men (Saturday December 28th 1963, 7.10 or 7.25pm depending on ITV region)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Josephine Douglas.
Cork investigating an abortive Fenian bomb outrage at the House of Commons, is told by an informer that another treacherous attempt is planned. This time it's to be something very special.
With Jack MacGowran as Drummer, Norman Rodway as John d'Arcy, Anthony Sagar as Sgt Tovey, Derek Benfield as Mr Spiller, Bryan Mosley as PC Rhodes, Maureen Toal as Biddy, Jack Cunningham as Quinn, Tony Doyle as Bryne, Brandon Brady as Selstrom, Robert Webber as Rev Pryke, and Vernon Smythe as Lord Liscurragh.

2.2 (15) The Case of the Fourth Visitor (January 4th 1964)
2.3 (16) The Case of the Ormsby Diamonds (January 11th 1964)

2.4 (17) The Case of the Medicine Man (January 18th 1964)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Jo Douglas.
Bob Marriott is faced with two unusual problems. Why was Brother Edward (Lyndon Brook) twice physically attacked, and why does Edward imagine he has the power to perform a miracle and cure Rose (Alethea Charlton) of her lameness?
Also in this cast: Peter Sallis as Rev Hubert Wales, with Sydney Bromley as Starkie, Daniel Thorndike as Dr Salter, David Pinner as Henry Chandler, Carlo Cura as Tommy, Fredric Abbott as Powers, Terry Plummer as PC.

2.5 (18) The Case of the Bristol Mail (January 25th 1964)
Script: Arthur Swinson. Director: Josephine Douglas
The night mail train arrives at its destination on time, but when the mail van is unlocked, it is discovered that it has been robbed. Cork and Marriott are sent to assist the railway police in their investigations.
With Paul Dawkins as Alfred Little. Also in this cast: Alan Foss as Joseph Jenkins, Harry Littlewood as William Holt, David Webb as Fred Dale, George Curtis as Railway policeman, Lane Meddick as George Bilson, Bill Meilen as Amis Warren, Leonard Carcknell as Bill Lyne, Ann Way as Mrs Fry, William Forbes as Andrew Forrest, Valli Newby as Mrs Merton, Brenda Cowling as Sarah Jenkins, Jeremy Wilkin as Tom Pocock, Patricia Denys as Betty Chalmers, George Betton as Railway Porter.

2.6 (19) The Case of the Silent Suffragette (February 1st 1964)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Philip Dale.
A bank is robbed, and in some way two females are implicated, one of them being Lady Martha Devereaux (Jane Hylton), a well-known leader of a movement for the Emancipation of Women.
With David King as Walter Roper, Leslie Dwyer as Best. Also in this cast: Magro Croan as Nellie Benton, John Scott as Trumper, Eric Elliott as Politician, Raf de la Torre as Orator, Edmund Warwick as Clergyman, Beaufoy Milton as Accountancy Clerk, Susan Ross as Miriam, and Wendy Marshall as Winifred.

2.7 (20) The Case of The Self made Man (Feb 8th 1964)
2.8 (21) The Case of the Stricken Surgeon (February 15th 1964)

Third series:
3.1 (22) The Case of the Two Poisons (April 4th 1964, 10.10pm)

3.2 (23) The Case of the Six Suspects (April 11th 1964)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Bill Stewart.
Sgt Cork has a problem to unravel when he realises that six people are under suspicion for the death of Stephen Lancing, the managing director of a booming African gold mining company.
With Archie Duncan as Andrew Gourlay, Donald Morley as Brewster, and Lloyd Pearson as Piggott. Also in this cast: Pat Connell as PC Birch, Annette Carell as Clara Lancing, John Stone as John Hoskins, Richard Klee as Pilcher, Sonia Graham as Hester Lancing, John Baker as Moscrop, Nicholas Grimshaw as The General, and Robert Webber as Greeley.

3.3 (24) The Case of Big Ben Lewis (April 18th 1964)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Josephine Douglas.
Big Ben Lewis (John Phillips), an MP who supports trade unions and radical causes, is accused of writing and signing a letter to six members of a union, inciting them to commit murder. Sgt Cork suspects the signature may be a forgery.
With Ellen McIntosh as Lily McArthur, George Waring as Harry Whittaker, Gil Sutherland as George Whittaker, Dorothy White as Ellen Whittaker, Denis Holmes as Insp Wilton, Garth Adams as Sgt Mason, Trevor Bannister as Clem Butley, Bernard Brown as Cpt McArthur, Alan Downer as Peter Glover, John Crocker as Mr Soames, Dixon Adams as Joe Dunning, John Lawrence as The Usher, Norman Pitt as Lord Justice King, David Aylmer as Mr White, and Robert Young as Clerk of the Court.

3.4 (25) The Case of the Amateur Spy (April 25th 1964)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Philip Dale
A clerk at the Arsenal is murdered, and some secret documents are left on his body. Sgt Cork enlists Jean Dumas (Frederick Bartman), a known spy, to assist in discovering the traitor.
With Geoffrey Keen as Minister, and Martin Wyldeck as Woolner. Others in the cast: Philip Anthony as Carruthers, David Weston as Alan, Julie Martin as Doris, David Blake Kelly as Harris, Madeleine Mills as Ann Fish, Jerold Wells as Mr Fish, Rosamunde Burne as Mrs Fish, and Judy Fergusson as Maid.

3.5 (26) The Case of the Elegant Mistress (May 2nd 1964- for my own review)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Hugh Rennie.
An army officer is found badly wounded in the rooms of Mary Sanders (Moira Redmond), and she is accused of shooting him. She offers no defence until faced with the true facts by Sgt Cork.
With Ronald Leigh-Hunt as Sir Maurice Hampshire, and Harold Innocent as Col Scott-Dunning. Others in this cast: Norman Mitchell as PC Peters, Jack Ritchie as PC Elms, June Monkhouse as Mrs Wharton, Zoe Hicks as Mrs Bell, Neena Harvey as Sister of Mercy, Keith Manser as Groom, Kerry Jordan as Capt Britton, and John Brown as Lt Harding.

3.6 (27) The Case of the Hangman's Noose (May 9th 1964)

3.7 (28) The Case of the Dumb Witness (May 16th 1964)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Philip Dale.
A button is found on the window ledge of a house recently burgled. Sgt Cork thinks this is an important clue and starts investigations with an unexpected result.
With Warren Mitchell as Kendrick, Manning Wilson as Sgt Leavis, Vanda Godsell as Mrs Whibley, and Geoffrey Frederick as Mike Good. Also in the cast: Jennie Paul as Anna Tapper, Kate Coleridge as Liz, Pamela Manson as Maggie Bates, Arthur Howard as Magistrate.

3.8 (29) The Case of the Monk's Hood Murder (May 23rd 1964)
Script: Allan Prior. Director: John Cooper.
When her husband dies, Marie Vincent (Elizabeth Shepherd) accuses Dr Snedden (Anthony Bate) of poisoning him. Sgt Cork finds no proof of this. Someone else then dies under similar circumstances: Cork then modifies his opinion...
With Jill Dixon as Emma Snedden, Betty Romaine as Mrs Miggs, Jenny Counsell as Martha Cramp, Alan Lawrance as Mr Bannister, Alastair Hunter as Lord Starrington, Peter Hughes as Bleydon, Lewis Jones as Pullard, Barry Boys as Henry Cutts, Edward Waddy as Buller, and Stuart Monro as PC Hedges.

3.9 (30) The Case of the Penny Plains (May 30th 1964)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Philip Dale.
Mrs Lily Sinclair (Barbara Murray), a young widow, reports to Scotland Yard that two mysterious attempts have been made to kill her. Bob Marriott, struck by her beauty, eagerly investigates, but in doing so becomes emotionally involved.
With Derek Francis as Adrian Fitzgerald Tarbuck, and Michael Barrington as Dilthorne. Also in the cast: Keith Anderson as Dicker, Barbara Leake as Mrs Bainbridge, Violetta Farjeon as Emma Dilthorne, Lily Harrold as Mrs Jarvis, Richard Butler as John Sinclair.

3.10 (31) The Case of the Hero's Return (June 6th 1964)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Philip Dale.
Sir Hector Bundy (Wensley Pithey) receives news that the heir to the family title has returned after eight years; hitherto reported as missing, believed killed, fighting in Africa. Sgt Cork has doubts about the claimant being genuine.
With Patricia Haines as Calire Carr, Basil Hoskins as Frederick, and Zena Howard as Lady Agatha Bundy. Also in the cast: Carole Mowlam as Felicity Bundy, Hugh Morton as Carter, Brian Hawksley as Roger Phelps, Fred Kitchen as Quigley, Humphrey Heathcote as Henry James, Hazel Terry as Sarah James.

3.11 (32) The Case of the Great Pearl Robbery (June 13th 1964)
also in the cast were included John Barron and Roger Delgado.
A valuable parcel of pearls from Paris goes missing somewhere en route to London. Bob Marriott investigates.

3.12 (33) The Case of the Killer's Mark (June 20th 1964)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: John Cooper.
Sgt Cork and Bob Marriott go to an old boathouse where a young woman has been found strangled. Three other murders follow in similar circumstances. Cork sets a trap to catch the murderer.
With Robert James as Maurice Finch, Toke Townley as Harry Moon, and Carmel McSharry as Lottie Moon.
Others in this cast: Amanda Grinling as Martha Cooper, Duncan Livingstone as Adam Wilson, Lewis Wilson as PC Davis, Simon Prebble as PC Forrest, Ian Fairbairn as Dr Sobers, Louida Vaughan as Betty Mills, Anne Woodward as Mrs Saunders, Jeffrey Segal as Insp Beckett, Haydn Ward as PC Morton, Patricia Shakesby as Maud Rogers, Joyce Hemson as Lil Barker, Bill Horsley as Moss.

3.13 (34) The Case of the Cynical Traitor (June 27th 1964)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Philip Dale.
Sgt Cork is asked to assist in discovering a traitor who is selling important information to Germany. In spite of restrictions applied by the War office to Cork's methods, he is determined to see justice done.
With Peter Dyneley as Field Marshal, Michael Aldridge as Col Farnham, John Harvey as Major Sprott, and Kika Markham as Ann Farnham. Also appearing: Terence Soall as Todd, Jonathan Newth as Capt Peters, Pat Nye as Miss Belton, Jean Conroy as Miss Pelly.

Fourth series:
4.1 (35) The Case of the Vengeful Garnet (August 22nd 1964, 10.05 or 10.20pm according to ITV region)

4.2 (36) The Case of the Wounded Warder (August 29th 1964)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Peter Collinson.
Sgt Cork is called in to investigate a serious accident to a warder in a prison and in doing so, he has to resort to unorthodox methods.
With Bernard Bresslaw, John Moffatt, Leslie Dwyer, Tony Beckley and John Wentworth.

4.3 (37) The Case of the African Murder (September 5th 1964)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Philip Dale.
Cork and Marriott are sent out to Lagos to investigate the murder of an agent connected with the French West Africa Company.
With Mary Kenton as Margot Brinton, Aubrey Richards as Dr Glyn Williams, and Michael Hawkins as Richard Brinton.
Other in this cast: Heather Emmanuel as Angellee, Paul Gillard as Capt Fraser, Rosemarie Dunham as Freda Somers, Royston Tickner as George Somers, Tommy Ansah as Bokaro, Edward Dentith as Police sergeant.

4.4 (38) The Case of the Dutiful Murderer (September 12th 1964)
Script: Julian Bond. Director: Bill Stewart.
While Cork and Marriott are eating at a Chinese restaurant owned by Feng (Peter Sallis), a friend of Cork's, Feng's daughter Lotus (Lucille Soong) elopes with her lover. Tragedy follows, and Cork is involved with the Elders of the Tong.
With Michael Atkinson as President of the Tong, Christopher Guinee as Chang, and Geoffrey Hibbert as Hsien.
Also with Dallas Cavell as Barrett, Roger Avon as Supt Percy.

4.5 (39) The Case of the Pious Patriarch (September 19th 1964)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: John Cooper.
Marriott, sent to investigate a case of an anonymous letter received by a well known MP, encounters the family, and is struck by their odd behaviour and their strange religious beliefs.
With Norman Tyrrell as Enoch Chatterton MP, Catherine Woodville as Vera Chatterton,
and others in the cast: John Porter Davison as Thomas Chatterton, Adrienne Poster as Alexandra Chatterton, Gerald Rowland as Paul Chatterton, Len Lowe as Singer, Sidney Vivian as Barman, Derek Smith as Bert, Ann Lancaster as Lil Mayhew, Jill Hyem as Diana, Desmond Jordan as McNulty.

4.6 (40) The Case of the Merry Widower (September 26th 1964)
Script: Ted Willis. Director: Philip Dale.
Harry Bell (Barry Keegan) finds that jewels have been stolen from his safe and he suspects his daughter. Sgt Cork, who is an old friend of Bell, is asked to assist in discovering the truth.
With Jennie Linden as Julia Bell, Diana Coupland as Ruth Bell, and Victor Brooks as Yates.
Others in this cast: Anne Stallybrass as Parsons, Irene Sutcliffe as Greta Schulz.
Note- This was the final story in this series, and there was now a break of over one and a half years before the final series was made.

Series 5 (and last)
5.1 (41) The Case of the Fellowship Murder (Saturday April 9th 1966, 9.10-10.5pm- London transmission date- some other areas like ABC premiered the series as late as 1968.)
5.2 (42) The Case of the Wayward Wife (Saturday April 16th 1966)

5.3 (43) The Case of the Missing Cabinet Maker (Saturday April 23rd 1966)
Script: Martin Worth. Director: Bill Stewart.
Albert Quigg, a cabinet maker, cheats his workers of their wages. Soon after Sgt Cork is called in to investigate, Quigg mysteriously disappears.
With Diana King as Mrs Quigg, John Glyn-Jones as Mr Scroop, Charles Lamb as Joe Robb, with Alan Hockey as Quigg, Walter Sparrow as Bill Finch, William Victor as Leslie, David Webb as Harold Gooch, Alex McDonald as Paddy, Edna Morris as Florrie and Betty Romaine as Mrs Bowey.

5.4 (44) The Case of Horseless Carriage (April 30th 1966- London, January 2nd 1968- ABC Midlands/North)
Script: Gerald Kelsey. Director: Philip Dale.
Cork and Marriott investigate the death of Charles Stevens, who has invented a horseless carriage.
With Noel Dyson as Mrs Stevens, Noel Coleman as James Longthorne, David Burke as Joe Tyler, Nicholas Courtney as Huss, with Kenneth Thornett as Supt Harper, Fred McNaughton as Tom Yarrow, Pat Connell as PC Childs, Diana Beevers as Ruth Stevens, and Lynne Ashcroft as Lottie.

5.5 (45) The Case of the Prominent Thespian (May 7th 1966)
Script: Michael Pertwee. Director: Victor Menzies.
Cork is mystified by Sir Harry Tresize, a famous actor, whose actions are eccentric and alarming.
With Hugh Manning as Tresize and Ellen McIntosh as Lady Leila Tresize. Others in this cast: Frank Barrie as PC Potts, Harry R Fripp as Old Gentleman, Jeffrey Segal as Winford, John Stuart as Dr Brown, Gillian Moxey as Mildred, Cyril Renison as Constable, and Mitzi Rogers as Eva James.
5.6 (46) The Case of the Dutiful Bride (May 14th 1966)

5.7 (47) The Case of William Huckerby, Platelayer (May 21st 1966)
Script: Stuart Douglass. Director: Valerie Hanson.
William Huckerby, a railway platelayer, slipped down an embankment and was run over by a train. It is questioned whether or not he was drunk at the time. Cork finds out the truth.
With Maureen Pryor as Alice Huckerby, Harry Landis as Richard Hewatt, Lockwood West as Coroner, and Daniel Moynihan as Alfred Norton. Also with Eric Hillyard as Barman, Colin Douglas as Chairman, Donald Tandy as Brother Matlock, Leonard Woodrow as Police constable, Peter Hughes as Anthony Bromley, Frank Sieman as Dr Stanford Bell, Robert Young as Jury Foreman, and Brian Tipping as Hospital Patient.

5.8 (48) The Case of The Notorious Nun (Saturday May 28th 1966, Friday March 29th 1968 in Granada region)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Ian Fordyce.
Cork and Marriott are faced with an unusual mystery when a police constable is discovered severely wounded in a nun's cell in the Convent of Divine Reparation.
With John Phillips as Col Havelock, Pauline Letts as Mother Madeleine, and Terence Soall as Father Stanislaus. Also in this cast William Buck as PC Ward, Simon Brent as Gregg, Angela Thorne as Sister Scholastica, Sally Travers as Sister Bridget, Donald Tandy as PC Farley, John Breslin as Packer.
5.9 (49) The Case of the Rogue Regiment (June 4th 1966)

5.10 (50) The Case of the Travelling Texan (June 11th 1966)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Bill Stewart.
Cork and Marriott invesitgate a robbery from Colonel Slocumb's caravan, touring the country with his Wild West circus.
With David Knight as Zac Ledbetter, Eddie Byrne as Col Slocumb, David Bauer as Sam McCready, and Patricia English as Georgia Slocumb. Also in the cast: Holly Doone as Felicity, Rick Jones as John Culver, John Walker as Mr Budge, Terry Richards as Svenson, John Raven as Chief Running Wolf, Peter Carlisle as Cpt Fremont.

5.11 (51) The Case of a Lady's Good Name (June 18th 1966, July 7th 1966 9.40pm Westward TV, February 6th 1968 ABC)
Script: Allan Prior.
James Meredith (Geoffrey Palmer) escapes death when a knife is thrown at him by a mysterious stranger. Cork and Marriott seek a man with a birthmark who might lead them to the culprit.
With Tony Beckley as Alex Devere, Jennifer Daniel as Emma Fitzroy, Terence Edmond as Harry Dutton, and Austin Trevor as Joseph Fitzroy. Also with Janet Kelly as Betsy, Patricia Denys as Meg Martin, and Joe Ritchie as Limpy Joe.

5.12 (52) The Case of Albert Watson, V.C. (June 25th 1966, 9.10pm)
Script: Stuart Douglass. Director: Kevin Shine. (No William Gaunt in this story.)
Albert Watson (Ronald Lacey) receives the Victoria Cross for bravery on the North West Frontier. During a quarrel with his father, Albert kills him, and barricades himself in his house, with Sgt Cork as hostage. With Moray Watson as Hon Percy Monkton-Parker, and Ewan Hooper as Dept Assist Commissioner Hornby. Also in this cast: John Flint as PC Moffatt, Marty Gauntlett as Lizzie Watson, Dorothy Dampier as First bystander, Michael Stainton as Second bystander, Darroll Richards as Third bystander, Patrick Scanlan as PC Turnbull, Bill Horsley as PC Walpole, Edward Brooks as PC Gibbons, Humphrey Heathcote as Sgt Barnaby.
5.13 (53) The Case of Vanishing Victim (July 2nd 1966)
5.14 (54) The Case of the Threatened Rajah (July 9th 1966)

5.15 (55) The Case of Devil's Daughter (July 16th 1966, 9.20pm ATV London, March 12th 1968 ABC)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Bill Stewart.
Rachel Harmey (Ann Lynn), a girl who performs a mind reading act in the music hall, foretells the death of a famous MP. Cork and Marriott are unconvinced of her reliability. With Michael Atkinson as Peter Faraday, and Robert James as Benedict Caradus. Also in this cast: Fergus O'Kelly as Cornelius Shaugnessy, Pat Dodd as pianist (also in #47), Antony Brown as Charles St Clair MP, Peter Elliott as Pawley, Norman Pitt as Quillan, Maurice Durant as Jack Harmey, Peter Hoar as Percival Humphries, Eddy Connor as Bill Battersby, and Josephine Tewson as Martha St Clair.
5.16 (56) The Case of the Unpopular Judge (July 23rd 1966)

5.17 (57) The Case of the Painted Boat (July 30th 1966)
Script: Evelyn Ford. Director: Philip Dale.
Mysterious diggings in a neighbour's garden, and a narrow boat tied up nearby, arouse the suspicions of Ebenezer Webster (Harold Goldblatt), so he calls in Sgt Cork.
With Avis Bunnage as Charlotte Dawson, and John Junkin as Jacko. Others in the cast were Bobbie Oswald as Annie, Joyce Cummings as Millicent Webster, Kristin Helga as Kate, Richard James as Alan Webster.

5.18 (58) The Case of the Strolling Players (August 6th 1966 London, but shown on Sunday June 9th 1968, 3.50pm in ABC Midlands/North)
Script: Martin Worth. Director: Alastair Reid.
Cork and Marriott are called in to investigate the death of a young actress, a member of Jasper Greene's Touring Company.
With Jack Gwillim as Jasper Greene, Yvonne Coulette as Emily Greene, Robert Cartland as Charles Pike, Angela Douglas as Lucy Rogers and Barry Warren as George Darcy. Also with Diana Hoddinott as Sarah Amberley, Denis Cowles as Ticket collector, Peter Hager as Sgt Heath, Laidlaw Dalling as Albert Bassett, and Pat Dodd as Pianist.

5.19 (59) The Case of the Chelford Changeling (August 13th 1966 London, December 23rd 1967 on ABC Midlands/North)
Script: Bill Craig. Director: Alastair Reid.
Sgt Cork and Bob Marriott are called in by a Local Constabulary to investigate the kidnapping of a boy. In doing so, some past scandal is unearthed to do with the local Lord of the Manor.
Cast also includes: Alex Scott as Amos Kedge, Gerald Rowland as John Medway, Basil Henson as Sir Radlett Grainger, George Waring as Insp Abbott, Elvi Hale as Melissa Medway, John Humphry as Charles Medway, Renny Lister as Sarah Fincham, Royston Tickner as Blundell.
5.20 (60) The Case of the Silent Bell (August 20th 1966 London, March 26th 1968 Midlands and STV)

5.21 (61) The Case of the French Mademoiselle (August 27th 1966, ATV London, December 17th 1967 ABC Midlands/North 3.50pm)
Script: Evelyn Ford. Director: Jon Scoffield.
Nanette Gaillard (Pamela Strong), the organiser of a gang of forgers in France, has escaped to England. The French Surete ask Sgt Cork to try and find her for them.
Also starring John Bailey as Eustace Barrington, Thomas Heathcote as Joshua Catchpole, Peter Elliott as Mr Myake, Carmen Silvera as Martha and Arnold Diamond as Inspector Dupont (in series 1 he had played a British inspector!). Others in this cast: Peter Brayham as Ju-jitsu instructor, William Marlowe as Benjy Miller.

5.22 (62) The Case of the Simple Savage (September 3rd 1966)
Script: Bruce Stewart. Director: Bill Stewart.
Chief Tama (Inia Te Wiata), a Maori leader, comes to England to be presented to Queen Victoria. Cork and Marriott investigate some burglaries in which Tama seems to be involved.
With Blake Butler as Wilfred Laverock, Philip Latham as Greely, Madeleine Christie as Queen Victoria, and Dorothy Reynolds as Emily Laverock. Also appearing: Robert Young as Trivett, Susan Whitman as Jenny, Virginia Denham as Rose, Barbara Assoon as Hula, Christopher Banks as Quill.
5.23 (63) The Case of the Fallen Family (September 10th 1966)

5.24 (64) The Case of the Crystal Ball (September 17th 1966 ATV London, October 14th 1967 ABC)
Script: Michael Pertwee. Director: Valerie Hanson.
While investigating the loss of a valuable diamond, Cork becomes involved with a circus type medium Madam Zina (Barbara Leake).
Also with Charles Lloyd Pack as Lord Westworth and David Battley as James Starkey.
With Doy Young as Susie, Alan Lake as Mr Johnson, Mischa de la Motte as Wilkins.

5.25 (65) The Case of the Silent Policeman (scheduled for August 20th 1966, but postponed to September 24th 1966 on ATV London, shown on October 28th 1967 on ABC)
Script: Malcolm Hulke. Director: Alastair Reid.
A nightwatchman is attacked during a fur robbery. Cork and Marriott's investigation takes them to a local police station, the organisation of which arouses Cork's suspicions.
With Bernard Archard as Insp Fox, Christopher Guinee as PC Clark, Patricia Heneghan as Mrs Clark, and Fulton Mackay as Sgt Norris. Others in the cast: Charles Saynor as Larkin, Richard Coleman as PC Portello, Faith Cox as Mrs Binney, Patsy Smart as Doris, Pamela Shotto as Mrs Fox, Sheelagh McGrath as Ada.
5.26 (66) The Case of the Hooded Students (October 1st 1966) - the final story ever

My thanks to Alan Collins for his help in unravelling the transmission dates for Sergeant Cork

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Sergeant Cork

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The Man in Room 17
Richard Vernon starred as Oldenshaw, and Michael Aldridge as Dimmock. Another regular in the first series was Willoughby Goddard as Assistant Commissioner Sir Geoffrey Norton. 'The Man' of the title was actually Oldenshaw, an immodest ex-Oxford type with a superior IQ. His partner red-brick-type Dimmock was more direct.
Director-producer Dick Everitt claimed the series was a mix of comedy thriller and pure adventure, "what it definitely is not, is neurotic or kinky." This perhaps to counterbalance some of Granada's other excellently individualistic Friday night dramas. Room 17 was Somewhere in Whitehall, the secret centre for the Department of Special Research that handles cases which have baffled the security services.
Unusually, two teams of backroom staff made the series, one group for scenes outside The Room, and one for The Room, from which Dimmock and Oldenshaw never stray.

After 13 stories in 1965, 13 more followed in 1966. This time Oldenshaw was joined by Defraits (Denholm Elliott). Also Amber Kammer as Tracy Peverill invaded the all male Room 17 in selected stories.

The programme was renamed The Fellows (Late of Room 17) for a final run in 1967 of another 13 stories. Dimmock from series 1 returned in place of Defraits. He and Oldenshaw became Cambridge Fellows appointed by the Home Secretary to All Saints College. Also appearing in each story was Mrs Hollinczech who looks after their research data. Jill Booty, wife of the producer of this series Robin Chapman, played this part. James Ottaway as Thomas Anthem and Michael Turner as Nashe were other semi-regular characters. Roy McAnally, Roy Marsden and Allan Cuthbertson appeared in a sequence of stories which gradually become more surreal, almost 'kinky,' despite those original claims. All 39 programmes survive in the archive, though only one has been released on dvd to date.

Brief details of the stories:
1.1 Tell the Truth (June 11th 1965, 9.40-10.35pm) - with Dinsdale Landen, Meg Wynn Owen and Vladek Sheybal. A case of suspected industrial espionage but no leads. Scotland Yard, under pressure from the government, pool their best brains, but still no progress. Chief Supt Cannon (Jonathan Adams) reports failure to the Assistant Commissioner. They suggest that if the government want the problem solved, the only way is to try and interest Room 17.
1.2 Hello, Lazarus (June 18th 1965) - with Adrienne Corri, David Langton and Frederick Jaeger. Crawshaw, a millionaire, is reported killed when a charter plane crashes in the North Sea. Room 17 are intrigued. They know that Crawshaw had a phobia about flying. Why should a man who can afford to travel in any way he pleases, choose the one way he hates?
1.3 Years of Glory (June 25th 1965) - with Laurence Hardy, Viola Keats. Gene Anderson also starred, as she died on May 5th 1965, it suggests that this story was taped before then. A retired general's house is burgled and his secretary murdered. The general denies anything is missing but he has kept diaries from the war which could be embarrassing to the government. Room 17 are asked to locate them.
1.4 Confidential Report (July 2nd 1965) - with Zena Walker, Leonard Sachs, Laurence Payne. A beautiful young journalist has written a confidential report for British Intelligence on a member of a friendly government. One night it is stolen from her flat. The report could be used to devastating effect if published. Room 17 are asked to recover it before any damage is done.

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Man in Room 17 Menu

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Kathy Kirby
Personally, I thought it was awful, apologies if you like it

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To Adam Adamant Lives!

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Rupert Davies
Back

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Windsor Davies made his name in this role

Accompany me back to Z Cars

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William Gaunt

Hello hello hello. You are sent back to Sergeant Cork. Do not pass Go etc etc

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The answer is Robert Flemyng

To Zero One

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Brian Reece

To Martin Kane

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Republic-
I did write to Republic, but they did not reply to my postal inquiry.

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