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ITC's first hour long filmed series.
A pilot was made by Rank eventually titled 'Death from a Distance', featuring Hazel Court as Jackie, an undercover agent and William Sylvester as police officer Brett.
A TV Mirror reporter describes his visit to Walton studios as they were completing the pilot in September 1960. (It had been intended to make it at Pinewood.) The story editor for this pilot was Lewis Greifer. Leslie Harris of ATV had planned the series be partly filmed in Hong Kong, but changed his mind, saying "when I surveyed the possibilities in Hong Kong I was appalled. There is only one ramshackle studio there."
With sales guaranteed to America, the pilot was reworked and 12 more stories were filmed at Beaconsfield. Michael Quinn starred as agent Nick Craig with Donald Wolfit as Sir Andrew Wilson. A long 1962 Equity dispute caused production to move to video. Somehow the magic of the filmed stories was gone! New agent Tony Miller (Neil Hallett) was introduced alongside Nick Craig with Anthony Marlowe as new boss Geoffrey Stock.
When the series returned in 1964, now oddly renamed G.S.5, there was a surprise, agent Nick Craig was dead, agent Tony Miller was joined by agent Peter Clarke (Ray Barrett). Episode 1 showed Nick's murderers being tracked down.
Publicity for GS5 stated- "The death of his old colleague Nick Craig has made Tony Miller bitter and tougher than ever. A shrewd operator is he, quick witted and a man to fear." Hallett said of his role: "It's an all-action part and really something I can get my teeth into." As for Peter Clarke, he "looks and acts the city gentleman, is always cool and self-assured and uses his own charm and subtle humour to get him out of tight spots." Barrett said of his role: "I thoroughly enjoy the role of Clarke. He is a man who does not like to use violence, a man after my own heart." In fact Barrett is only in a few of the 13 episodes, another agent appearing in the starring role in one story, Sally Lomax, played by Patricia Mort. She also has bit parts in two other stories, having made her debut in the Ghost Squad story The Thirteenth Girl, and it's possible ATV were considering building a future series around her.
Best story: I do like #13 Princess.
Dud episode: #15 East of Mandalay
60's Menu
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Ticket for Blackmail
Millionaire David Masters has committed suicide, even though he had "not a worry in the world," according to Sir Andrew.
Nick Craig learns from his secretary that, unusually for him, he'd been having an affair with young Suzanne Kent whom he had met on a luxury coach tour by Tobias Tours. Two brothers run this business, Joe Tobias (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) and Graham (Alex Scott).
Craig poses as a wealthy Texan sheep farmer and books on a tour, where he befriends "richest mug" Karolides (Paul Stassino) who is the brothers' latest target.
In Paris, Karolides is shown the sights by Suzanne, and he is introduced to Caspar who collects diamonds like Karolides. A useful contact might be at 34 Rue des Eglises in Marseilles.
So when the tour reaches that city, Karolides goes to this place, a jeweller's shop run by Scapin, who is actually Graham Tobias. How about an uncut diamond at "a bargain price," only $100,000?
Later, Karolides shows it to Craig, "worth twice that."
In Nice he is introduced to a Dutch diamond cutter, actually Joe Tobias, who offers him $175,000 for the stone, as is. But then the police pounce with questions about the diamond. Of course it's not really a policeman. Karolides takes the cop to 34 Rue des Eglises which has become a tailor's, no sign of any jeweller. However the Dutchman can be contacted. To clear himself, Karolides has to agree to repay the money paid to the Dutchman, well $225,000 actually, to cover his loss of profit.
But is Karolides on to the swindle, or is Craig? A classic case of the criminal getting cold feet. Joe Tobias orders coach driver George to finish them off. Karolides' corpse is dumped in Craig's room. Time for Sir Andrew to step in and vouch for Craig. But "we can't break security," so no help there. So Craig is put in jail, though by now the real French police have accepted his story, and are working with him.
The Tobias brothers are taken to where Scapin's shop had been. Craig produces a watch he had bought there which has incriminating fingerprints on it. That is enough to cause a gun to be drawn, but a deft movement from Craig results in the brothers and George being placed under lock and key
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Hong Kong Story
"You'll like Hong Kong. It's a great place." (Though if you read the introduction to the series,
you'll notice the producers of Ghost Squad must have put this into the script tongue-in-cheek.)
This was one of the first of the filmed series, as evidenced by Ghost Squad secretary Miss Winters having to learn some basic GS rules.
Sir Andrew tells her she might make an agent in ten years time.
At Karachi Airport an airline steward is shot dead. In his vest is hidden gold. Was he the intended victim, or was the VIP doctor
flying from Hong Kong the real target?
Agent Nick Craig is sent to find out. On the flight he meets stewardess Suzie who introduces him to pilot Wacker Dawson (Bill Kerr).
Craig, aka Williams, asks if Wacker is interested in buying some industrial diamonds.
This gets Craig an invitation to a "high class affair" where he meets that VIP, Dr Siligi. An introduction to Wang of the China and Kowloon
Toy Company produces a good offer for the diamonds, and a promise of future smuggling assignments.
On Williams' first job he "passes the test with honours." That leads to a proper job, smuggling gold in a body belt.
But at Karachi Airport a customs official orders a search.
In private he identifies himself and the gold is handed over to this corrupt official.
But in an apparently routine check, the man is arrested.
Wang is furious, Wacker scared. "we must make sure this doesn't happen again." So special suitcases are manufactured
to carry future gold consignments. But on the next trip, Wacker is increasingly nervous, and in Karachi he is silenced for good by Wang's men.
Now the jobs for Nick dry up, as the smugglers take precauations. A frustrated Sir Andrew back in London, says he could be doing a better job of it himself!
Nick finds that Wang is now hiding the gold in toy soldiers. With Suzie, who turns out to be an agent of the Hong Kong police,
he wangles his way on to Flight 201 and catches the boss red handed, in a rather manufactured ending.
The gang successfully rounded up, Nick enjoys a drink with Suzie.
"Not a bad job... took a long time about it," is Sir Andrew's brusque verdict
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HIGH WIRE -
Agent Nick Craig: "If I am a cop, I'm a lousy one. I started taking a personal interest in this case- I feel sorry for you."
There's an atmospheric opening in the dark and the rain, as a French policeman patrols the streets, quite missing the thieves who break into a bank. One of the gang is safecracker Fred Rice (William Hartnell in a fine ambivalent role), who, it turns out, is disillusioned with his life of crime, having spent his life since the war on the run.
This is the latest in a series of bank raids across Europe. Agent Nick Craig's task is to bring war criminal Fred Rice back to Britain for trial. He joins the circus where Fred is co-owner, as a wall of death rider. He gets the job after rescuing Fred ("greater than Houdini") from his underwater escape act, which has been sabotaged by Moker, one of his troupe, who is the leader of the thieves. It had been a warning to Fred not to betray the gang.
Nick overhears Fred and his daughter Rita discussing their predicament: "I don't like having these men around our necks." It's evident Fred is being blackmailed on account of his shady past, to take part in the robberies. Yet he seems to enjoy the thrill of the job, as Nick observes when he trails the villains on another raid. The crooks realise Nick is on to them and nobble his wall of death, Nick ending up with a broken leg. Fred is ordered to get rid of Nick, but can he go through with it?
It's the gang's last raid. Nick hobbles to the lion's cage to decommission their guns. He tries to dissuade Fred from taking part, but to no avail. The robbery goes terribly wrong, but Nick, observing from close by, rescues Fred from the police and is able to take him back to Britain.
Happily the case that he's a traitor, which Fred has strongly denied, is not proven, and thus the Sword of Damocles is removed from his life, even though he still has to pay for his safecracking.
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Eyes of the Bat
Nick Craig: "Maybe it would pay me to take up crime."
He is being trained to crack safes, so he can infiltrate a gang of blackmailers, who hold businesses and even whole countries to ransom. Ambrose Jerome (William Lucas) runs the outfit, with his girl Simone.
Todd is a partially sighted safecracker nicknamed The Bat; Nick Craig takes his place and books in to the Latin Palace Hotel in Salvatore, Italy. He has a Ghost Squad agent Joe Kenton (Donald Churchill) to act as his contact.
After observing Jerome on his luxury yacht, the Santa Bella, Nick climbs stealthily on board to crack the safe, and then allows himself to be caught by Jerome. Nick's credentials impress, and he is put through his paces on a job in Milan, stealing the plans from the Voltro car factory.
This is simple, and the next job is The Big One, Unitel, a textile company in Trieste. There is a slight hitch when Vic Diamond, Jerome's old safecracker shows up, and he sees through Nick. But Simone helps silence Diamond. Why? "I had my reasons." Kissing Nick seems to be at the bottom of it. So Nick tries to pump her on what Jerome is up to exactly on this Unitel job, which he says is to be his last.
Both sides indulge in bluff, as a result of which Nick is ordered to dispose of the source of the leak on Jerome's gang.... Simone. She is of course later safe and sound with Joe Kenton. But she hasn't got any additional information on the Trieste job.
Part of the bluff had been the fact that the real job is not in Trieste, but Venice. Jerome is wily enough to avoid police surveillance as his gang start The Big One. Luckily, back in London, Sir Andrew has worked out the job must be at the headquarters of the Five Power Naval Command.
Inevitably Nick's cover is blown, as the gang all too easily enter the building, "the creep" then forced to blow the safe. Now he's of no more use he can be shot. But not quite
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Still Waters
"I like you. I think we can trust each other."
Nick Craig poses as a diamond cutter, deported to Holland, on the track of an international gang whose robberies have netted over four million dollars. The suspected boss is Arny Long (John Carson) and he's looking for another person who can cut stones "discreetly." Craig is his man, given a genuine job as a front, cutting hot stones on the side.
He's appointed a clerk at Brau and Hoffmeyer, diamond merchants.
"The case is as good as closed," Criag confidently informs the Amsterdam police, for he's about to get his first consignment of diamonds to break up. With plain clothes detectives on the watch, Craig waits in a park for the drop. A delivery boy hands him the jewels- as it's clearly a test, no arrest is made. instead Craig comes through by doing "good reliable work" breaking up the diamonds.
"The main event" must be to follow. Craig waits in an art gallery and Arny brings him the stones. There's a shootout but the wounded Arny gets away. He flees to the Seven Thunders, the ship used in the racket, in charge Captain Henry Starr (Stratford Johns).
A study of Long's paperwork leads Craig to this vessel. Currently it's in the North Sea, and actually it's picking up another lot of loot. When it docks in Amsterdam, Sir Andrew Wilson arranges for the ship to be searched, though nothing is discovered. "They must have dumped the stuff."
Craig obtains a job as steward on this ship. He spots fish being loaded aboard, and hidden in them are stolen diamonds. Later he sees them being dumped overboard, clearly at a pre-arranged place.
Sir Andrew is watching at this spot, ready for the next consignment. However as it's outside territorial waters, Craig points his gun at Cpt Starr, "alter course," he orders. But Arny Long, who has been conspicuous only by his absence in hiding, nearly thwarts the arrests, but Sir Andrew steps in and the gang is captured.
"Very satisfactory," Sir Andrew is so pleased he even offers Craig some well deserved leave
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ASSASSIN-
"I'm only interested in clearing my brother. If you can't get the truth out of these witnesses, I can."
Nick Craig is posing as Harry, the brother of American Frank Main who has been arrested in a mid-European country, charged with shooting the president. In fact we know he's innocent, as we have seen the victim shot in the back by his girl friend Anna (Jill Ireland).
This is a straightforward detective story, Nick striving to find out whodunnit, in order to prevent an outbreak of anti-American feeling in the country, which would lurch it into Commie hands.
Frank claims he had been with the Minister of Trade, Koster (Joseph Furst) when the shooting occurred, but Koster, who won't be interviewed, does not confirm Frank's alibi. So Craig starts his investigation with the gunsmith who is alleged to have sold Frank the murder weapon. Bribery opens his tongue and he admits his story is untrue, only to be shot himself, inevitably.
Posing as a tractor salesman, Nick Craig is able to obtain an invitation to dinner with Koster. It's there he meets famous actress and society beauty Anna. She later tries to bump him off, but our agent is too wily to fall for the same trick the president had succumbed to, and she confesses, privately at least, she was the killer.
Local lad Ricky (Christopher Witty) is able to tell Craig that Frank Main never left Koster's home until after the killing, despite Koster's assertion to the contrary. The only fly in the ointment is that the prosecution are leaked the information about Ricky, and the remainder of this story is about Craig's efforts to protect the boy. The 'police' arrest Ricky, but Craig guesses he's been hidden in Koster's home and rescues him, hiding him in a hotel. But Koster's henchmen track the pair down, only to accidentally shoot each other, enabling Nick and his charge to escape, taking refuge in a lonely hut. Again, they are tracked down, and Koster himself asks Craig "who are you?" But her never finds out, for they again elude him.
At Frank's trial, Anna's evidence ("a convincing liar") seems conclusive. But then what Ricky says is decisive. The final scene is of Frank and Nick thanking the lad, and as they bid him farewell, the camera closes in on Ricky's face
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Death from a Distance
This was a slight reworking of the pilot story, Nick Craig being only introduced to establish he is being given a fortnight's leave.
The opening statement introduces the characters- "The head of the Ghost Squad is Sir Andrew Wilson. From a quiet office in the heart of London, he keeps in touch with the FBI in Washington, the Surete Generale in Paris and the police forces of five continents."
"If I get shot, what crisis would result? A world war, do you think?"
Thus Volgu, dictator of a Balkan state who is attending a London conference.
Stephen Brett (William Sylvester) is assigned to protect him, by leading several known enemies of Volgu on a wild goose chase. The men include research chemist Router (Anton Diffring), lawyer Kartalis (Douglas Wilmer) and Pavelich (John Crawford).
These terrorists are lured to a lonely Hebridean island where their plane develops engine trouble. They realise they've been left "high and dry" in a remote hotel, away from Volgu's presence in London.
The barman who has been detailed to listen in to their conversation is killed, but Brett, posing as author Campbell Macdonald, is also assisted by the airline hostess Jackie (Hazel Court). Whilst Kartalis keeps Brett occupied, the others go fishing in rough seas, and are picked up by the island lighthousemen. There Router cunningly sabotages the light, which brings out an emergency vessel from the mainland, and the terrorists are thus able to get off the island.
In London, Router and Pavelich are hidden by Susan (Moira Redmond) whilst Brett vainly keeps watch on the Lavengro Club and Jackie on Router's laboratory.
But Router is shrewd enough to elude them both. His plan is to make use of his own young niece Sonia, who is due to present Volgu with a bouquet when he visits his country's embassy.
In the flowers is a deadly frozen chemical. He's got his niece to promise not to sniff the flowers.
At the reception at the enormous embassy, Brett and Jackie watch as guest of honour Volgu arrives. The presentation ceremony is unceremoniously interrupted by Brett: "this man's behaving like an idiot," apologises Sir Andrew. But the action ultimately proves to have saved Volgu's life.
Router is rounded up at the airport, and Brett is thanked by Sir Andrew.
The ending suggests there might be another job for William Sylvester in the series again, but it was not to be
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Princess
Sir Andrew Wilson to agent Nick Craig: "I wouldn't mind escorting a beautiful girl from Switzerland to Omar, and I'm twice your age."
A marksman shoots a debutante at a Swiss finishing school, but he's made an error, his intended target was a princess who is shortly to be married. As this wedding will unite two oil empires, the other side want to prevent the union, and thus Craig is assigned to ensure her long journey to join her fiance in the Middle East is a safe one.
Unfortunately it's hate at first sight between Nick and the royal, for she is cold and unapproachable. Besides, her fiance has sent his own escort, one Laura Payne (Honor Blackman). However she proves part of the assassination plot and is later arrested.
Next morning at dawn there's a police escort for "the little ray of sunshine" that is Princess Nadia,
to take her to Lorbonne airfield. Having received a tip off from Laura, the marksman lies in waiting, "they won't know what hit them." But in another blunder, the police chief is shot and the aloof Princess Nadia becomes more contrite as she at last appreciates the danger she is facing.
But surely her plane will be OK, for it has been under police guard. But having admitted his blunder, the marksman phones mechanic Hans who tampers with the plane, which is thus forced to make a forced landing in a lonely desert east of Damascus.
Back in London, Sir Andrew and his assistant Helen Winters fear the worst, with no radio contact from the missing aircraft. Needle in a haystack search of the wide area, where the pair have been lucky enough to survive. Nick does get a weak SOS through on the radio, and that helps Sir Andrew's men to narrow where to look. While Nadia and Nick philosophise a bit, her aloofness quite wears off as she explains about her arranged marriage.
Of course it all ends happily, they have even kissed, and perhaps it's as well that Helen Winters back in London hasn't seen that, for there are more than a few hints of her entertaining romance with Nick. However as she now disappears from the series, as it moves away from the filmed stories, we'll never know how this love might have developed.
Note: at one point we see a newspaper which carries the date November 30th 1960, so that gives a clue as to the approximate date of filming
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Interrupted Requiem
The first of the non-filmed stories: ”Now that Sir Andrew Wilson had been shanghaied by the Foreign Office, it was now my job to report to my new boss, Geoffrey Stock.”
Buried in a French cemetry after a plane crash is Kristyna Brisac (1938-1959), but her father, Prof Brisac thinks he has seen her there. He works at an RAF station where the Zebra One rocket project has just been sabotaged. Nick Craig arrests him.
Why had he sabotaged his own project? He’s been told his daughter (Ellen McIntosh), supposedly dead, is in “their” hands. He had to do what he had to do or she would “suffer.”
Craig goes to France to find out the truth. The somewhat deaf coroner explains Kristyna had been identified after her plane crashed from her general height and age. The only other passenger of her age was one Tanya, and she had survived. After some treatment she had been taken back behind the Iron Curtain by a fellow countryman, Jan Kupra.
So Craig flies there, ostensibly to attend a trade fair selling Winky Dinky Dinkums, accompanied by a genuine rep, Mr Bowness. His Ghost Squad contact in the country, is the effeminate Gerald Prior- “I grow on people.” There at the fair, he meets Kupra and gets himself invited to dinner with Kupra’s wife, who is either Kristyna or her double. Craig obtains a set of her fingerprints and London later confirms they are the missing girl’s.
Craig faces her with the facts: “I know your father quite well.” But she denies it. It’s clear she remembers little of her past, which only dates back to the time of the air accident. “My name is Tanya,” she insists. Craig offers her and her husband two one-way tickets, and leaves them to decide their loyalties. Some pressure from the police help them decide. They have a heart to heart about Jan's duplicity, though he claims to love her. “Do you think I’ll ever believe that?”
A desperate bid to catch the Wednesdays Only 10.45pm Flight 302 to Vienna. Craig shakes off his shadower, with a little help from Bowness who spouts double dutch to his secret police followers, and the rest seems very easy- was it really so simple to get out from behind the Iron Curtain? The police zoom up to the airport (which looks awfully like the studio foyer), just too late to delay the plane.
But there’s a final problem. A minor technical fault means the plane will have to return to base! But it starts rocking. Crash! Fortunately on the right side of the border.
And so this tense adventure ends happily, with Kristyna recovering her memory. The drama is nicely offset by some light relief from Frederick Peisley as Bowness and Derek Nimmo as Prior.
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East of Mandalay
“I knew from his face that he hadn’t expected to see me alive again."
Thus Tony Miller on his first assignment in the Far Eastern country of Silon, a land riven with civil war. Sir Charles (Ian Fleming), chairman of British Eastern Minerals, had approached Geoffrey Stock at the Ghost Squad, concerned one of his employees named Burton might be a spy. Miller, under the cover of an executive of the company, travels to Silon to assess Burton (Brian Haines). This jaded man fails to meet Miller at the airport, and seems reluctant to even escort him to the mines which are deep in guerilla country. And when they do reach there, Miller has to insist he is shown the underground mine workings. In Shaft No3 the “contemptible” Burton abandons Miller, just before an explosion. Miller barely gets out.
Safe, and recovering in his hotel, Miller is arrested for the murder of Burton. Luckily, he is given an alibi by an interpreter Sara (Jacqui Chan), and the charge doesn’t stick. Sara, with a dagger hidden next her thigh, is clearly no interpreter. She is an agent of rebels who are planning to overthrow the government. She assumes Miller is another arms agent like Burton, so naturally Miller plays along in a “delicate business” of arms smuggling.
To negotiate the next arms delivery, Miller is taken to U Tope (Denis Shaw) the rebel leader. He needs mortars and such like urgently.
Back in London, Geffrey Stock is trying to trace the origins of earlier consignments. Apparently the arms are not, as originally thought, being smuggled in from Japan, they must already be hidden somewhere in Silon. They are only ancient weapons left over from Japanese stocks at the end of the war.
U Tope has been sold a lot of dud weaponry! Stored for years in the mines. The swindle exposed, it is Miller who is to face death at the hands of the rebels. Sara just about helps save the day as the mine is blown up. I think U Tope and his men were all inside, but to be honest, this script and dialogue was so wooden, you never really get involved with the characters or the plot. The Far Eastern sets look like the ATV studios, as indeed they are.
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Sentences of Death
We are again reminded that Sir Andrew Wilson from the first series, has left: "Sir Andrew Wilson has been reclaimed by the Foreign Office."
Agent Nick Craig: "Caravans don't normally have frosted glass."
But Nick is carried unconscious to one! He had popped into his local, after his latest assignment, to have a drink (4/-), but it had been spiked. A doctor (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) had treated him, and taken him to his nearby surgery, this caravan.
When Nick had properly regained consciousness, he was sitting in a roadside hut. "I don't like this afternoon's business," his boss Geoffrey Stock observes later that evening. Craig is ordered to retrace his steps that day.
But Craig has already spilled secrets about the job agent Tony Miller is now on: "they think he's Karl Schroeder." That's what Craig has blurted out under the influence of the truth drug adminstered by the 'doctor', Paul and his assistant Philippa (Ann Lynn).
Craig returns to the pub and gets some sort of description of the doctor. But he can only vaguely recall being carried to this caravan.
Stock receives a demand for £40,000 for the tape of Craig made whilst under the truth drug- pay up or it will be sent to Schroeder. A container with instructions for throwing the cash out of a train window is also received: "this method is as near watertight as could be." However Craig suggests a new R50 Homer is put in the handle of the case with the cash.
Then he gets a break when a Mr Beavis tells him he was the person who had fitted this caravan recently with frosted glass. Owner: a well-spoken man. Craig locates it and hides inside, just as Philippa starts the drive north where she is to rendezvous with Paul after he has grabbed the money.
The steam train puffs northwards, and near Doncaster the case is thrown out. Paul grabs it and is reunited with Philippa, near Sherburn-in-Elmet. Craig has been keeping watch by the nearby getaway plane, but is caught and tied up: "you've been very stupid Mr Craig." Butane gas will blow the caravan up, Craig still inside.
But the crooks can't make their escape as Craig has nobbled the plane. Paul attempts to learn what Craig has done by administering some more truth drug. But Stock's men come to his rescue, and agent Miller's cover is thus preserved
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The Grand Duchess
"Without trust, there can be no co-operation."
A foreign diplomat cements relations with England, with the loan of the "priceless" Goya of The Grand Duchess Sophie, to be exhibited in a London gallery. At a reception to mark the occasion, owner of the gallery Sir George (John Barron) toasts Truloff, the country's cultural attache. However the wine waiter is taking an unusual interest in the portrait....
The party over, when all is quiet, thieves break in through the ceiling, the painting whisked away, and a fake left in its place.
Sir George contacts Geoffrey Stock as a matter of urgency. The latter however seems quite calm, for he has already assigned Tony Miller to the case, indeed he is, Stock tells Sir George, one of the thieves! "I think you're taking this very light heartedly," complains Sir George. Stock explains Ghost Squad have been after a gang who have committed a series of art robberies, the paintings destined for an unknown private collector. Miller had to succeed in this theft in order to catch this master crook.
At this moment, Miller is speeding with his accomplice in a car to Little Gidding. There he comes face to face with his boss, working class millionaire Henry Barron (Colin Douglas). "I've got a Goya all to myself," he smiles.
His happiness is short lived for the picture proves to be a fake. "Someone got there before us!" Maybe it was expert forger Bert, who had made one copy for the crooks? The gang rush off to find out.
At Bert's there's evidence that the waiter, Alexis Oregin, 24 Hillview Road, had been another client, and Miller knocks out his mate to get to Oregin first. Barron is left to wait.
Close behind them is Geoffrey Stock, but he also has to avert a diplomatic incident, when Truloff announces himself at the gallery to check on security. The hole in the ceiling is rather hard to cover up!
Alexis is at home and shows Miller his original Goya. He is a descendant of the Duchess, and once owned this painting, before the Revolution. "It is mine." As a boy he had loved that picture. Patiently Miller listens, sympathetically. Alexis had paid all he had to get a copy made, before he swapped paintings during the reception.
Miller has been listening for too long. In walks Barron to grab the Goya. Alexis strikes him down for touching it, just as Stock steps in to take the Goya safely back to the gallery. Truloff is convinced his treasure is safe and a tiny smile crosses Stock's face
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The Desperate Diplomat
"Don't worry, I won't let you down," says Derrick de Marney, in a nice echo of the catchphrase of his best role, Slim Callaghan.
He plays a senior diplomat, Clive Errington, who is married to Margaret (Barbara Shelley), a hopeless drug addict. Source of her supply is Neville Shand (Ferdy Mayne) at the Black Orchid.
When Clive finds out, he threatens to kill Shand and the pair fight, not a wise move just before an important conference in Oslo.
Geoffrey Stock is asked to make sure Clive's part in this meeting isn't jeopardised. So Nick Craig is sent to meet "rich smarmy womaniser" Shand. Posing as a telephone engineer, he searches Shand's flat.
Margaret is desperate for more heroin. Shand will only give to her, if she persuades her husband to apologise for punching him.
"You've got to break away from him," Clive advises his wife. She threatens to leave him unless he does what she asks. Clive also asks Ghost Squad to stop interfering. He also resigns his post.
His wife is so desperate she is on her way to Madame Rienzi (Naomi Chance) when Nick questions her. "It's her all right," Nick confirms to his boss.
Stock goes with Nick to Madame Rienzi's flat, only to find she has been silenced.
So they have "a few words" with Margaret. "Some straight talking" in fact. She is persuaded to summon Shand to her room. While Shand is out, Nick examines the safe and finds the evidence he needs to break the ring. But when Shand meets Margaret there's a struggle and Shand shoots her.
The final surprise truth is revealed.
Here's a powerful performance from Barbara Shelley as the sad addict, and from Derrick de Marney as her "idiot" husband, who somehow still loves her
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The Golden Silence
As the chief is away, Mike Ferrers (Gordon Jackson) is in charge.
Agent Tony Miller: "Whatever Dave was after, may be on that boat tonight."
Agent Dave had been investigating a warehouse. "Evening sweetheart, looking for something?" asks Max (David Lodge) before he shoots him.
Only possible clue to what Dave had discovered in his smuggling investigation, was a ticket for the Hook to Harwich ferry. So Tony Miller takes over the case and scrutinises all the passengers on the boat, but spots nothing out of the ordinary. Except one car YCR618, owned by a Thomas Didcot, unusually blows a tyre during the voyage. With the pressure set as high as 50, it does look a little odd. But customs find nothing unusual in the car, or anywhere for that matter.
Miller arranges for the car to be "borrowed" later that day. An engineer surmises that possibly the oil pan, which has just been changed, might have been made of gold. But there's no proof. Also a map issued by the Four Corners Travel Agency might be a lead.
Behind the gold smuggling is an official from the Treasury, Blakeson, who delegates to Max the job of hiding the gold in ingenious spots. Courier is Didcot and Midge Carberry from the travel agents completes the gang. Didcot however is getting jittery over his stolen vehicle and has to be eliminated.
This is an opportunity for Tony Miller. He goes to the Four Corners Agency pretending he's a friend of Didcot, and gets offered a job as a courier, with "an awful lot riding on this deal." He's to take KLM Flight 451 from Rotterdam, but Blakeson recognises Miller as being on the Harwich boat and knows he never talked to Didcot at all. So how can he be a friend? "You picked up a bogey," Max informs Midge, and Tony is tied up. Tony tries to convince- "if you do believe me?" he asks Max. "You'll be lovely," answers Max. Miller: "if you don't?" Max; "you won't!"
With Ferrers at Ghost Squad hq looking for the missing Miller, Blakeson decides to get out, and cover his tracks. Midge Carberry is shot, Max is next. However Tony has got the upper hand of this likeable rogue and found enough evidence to convict the gang. The boss draws up in his car. "No nonsense darling," Tony warns Max, in a parody of the crook's matey style. But Max is shot and Blakeson speeds away in his car. But the story ends where it had begun, on the ferry. Tony Miller arrests Blakeson, for which Mike Ferrers duly congratulates him.
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The Big Time
"I want that bloke, Craig, I want those diamonds, I want them back where they belong, in the handbag of that young lady."
Nick Craig had been tailing a blonde, when her handbag had been snatched. It contained £70,000 worth of uncut diamonds. She is Jane, a courier for diamond smugglers, and all she can do is offer her apologies to her immediate boss, Peter. He arranges for a search to be made for the thief.
Nick has a similar task, on the orders of an irate Geoffrey Stock, who had been almost ready to round up this gang, with the evidence on them.
From files, Nick identifies the thief as Dan Rooney, a homeless tramp. Dan is rather mystified when he opens the bag: "maybe they are jewels," his mate John Slattery suggests. Dealer Weedon gives some good advice: "they're worth about twelve years in Dartmoor," as he bustles Dan away.
First to catch up with Rooney - the smugglers. Peter offers £60 on account plus £100 on delivery. Dan Rooney can't believe his good luck.
Nick finds Rooney has now disappeared. He's joyfully explaining to John that "we're in the big time now all right." When Nick at last catches up with them both, he explains he's a police officer, and Dan agrees to take the diamonds back to Peter, as he was going to do all along.
But maybe Nick should have anticipated the gang's treachery, for Nick next sees Dan dead, lying in his hovel of a hideout. The diamonds are gone.
An upset John Slattery is at the East End Mercy Mission. He has got the diamonds, which he had naively hidden so his friend wouldn't desert him. Craig persuades him to return the diamonds to the thieves, and in a rather emotional scene, Slattery does just that. So all is now ready for the gang to be arrested, Slattery handing out a few well deserved punches on the way.
This is hardly a case worthy of the Ghost Squad, even if the character study of the two tramps is well defined
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Death of a Sportsman
"Spencer Deedes, but he's dead."
Agent Tony Miller notices a man in Cairo called Morton (John Longden), who looks like a man named Spencer Deedes who had died the previous week.
Miller is here to track down diamond smugglers with the aid of Major Mahmoud (Warren Mitchell) and agent Sally Lomax.
The leader of the gang is named Stone, and Miller starts his quest to meet him at a Turkish baths, where a wrestler promises to put feelers out.
While they wait, Sally and Tony investigate Deedes' death, "he died, Tony, that's in black and white." Prof Crichton at the British Embassy (Noel Howlett) had been a friend of Deedes. He explains that Dr Malik, a man of the highest medical reputation had attended Deedes in his last hours. Drugs had been administered by Deedes' own South African nurse, Mrs Mason.
When Miller talks to her, she seems very nervous. But to settle matters, Caroline Deedes (Patricia Haines), daughter of the dead man tells Miller she had been with her father when he died.
"No chance of a relapse," admits Tony, his hunch must have been wrong. So he resumes the smuggling case and an interview with Stone's representative, Zervas Kouyoumojian (Martin Benson), a Greek lawyer. Now he just happens to have Caroline Deedes as a client.
While Zervas checks Miller's credentials, Sally tries to talk to the frightened Mrs Mason, but too late, she's dead. "Mrs Mason was killed to stop her from talking," Miller states the obvious to Caroline. That forces her to admit that her father is still alive, it was Mr Mason who was buried. Her father was being blackmailed, but by whom?
Meeting with Stone, arranged by Zervas. "My name is Stone," says Morton alias Deeds, introducing himself. He produces some diamonds for sale. Nervously fingering them, Miller agrees on a deal, but Sally has fallen for "the oldest trick in the book" and has been grabbed by Zervas' men. Both agents are tied up, and are to be silenced when Deedes and Zervas fall out over the death of Mrs Mason. Mahmoud bursts in to arrest them all anyway.
Back in London, Sir Andrew Wilson, unseen of course, hushes up the story of Deedes' bad deeds. That at least makes Caroline grateful
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A First Class Way to Die
"I'm damned if I know what to think. According to her, Craig is a thief."
Nick Craig is undercover on the SS Orrillia, enjoying a Mediterranean cruise. His brief is to "keep an eye on" a holidaying professor, "Britain's electronic brain" (Laurence Hardy). His other eye seems reserved for a French film star.
But Craig had better watch some of the others around the prof. His niece Anya (Jennifer Daniel) is very protective of him, though he doesn't appreciate her efforts. Her boyfriend Scaccia (Peter Halliday) is definitely "a phoney," he's in communication with some stowaway. However he's seems to be under the thumb of a mere steward Clavik (Jerry Stovin). Finally, there's "ageing adventurer" Arnell (Peter Dyneley), very pally with the prof.
At the start of the story there was a cry of Man Overboard. Though no-one has been found missing, the captain (Charles Morgan) works out that a stowaway had indeed been washed away. Evidence shows he was called Levy. Nick radios London and this gets Geoffrey Stock out on the next flight to the ship's next port of call, Dubrovnik. For Levy is a known kidnapper, who had previously been convicted of kidnapping an American nuclear scientist. He works for the mysterious Condor, whom "we don't know what he looks like."
Back on ship, Craig forces Scaccia to admit he had smuggled the stowaway on board for money. Before Craig can learn who had paid him, he's shot dead in his cabin.
Carelessly, Anya had left her earring there, so did she kill him? She finds Nick in the cabin and orders Clavik to take him to the captain. Instead Nick is tied up. When Anya goes to show the captain Scaccia's corpse, it has been removed and Clavik denies everything. It appears she is talking nonsense, and she gets very worked up. While this has been going on, Arnell has persuaded the prof to go ashore with him at Dubronvnik.
Craig manages to wriggle out of his bonds, overcome Clavik, and find Anya has now disappeared. It's evident she has been taken by The Condor. That humble barman is their man! Thankfully, they prevent him from taking her ashore.
The prof returns with Arnell from their innocent night on the town. Stock and Tony Miller come on board to pick up the pieces.
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Lost in Transit
"Still pedalling the same old poison- must be lunatics.... but dangerous."
In London, Tony Miller is awaiting the arrival of a flight from Amsterdam, on which is a propaganda chief Karl Eppler (John Woodvine), a representative of the Nazi New Link. But in the cloakroom Eppler is shot dead.
"An abject piece of bungling," Miller is slagged off by his boss Geoffrey Stock. In fact Eppler had been playing a double game, for he is actually a Ghost Squad agent.
Frau Eppler (Delphi Lawrence) hadn't approved of her husband's political cronies, led by Van Tempel (Anthony Jacobs). But when she comes to identify the corpse, she claims it is not that of her husband. He must have foreseen the plot on his life and swapped identities. Miller is assigned to find Eppler and he flies to Berlin with Mrs Eppler.
"The time has come," Van Tempel is announcing at a meeting of The New Link. They plan to kill a large number of statesman. Though Eppler is at the meeting, his duplicity has been exposed, and he is beaten up. Luckily, he has left a clue behind, a tape recording of the Nazis discussing their plot. The bomb is set for 9pm tonight. But where?
Miller works out that it must be at the Opera House, where a gala night is taking place. In what promises to be a tense finale, the saboteur takes an age to place his bomb, and all the tension is dissipated. Miller persuades the manager of the opera house that he's speaking the truth, for the bomb "has enough punch to split the place wide open." The manager's response- "Gott in Himmel," highly unoriginal. After much sweating, the bomb is diffused by Tony Miller and tragedy averted in yet another ticking bomb drama, not one of the better ones.
We end with Miller bidding farewell to the Epplers, who are off on a well deserved holiday
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Quarantine at Kavar
No Geoffrey Stock in a story in which the studio-bound limitations are
painfully obvious, with no sense of a middle eastern location, and cars that never move!
"Send the films, they'll know."
The dying ravings of a man killed in a crash. Tim Casey his companion has also survived,
and is laid up at Kavar, in a middle east state where there could well be a "modern day gold rush"
if reports of the existence of thorium are true.
Agent Nick Craig is sent to find Casey, who has disappeared, find the location of the thorium, and
prevent anyone else finding it- "I don't think I'm going to enjoy this trip."
But at least he has the pleasure of being accompanied by Ghost Squad's Jean Carter, as she knows a bit about archaeology.
Miss Sazi Keller had been the secretary to Casey's expedition. She's clearly scared, and is keen to get out of Kavar.
Jean chats with an American journalist staying at their hotel, Dwight Sherman, and he warns about the
power of the local emir. Nick meets this local chief- he knows where Casey is all right, though he's saying nothing.
The emir is clearly keen to buy whatever information Miss Keller knows, as he sends her jewels, the offer to
join his harem!
There's no way anyone can leave the town because it's under quarantine, following an alleged outbreak of the plague.
"As long as the quarantine lasts, the emir is in charge of the situation."
Nick circumvents security to get into the emir's palace, and there he finds Casey, certainly not a prisoner.
He's living in the lap of luxury.
"You're wasting your time Mr Craig." Then he adds "there is no thorium." Which rather mucks up the whole expedition.
It also sums up this pointless plot.
Nick tries to leave with Miss Carter and Miss Keller. She has the photographs everyone wants-
they had been entrusted to her by her dying boss. Both the local doctor and Sherman unsuccessfully attempt to snatch them.
"A fool's errand," Nick reports when they arrive safely in England. Except for the photographs, which they still have,
and which show the expedition had discovered some rare cave paintings.
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Retirement of the Gentle Dove
"It takes little courage to become a traitor."
A Mr C Brownlow has been staying at the Green Bay House (alias Edgwarebury Hotel), but he is really the recently retired head of British Intelligence. For years, he has been obsessed with tracking down the traitor known as the Gentle Dove, partly because Brownlow's own son had been betrayed to his death during the war.
But Brownlow's glass of milk has been nobbled...
"I'd like you to meet George Pearson, widower." He's in reality Geoffrey Stock out to trace Brownlow's killer. "Whoever it is, I'm going to find him or her," he has vowed.
He's given Brownlow's old room at Green Bay House. The sets help create rather well the stifling atmosphere of a home where nothing much seems to happen. Inhabitants there are predictably stuffy, and several seem suspicious, including:
Ex concert pianist Lieber (Ballard Berkeley) who has an assignation with someone each afternoon, and though Stock follows him, he loses him.
Another foreigner is Anna Klein the cook, who has had a shadowy past during the war. Her 'daughter,' who works at the home, seems not to be related to her at all.
Then there's the owner Tresilian, who doesn't welcome the new arrival.
And not forgetting a blind lady who doesn't seem to be blind!
In his sports car JF216, Nick Craig arrives to liaise with his 'uncle.' The car proves useful in trailing Lieber to his afternoon rendezvous. It is all very innocent.
Craig and Stock hatch a plan to flush out the traitor. Stock 'finds' a letter addressed to Brownlow's sister. He posts it in the letter box at the home, and a watch is kept: who will try and retrieve it?
"You may find this hard to believe," says the housekeeper at one point, and although the story by Philip Levene is a really good whodunnit, there are too many suspects to get to know them all properly, and besides, the storyline is never quite full of Ghost Squad-like danger.
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The Thirteeenth Girl
"There's something about this girl."
Introducing Sally Lomax, a judo trainee (Patricia Mort). Could she be a Cathy Gale clone- even to the extent of her leather coat? Geoffrey Stock puts her on the Schwarz Case, an au pair who had been brutally murdered. Inspector Franz Hartmann (John Carson) of the Swiss police has approached Ghost Squad for their help, for she is the twelfth in a long line of au pair murders.
Sally poses as Marianne Dubois, working for a Mrs Henderson (Molly Weir). She obtains her post via the Connie Amhurst Agency, the owner proving to be really one Muriel Davies, a convicted brothel owner. She now runs what is called the International Friendship Club, managed by old Mr Whitehead.
That night Sally breaks in to the agency and happens to overhear Connie discussing with her helper Johnny an au pair named Bodil Anderson- she's to be the next.
So Marianne gets friendly with this Bodil, and is invited to her 21st birthday party. "Ladykiller" Raymond (John Ronane) is Bodil's boyfriend and he gives Sally a doctored drink. Thus she misses Bodil being tricked into thinking she has killed the lecherous Whitehead, and Mrs Amhurst very kindlily helping her to evade justice.
Ray puts her on the Birmingham train, but our Ghost Squad agent has managed to follow Bodil on to the train. However Ray spots her.
The 2.10 arrival at Birmingham steams in, Sally swapping places with Bodil. She meets Johnny who takes her to a face to face meeting with the boss, Mr Amhurst, alias Whitehead. Sally Lomax, alias Marianne Dubois, is required to explain her presence.
"Well Marianne, what are we going to do with you?" And with Bodil, for she has been rounded up too. However Bodil had obeyed instructions and phoned Ghost Squad, and Inspector Hartmann immediately pounces on Connie Amhurst, unearthing proof of her guilt. And just in time in Birmingham, the police arrive, even though Sally Lomax has put her judo to good use and polished off most of the villains anyway.
The final scene is at Ghost Squad hq as Inspector Hartmann and Sally Lomax leave on a date.
Sally appeared also in a few other Ghost Squad /GS5 stories, including the main part in Hideout.
This story was repeated in 1964, billed as part of the GS5 series
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Hot Money
"A counterfeit like this might fool a bartender, but it'd never get past a bank clerk."
But this forged note is handed in to a bank. The odd thing is that it bears the number of one of a large bundle of notes that had been stolen, but were then believed to have been destroyed in a fire.
Art dealer Giuseppe had passed it. and Nick Craig is assigned to trace where he had obtained it. His granddaughter Mina (Samantha Eggar) is dating Penumbra Club owner Max (Michael Coles), but "he's no good for her," Giuseppe informs Nick. Nick pays for a drink at this club with the forged note, and this brings about "a private little chat" between him and Granger (Lloyd Lamble), Max's partner.
Nick admits it had come from "nice inoffensive little Giuseppe," with the result that Granger orders "the bum" Max to finish the art dealer off. Having chatted Mina up, Nick drops her home to find Giuseppe dead.
Geoffrey Stock delves into the man's past, and finds he had arrived in England after the war on a forged passport. He was an expert forger, and Max and Granger had forced him to make banknote forgeries which were the ones destroyed in the fire. Now Granger and Max are about to spend the money they had stolen, safe in the knowledge that police are not looking for this loot.
Nick is tied up in the cellar of the club, but of course he breaks free. "What about the girl- how much does she know?" Granger is asking Max. They decide to dispose of her, but it's all over, Nick arrests them.
In the postscript, Nick is told Giuseppe had deliberately passed a few poorly made forged notes to get the police to investigate. He'd been being blackmailed into the scheme for fear his beloved Mina would get hurt.
This is a rather slow moving story
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The Man With Delicate Hands
Dickinson (Basil Dignam) is in charge at the GS headquarters today. No explanation for Mr Stock's absence.
"This was the name of the man I wanted to see. But why was she so interested in him?"
'She' is Helen Lambert, whose brother Paul has been found in a burnt out car in Holland. 'He' is Delarge, a tattooist.
Helen had earlier surprised everyone by claiming the dead man is not her brother. even though the dead man's clothes and possessions are Paul's, the hands are unlike his. And Dckinson of the Ghost Squad is inclined to believe her, when he checks to find the tattoo on the corpse's arm had been put there recently.
Tony Miller is sent to Holland as the investigator for the motor insurance company. He books into a hotel reception, that looks not unlike the set used in East of Mandalay. Helen Lambert happens to be staying in the adjacent room.
Miller follows her to the tattooist, and after she leaves, the nervy man dashes straight to a large home, which Miller learns is the home of a wealthy art dealer Peter Brenner (Derek Francis). Next, Helen calls upon Dr Lisa Arne who had identified the corpse. She hands Helen Paul's watch by way of additional proof. "It couldn't be," protests a dispirited Helen. As she leaves the doctor's clinic, she hears screaming, not realising that it's her brother, who is being forced to reveal the currency secrets he knows.
Miller asks the art dealer to sell him a painting. But "if he knew where Lambert was, he let nothing slip."
When Helen shows Tony the watch, it confirms Paul could still be alive. Helen is so upset she has to be sedated by the doctor. Miller noses round the clinic and finds Lambert, but is caught himself.
"Every man has a breaking point- we must reach his," Brenner is ordering the doctor. They must unlock the privileged secret Lambert holds, to make a killing on the currency markets. They use Helen's "fragility" to persuade him to open up. However Tony manages to loose his bonds and suddenly it's all over. The gang are arrested.
Helen Lambert thanks Tony. In time, Paul will recover from his ordeal.
The condition of this tape is not A1, and it may be that a couple of poor editorial joins are the result of this, rather than the work of the editor.
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The Last Jump
Agent Miller: "I wasn't sure what my bigger problem was- finding the leak, or making a parachute jump."
Lt Fielding's parachute has failed to open and he is killed in Germany. But someone steals part of his equipment, top secret too.
Geoffrey Stock of Ghost Squad proves to Col Trent (Thomas Heathcote) of RAF Enington that Fielding had been a traitor, and moreover he had an accomplice.
To discover who, Fielding's replacement is agent Tony Miller who identifies Lt Blandford, the colonel's adjutant, and Cpt Horstead, acting liaison officer,
as the two most likely suspects.
There are a lot of uppercrust types at the base. Roly Horstead (Jack Watling) is rather less jolly, despite being engaged to Sarah. He had endured
being a POW in Korea, which brings on "these spells. If he was discharged, I don't know what he'd do." The doctor on the base, Major Jack Naismith, is kindly covering up
for Roly, as they were buddies in the Far East.
Blandford (John Bonney) takes an immediate dislike to the newcomer. Nuremburg 53250 is a phone number found in his room by Miller- is it significant?
Next op, you chaps. Dr Naismith gives Roly an injection to help him take part, but it's a tranquilizer that puts him out for 12 hours, because Roly's "jumping days are over."
The drop. 1945 hours. Grid ref 7O0936, and already intelligence in Germany has been told of that location. Miller guesses it's Blandford who's the source of the leak.
"Prepare for action." Blandford's parachute fails to open. It all happens abruptly. But Miller was evidently wrong.
"Somewhere there is a traitor... and we've got to find him."
The only person must be Horstead who's furious with Naismith for preventing him from flying.
'Brigadier Charles' alias Geoffrey Stock joins the base to assist Miller. However the identity of the traitor seems all to obvious to the discerning viewer.
Whilst the Brigadier chats to Naismith, Miller searches his surgery.
Chocks away. The next op. Miller has already found a nobbled parachute. The drop- both Miller and the Brigadier, Horstead and Naismith are on this run.
"My nerve's gone," cries Roly. But he jumps. His chute works because Miller had swapped his parachute with Naismith's, who is arrested. Rather a dramatic if unneccesary finish.
Back home, we see Tony Miller, his leg bandaged up.
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Polsky
Geoffrey Stock to agent Tony Miller: "Somewhere in that garage there's a link- all you've got to do is find it."
This story is a little unusual in that though about Tony Miller, Nick Craig also appears in one scene, as he smiles over his assignment in Bermuda, until he learns he's going there as a stoker.
One further entertaining topical quote: "They rather jumped the gun on the Common Market."
Elijah Jones is a small time crook, who is caught after a safe robbery. It's one of many similar robberies for which expendable petty crooks are recruited by an international gang.
The gang seems to collect new members from a court, and thus a naturalised Pole, Nyziac, alias Tony Miller, is placed on probation. Leaving the court and enjoying a cuppa in a nearby cafe, Miller is offered a job by a garage owner called Hicks (Ray Barrett).
One night, Miller, who has been nicknamed Polsky, is asked to work late. Too late he realises it is to break into a factory. His role is to knock out the nightwatchman and grab the keys to the premises.
That earns Polsky £200, but he acts aggrieved at this paltry sum and demands to see the boss. For this he is given a working over, though he gives as good as he gets and demands double pay as a result.
A worried Hicks consults his boss, Edward Minto (Gerald Cross). Solution- "get rid of him." Polsky is first paid off, and he then demands more money. They can't kill him, he explains, because he has written this letter about the gang, kept in a safe place...
Miller's cover is finally blown as he comes face to face with Minto, at last. A tense struggle, Miller is shot in the arm before the police pounce.
There are two muted, rather touching final scenes. Stock gives his thoughts on crime and criminals
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The Heir Apparent
Nick Craig: "I've never played rugby." At one point, with Geoffrey Stock ranting at him, he declares, "oh for the good old days of Sir Andrew." Amen.
This is a very bitty script by Julian Bond, that introduces too many characters without satisfactorily developing many. There is a paucity of action and the attempts at comedy fall flat. The opening tag about GS agents working "in danger" etc seems peculiarly inappropriate here.
Agent Miller phones from Beirut and is amused to hear that Nick's next job is as a games master. Nick is sent to The Moorings, run along naval lines by the ineffective Commander (Frank Middlemass), and the other members of staff seems equally suspicious, Roger Belcher and Gavin Reardon. Craig is charged with watching over new boy Prince Karim, son of an oil sheik. I say 'boy,' though in fact most of the pupils look well over 20 years old.
As Mr Hope, Craig proves not too competent a teacher. The first evening his 'boys' disappear down to the boathouse for a rock n roll session, Craig finds them there and chats with them, and it is a little unfortunate that The Commander, in his pyjamas, carries out a raid and reprimands everyone, including Craig, though luckily his bark is worse than his bite.
The weekend sees Prince Karim and his pals at The Blue Lagoon where their tutor again joins them. It's all most inocuous, unexciting even, but the group seems to be being watched by Sheik Ben Ai (Roger Delgado), who slips Craig a doped drink.
So Craig loses his man, and is on the carpet before Geoffrey Stock. Karim's dad is in England to see his son, so Craig had better find him quick!
Nick speeds to Reading where the prince is either being held by an oil magnate to secure an oil concession, or by some students, or maybe bad uncle Ben Ali who tries to shoot the heir. However he is prevented by an unlikely ally in the final muddled denouement
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Escape Route
"The next step," declares end-of-his-tether Nick Craig, "is down. And after you get all my money, the next step is to turn me out penniless and broke into the wide world."
A deadbeat has been run over in Sydney, odd, but a year earlier he'd been a prosperous millionaire in England.
It's not the first case of a rich man the police have been wanting to question, disappearing.
Thus Nick Craig dons the new identity of David Stamp, "the deb's delight," but also a real estate swindler. In a posh London club, he encounters Chapman (Terence Alexander) who helps him abscond with the aid of his right hand woman Julia, for the sum of £5,000. "You'll have to trust me," she warns him, in a masterpiece of understatement.
Another new identity for Stamp, this time a more ordinary one, that of a tourist named Williams with less expensive clothes, fitted out for him in a nice little scene with Bill Shine and John Junkin. He hands Julia the £5,000, which the Ghost Squad have supplied, for they are shadowing his every move.
Stage 1: the coach from Victoria station to Rome. In a "second class hotel" Julia gives him another passport and yet another name, Grayson, a seaman. £1,000 is sent to his 'wife' back home.
Stage 2 now: as a deckhand - not so good. Ghost Squad have lost his trail. He's made "to sweat" his passage, and worse, his passport is confiscated. The only production problem is that the ship looks too much like a studio, there's no movement of the sea.
Then Stage 3: broke in Singapore. 24 Yangoon Street is "not altogether prepossessing," and Craig is at his lowest ebb. It's like a prison. Indeed, he's not going on the final stage of his journey to Australia until he hands over the key of his safety box in London, where are stashed the proceeds of his criminal activity. The "gone to seed" ex-pat owner of the dump Rockworth (well portrayed by Hugh Burden) echoes earlier advice to Craig, to "trust us." No choice.
But Craig's case proves different for the crooks, in one respect. That security box contains very little cash, so Chapman flies to Singapore to deal persoanlly with the business. It's a contrast between Craig's first meeting with him in the London club, and the second in a Singapore hovel "I'm not fool enough to believe you'll still keep your promises," Craig tells him. It's a tough scene, this, Chapman concluding with his warning "they pick corpses out of the harbour every day."
The engmatic Rockworth is the weak link, and Craig decides to break his cover and confides to Rockworth that he's a policeman. So, when Chapman orders the weakling to kill Craig, he meets with a refusal. An argument and a shot is fired. Unfortunately Hugh Burden's gun isn't pointing at anyone, but somehow Chapman is on the receiving end. Perhaps it was a ricochet!
Thus ends Craig's "galivanting," as he returns to England, the escape route smashed. This is a fine script by Peter Yeldham, only the studio-bound nature of it mars an otherwise very enjoyable story.
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The Menacing Mazurka
Jean Carter: "what will you do?" Tony Miller: "for once, absolutely nothing."
Flying from Kallakra airport are a troupe of Bassran dancers, agent Tony Miller is to act as their publicity agent. He sets up a press reception, though his hands are rather tied by the communists who are overseeing carefully the whole tour.
Comrade Ilse Veroni (Jacqueline Ellis) is their interpreter, Miller likes her looks. Another of the all female group, Linka, secretly hands Miller a note requesting asylum, later she asks him personally, but Miller daren't break his cover, and besides she could be a plant, a Commie spy.
Laslo Radiv (George Pravda) is the ex-colonel of the Bassrai army who has already gained asylum in Britain. The worry is he might be lured back, as his daughter Nicola has not been seen for years, she's presumed dead.
Ilse phones Radiv with a mysterious one word message. It's the name Nicola used to call herself. This is the first of several contacts, designed to persuade him to return to Bassrai to be reunited with his allegedly alive daughter.
At a performance by the troupe, Geoffrey Stock accompanying the ex-colonel, sees there's a plot afoot to kidnap Radiv, so Stock bundles him away. A second try is planned at a private function held at the home of Mrs Marquand-Forster. A chauffeur collects Radiv to drive him to the dance but they are attacked and robbed, and after questions at the police station Radiv has to be taken home, as he's missed the performance. It was another ruse by Geoffrey Stock to thwart the kidnappers, and he apologises. "It was a trap," Stock insists, but in his heart of hearts, Radiv only wants to see Nicola gain.
A farewell party for the dancers offers one last ditch attempt. Ilse however confides in Tony Miller that she really is Nicola, but can she prove it? She claims she has helped Linka defect already. In fact the Bassrans have found her out and there's a chase round the theatre with Geoffrey Stock enjoying himself switching the lights to keep Radiv and his daughter out of Bassran clutches.
Thus father and daughter are both safe, and together again
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Mr Five Per Cent
"To me, you still smell like a policeman, Mr Greenslade."
Mr Stock is "away" once again, so Tony Miller is given his orders from Dept Supt Owen (Ross Hutchinson).
He's to work as a Philip Greenslade using Anton Durkovic (Guy Deghy) a known swindler, to act as an agent to buy the latest Canadian rifles for the revolution in Kwalum.
Guy Deghy gives a strong performance as the weak portly agent- "there is only one thing that matters to Anton Durkovic - that's himself!"
Anton's contact is Tonio Esposito (Edwin Richfield)- "all our ironmongery is listed and priced."
Greenslade offers payment in gold for the rifles he wants. At a way-out party run by Tonio's wife (Naomi Chance), the deal is brokered
Greenslade calls in the police to complete the case and round up the gun runners, but noone materialises at the rendezvous. So Greenslade joins the party to ask Tonio what went wrong.
Though Tonio isn't there, he sees drugs are freely available and chats with Yvette, who has been supplied with marijuana by the hated Anton, who apparently is besotted with her.
It's she who tells where Anton and Tonio are doing the deal.
"I always thought you a dirty snivelling coward, taking your 5 per cent," Tonio is shouting at Anton. It's curtains for Anton as Yvette finds his corpse- his epitaph
"he was never quite ruthless anough."
Tony Miller finishes with "a chat about life" with Yvette.
This is a muddled story that introduces too many unneccessary
characters and gets sidetracked into a story of dope pedalling, as though the writer wished, for no very cogent reason, to show viewers a surreal drugs scene.
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Gertrude
"She's poison. She'd shoot you if she thought that your corpse was worth more."
The story starts in the Middle East, but to the surprising sight of a Scotsman out there, playing his bagpipes. Not so surprising is that he's played by Archie Duncan, reliable as ever, with his fine knack for comic timing. He plays Henry Cameron, a shopkeeper who is asked by the wily double agent Gertrude (Mary Mackenzie) to help get her secret microfilm to England. Despite his incompetence, Henry gets the request through to London, where Sir Thomas Glanville (Richard Caldicott) commissions Nick Craig to escort her from Belcana (apparently boss Geoffrey Stock is away on "holiday").
The job starts none too well, as the blithering Henry doesn't recognise Craig's password. Further he has no bullets for his revolver. And more humiliation when Gertrude laughs when she sees "the boy" who has been sent to do a Man's Job. "I'm already dead," she sighs. Though she does rather go for the idea that she is to pose as Nick's wife.
A stray bullet stops her complaints. The police inspector (Douglas Wilmer) raids their hotel room, but she sneaks away.
Poor Henry thought he'd seen the last of them. But they have to hide out in his shop. Then Gertrude remembers she'd left the microfilm at the hotel. Brave Henry volunteers to retrieve it, "at least with a nightmare you can wake up!" In fact the unscrupulous Gertrude has invented this story so she can be alone with Nick. However she only uses the opportunity to tell him her life story of how she became an agent. Time to turn in and get down to business. "When shall I see you, my darling?" Firmly Nick responds, "tomorrow morning."
Chatting with Henry, Nick gets a rather different version of "Calamity Jane's" life history. Now it's time to make for the airport, but they never make it. Enemy agents hold them at gunpoint. Rebel fighters overpower their captors, but Gertrude is too free with the bullets, and their only refuge is back with poor Henry. The inspector swoops again, to thank Nick for fighting off the rebels.
A new exit mode is by train, but again they are stopped. Chaos reigns at police headquarters, where Gertrude is accused of stealing jewels. Her real husband also turns up. The over complex twists in the plot are unneccesary with the result that the promising story misses the mark quite badly, disappointing after the fine beginning. Gertrude kisses the inspector and shares her jewels with him. There never was any film, just a ruse to get her out of the country.
Amid the ruins of his shop, the result of rebel action, griefstricken Henry sits surrounded by twisted bagpipes. "Forget her," Henry advises Nick, "we save her, we risk global war!"
Finally the pair return to England, along with Gertrude whom Nick has made return the jewels so she can start a new life, but not as Mrs Craig...
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Sabotage
Tony Miller: "I'd met both my bosses. From where I stood, there wasn't much to choose between them."
Miller is sent to some islands off the East African coast, where Independence Day is looming as the doddery old representative of the British Empire (Maurice Colbourne) prepares to hand over power. But Someone is trying to create ferment, and Tony has to find out Who, donning the cover of Michael Landers an international saboteur.
His first task, however, on checking in to his seedy hotel is to rescue a girl in the foyer from a stabbing. She's Nancy (Jill Melford), daughter of the governor of the island and it's she who introduces Tony to her daddy.
Now Tony also meets Wilson (John Paul) for whom he is to work as the saboteur. He also encounters his 'real' boss John Mallory, his Ghost Squad contact, a jaundiced soul, who fills Miller in on the corrupt state of government here.
The sabotage operation to blow up the island harbour is prepared. Miller may have to go through with it, in order not to blow his cover. But then Mallory is found badly injured in Tony's hotel room, and he finds himself under arrest. The Chief of Police, also owner of the hotel, is clearly for sale to the highest bidder- this is the best role in the story, played with a smattering of humour by Eric Pohlmann.
On orders from Someone, Miller is released. He tries to contact Mallory in hospital to find out his orders, but he's not allowed to see him. In desperation he consults the decrepit governor, breaking his cover, and he does obtain his permission to visit Mallory. Too late, however, Mallory has been stabbed to death.
Miller takes a chance and tries to persuade the Chief of Police to help. His persuasion is helped by the fact that he's locked the policeman in his own jail! Appealing to his decency, Tony tells him "you know what to do." Then he discusses with the governor, a counter offensive.
So will Miller's broken reeds come good? And will he learn who stabbed Mallory and is backing Wilson's attempted sabotage? Someone betrays Miller, and Wilson draws his gun: "what do we do now?" The answer is have a fight. Thus the sabotage is foiled and the leader exposed. Not an entirely convincing finish in this very disjointed story which doesn't flow at all smoothly.
Note- this was the last of the videotaped stories that were partially networked
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P.G.7
"There's a difference between revolution and extermination."
From a safe in a laboratory, papers are stolen, chemical formulae and samples, classified material, including PG7 a new airborne inhalant war gas, lethal.
Dr Geoffrey Haydon has been developing it. Don Sargeant, alias Nick Craig, is a Canadian executive brought in to investigate. Haydon introduces his team, including Diane Healy (Pauline Yates), his confidential secretary. However personal assistant Rogers is on holiday in Spain. And recently Prof Sebastian Boon has left the project, after a disagreement when he revealed he was a pacifist. Craig also meets an old acquaintaince Ginger Todd, the company's security chief.
Craig follows Diane to a meeting she has arranged with her friend Prof Boon. "Was it you?" she asks him. He seems jittery, and is whisked away by Tim Sullivan (Gordon Tanner) to a chicken farm. There they are replicating Haydon's lab, Operation PG7 Boon calls it.
Craig learns this Sullivan is a gun runner. he is using Boon who believes, rather naively perhaps, that PG7 is harmless. Haydon's latest experiments on monkeys prove the gas is highly dangerous.
Brunswick Hotel Kensington is where Sullivan is meeting agent Faria to arrange a sale of PG7. Jean Carter of Ghost Squad is following this known spy. He goes to a Hungarian restuarant where she is taken prisoner. She refuses to talk.
Todd has got cold feet now he realises the potential of this weapon. He warns Boon, but too late, for Boon gives him a dose of PG7 to prove to him it is, as he thinks, safe.
Dead end for Craig, so he tries his various Soho contacts. Latin layabout Charlie sends Craig to the restaurant and there Craig finds Jean. He offers Faria an unorthodox deal. To avert a crime against humanity is the lynchpin of their deal.
With Jean kept as security, Faria agrees to take Craig to the still ignorant Boon. It happens that Todd briefly awakes from his coma before collapsing. Boon thus sees the light and destroys the formula, for which the ruthless Sullivan shoots him.
So Jean is safe. Boon is reunited with Diane, but he delivers the chilling prophecy that one day PG8 will be discovered, "and it will work"
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The Missing People
Agent Tony Miller: "I've rubbed shoulders with some tough operators in my time, but that one scares the living daylights out of me."
Miller has gone undercover to work for this crooked boss Victor Cresswell (Nigel Green). He's replaced murdered agent Jenny Williams who'd been working as Josie Wallis, befriending a Polish pilot Wolkovsky. The only clue she had managed to leave before being killed is the name 'Lomax,' pencilled in a Polish newspaper next to an advertisement. This ad, when translated was placed in the paper by a Mrs Weisnevsky, and read "Michael- please write at once, very worried." When this woman had been questioned, she explained that Michael is her son and she hasn't heard from him, ever since he had paid £500 to come illegally to Britain from Poland. It's a very familiar theme in programmes of this era, and not done that excitingly here. "The problem is, where do they disappear to, after they arrive?"
This Lomax is an ex RAF pilot, and Miller impersonates him, just as he's at the end of a long prison sentence. He emerges from the Scrubs with this nice line: "the things you do for the Service- you go to the prison and serve time, you come out and kiss a wife you've never met before, who takes you to a home you've never seen before. It has its compensations."
The incongruously named Slim (Willoughby Goddard) follows 'Lomax' and promises to introduce him to his boss, Cresswell. He offers £500 to fly cargo for him. The cargo is collected at Prague Airport, but Lomax and his assistant Smith do not fly back directly to London, they detour via Poland to pick up their human cargo. "Next stop England." However Miller soon understands that the passengers are to exit via the bomb bay, into the North Sea!
Miller faces Smith with his planned cold blooded murder. "It wasn't my fault," is his feeble defence. But Miller prevents the tragedy and flies to a deserted airfield to be met by "Cresswell and his cronies." Unfortunately, Miller's cover has been blown, and they are holding the agent posing as Mrs Lomax. There's a stand-off, but police arrive to corner the gang. In a shootout Cresswell gets his just desserts.
We finish with Tony asking his boss Geoffrey Stock for a date with his lovely 'wife,' but of course Ghost Squad rules cannot permit that (even though this appears to have been forgotten in the story The Man with the Delicate Hands).
Note- The last story of the Ghost Squad series to be shown on ATV London
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