THE ANGOLA BRIGHTS -
At the Murico Diamond mine in Angola, Martin Bekker (Alfred Burke) is helping himself to a few of the product. To cover his tracks he blows up the mine shaft, killing many employees, and eludes security checks when he's stretchered out. Jumping off his stretcher, he flees to South Africa, where Interpol has no jurisdiction.
Duval flies to Johannesburg and with the help of Inspector Coetzee (Rupert Davies with a variable South African accent) calls on Bekker at the Randsman Hotel. As it's an offence in SA to have uncut diamonds in one's possession, Bekker will be under arrest. But as Duval snoops round the room, Bekker actually shows the diamonds to Coetzee- they're polished, "and there's no law against a person having polished diamonds."
Is this a dead end for Duval? He consults a diamond expert who says he could prove the provenance of these Angolan stones if he could examine them. But how to obtain them? Duval proposes a reputable diamond expert Mayer (Philip Ray) purchases them. When the mining company agree to produce the necessary cash, the deal is done and Bekker sells Mayer the stones before dashing off to catch flight 207 to Iraq.
But Duval is waiting at the airport. "A worried man gets careless," he tells Coetzee, and when Bekker thinks he's going to miss his escape flight he panics. The diamonds are proved to be from Angola and so Bekker is arrested as a thief and a murderer. The end.

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SLEEPING GIANT -

After a heavy storm a "four fuse job," an old Nazi bomb is exposed at the foot of a Scottish dam, and "if it bursts, the whole valley will be drowned."
Duval has a race against time to track down any German who knows anything about this bomb.
He locates General von Schriber who was in charge of air raids out of Norway. He is able to tell Duval that the bomb was the product of a secret research team, the Falk group. Most of this team are now prisoners of the Russians, however three are still alive not behind the Iron Curtain.
More heavy rain in Scotland, not an unknown phenomenon. The dam is threatening to burst, but water can't be let through the sluices for fear of triggering the bomb.
The nearest Falk group member is found, but he's gone gaga. Further, a professor, now in Italy is in a coma, so that leaves "last hope" Frederik Braun, in Germany.
Oh dear! The bomb's moved in all that thick mud, and it's started to tick. Hurry, Duval!
Braun's girl friend Inge (uncredited actress) knows Braun is wanted for his current criminal activities and won't reveal his whereabouts. More delays. Finally she admits he's travelled to Norway under the name Bruno Muller. Interpol put out an alert for Muller.
Whilst engineers are forced to try and deactivate the ticking bomb, Duval reaches Norway. Muller has got passage on a whaling ship bound for the Antarctic, but with the help of Lloyd's he's finally contacted by radio.
Reluctant, Muller won't admit he's Braun. More delays! Finally he's pushed into revealing the details that he somehow still can recall, which enables the bomb to be successfully defused.

Duval embellishes the happy conclusion with his own comment that it's nice for a change to save lives.

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LONG WEEKEND -

Some jolly, jolly music as Inspector Duval pops into his office prior to catching the 9.30 for a weekend away. But Mornay intrigues him with details of John Talbot, a seaman who has been found dead on the Dover seashore with a bullet in his head. Trouble is, he'd been reported a week ago as lost overboard 2000 miles away in the Med. How could the 2 events be connected?
A professor (David Kossoff) with the aid of numerous maps explains the "problem" corpse could "positively not" float from the Med to Dover. I think I could have worked that one out myself!
From the Ministry of Shipping appears another expert (John Le Mesurier) who informs Duval the only ship that could have dumped this body was the freighter North Star, travelling from Trieste to Hamburg. Having provided this amazing titbit, he leaves for his weekend. "A man of great personal charm," comments Mornay.
Captain Gallard (Francis de Wolff) is the next visitor, captain of Sapphire, the boat on which Talbot had been working. As the ship has been in dock in Marseilles for the past week, it's hard to work out how the body ended up in the English Channel! Gallard claims Talbot had accidentally fallen into the sea whilst fixing a lifeboat stake.
But then news from the police that Talbot was an informer, working with them to expose a smuggling racket. Duval produces his theory- the Sapphire must have met the North Star in the Med to exchange smuggled goods, plus one body. Dead Talbot had been placed in deep freeze.......
This spurs Gallard into a hurried departure- a fight, then an arrest.
"Now you are a human being," declares Duval enigmatically, referring to the dead seaman, "not just a piece of orange peel," as he finally departs for the weekend.

This is an interesting tale, as Interpol systematically solves the mystery without ever leaving headquarters.

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PRIVATE VIEW -

"£500,000 Art Theft" are the newspaper headlines after Sir Isaac Spendler's private art collection is stolen from his 23rd floor apartment "sealed like Fort Knox." In the haul are a Van Gogh, 3 Rembrandts, a Renoir and a Lautrec -the thieves knew which ones to nick!
The "fruit machine" at Interpol headquarters, or in other words their enormous computer, produces three likely suspects, but it's the fourth nomination, from Mornay, that proves the best. Computer technology isn't everything! Mornay points to Barstrom in Stockholm.
We watch him and his partner Pimescu hiding the paintings on a London barge. Daughter Nina Pimescu (Moira Redmond) is copying each picture, in a variation of the old 'painting-over' trick. But Inspector MacAndrew (Ernest Clark) is already on Barstrom's trail, thanks to Interpol.
Duval flies over to examine Spendler's flat. Then they dash to London Airport where Barstrom is reported to be flying out with six paintings. An Xray machine ought to show up the originals underneath the Pimescus. But "nothing." Only a red face!
The detectives call at Pimescu's Hampstead address where Duval examines a large camera obscura.
Then a report that Pimescu's body has been found in the Thames. And Nina lives on the river! She's sailing from Southampton - so another race there and surprise surprise, she has six paintings- xrays prove they've been treated with the overpainting trick.
Although Nina knows her dad's dead, she refuses to split on Barstrom, so Duval arranges a trick. He announces the six paintings are being sold by auction in London so it's Barstrom's turn to start rushing to Piccadilly Circus.
A bidding war- "four thousand for an abstract!" "For once, Barstrom," Duval warns him, " you have overbid." Apparently this is enough to get him arrested!

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AIR SWITCH -

That well-known figure in films, the man with no head in view, walks into Rega Airways freight office at London Airport to collect a package, only "off the plane five minutes." He takes it to his van and drives to a river, then, oddly, throws the parcel in.

From Iowa, one of the latest antibiotics is being smuggled all over the world. To learn why there have been no reports of any missing drugs, Duval travels to Stockholm, where the World Health Organisation stores this drug. No cartons are missing. But inside some cartons there's only water!
So "the next shipment from America is going to be watched every inch of the way." Seven and three quarter pounds of the drug is shipped from Idlewild Airport. First stop Shannon, 43 minutes stopover for fuelling. Nothing happens. One more stop in London, then on to Sweden. The container arrives safely- only it's found to now contain water.
By some clever deductive work, Mornay is able to calculate that the switch could only have happened at London Airport. Duval further learns that cartons of water are transported on the same flight, and therefore the destination labels of the two cargoes must be changed at some point during the flight.
Inspector Hill (Trevor Reid) meets Duval at London Airport to get the proof to show their theories are correct. Oh dear, but Inspector Hill has a conscience- "I'm sorry to hesitate but investigating people on circumstantial evidence is something we just don't do in England." Good old British fair play! Nevertheless Hill does agree to check on the aircrew of flight AC113.
A suspect is tailed off the plane and followed to his van, in the same routine as we have already seen. The police swoop and his carton is opened - it's only water. But when the crook makes a dash for it he's caught with a bag which does contain the stolen drug.

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NO FLOWERS FOR ONNO -

At "the only home in Amsterdam with bullets in the wall," there's a plaque to Onno van Meer and Major Peter Grenville, shot on 3rd November 1943. Author Andrew Slater is meeting Emmy, Van Meer's sister to research a book he's writing on the story. But he is found stabbed to death.
Three hundred thousand guilders for the Dutch Resistance was being carried by this officer when he was shot by the Nazis. "Big enough motive for murder."
Duval flies to Germany to interview Gerhard Esler (Victor Beaumont) who'd ordered the major and the resistance leader to be shot. Esler denies any knowledge of the money. But after Duval leaves we see him plotting to ensure Emmy doesn't reveal anything of what she might know. It turns out Onno was a collaborator. He was never shot. But Emmy will be! "The police will find your body in the canal," Esler tells her. But Duval arrives before Esler has time to carry this out and there's a chase round the canals.
Finally Duval talks to Emmy outside the house where it had all started.

An unimaginative tale, only enlivened slightly by some location work in Amsterdam.

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THE TWO HEADED MONSTER -
Johnny Stefano (Alan Tilvern) was deported from the USA three months ago, and now lives in his old home in Naples. Racketeers from Germany Spain and France have converged on his headquarters for a "summit meeting." Interpol puzzles over what Johnny is up to. They question Johnny's sister, who says Johnny wasn't always bad. He was a farmer until one year his vineyard was ruined. Aaah.
And this is Johnny's new scheme - The Vineyard Protection Society. Philoxera, a vine pest, is stolen from labs. Then for starters, two hundred thousand francs is demanded from a Burgundy vineyard owner, Georges Debre (Robert Cawdron). He won't pay up, and Interpol arrives too late - the pest has struck! But Debre refuses to identify the French extortionist Cartier as he's afraid the pest might spread to his remaining crop.
So Duval returns to Stefano's sister, seeking her help. She refuses to reveal the secret hiding place where Johnny stores the stolen bugs. But they follow her. She confronts her brother with his unpleasant racket, and there's a final shootout.
"It's better this way, he'd never have changed," is Johnny's epitaph.
Note- this review from the sound only. This was taped on a reel-to-reel tape recorder in the bad old days before household videos. Unfortunately videotape machines were not generally available. Still- this tape is of the Premiere of this story on ATV London!
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