Dinosaur TV CRIME/ ADVENTURE
The book Fabian of the Yard, published in 1955, described cases of the great
Fabian, though it's unclear whether all cases described in this, were ever filmed.
At the end of each episode, the real Inspector Robert Fabian adds an epilogue to provide a touch of authenticity.
The series was made by independent producer Charles Wick, and shown on BBC Television, starting in 1954.
Here are
cast lists and synopses of many of the stories.
. . . . . . . 1 The Extra Bullet (Saturday November 13th 1954 8.45pm, first repeated Monday April 4th 1955, 3pm) Synopses of other stories.
The final two episodes on this list were found in a 2005 archive. They may be alternative
titles. One other unknown story was in this archive: 44 The Samba Case.
That is a list of 44 stories. As five pilots were made, a series of 39 films is quite likely a number- but this is informed speculation.
To Fabian menu
. . . . . . . . . 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.
To Fabian menu
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 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.
To Fabian menu
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The first scene shows a man attempting to jump in front of a tube train. He is Walter Mitchell, a prospective MP.
In the Fabian of the Yard book, this case is simply titled Blackmail. This story follows the general plot though some licence is taken with the detail. For instance in the book, Lester's arrest is in Bournemouth
To Fabian menu . . . .
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Adventures of the Big Man (1956)
16 stories were filmed and screened by BBC Television:
1 The Bomb (May 7th 1956),
2 The Amazon Bandit,
3 Baby Sitter,
4 The Runaways ,
5 The Magenta Box,
6 Secret Enemy,
7 Rich Girl (June 26th 1956, 7.30pm),
8 The Gun Runners,
9 Say Hello (July 9th 1956),
10 Lady Killer (July 30th 1956),
11 The Thief (Aug 13th 1956),
12 The Door of Gold (Aug 20th 1956),
13 Edge of Darkness (Sept 3rd 1956),
14 The Frightened Angels (Sept 17th 1956),
15 The Accomplice (Sept 24th 1956),
16 The Smugglers (Oct 2nd 1956).
My review of a surviving story:
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Crime/ Adventure series live/ on videotape
. . . . . . Quatermass (1953-8)
A Game of Murder (1966)
Take A Pair of Private Eyes (1966) - picture
Quick Before They Catch Us- The Tungsten Ring part 1
Bat Out Of Hell (1966)
Ransom For A Pretty Girl (1966)
Death is a Good Living (1966)
The Dark Number (1966/7)
The Big M (1967)
This Way For Murder (1967)
Crime Tape menu see also BBC Classic Serials menu
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In the last analysis, this is a chase round Scotland, a poor man's 39 Steps, the two pursued are sympathetic enough, though confusing are the several subplots woven around the kidnap story. The theme music using bagpipes is an acquired taste, even if I suppose it's authentic.
The opening episode I haven't been able to see, but it sets the scene: Arriving in Glasgow by air is a powerful Family, at its head The Baron, a proto-godfather, whose granddaughter Nadia is abducted from their hotel by one of two gangs, one from London, another local. Someone in the Family is behind the plot.
Part 2
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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Part 5
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A 1967 six part thriller serial, on Francis Durbridge lines, without quite the intrigue. Nevertheless, Michael Bryant gave a sympathetic portrayal of the private eye Johnny Treherne, who inherited his father's sleuthing business, but hasn't the inclination to succeed in it, hence the series title, The Big M(anyana).
Part 1
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In 1892 Lizzie Borden pleads Not Guilty to charges of murdering her father and stepmother. The DA (Robert Beatty) outlines the facts, and while the defence counsel (Glyn Edwards) sums up, one juror Dodds (John Ringham) sings to himself the song commemorating Lizzie's alleged deed.
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Spy-Catcher (1959-1961)
1.2 Three from Spain
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Stories of men who had escaped from Belgium and got as far as technically neutral Spain. Firstly, lawyer Hans Helvig (Brian Nissen) tells his story to Pinto, "you're a good liar." His possessions are searched. This case fades away.
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Friend of Foe?
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Louise
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The VIP
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Like Father, Like Son
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Game, Set and Match
October 1944 in Eindhoven, Pinto has to decide if Cornelius ver Loop (Harvey Hill) is a spy. His wife and son, he has not seen of late, but he has been named as a suspect by the local Resistance, even though he had worked with them. Cornelius claims he is innocent, and Pinto explorers his accusers' motives.
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Never Say Die
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The Absent Friend
In the autumn of 1944, linerunners in Eindhoven need checking carefully. A resistance leader Pieter (John Stuart) is interrogated, He is a garage owner, who had led a group of men through Holland to safety.
. . . . . . . With Wensley Pithey as Robert Churchill. Hosted by Macdonald Hastings
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The Teenage Murderer 1926
. . . . . . . 2.1 The Chicken, 2.2 The Brothers, 2.3 The Cigarettes, 2.4 The Thief. 2.5 The Professional, 2.6 The Fireraiser, 2.7 The Strangers, 2.8 The Convict, 2.9 The Daughters, 2.10 The Husband, 2.11 The Pensioner, 2.12 The Dictator, 2.13 The Village Constable
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The Chicken (May 15th `1965, rpt Apr 2nd 1967)
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The Brothers
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The Cigarettes
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The Thief
At dead of night, Len and Jack shoot a sheep in a field. Then another. In their ramshackle van, they drive away the carcasses.
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The Professional
Intruder sneaks upstairs, helping himself to small items of jewellery. "not a lot to go on," it's the work of a professional.
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The Fireraiser
Cluff inspects Harriet's barn, with her employee Stirk- it has been burned to the ground, the latest in a series of minor arson attacks. Poacher Sammy (Jack Smethurst) is one suspect, another being tramp Wilkie (Leonard Rossiter). The latter informs Cluff that he had seen Sammy in the vicinity of the barn.
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The Strangers
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The Convict
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The Husband
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The Pensioner
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The Dictator
A nice little storm in a teacup. A stone through the window of estate agent Liddler (John Barron), "next time it'll be a brick." He's a man none too popular in Gunnershaw, "you've got to be ruthless," is his motto, as he tells his son Eric, witness his treatment in threatening the houses in Wellington Row with demolition.
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. . . . . Details of this series of ten dramas,
Andrew Faulds was the Narrator in all of the trials,
Peter Wildeblood producing the entire series.
1 Sir Roger Casement Friday July 8th 1960 9.35pm, repeated: Friday June 30th 1961 11.2pm (Granada region only)
. . . . . . . . 1916. Sir Roger is accused of high treason. He pleads not guilty. The narrator (Andrew Faulds) introduces the trial: "a mirror of the society who put him on trial." The context is the Great War, and the Easter Uprisng in Dublin.
"What he did, he did for Ireland."
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Oscar Wilde
. . . . . . . . Douglas Wilmer created a fine Sherlock Holmes.
Nigel Stock provided staunch support as Dr Watson. Later Peter Cushing took over the role of the great detective.
Pilot: The Speckled Band (May 1964)
To the earliest TV version of Holmes
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The Illustrious Client(1965)
. . . . . A pianist plays, her audience of two disinterested, until she faints. Jephro Rucastle (Patrick Wymark) must find a new tutor for his only son.
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The Beryl Coronet
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The Bruce-Partington Plans
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The Retired Colourman
"Pathetic and futile" Josiah Amberley (Maurice Denham) is sent to SH by Inspector L, over his faithless wife who has elopied with her lover Dr Ray Ernest, stealing bonds worth £700. DrW is put in charge of the case. After interviewing the grumpy old man in his dilapidated mansion, Dr W reports back to SH, saying that he noticed he had been followed by a man wearing dark glasses. It must be Ernest. SH is hardly impressed by DrW's visit, "you have missed everything of significance," he chides. Off to the Albert Hall is SH, for a Joachim concert.
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The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
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A Study In Scarlet
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The Hound of The Baskervilles
Briefly, the legend is related using a painting of the hound, "it is out there now." Sir Charles be dead- from terror- new owner Sir Charles, whose life is "at risk" inherits over £740,000.
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The Boscombe Valley Mystery
Uninspiring drama of a son who is arrested for murdering his father. James McCarthy had been seen crouching over his father's dying body, whose final word had been Rats.
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The Sign of Four
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The Quatermass Experiment (1953)
Quatermass II (1955)
Quatermass and the Pit (1958)
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1 Contact Has Been Established
It wouldn't be British if our first manned rocket doesn't go missing Somewhere in Space, "something went wrong." Judith's husband Victor is the youngest of the three crew members. I was waiting for the line, "it's jolly bad luck," but the script wasn't as bad as that, though we were given, "I'm not letting myself go!"
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2 Persons Reported Missing
Victor Carroon is the only survivor, "where are the others?" By today's standards, this single thread of story is very drawn out, its dramatic impact in 1953 was greater than it is on us today. It is interesting how this drama is sustained so well for over half an hour
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1
The Bolts
Sorry if my review isn't more enthusiastic. I found some good acting in the story, notably Herbert Lomas as Will in the pub, but there is also some poor acting, here I have to slate Quatermass' daughter, nearly your original BBC-accented actress, who hardly improves as the series progresses and nearly derails several scenes. Still, this makes for interesting viewing
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2 The Mark
The fallen meteorite has sent Dillon into a trance like state. Security guards swoop and take him away, as a semi-prisoner, to the hospital at the mysterious government research unit. Quatermass is not allowed to accompany him, ordered away.
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The Food
Vincent Broadhead MP's inquiry ends with Quatermass departing in disarray. "Menace" is how he describes the atmosphere in there. But it is also gas, and the MP is turned into a shell of a man.
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The Coming
Quatermass is certain that the meteorites now hurtling again towards Earth are capable of paralysing the nervous system and instil submission to an alien will. While Fowler delves the top secret ministry files, he becomes the latest casualty.
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The Frenzy
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The Destroyers
"He won't be the same man you knew four days ago." That is Cpt Dillon, who hands over some written orders. When Quatermass reasons with the zombie, somehow or rather Dillon responds and permits the rocket to be launched on its mission to destroy the enemy.
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1 The Halfman
In Hobb's Lane SW1 (also spelt Hob's), during excavations a skull is dug up. Apeman in Knightsbridge read the popular headlines.
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The Ghosts
The tension has been built up well, though perhaps too slowly, interesting that even a contemporary review by DEH admitted that much
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Imps and Demons
The markings inside the rocket are identified as a pentacle, as used in black magic. A soldier panics when he sees a "horrible" figure.
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The Enchanted
"Colossal" dead insects inside the bulkhead. Roney has them hastily sprayed so they do not decompose and then removes them to his museum. Quatermass and reporter Fullalove scour the area where the things had once lived.
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The Wild Hunt
"The whole place was shaking." Barbara describes this latest crisis to Quatermass, who is still fuming over the rejection of his theory by the minister. The two of them go to the church where Sladden is recovering. He becomes wildly excited when questioned about what he had witnessed.
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. . . . . 2:1 The Witness Hypothesis (April 1969), 2:2 The Witness Hard Facts , 2.3 The Witness Judgement
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The Witness, part 1 Hypothesis
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The Witness, part 2 Hard Facts
To The Expert . . .
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2.4 The Yellow Torrish (April 25th 1969)
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Death In The Rain
To The Expert
. . . . . This well constructed absorbing story by NJ Crisp
begins with a night worker returning home early in the morning, stopping his car when he sees a dead woman in the road. Prof Hardy examines the corpse.
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Your Money for My Life
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Flesh and Blood
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A Way to Die (January 3rd 1971)
The best characters in this story are David's grieving parents, a fine study.
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3:2 Where are you Going?
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3.3 The Man on My Back (January 17th 1971)
Dr Hardy is at the scene of a hit and run road accident in the countryside, by a railway bridge. There's "a car but no body," the crashed car had been stolen from probation officer Davis Jones (Edward Fox).
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Whose Child? Part 1 The Wife
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Whose Child? Part 2 The Husband
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Cedric
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Smithereens (March 14th 1971)
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. . . . . A Game of Murder
My reviews of the episodes
. . . . . . . . . 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.
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.
For my review of episode 3
Start of Game of Murder
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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.
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?
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?
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.
The End
To menu for Game of Murder
. . . . . . . . A deposed dictator, Salias, lives in comfortable exile in Florida, but longs to start an invasion of his former empire. He sends his pal Ramon Aguirre (Michael Godfrey) to Europe to drum up support from his rich sympathisers.
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1
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2
While Carlo leaves Ramon to "talk politics" with Maria, their conversation is more on the "I love you" lines. But she does try and get him to see his supporters for what they really are. "I am an old fashioned ideallist," he admits.
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Episode 3
. . . . . . A 1966 5 part serial by Francis Durbridge
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Part 1
Note- one section of the background music is the theme later used in Callan
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Part 2
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Part 3
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Part 4
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"A dickens of a surprise" awaits Alderman Mayhew (AJ Brown) in Glenside Terrace, he's been robbed. As it's on PC George Dixon's beat, he is on the carpet for not spotting anything. The irascible Sgt Flint bawls him off, so a chastened George returns home silent. Andy is here, having his radio repaired by PC Tom Carr, from Bristol (Paul Eddington). As the policemen chat idly about a spate of similar robberies Tom observes the crook must have "tons of nerve," while Andy believes it must be the work of The Captain, even though he has an alibi.
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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."
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Father in Law
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The Hot Seat
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350 Waste Land
He was living in a wasteland, a policeman, whose mind was damaged after a fight. While on duty, he goes missing, last seen in this sawmill, closed for the past six months. It makes for a distinctive backdrop to this story.
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Harry's Back (January 12th 1974)
George Dixon: "Good evening all."
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. . . . . . George Dixon: "Good evening all."
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Looters Ltd
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A Slight Case of Love
. . . . . . Here's a familiar theme, is policeman Len Warren bent?
Dock Green Menu
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Cross Examination
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A Question of Involvement
Excellent script by Richard Harris. Cindy is barking like mad in the grounds of Forest Lodge, where the Ashworths are caretakers. The dog has found a corpse. Supt Bowen calls in Dr Henry Fox to perform an autopsy. Village gossip is focussing on the drowned girl, a stranger, as well as on the Ashworths, three years ago they moved in, but keep themselves aloof.
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Sweets To The Sweet
. . . . . . . 1 Murder in Montmartre
2 Unscheduled Departure
3 The Burglar's Wife
4 The Revolver
5 The Old Lady
6 Liberty Bar
7 A Man of Quality
8 My Friend the Inspector
9 The Mistake
10 On Holiday
11 The Experts
12 The Cactus
13 The Children's Party
14 Shadow Play
15 The Simple Case
16 Death of a Butcher
17 The Winning Ticket
18 Inspector Lognon's Triumph
20 The Golden Fleece
21 Raise Your Right Hand
22 The Liars
23 A Crime for Christmas
24 The Reluctant Witness
25 The White Hat
27 Voices from the Past
29 The Countess
30 The Wedding Guest
32 Love from Felicie
33 The Dirty House
34 The Crystal Ball
36 Death in Mind
37 Seven Little Crosses
38 The Trap
40 Poor Cecile!
41 The Fontenay Murders
42 The Lost Life
43 The Cellars of the Majestic
44 A Man Condemned
45 The Flemish Shop
46 A Taste of Power
47 The Log of the Cap Fagnet
48 The Judge's House
49 Another World
50 The Crime at Lock 14
51 Peter the Lett
52 Maigret's Little Joke.
See also Maigret at Bay (1969).
Production problems in 1961 in shooting series 2:
A two week delay, in order that Rupert Davies could have a cartilage operation.
Then Ewen Solon jumped from a Paris parapet - his own idea- and broke his ankle. A hastily devised new scene incorporated the accident, then he had to miss the next two episodes.
Another incident was a cameraman falling ill with appendicitis, the relief cameraman didn't know the movements and as he tracked Davies, the actor inquired, "who's playing this part, you or me?"
A filmed sequence that was retained in #14 Shadow Play was of a small boy in a scene shot in the Places des Bosges: he was watching the action and dropped his bottle of milk. Davies comforted the weeping lad, and it was felt so in keeping with Maigret, that the scene was retained
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Murder in Montmartre
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The Burglar's Wife
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The Revolver
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Liberty Bar
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7 A Man of Quality
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The Mistake
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The Winning Ticket
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The Crystal Ball
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Death in Mind
Two lonely old women are murdered and the ten million they've left seems sufficient motive. . . . . . . . . . .
Seven Little Crosses
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The Trap
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The Fontenay Murders
Maigret is travelling to spend a few peaceful days with Chabot (Alan Wheatley), a friend who is also the local magistrate. On an overcrowded train,
Maigret is recognised by wealthy Gilbert Vernoux (Edward Chapman) who reveals his town of Fontenay is seething with unrest over the death of his brother-in-law Robert.
An old widow had been killed in similar fashion, though the murders are seemingly unconnected.
This was not one of the better stories in the series, in fact it is quite poor
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The Lost Life
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The Cellars of the Majestic
At six am in the basement of the Hotel Majestic, a woman waits, holding a gun. She is strangled. Prosper Donge (Ivor Salter) discovers her corpse in the locker room where he works, Ramuel is in charge of the wine cellar, and the manager (George Coulouris) shows Maigret the room where the dead woman Madeleine Clark was staying. Why had she gone to the locker room?
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A Man Condemned
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The Flemish Shop
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46 A Taste of Power
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The Judge's House
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Crime at Lock 14
Two young women are turned off a river boat, another remains on board, but someone on the bank recognises her, and calls out her name, Marie.
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Peter the Lett
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Take a Pair of Private Eyes (1966)
Part 1 (April 10th 1966)
Part 6 (May 15th 1966)
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Take a Pair of Private Eyes
1 (April 10th 1966)
Ambrose is demonstrating how to pick pockets to his new young wife Dominique or Nicky for short. He also calls her 'Frog.' His business partner Charles runs numerous businesses, including that
fronted by Ambrose, Recovery Enterprises. He has a new line for kiddies, a large snake. A customer in a grotesque mask attacks him and steals the file on the Grayden Pearls. He takes it to the novelty shop of Crozier (John Sharp), where Cornelia is assistant.
Take a Pair menu
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2
Take a Pair menu
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3
Take a Pair menu
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4
The 'corpse' is only Ambrose messing around. No, actually it's a ruse to lure the policeman guarding Feinster's home, away from there so Ambrose and Nicky can indulge in a spot of trickery inside the house.
Take a Pair menu
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5
Take a Pair menu
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6
This plot has so many holes and loose ends, that it is impossible to do any justice to a serial that seems to have been written on the back of old envelopes and strung together anyhow, as though the whole must make some wacky impact on the longsuffering viewer. Occasional moments of fun however are no tonic
Take a Pair menu
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The Spies (1966)
starring Dinsdale Landen as agent Richard Cadell.
My abiding memory of the series, is an episode in which Dinsdale Landen, ever looking to score nice subtle comic touches, chats to a bandit leader in the Spanish mountains, who lives on what he describes as "Bake-ed Beans."
1 If He Runs, I Want You There (Jan 1st 1966)
15 I Didn't Even Volunteer (April 16th 1966)
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. . . . . . . . 2.1 How to Rob a Bank and Get Away with It
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. . . . . . Fresh from The Odd Man, William Mervyn as Chief Inspector Charles Rose, teamed up again with Keith Barron as Det Sgt Swift. Other regulars in series one were the ever watchable John Carson as solicitor Anthony Brand and June Tobin as Brand's independent wife, on whom Swift has a crush. John Stratton has some great lines in his role of a jaded journalist.
Surviving stories on dvd:
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3.1 The Less-Than-Iron-Duke
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Sherlock Holmes (1951)
The Case of The Man Who Disappeared
. . . . . . . . . . It starts in Acapulco where Jonnie, relaxing on his luxury yacht with his latest conquest, rescues survivors from a stricken destroyer. The mystery is how it could have been sunk by a torpedo.
Crime Menu
. . . Pilots' Menu
. . . . Note on actors in the series.
Series 1 ran for 13 weekly stories, commencing Christmas Eve 1956. All except 1:1, 1:2, 1:6 and 1:10 were being advertised for sale to other tv stations in the 1960s, so must have been filmed.
1:2 The Greenstreet Girl
1:3 The Case of Casanova Jones
1:4 The Ordinary-Looking Man
1.5 Final Night Alibi
1:6 The Light Tackle Job
1.7 The £10,000 Wash Out 1:8 The Open and Shut Case
1:9 Both Sides of the Story
1:10 The Light That Was Dark
1.11 Hit and Run
1.12 The Key of the Door
1.13 The Third Stroke
Series 2 with 12 stories started in April 1958.
2.2 Mustapha- King of Reefers
2.3 The Shropshire Lass
2.4 The Balance of her Mind
2.5 The Not-So-Civil-Servant
2.6 Two Wrongs
2.7 The Other Half
2.8 Subaltern Red
2.9 A Question of Type
2.10 Last Train Home
2.11 The £12,000 Fiddle
2.12 The Family Affair
Series 3 ran for 16 weekly episodes from 30 December 1958.
3.1 A Couple of Macs
3.2 Nylon Spells Murder
3.3 Old Tom
3.4 A Question of Talking Turkey
3.5 Cheap Ticket
3.6 Confession of Murder
3.7 An Inside Job
3.8 The Samurai Killing
3:9 In Camera
3.10 Escape
3.11 Rope's End
3.12 The Crooked Path
3.13 In A Manner Dangerous
3.14 Flat to Let
3.15 Matrimony Wanted
Series 4 started in June 1960 and ran for 13 stories.
4:2 Hell Hath No Fury
4:3 The Hard Way
4:4 One for the Road
4:5 Jellied Eeels They're Luv'ly
4:6 The Decoy Chick:
4:7
Uncle George
4.8 Fiddlers Two
4.9 The Little Man
4.10 New Lamps for Old
4.11 The Time of Day
4:12 The Dog with a Bad Name
(this was to have been the last of this series) 4.13 Ada's Daughter
Series 5 ran for 13 episodes, commencing 24 May 1961.
5:2
The Old Flame
5:3 Treasure Trove
5:4 Out of the Frying Pan
5:5 Family Business
5:6 Messing about in Boats
5:7 Findings Keepings
5:8 The Runabout
5.9 Sunday's Child
5.10 Roast Chicken
5:11 Death on Tap
5:12 The Headmistress
5:13 The Season of the Year
The final series 6 had been taped starting in December 1962.
Originally it was scheduled for a network release for the following spring, but for reasons unknown, this never happened and A-R showed it to parts of the network from autumn 1963. Where known, the dates planned for the original video tape recordings are shown.
6.1 The Hurricane
Fishy Story
6:3 What the Eye Doesn't See
A Conspiracy of Silence Parlez-vous
6.6 By Gas That's Murder
6:7 Thread of Evidence
The Fourteen Hundred Dollar Question
6:9 Pictures in the Fire
6:10 End of Term
A Little Learning
6:13
The Square Peg
The three final programmes
had originally been announced for series six, but evidently there had not been time to screen them, and they were shown to fill in odd slots.
6.15
The Reluctant Prosecutor
6.16 The Case of the Lazy Eye
To Boyd QC
. . . . . 1.1 CASE 1: SEPTEMBER 16.
CASE 2: SEPTEMBER 23
CASE 4: OCTOBER 7
CASE 6: OCTOBER 21
CASE 7: OCTOBER 28
CASE 8: NOVEMBER 4
CASE 11: NOVEMBER 25
CASE 12: DECEMBER 2
CASE 15: DECEMBER 23
CASE 17: JANUARY 6
CASE 18: JANUARY 13
CASE 19: JANUARY 20
CASE 20: JANUARY 27
CASE 21: FEBRUARY 3
CASE 22: FEBRUARY 10
CASE 23: FEBRUARY 17
CASE 24
CASE 25: MARCH 3
CASE 26: MARCH 10
CASE 27: MARCH 17
CASE 28: March 24th 1958
CASE 30: MARCH 31
2.1 CASE 31: LOCKHART CASTS A NET
2.2 CASE 32 LOCKHART BUYS A BROOCH
2.6 LOCKHART SETS A TRAP
2.7 LOCKHART COUNTS THE SHOTS
2.8 LOCKHART FINDS A NEEDLE
2.10 LOCKHART LISTENS TO THE BIRDS
2.13 LOCKHART WATCHES THE CLOCK
2.16 LOCKHART PICKS A WINNER
2.17 LOCKHART PROBES THE PAST
2.19 LOCKHART PLAYS WITH FIRE
2.20 LOCKHART MISSES THE PLANE
2.21 LOCKHART PULLS THE TRIGGER
2.22 LOCKHART READS A MAP
2.23 LOCKHART CALLS THE TUNE
2.25 LOCKHART MEASURES A MILE
2.26 LOCKHART COINS A PHRASE
2.27 LOCKHART FINDS A GUN
2.28 LOCKHART FOLLOWS A DOG
2.29 LOCKHART FINDS A FLAW
2.30 LOCKHART FITS THE SHOE
2.31 LOCKHART BREAKS EVEN
2.32 LOCKHART VISITS A HOSPITAL
2.35 LOCKHART SEES THE PM
2.36 LOCKHART MISSES A CLUE
2.37 LOCKHART WATCHES A FILM
2.38 LOCKHART SEEKS A DRIVER
2.40 LOCKHART MAKES A TALLY
April 1st 1959 10:15 pm
Crime Sheet starring
Raymond Francis as Chief Det-Supt. Lockhart.
2 LOCKHART FOLLOWS A LINE
3 LOCKHART PLAYS SAFE
4 THE SUPERINTENDENT HEDGES A BET
starring
Gerald Case as Chief Supt. Carr.
5 THE SUPERINTENDENT FINDS THE ANGLES
6 THE SUPERINTENENT DRAWS A DOUBLE BLANK
7 LOCKHART CHOOSES A WEAPON
8 LOCKHART FITS A UNIFORM
10 LOCKHART GOES BACKSTAGE
11 LOCKHART VISITS A PAWNSHOP
13 LOCKHART MISSES THE POINT
14 LOCKHART SEARCHES THE RECORDS
16 LOCKHART LOSES A WITNESS
17 LOCKHART FINDS A NOTE
20 LOCKHART VISITS A LAUNDRY
21 LOCKHART KEEPS AN APPOINTMENT
22 LOCKHART MEETS A ROMEO
23 LOCKHART CLOSES A DOOR
24 THE SUPERINTENDENT TAKES A TRIP
Notes: Ian Hendry was in three Murder Bag stories, as well as one Crime Sheet.
. . . . . 5.1 Alibis Are Fixed (July 2nd 1963)
5.6 Alexander's Ragtime Girl
5.7 Pay as You Earn
5.9 Peggy
5.10 Statement to the Press
5.11 Scaremonger (Sept 10th 1963)
5.16 Two Dreams in a Fire
5.17 An Eye on the Kings
5.18 Requiem on a Typewriter
5.19 A Hole in the Head
5.20 The Gamblers
5.21 No Previous Convictions
5.22 Always a Copper
5.23 Death of Samantha
5.24 Solomon Dancey's Luck
5.25 Formula for Death
5.26 A Car Is Stolen
. . . . .
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
Crime Club
The Pursuers
Calling Scotland Yard
Mark Saber
Man from Interpol
The Cheaters
Charlie Chan
The Invisible Man
4 Just Men
Interpol Calling
Danger Man
African Patrol
Stryker of the Yard
Inspector Morley
1960's Filmed Series
4 Bombs in Piccadilly
9 Brides of the Fire
11 Nell Gwynn's Tear
19 The Executioner
24 Robbery in the Museum
37 Moral Murder
An archive in Canada holds prints of many of this series, and it really is past time for some enterprising business to release it on to dvd.
It's no masterpiece, but it does have the distinction of being the first British made filmed crime series shown in Britain.
A splendid five minute tribute to the series was shown in C4's TV Heaven in the 1990s, with Shaw Taylor linking clips from the series, included were scenes from 26 Hand of Terror, and 29 The Jade Blade.
Crime Menu
For the cast lists and synopses, I am extremely indebted to Jean-Claude Michel
who has gathered this data.
The series was screened on the BBC in 1954-6, with episodes repeated later in the decade.
Fabian of the Yard
This is a cinema compilation (Bombs in Piccadilly, The Actress and the Kidnap, Death on the Portsmouth Road).
Handcuffs, London
This was a second compilation of three stories, one of which was Nell Gwynn's Tear.
A murderer made the mistake of firing an extra bullet at the time of
the crime, providing Fabian
with a clue to a double murder.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Michael Kelly (sergeant)
Donald Eccles (ballistics expert)
Gordon Bell (police surgeon)
Jane Barrett (Mona Proudly)
Melissa Stribling (Vera Proudly)
Michael Alexander (Arthur Carlton)
Isabel Dean (Mrs. Regis)
Elsie Wagstaff (Mrs. Wilkins)
2 The Unwanted Man (Nov 20th 1054)
A gypsy provides a clue to the year-old murder of an
unrecognisable corpse found in the Thames.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergeant)
Frank Sieman (police superintendant)
Philip Lennard (forgery expert)
Jack Melford (wood expert)
Ursula Howells (Ellie Stafford)
David Oxley (Dan Stafford)
Gwen Bacon (Aunt Bess)
3 The Skeleton in the Closet aka The Skeleton in the
Cupboard
The discovery of a skeleton walled up in a closet brings to light a
murder that may have been
committed a century ago.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Genine Grahame (Rose Pool)
Sylvia Marriott (Mollie Boldero)
Peter Dyneley (Captain Pool)
Edmund Willard (Colonel Ledbetter)
Ewen Solon (Elstead)
Allan Jeayes (Hagben)
Gordon Bell (pathologist)
4 Bombs in Piccadilly
(this was one of the pilots that were made)
London is terrorized by a gang of fanatical bombers.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Ann Hanlip (Policewoman Wetherby)
Richard Pearson (Sergeant MacKenzie)
Jack Crowley (Paxton, first terrorist)
James Raglan (Assistant Commissioner)
Reg Hearne (Charlie)
5 Death on the Portsmouth Road aka The Wrotham Hill
Murder
A lorry driver strangles a hitchhiker.
6 The Actress and the Kidnap Racket aka The Snatch Racket aka Four
A.M. Phone Call (Dec 18th 1954)
Unless £250 in notes are left in a telephone directory, Benny threatens to
kidnap the son of an actress. He collects the cash from a kiosk and speeds away
in a taxi, not knowing Fabian is hiding in it.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Sarah Churchill (the actress)
Victor Maddern (Chick)
Margaret Boyd (Nanny)
7 Against the Evidence (Saturday Jan 8th 1955, 8.15pm)
A necklace is stolen from a jewellery shop and an innocent customer
is accused of the crime.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Richard Warner (detective sergeant)
Peter Copley (Brownlove and Audley)
Stuart Saunders (Heathrow)
Betty Cooper (Mrs. Brownlove)
Wilfred Caithness (Dr. Cardwell)
Nicolas Tannar (Pinkley)
Toke Townley (Popes)
James Thomason (Minlane)
Philip Lennard (forgery expert)
8 Murder in Soho aka The Antiquis Murder
Fabian tracks down three hoodlums who run down a motorcyclist
Alec de Antqiuis who had attempted to stop them as they fled from
their jewel robbery. They shoot him, but they leave behind a
raincoat, which Fabian is able to trace back to them.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Ian Whittaker (Cox)
Lew Harris (Coker)
Eric Corrie (Turner) and
Graham Ashley (Spicer)
9 The Brides of Fire aka Brides of the Fire
Three women have died in allegedly accidental fires. They all had
the same husband. Now he is
courting another lady.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Stephen Vercoe (Robert Morley)
Shirley Cooklin (Peggy Drayton)
Michael Shepley (Mr. Thrale)
Arnold Diamond (Inspector Kelson)
Sheila Burrell (Helen Russell)
Hugh Munroe (Andrews)
Cicely Paget-Bowman (Mrs. Dove)
Lillemor Knudsen (Lois Russell)
10 The Troubled Wife
A bank manager claims he shot a burglar in self-defence but his
wife tells a different story.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (Detective Sergeant Sims - or Wyatt ?)
Trevor Reid (George Hubble, the bank manager)
Sylvia Marriott (Kate Hubble)
Betty MacDowell (Sara Milne)
Gordon Bell (pathologist)
Victor Adams (policeman)
Michael Kelly (detective sergeant)
11 Nell Gwynn's Tear
Scotland Yard is called to investigate a report that a famous
diamond on exhibition is a fake.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Isabel Dean (Doris Tedford)
Kathleen Byron (Janet Tedford)
Alexander Gauge (Bardwell)
Noel Howlett (Jeremiah Rugeley)
Jack Melford (expert)
12 The Vanishing Cat (rpt Nov 14th 1955, 4.15pm)
A newspaper ad is used to recruit a cat burglar into a crime
syndicate.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Jean Ireland (Monica Ridley)
Tim Turner (James Ridley)
Ruth Gower (robbed woman)
Robert Sydney (Yard expert)
13 Written in the Dust
A psychopathic housemaid responsible for many murders has gone
to London - to buy poison for her next victims.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Edwin Richfield (sergeant)
Noel Dyson (Cora)
Mary Kenton (Mrs. Apsley)
Margaret McCourt (Ellen)
John Boxer (micrologist)
Patrick Boxill (Mr. Throgget)
Helen Hurst (chemist's assistant)
Charles Mortimer (Mr. Wimpole)
14 The Purple Mouse
Fabian investigates the case of a wealthy dowager who was
committed to a mental institution - for seeing
a non-existent mouse.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (detective sergeant)
Colette Wilde (Lily Ransome)
Cecily Paget-Bowman (Tessa Oakman)
Seymour Green (Dr. Horn)
Gladys Boot (Mrs. Ransome)
Roy Dean (Eddie Carmen)
Max Brimmell (pathologist)
15 The King's Hat
A rare coin provides the only clue to a mysterious archer's attacks
on tourists visiting a 15th-century castle.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Dorinda Stevens (Lady Edith Garvam)
Derek Aylward (Sir Michael Garvam)
Michael Craig (Roger Garvam)
Alexander Gauge (Nicholas Bardwell)
C. Denier Warren (Robert Meekers)
Noel Howlett (Jeremiah Rugeley)
Jack Melford (expert)
Charles Lepper (Edmund Burrows)
Ian Fleming (Sir Digby Button)
16 Little Girl
An unknown woman's face powder is the only clue to a private
secretary's murder.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Gillian Maude (Rita)
Peter Stanwick (Vale)
Arthur Howard (Trew)
Mary Jones (Ruth)
Gordon Morrison (Baines)
17 The Coward
Did a young student try to commit suicide by poison or is she the
victim of attempted murder?
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Barry Lowe (Andy Wagner)
Jill Raymond (Frieda Barnes)
Anthony Rea (Ed Seddon)
Ann Stephens (Sylvia Parker)
Betty Cooper (Mrs. Wagner)
John Boxer (pathologist)
Paul Daneman (doctor)
18 Lost Boy
Fabian investigates the Edwardians, a gang of juvenile delinquents
on a rampage.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Ian Whittaker (Ginger)
Sheldon Allen (Nobby)
19 The Executioner (Wednesday April 6th 1955, 8.15pm, rpt Apr 23rd 1956)
London is terrified by a mysterious killer who murders people in
their bathtubs.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (detective sergeant)
Peter Swannick (Mr. Porter)
Elspet Gray (Marian Courtland)
Noel Howlett (vicar)
William Abney (Jim Keyes)
Tottie Truman Taylor (Miss Langley, schoolmistress)
Marjorie Rhodes (Mrs. Boody)
Geoffrey Denys (doctor)
Peter Cellier (uncredited, as an expert at the Yard)
20 The Poison Machine (rpt Mar 26th 1956, 7.30pm)
In London, poison-pen letters drive one man to insanity and
another to attempted murder.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Patricia Driscoll (Agatha)
Richard Gale (Peter Lancefort)
Brenda Hogan (Deborah)
John Salew (Mr. Pontifex)
Nicolas Tannar (Mr. Kinney)
Alan Rolfe (police superintendent)
Jack Melford (typewriter expert)
21 The Golden Peacock
A young dock worker is suspected of murdering a beautiful French
dancer.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Kieron Moore (dock worker)
Pascale (French dancer)
John Gabriel (night-club owner)
June Rodney (girl)
Martin Boddey (police surgeon)
Basil Lord, and
Wensley Pithey
22 The Lover's Knot
Love letters may be the death of a salesman - who's suspected of
murdering his wife.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergeant)
Thomas Heathcote (Selby)
Shelagh Fraser (Emma Horton)
Jessica Dunning (Mrs. Addison)
Douglas Muir (doctor)
Larry Cross (Fleddon)
Jennifer Browne (waitress)
John Boxer (laboratory expert)
Martin Boddey (graphologist)
George Woodbrige (supervisor)
23 The Man from Blackpool
Victims of a gambling syndicate are taught the virtue of silence - by
acid-throwing teachers.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Elspet Gray (Lady Jane Shaw)
Alexander Gauge (Harry Disbrow)
John Trevor (Hon. Victor Leggett)
John Orchard (Big Fred)
24 Robbery in the Museum
Fabian searches for a poor young poet who has stolen jewels from
a London museum.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Ian Sampson (superintendent Forbes)
Emris Leyshon (Masters)
Josephine Griffin (Mrs. Masters)
Charles Lloyd Pack (Prof. Wynn Jones, the curator)
John Stuart (Jarvis)
Jacqueline Con (child)
Menhardt Mauer (Dutchy)
Charles Wade (Nick)
25 Deadly Pocket Handkerchief
Police seek a thief who chloroforms and robs women on the
streets of London.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Richard Pearson (MacKenzie)
Dagmar Wynter (Susan)
Fanny Carby (Mary)
Brian Haines (Quailes)
26 Hand of Terror (Wednesday May 28th 1955, 7.45pm, rpt Aug 17th 1955)
A politician's fear of scandal prevents him from taking action when
his wife is kidnapped
by an escaped convict.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Colette Wilde (Cynthia Barker)
Arthur Young (Mr. Barker)
Michael Craig (Ted Enfield)
Patrick Westwood (Larry Redman)
James Gilbert (expert)
Betty Cooper (Mrs. Barker)
Allan Jones (Reedy)
Christina Forrest (BOAC clerk)
Jessica Cairns (maid)
27 Pinpoint Signature
Five men are suspected of terrorizing an actress.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Jean Ireland (Edna Kent)
Madge Brindley (Mrs. Daisy)
Maurice Kaufman (Jerry Strong)
Allen Sheldon (Arthur Flagg)
Harry Fine (Bill Beckford)
Jack Melford (expert)
Max Brimmell (psychiatrist)
28 Innocent Victims (June 8th 1955, 8.15pm)
Fabian investigates the involvement of two teachers in a theft that
seems to be an inside job.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Dorothy Allison (Mary Walton)
Arthur Howard (Jim Graham)
Philip Ray (Dr. Walton)
Joan Newell (Mrs. Mortlake)
Robert Sandford (Peter)
Victor Wood (expert)
29 The Jade Blade
The mysterious death of a young Chinese man is linked to an
ancient law that sometimes
justifies murder.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Reginald Hearne (detective sergeant)
Alan Tilvern (Sen Shan)
Betty MacDowall (Mary Soong)
Martin Boddey (Fat Harry)
Wanda Balcon (Lotus Yung)
Charles Mortimer (Professor Hughes)
30 April Fool (June 22nd 1955, 7.45pm)
Four people are implicated in a puzzling April fool joke - the near-
fatal shooting of a man.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Betty McDowall (Angela Hollis)
Garard Green (Major Randall)
Jean Wilkinson (Barbara James)
William Mervyn (Ronald James)
Marjorie Rhodes (Mrs. Flinge)
Gaylord Cavallaro (Jack Hollis)
Jack Melford (ballistics expert)
Elaine Dundy (chorus girl)
31 No Alibi (the series returned after a break with this story on Saturday Nov 12th 1955 3.45pm. Repeated Fri March 8th 1957, 3.15pm)
The murder of a fashion model is linked to a man with a good alibi
- he is serving a prison sentence.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Robert Raglan (det sgt Wyatt)
Sylvia Marriott (Mary Sedney)
Tim Turner (Bill Jaggers)
Myrtle Reed (Miss Janes)
Patrick Connor (Madden)
James Raglan (prison governor)
John Boxer (pathologist)
Dermot McMahon (Dalton)
32 Escort for Death aka Escort to Death (rpt Sept 6th 1956)
Three people are marked for death when one of them
discovers a state secret in a foreign embassy's
code room.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Colette Wilde (Silvara)
Gerard Heinz (ambassador)
Alan Tilvern (Carlac)
Cecile Chevreau (Teresa)
Kenneth Edwards (Carter)
33 The Sixth Dagger (Nov 26th 1955)
The works of Shakespeare are linked to five mysterious stabbings
- all committed with the same dagger.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergeant)
James Drake (city sergeant)
Avice Landone (Amanda Malloy)
Kenneth Griffiths (Heywood)
Michael McKeog (student)
Roddy Hughes (pawnbroker)
Jack Melford (metal expert)
Lloyd Lamble (Dr. Brighton)
Martin Boddey (graphologist)
Max Brimmell (psychiatrist)
34 The Ribbon Trap (Tues Jan 17th 1956, 9.30pm)
Fabian pursues an elusive gang of railway freight-yard thieves.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergent)
George Woodbridge (supervisor)
Valerie Jene (Julie)
Patrick Jordan (Sandy Evans)
Marjorie Stewart (Mrs. Manners)
Margot Van Der Burgh (Madame Amata)
Frederick Piper (railway foreman)
John Witty (map expert)
35 Cocktail Girl (Mon Jan 30th 1956, 7.30pm)
Fabian defends a prominent businessman accused of murder.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergeant)
Kathleen Byron (Helen Kervan)
Ewan Roberts (Galney)
Wensley Pithey (Jerry Watson)
Conrad Phillips (Raynel)
Jack Melford (wood expert)
Frank Forsyth (museum custodian)
36 The Masterpiece (Tues Feb 6th 1956, 7.30pm)
Scotland Yard sets a trap for a master counterfeiter-turned-
kidnapper.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Philip Dale (detective sergeant)
Anna Turner (Kitty Penley)
Antoinette Cellier (Magda)
Ivan Craig (Bateman)
John Cazabon (chemist)
Patrick MacJordan,
Frank Forsyth (museum custodian)
John Witty (map expert)
John Boxer (laboratory expert)
George Woodbridge (supervisor)
David Yates (radio operator)
No transmission dates on the BBC, it is possible that they may have been screened as alternatives to the scheduled programme.
37 Moral Murder aka Blackmail
A rich businessman, a candidate for Parliament, confides to
Fabian that he is
being blackmailed. He is becoming desperate. Fabian lays a trap
for the blackmailer in the lounge of an hotel. The
brain behind the crime turns out to be an actor.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Tod Slaughter (Palmer)
Hugh Latimer (Mitchell)
Richard Pearson (MacKenzie)
Marjorie Stewart (Mrs. Mitchell)
Harry Lane (Lester)
Al Burnett (Club Manager)
38 The Witches of Wednesday
Superstitious villagers are led to believe that a doctor's
housekeeper is a witch.
Cast:
Bruce Seton (Fabian)
Renee Goddard (Trudi)
John Boxer (Lomas)
Keith Davies (Reg)
Daphne Maddox (Sybil)
Gladys Boot (Miss Isles)
39 One Way of Learning the Charleston
Fabian arrests a dancing instructor who
robs the wallets of his clients.
40 The Black Butterfly
A nightclub singer is murdered. Her sister identifies the killer from a
picture in the Scotland Yard files.
41 The Beer Bottle Murder
A thief in a hotel leaves a suitcase full of beer bottles, a sufficient clue
for Fabian to catch him.
42 Marita and the Count
The daughter of an American millionaire elopes with a foreign count, but
Fabian stops the wedding.when he proves he is a con man.
43 Celluloid Alf
Fabian tracks down a series of thefts in Chelsea flats to the
commissionaire.
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.
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
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
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.
Fabian menu
Made in 1954. Script: Max Kester. Director: Alfred Travers.
In the dingy Stork Room, as an American singer renders the famous number from Pagliacci, Mitchell downs another drink, and is introduced to Robert Fabian.
"I was a fool," he admits. He is being blackmailed and has to make his next payment at 4pm tomorrow.
Fabian suggests Mitchell changes the venue to the Imperial Palace Hotel, where he will deploy men to keep watch in the restaurant. After rehearsing what they will do, they watch and wait.
Enter the blackmailer, demanding £100. Fabian pounces. The man is an actor, John Palmer (Tod Slaughter) and is surprisingly calm under arrest. He is obviously merely a messenger boy for the real blackmailer.
This villain is tracked down. The star of a theatre production named Lester Davenport, After a struggle, he gets away from Fabian, "come back, the curtain's going up!"
Along wet streets, past Trafagar Square and finally into Fabian's clutches.
Fabian himself informs us that Mitchell was known as Mr X at the trial, thus preserving his anonymity.
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"
To Fabian menu
To Crime Menu
starring Wayne Morris as Bill Pierce,
a detective attached to a large London store.
Pamela Thomas played Bill's secretary Sheila in several stories.
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). Directed by Charles Saunders.
Man With Hammer Attacks Housewife are the headlines after Mrs Alice 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 Albert 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 number 14 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
Crime Menu
My reviews of some of the survivors:
BBC Crime Serials
Colour code used above:
BBC
. . . A-R
. .
ABC
. . .
ATV
. . .Granada
Sadly, stories screened 'live' have been lost in the ether, while too many 'taped' stories were wilfully destroyed by philistines, some of whom should have known better, like David Attenborough at the BBC, who, while enthusiastically ensuring wildlife didn't become extinct, oversaw the destruction of some of BBC television's endangered series.
We must be thankful that Granada, in particular, had a much more responsible attitude to their archive, and kept such quirky series as The Odd Man, and The Corridor People.
ATV's zeal for earning their fortune in the export market, has ensured that some of their studio based series like Sergeant Cork, also survived in some corner of a foreign field, now thankfully, if that's the word, reissued on dvd.
The BBC have sorted out that part of their archive that wasn't annihilated, and we can utter a sigh of relief that those days of wilful tape destruction will never return.
Picture Question: have a go at identifying this series answer
James Cosmo starred as Charlie, with Nike Arrighi as Princess Nadia.
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
In a river a dog sniffs out a body- but it proves to be a dummy!
Jacques makes the introductions for Inspector MacRoberts. He meets Paul, and Sophia the estranged parents, the former blaming his ex-wife and her boyfriend Colonel Caron for allowing Nadia to be kidnapped.
The kidnappers are shouting among themselves over what to do with Nadia, while Nadia confides in one of them, Charlie, "they were going to kill me." They phone, demanding £250,00 but Paul refuses to pay up.
An alleged witness to the kidnap comes forward, Burroughs. He claims to have seen Nadia driven away in a white sports car. However in fact he is one of the gang, in league with Paul.
Charlie has rather fallen for Nadia, who admits that she doesn't really want to return to her family, "my parents, they want to kill me!" It's for her money. The Colonel pays the gang to release Nadia into his control, but once he learns her whereabouts, he coldbloodedly shoots the gang's messenger. Sensing the danger, Charlie doesn't hand Nadia over to the Colonel, instead drives her away to safety
Inspector MacRoberts questions the Family about the dummy which looked "very much like the princess."
"I don't want anyone to find me," Nadia insists to Charlie. Only her grandfather will she go to. The pair are hiding in an empty cottage, but Caron's men are closing in. Fearing discovery, Charlie and Nadia drive away.
Paul and Sophia are for ever arguing about their missing daughter. Sophia has been told by her lover Caron that their scheme had gone awry, but she has lost faith in him. "Bring her back immediately," she orders.
As they flee, Charlie stops to help a tinker whose caravan has got stuck. Nadia gets talking with the man's wife, and sees a chance to swap her expensive clothes for a less noticeable outfit. Though the wife is happy with the bargain, it proves to be a disaster. For when Charlie and Nadia see her next, she has been shot dead. They have ditched their campervan, and thumbed a lift from a motorist
Police return Nadia's clothing, found on the dead woman, to Sophia.
The man giving Charlie and Nadia a lift realises who they are, and phones the police. So the couple drive hastily away in his van, "where to now?" Destination- a castle.
The Baron has flown from Athens into Glasgow, on news of the kidnap. The Family gather to hear his instructions. "Find her."
Charlie phones his brother Bobby, another of the kidnappers, for some much needed cash. "If you get caught with that girl, you'll be inside for ever," is Bobby's stark warning. However he agrees to send money to a post office in Argyll.
The Colonel offers Burroughs a necklace worth £100,000 if he hand over Nadia, but the latter says he doesn't know where she is," the Scots boys have got her." He learns from Bobby the vicinity where she is in hiding.
The Baron disinherits son Paul, holding him responsible for Nadia's disappearance. "She is my sole heir," he announces. Inspector MacRoberts finds the necklace on Burrough's person, and Jacques identifies it as the possession of Sophia.
Charlie collects the cash that his brother has posted, but returning to the castle, he finds that Nadia has disappeared (again)
The colonel tells Inspector MacRoberts that he had been in the process of selling the necklace, using Burroughs as intermediary.
Where is Nadia? Charlie strikes a deal with the shadowy Mr Passenger to find her- she is kept prisoner by the colonel. Charlie is shown the place and through iron bars Charlie is able to communicate with Nadia. She is suspicious of Passenger's intentions.
MacRoberts brings in for questioning Burroughs and Charlie's brother Bobby, but he cannot hold them. Sophia enlightens the inspector of their planned doublecross, since she is very anxious about Nadia's safety. and informs him where the prisoner is held.
That night, Charlie commences his rescue attempt, trying with a crowbar to bend the bars of the room where Nadia is trapped
with David Griffin as Mark, Pamela Franklin as Kate, and Teddy Green as Johnny.
The Tungsten Ring -1
Corpse lying in road by a car. A man stops to investigate and is attacked, contents of his van nicked. It's a security van full of coffins.
Mark happens to photo the crooks at their factory and makes "a run for it." In the cafe, he is telling Kate about it when a "yobbo" takes a strong interest in his camera. "What was all that about?" He is ejected and Johnny helps develop the film with Mark, Katie watching on. However Don ruins things by entering the darkroom- is he in league with the yobbo?
Ferrars (Frank Williams) and Venner (Leonard Sachs) have a secret process for developing methane. In their coffins are boxes containing two substances, which if mixed together- Boom!
Kate goes to the factory to see the lie of the land, she radios to her friends what she sees, "Mr Fat and Mr Thin." But unfortunately she is spotted. "You were spying on us," says Venner, who sends her back to the others with a warning. Liquid oxygen.
Mark has managed to get a photo however and it shows a live man in a coffin. Why? Johnny volunteers to go and find out more. The coffin is now on the ship Eureka, but after a fight Johnny is shoved overboard. On their video link, his friends watch in horror. End of part 1 (only survving ep)
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
5 The Lady and the Axe
with Bridget Turner as Lizzie Borden, and Robert Beatty.
The jury retire, the foreman Floyd (James Maxwell) proposes an initial vote, while we hear the case against Lizzie and the judge's summary. Nine of the twelve vote Not Guilty. But Floyd insists the evidence against her is strong, as we recap the trial. Bridget the maid had found the corpse of Mrs Borden, and Lizzie's contradictory statements are read out. Damning is the fact that she later burned one of her dresses- was this to hide bloodstains? A possible murder weapon, an axe, had been found, but several other possible axes are also in evidence. An overheard conversation between Lizzie and her sister Emma seems to point to her guilt. "Murder begets murder," and she had proceeded to kill her own father since he knew the truth.
Another vote, but now only one votes Guilty. Dodds suggests that Bridget could equally well be the killer, though the evidence is inconclusive. The jury deliver their verdict.
We never hear much from Lizzie herself. It's a well presented drama, with very sparse sets
Taped Shows Menu
"True stories of the unceasing search for enemy spies in wartime Britain." Bernard Archard gives a memorable performance as Lt Col Oreste Pinto of Allied Counter Intelligence.
1.3 Friend or Foe?
1.5 I Know Your Face
1.6 Louise
2.1 Double Agent
2.2 VIP
2.3 Like Father Like Son
2.4 Game Set and Match
2.5 Never Say Die
2.6 The Absent Friend
2.7 Infernal Triangle
3.2 Photograph
A second person is Eugene Zimnmermanns (Barry Letts), a sailor who had reached Barcelona, where he had been put in jail. Thanks to the Belgian consul, he had obtained his release. However in his wallet are tools of the spy trade, invisible ink. Zimmermanns claims this wallet had been passed to him by a Communist in the prison.
The third man Jules Veraerts has swum to Gibraltar, and from there had been taken to Lisbon, thence to Britain. "I doubt your story," Pinto tells him. Impossible to swim in the Med with a heavy pack that distance. Pinto challenges him to prove his story by swimming round a pool with a heavy pack, "I'll take that test." On film we see Jules enter the pool and start to swim.
Zimmermanns is ordered to repeat his story to Pinto, to see if he contradicts himself. Then Pinto humiliatingly proves to him how the Germans had poorly briefed him, a mere Belgian they could not be bothered to properly train.
Jules successfully completes his long swim. Zimmermanns however is convicted and hanged as a spy
"The most difficult case." Anton Poelhof had planned the escape of fourteen men out of Holland, but bad weather had forced their return and they had been captured. But when they were released a second escape is successful.
Pinto makes inquiries in this Poelhof, who is working as a food distributor in Rotterdam. Chosen by the enemy, he even drives a German car. Pinto informs his superior of what he has discovered, revealing Poelhof is not liked by any of the 87 men he has helped escape.
Then three weeks before DDay, Poelhof himself reaches England, to be interrogated by Pinto, who has eight questions that need answering. Such as, why is he disliked, why had the men who were captured been released? His own escape sounds, to Pinto, very fortuitous, why hadn't the enemy stopped him, "a put-up job?" Poelhof offers straightforward answers, claiming he desires to return to Holland to continue his work. "You're not going back," retorts Pinto, who cannot be sure of the man's bona fides. After four days of questioning, Pinto confines him to England, to undertake adninistrative work.
In April 1945, Pinto finds himself in Holland, and among abandoned Nazi files, finds reference to Poelhof. It seems he had joined the OSS and returned to Holland. A month later Pinto catches up with Poelhof. "I wanted to be in the war," is his excuse for leaving Britain. He describes his work in the OSS, "did I betray anyone?" "I did my best."
Pinto concludes, "in your kind of war, you get very little thanks"
"A perplexing story" of Louise van Geran (Miranda Connell) who had been convicted in 1940 by the Nazis of possessing drawings of an airfield. In prison, she reads Mein Kampf and becomes "a convert", and is so highly thought of, that she is allowed to return to her homeland Holland in 1942.
In 1944, Pinto is asked to assess her bona fides. She is suspected of hiding a code in messages she had been asked to send to the Nazis.
She relates how she had been sent to Rome as a Nazi spy, but had sought refuge in the British embassy, "it'a a dangerous game." Is she a double agent? Back in 1940, she said she had made those drawings in order to protect Jan, "I pretended to co-operate." Her story sounds plausible enough, though her affair with a German officer in Rome speaks against this. Her testimony partly hangs on two Dutchman in the spy school, who were, like her, members of the underground. So Pinto goes to Amsterdam to interview them.
"She was loyal, if she had been against us, she would have turned us in." Pinto ponders over her case and comes to the conclusion that she is "genuine." He tells her this good news, and accompanies her back to her home in Holland.
There is however a sting. Pinto learns that her mother had died in the war, her father is in jail, all down to the fact that the locals believe she "went to the Germans." Pinto attempts to explain that she is no traitor. "Espionage is always a lonely business"
In Spring 1941 Pinto travels to an aerodrome to meet Paul Denet a Dutch resistance leader. He had been smuggled out of Holland via "the new route." Pinto is given valuable information on the new Dutch cells.
On the same plane happens to be His Lordship (Ballard Berkeley), a colonel, who naturally has clearance, but he has brought with him "a personal friend," Miss Dykstra (Helen Lindsay) who has no such clearance. So Pinto is asked his opinion by the Commanding officer at the airfield.
"I worked in the resistance," she tells Pinto, and describes how she escaped from Holland via Paris to Spain. The route was called Cyclone. She tells Pinto of various code names used. She had walked the last two hundred miles from Spain to Portugal alone. While his lordship impatiently drinks brandy in the mess, she tells Pinto how she fortuitously bumped into his lordship once she reached Lisbon. "A fairy tale," wryly observes Pinto.
He checks with the resistance leader about Miss Dykstra's bona fides. But he does not know of her, and offers some suggestions.
Then Pinto continues his chat with her. He questions how she managed to gain entrance to the posh hotel where she met his lordship, if she was in the bedraggled state she had said. However she admits that some Portuguese contacts had bought her some new clothes. "It isn't good enough," Pinto tells her, "it's beginning to fall apart." He demands to examine her feet, these do not suggest that she had walked for a long distance, "You were planted."
The news is a shock to the baffled colonel, "a Very Imprudent Person"
October 1942- Pinto meets a sailor, codename Gabriel, a Dutch underground resistance leader, who has come to England to warn Pinto that one of his group of twelve must be a traitor. Two weeks ago, a planned escape was foiled. Then another lot of escapees were all killed. So he had set a trap, and eliminated some of his friends, now he suspects either Loeven or his son Jan. He asks Pinto to interview them, if he can send them over to Britain.
Two weeks later, Jan meets Pinto. He had started out with his father, who had been taken ill and hospitalised. Pinto gets Jan to talk about the recent problems the group had encountered, which he puts down to bad luck. Pinto faces Jan with the fact that there must be a traitor in their cell, "no, they are my friends." Jan relates that first abortive escape in detail, he had been one who managed to get free.
Pinto examines the men's possessions, before talking to Loeven Sr, who is now sufficiently recovered. "Someone was telling the Germans," he has to admit. But he has no idea who. He shows Pinto his wife's wedding ring, which he wears round his neck.
Pinto sees Jan a second time, asking him to relate that first botched escape again. Pinto picks up the flaw in his tale. Jan is interred, and Gabriel has no more troubles
The man's belongings are "ordinary enough," though his diary contains some writing in code.
The Resistance leader making the accusation is interviewed: there had been four failed raids of late, ver Loop had not been injured in any.
So ver Loop is interviewed again, He relates how he had helped steal radio parts from the factory where he was a supervisor, before he had joined the group. Then they move on to recent raids which failed, "you were never hit." Cornelius puts it down to being well trained, "I never ran away." On one raid he had failed to properly destroy a bridge. Questions about his work in the factory. His diary needs explanation: the figures are his meticulopus notes to ensure he was fit. More about his work as a supervisor, why had he matches in his possession though he did not smoke? The matches are fakes, the heads contain a chemical, invisible ink. He had passed information in this ink on his supervisor's pass.
He is sentenced to life imprisonment
Rather different opening. Pinto is in a Dutch military hospital in December 1944. He is told he has abdominal cancer, advanced, no operation possible, only a few months to live. He reflects on how many times he has had to similarly deal with so many men, as this doctor has done with him.
He takes the diagnosis to his own doctor. "What you need is a rest." He offers a second prognosdis, "nothing worse than overworking." So Pinto resolves to take a rest.
He returns to work three months later, and with loss of some of his staff, he faces a backlog of men detained for questioning.
First case is Dirk Koopman (Paul Eddington), a loyal Dutch citizen, he says, who is wearing a Nazi SAS uniform! "I was ordered to join by an important Dutchman," he tells Pinto, but he is unable to reveal that official's identity.
Koopman relates how he had worked for the Secret Service in Holland, to pass on the names of traitors. This was given by word of mouth to a liaison officer. His whole story stands on the verification of the high up official who had commissioned him. Finally he says who it was... a Colonel Pinto! Koopman describes the man, "not at all like you!"
Koopman writes down all he knows He is persuaded to describe this Pinto. "All so vague, isn't it?" Pinto goes over the main facts before revealing his own name. "You're a traitor... how does it feel to be talking to a dead man?"
The Germans had thought Pinto dead and briefed Koopman accordingly, but erroneously
Bak Hills-Flint is a farm owner who had done some jobs for the Resistance. He escaped when the enemy had taken over his farm. He carries money in new notes, his life savings. He had got away alone.
Van Der Aa also carries some new banknotes, curiously numbered immediately after the last set. He claims to have left his family behind "to do something for his country." He names his contacts in the Resistance to whom he had passed information. As for the money, he says he stole it from a collaborator.
Pinto gets Van der Aa to listen to Hills-Flint's story. By a neat twist, Pinto exposes the pair, since a careless German had poorly briefed them
Robert Churchill had already appeared as himself in the Scotland Yard episode The Mysterious Bullet in 1954, before ten years later, the BBC recreated six of his most famous cases.
1.1 The Jockey Cap Case (1927)
1.2 The Trick That Failed (1918)
1.3 The Green Bicycle Case (1919)
1.4 The Teenage Murderer (1926)
1.5 The Whistling Corpse (1927)
1.6 The Perfect Crime (1934)
The programme begins in 1954. In autumnal woods Merrett (Michael Rathbone) shoots himsdelf. Macdonald Hastings stands beside the corpse, revealing that this man had committed a lifetime of crimes.
He had first been on trial in 1927 in a case of matricide that was "not proven" in Scotland. It was alleged that he had murdered his wife in her bath, in order to marry a German girl. Sir Bernard Spillsbury and Robert Churchill had testified on his behalf.
He had been a wild lad, though well brought up, attending Edinburgh University, but spending his money on girls, all paid for by his mother, unknowingly. We see film of him with one girl at Edinburgh Castle. He purchases a gun and shoots his own mother. He claims it is suicide. But she had not quite died, and is kept barely alive for a fortnight, during which time she had told a nurse about her son. However a postmortem can only decide that her death is consistent with suicide.
This police investigation is riddled with errors. Nine months after his mother's death, Merrett is charged with her murder, when his forged cheques from his mother's account come to light.
Churchill talks with Macdonald Hastings saying that in his opinion, Merrett's actions after his mother's death did not suggest he had killed her. The firearms evidence offer a margin of doubt. We see parts of the trial, where both Churchill and Spillsbury explain one possibility of suicide. The jury, thus guided, record the verdict "not proven," which in essence means that we believe he did it, but the evidence is not there
starring Leslie Sands as Sgt Cluff, of the Yorkshire Police. The series is neatly summed up as, "there's nowt for you as a bobby." Sgt Caleb Cluff himself says of his patch, "I may not be the best policeman, but I know them and they know me."
Best described as Dixon of Green Ooop North, a kind of pre-Juliet Bravo without the bite, or the female, more like Emmerdale in fact. T'Yorkshire accents are reet authentic, lad.
SK offered these contemporary thoughts on the first series: "it's all very well to say, 'oh another detective series' with a yawn. This may be another policeman's romp up to a point, but this one, by Gil North, has, I think, a freshness about it, a naivete if you like... In trying to analyse this impression, I came to the conclusion that the reason for it is probably because Cluff and his colleagues take us out into the open air away from the humdrum of the city sleuths. As we trail along behind this rugged and quick thinking character with his pipe, stick, and faithful dog, we leave behind all the noisy car chases and gun battles of the big towns and follow our criminals through woods, over fields or hills. Murder is there, yes, but murder in the fresh air, and no less exciting for that. Then of course it has the enormous advantage of the tough bluff Cluff of Leslie Sands, who might have been born to play this part, so naturally does he live it.
Eric Barker too, as the ratty Inspector Mole, shows his strength and makes a good foil for Cluff...
Following Cluff around the house with brush and duster, Olive Milbourne is a true to type 'lady who does' and following him everywhere without a sound, the clever Clive is a true-to-type one man's dog."
Taped Shows Menu
This starts nicely, with Inspector Mole so unoccupied that he has fallen fast asleep in his office. Nowt to do, you see.
As Cluff declares, "this place is like a graveyard." So he and Constable Barker take a stroll, "patrolling" is the technical word, and what do they discover? By the beck, by heck, nothing less than a frozen chicken, oven ready the expression is. Seizing it, they call in at nearby Cissie Lawton's home. She is bedridden. Her husband Spencer (Wilfred Pickles) is too proud to accept any state aid: he works for Mr Cass at the auction house.
Cluff checks out where the chicken might have been sold. This is cutting edge police work. Fred the shopkeeper professes ignorance, but Cluff knows it came from his shop.
That night we see Spencer cook his wife's meal, while the inspector dines with his wife at home and Cluff shares fish and chips with his underling Alec. Of course the frozen chicken is top of their discussion.
Cluff chats informally with Cass about Spencer, "I'd trust him with my life." But can Spencer be trusted with the firm's books? Cluff has a very restless night mulling over The Case Of The Chicken.
"Have a word with him," suggests Sgt Barker next morning. But Spencer is the porter at today's auction, where the inspector buys an Indian table, "a bargain."
Spencer knows he has been found out, and a sad scene with his wife follows that evening, (The couple are watching tv, a tape of a BBC programme that includes Roy Hudd.) "I knew I was going to be caught," cries Spencer. He fears arrest and being separated from Cissie. The gas burns low. Is it suicide?
"How long's this been going on?" demands Inspector Mole. A fair question. Thankfully the couple are rescued in time, and the coda is set in the auction house
"No more than animals," Luke and Abel, always fighting, under the thumb of their stern father Albert (Gordon Gostelow) "a vicious man when he's cross," also a chapel man, who demands obedience from his wayward offspring, too much of a cliche to be plausible.
Inspector Mole is feeling irritated, that noisy car outside the station is right loud, 'tis Constable David Barker trying to start his new car, "this is a police station, not Brands Hatch." On inspection, the car is an ancient jalopy, but on film, he drives Cluff on a tour of inspection of his patch, first stop the pub. Landlord Josh complains that his new helper Mrs Ruth Rudge spends more times with those brothers. She's a "bobbydazzler," according to Cluff.
Next Cluff has time for a chat with water bailiff Barney (Joe Gladwin) whose daughter Lizzie now has no-one to wed in t'district since the brothers' eyes have turned to Ruth.
The inevitable crisis ends with the death of Luke, his corpse found in the river, "all t'lads and lasses come here." Certainly Abel had been courting her here, and it is known that Luke had pursued them in a temper. Several hairpins are scattered around, suggesting Ruth had been chased. Cluff questions her, but she remains obstinately silent.
Cluff's next call is on Albert and Abel. The former had been out alone, praying. He has an alibi, and Abel's dirty shoes seem to prove that he had not been the one doing the chasing.
Cluff turns to the guilty party. A word and t'truth emerges, "he's not a murderer"
Break-in at the newsagents shop of Silas Smith (Geoffrey Hibbert), the odd thing is that he doesn't inform the police.
June is Smart's assistant: she is courting Sgt David Barker. She notices that the "special consignment" of cigarettes is missing. Barker also notices a smashed window.
Inspector Mole calls to purchase some cigarettes, as does Cluff, who also sees Charlie, a glazier, at the shop. "I'll make a few inquiries," promises Cluff to the shopkeeper, who looks dismayed.
We see that Pete, June's no-good brother has nicked the fags, along with his simple mate Dennis. Now Dennis' dad is Charlie, small world isn't it?
June is also in with Pete, Sgt Barker a useful contact, "if you're in with the police, you get away with it."
Cluff has soon deduced that the missing cigarettes must be stolen ones. From Charlie, he learns that treacle had been used by the thieves. When he sees Dennis innocently eating said substance, why, Cluff can put two and two together. Some cigarettes hidden in a rabbit hutch complete the investigation.
Smart has informed his two contacts of the robbery. They had nicked a large consignment, Smart one of their middle man. The villains plan to retrieve the fags that night, they know where to find them since Smart has guessed the identity of his thieves.
Sgt Barker's loyalties are split, but he agrees to Cluff's suggestion that he takes June out that evening. Cluff questions Smart, who confesses all, "I'm not a very good criminal."
Thus, in a neat touch, Inspector Mole has to leave off watching Z Cars, in order to swoop on Pete. Both he and Barker only find that the cigarettes have disappeared. But Cluff knows where they are! He is waiting at Smart's shop, for the thieves to return them. "A right collection" are taken to the police station and booked
Jack is in need of the cash, to buy the lease of his cottage with his wife Hilda, but Len, a gamekeeper, is more out for the fun of it. He has eyes on Hilda.
Police get a break when potholers discover a huge heap of dead sheep, all their meat removed. Cluff reckons he knows one good marksman, that's Len and he chats with him and Hilda. He recalls that Jack's late father worked in a slaughterhouse, and had likely taught son Jack how to skilfully skin animals. The two thieves realise that Cluff is on to them, but he has no proof at all. Cluff knows it too, his one hope is to catch them in the act. But Inspector Mole is impatient for results and demands the crooks are brought in.
Len tries it on with Hilda, who is unsure of her feelings. When Jack learns of it, the couple row.
Inspector Mole joins Cluff and Barker on surveillance of the suspects. When Len is about to shoot a sheep, police pounce, "they knew!" They knew where to find Len, because Jack had informed the police.
Back at t' station, Cluff and Len have a reet heart to heart
Willie is a reformed poacher who has now settled slightly, with a trading job in the market stall run by Pell. His sister Sally is pleased, as is Cluff.
Inspector Mole is addressing a group at a dinner, a constable on the beat spots an open window at Mole's house, and calls Cluff, "our lives won't be worth living." Only clue in sight is a rabbit charm. Now Cluff recognises it as Willie's. All steamed up, Mole demands to know whodunnit. Since Willie had promsed to get even with Mole when he had been arrested, Willie must be the burglar. But Willie did not do it, in fact he had been out poaching again.
Det Supt Patterson comes in to investigate this crime, with Cluff assistng. Cluff chats with Willie, Sally anxiously listening in. Willie can't offer an alibi, but the truth comes out that he had been poaching. Cluff has guessed the truth, as we have, and with Barker sets up a watch on Pell. That night Pell goes to Willie's, planting some stolen property. Pell is arrested, asking for 43 other offences to be taken into consideration
Insp Mole is irritable that he has not, unlike Cluff, received an invitation to the ball. Running this is Harriet Cobb, mother of April, strapped for cash.
The next night, Cobb calls on Sammy for a little chat. Another fire- except this one quickly goes out. On the night of the ball, Wilkie calls at Cluff's house to admit that he "may have seen wrong" about Sammy being near the barn. Barker is assigned to shadow Wilkie, while Caleb Cluff enjoys himself at the ball, chatting with guests. He pops round to talk to Stirk's daughter, when another fire develops, though it is quickly extinguished. Then another fire is prepared at Harriet's home. Mole is keen to arrest Sammy, but Cluff swoops to expose the fireraiser
Cluff is chatting idly with John who is expanding his farm. Farmworker Moses joins them for a pleasant cuppa. He tells Cluff about young Jim, whom he clearly disapproves of, who is courting Joan (Judy Geeson), John's daughter. Joan gives Jim a tour of their property.
The scene shifts to a train. Mrs Core sips some medicine. When she alights, she feels poorly, and Inspector Mole offers sympathy.
Jim is back home with his mum, who has married again, to Don Swan, they've taken over the running of the pub. Mrs Core turns up here, and is given accommodation. It seems she knows Don.
Moses, ever out to make trouble for the newcomers, Strangers he calls them, tells Cluff that Mrs Core never slept in her room. Then her corpse is found by the river.
Cluff inspects her belongings, "there's something missing." As Mole had seen her arrive in town, he questions him. Then he leans on Moses, who admits he had found Mrs Core's handbag.
Moses is following Jim and Joan, when she accidentally falls down a cliff. With a rope, and assistance from Don, Jim and Moses pull her to safety. Thus disposed in The Strangers' favour, Moses intervenes when Don admits that Mrs Core had been an old friend. He had witnessed their meeting by the river and is able to exonerate Don
In jail is Cluff, just visiting, recently convicted Hubert Pencarron is his man. Cluff is sure Pencarron is shielding the rest of the gang, but he is also here to inform the man that his sister had just died. Pencarron was driving the getaway car, who else was in it? Though he gets no reply, Cluff suspects Reader.
This villain is already planning another job with Frank Darby, and they steal a van and rob an off licence. Cluff tackles Reader, accusing him of the job. But there is no proof, though the questioning makes Frank and his wife Flo (Yootha Joyce) nervy.
"I work in a continual fog," complains Inspector Mole, but now's his chance! Cluff collapses suddenly, an attack of lumbago. He is transported off to bed.
Pencarron breaks out of prison and gets to Frank, Flo providing grub and a pint. As Cluff surmises from his bed, Pencarron is making for Reader. But Frank has his own idea, and sees a way out of his mess by getting to Reader first.
Reader is dead. No sign of struggle. Pencarron is on t'moor, running. Police close in.
Emerging from his bed, Cluff tries to question the nervy Frank, who is arrested for killing his boss. Pencarron is hiding in caves, and Cluff hobbles in to rescue him. A slight roof fall, and the convict is trapped. But Cluff and Barker succeed in releasing him
Three seemingly disparate scenes to start. In t'warehouse, Jake (Derek Fowlds) and Stewart loaf idly. In school, children have a pottery lesson with teacher Dave. A wife is working at home, looking pensive. She turns out to be Dave's wife.
Vicky is secretary at Jake's factory, the lad sees her home, inviting himself in to her digs for a cuppa. He makes a pass, and is pushed out.
Dave and his wife try to patch matters up, she weary of having to look after their two youngsters. So he pops round to see his mum, who is Vicky's landlady. While there, Dave has a chat with Vicky, "stop chasing after me," she begs. His answer: "I just need someone to talk to." This is somewhat akin to The Wednesday Play.
It's now Saturday night, and Inspector Mole has forebodings of trouble. Jake and Stewart are enjoying a pint, but Stewart goes mad and police have to break up the riot. Stewart is arrested and is evidently under the influence of drugs.
Dave's mum returns home to find her son with blood on his hands, and then she sees Vicky's dead body. Dave is taken to the station, "I didn't touch her." He bares his problems to Cluff, whose question is, "where's the knife?" Cluff is convinced Dave is innocent, a matchbox his main clue, not Dave's. Inspector Mole however wants Dave arrested.
Under questioning, Stewart admits that his mate was Vicky's friend. Where is he? At t'warehouse, sleeping it off. Cluff finds him and after a chase, Jake is injured. "Dropped his matchbox in the struggle."
"Sordid business, most dispiriting," comments Mole, and he were quite right
Under t'floorboards, that's where old Bob Wheatrick hides his money. He shows granddaughter Rosie his hiding place, however neighbour Walters also notices the spot. "For a rest," Bob has to stay with his daughter Maggie and husband Fred who runs the post office.
Inspector Mole has devised proposals for expansion of the station, not to Cluff's liking. However Cluff promises to ponder on't, and goes for a stroll. He bumps into young Rosie, who is eyeing a shop window with a new radio for sale.
Then at home, he chats with Mary, daughter of Annie his home help, "I'm getting old and crochety," he admits. She cooks for him and Barker, while they reflect on Mole's plans.
Rosie stops a couple of lads annoying a helpless old man, Jody.
Next day, Bob finds his £200 has vanished. How has Rosie been able to buy that £6 radio? Bob tells Cluff what he suspects. Cluff is dubious.
An odd clue is found in Bob's room- an old shirt that had belonged to Inspector Mole. Bob explains that during his absence, he had allowed Jody, who now has this shirt, to sleep in his house, "he's got my spare door key."
Jody says that Rosie took the money, and he runs away. But no sign anywhere of the missing money. Rosie says she did not steal it, though she had been given the £6 by Jody. Jody had taken that sum from under the floorboards, but who had taken the remainder? Cluff answers that mystery and the motive.
Mole's expansion plans are quietly put on hold. A well developed story
He gives Cluff names of likely perpetrators, "a very large number," dryly observes Inspector Mole. Then Cluff goes to the three properties, first meeting Fred Bland locksmith. Cluff knows that it was he who chucked the stone. But he also calls on neighbour George Roberts, a signwriter, and dressmaker Beattie, who stands to lose her business.
That evening, while Barker is taking Mary for a meal, and Eric ditto with Elsie his father's secretary, a brick flies through Liddler's window. His office is vandalised, and some cash stolen. But no sign of a break in, so Cluff sees locksmith Fred as the cut and dried suspect. But Fred denies stealing the money.
In fact Barker works out that Eric used the cash to pay for his night out with Elsie. He admits it, and Liddler is stunned by this news. He understands that he's treated t'lad hard. Cluff too learns a lesson about not jumping to suspect the wrong man, "he'll rise again like a phoenix"
Real life historical trials, theme music Brahms' Fourth Symphony. My reviews of
1 Sir Roger Casement
5 Oscar Wilde
Studio Series menu
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Starring Peter Wyngarde in the title role,
Abraham Soafaer as Lord Chief Justice,
John Robinson as Serjeant Sullivan KC, John Westbrook as Sir FE Smith KC,
Henry Oscar as Sir George Cave.
Commentary by Brian Inglis.
Cast also included: Neil Wilson, Brian Phelan, James McLoughlin, Liam Gaffney,
Joan O'Hara, Jack Cunningham, Michael Robbins, Colin Blakely,
John Barron, Ballard Berkeley, J Leslie Frith, John Maitland.
Documented by Cedric Watts. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Cliff Owen.
On Good Friday 1916, Sir Roger Casement was arrested after landing from a German U-boat on the Irish coast.
His trial for treason, overshadowed by the existence of his notorious private diaries, was one of the
most sensational in history.
Critic 'JP' commented that "the use of a narrator and a commentator (Brian Inglis) to describe events during the trial and to explain the background... was excellent... Peter Wyngarde did not have very much to say. How could he, when Casement refused to be called as a witness in his own defence? Abraham Sofaer appeared as a very upstanding and correct Lord Chief Justice, John Robinson played Defence Counsel, and John Westbrook was Prosecuting Counsel. Even Henry Oscar had only a relatively small part as the solicitor general... a difficult experiment but a production well done."
2 The Baccarat Scandal July 15th 1960, Friday July 14th 1961 11.2pm rpt (Granada region)
Starring John Justin as Sir William Gordon-Cumming,
Alan Webb as Sir Edward Clarke QC,
Michael Shepley Sir Charles Russell QC,
Georgina Cookson as Mrs Arthur Wilson.
Commentary by James Laver.
Cast also included: Barry Lowe, Graham Crowden, Derek Smith, Hugh Cross,
Kevin Brennan, Redmond Phillips, Malcolm Watson, Gilbert Spurge.
Documented by William Slater. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Henry Kaplan.
Sir William Gordon-Cumming is accused of cheating at cards during a society house party at which
the Prince of Wales is a guest. In spite of every effort to suppress the scandal, it breaks
out and Sir William is forced to bring an action for slander.
Critic 'GT' liked the programme, writing, "direction of Henry Kaplan was, as usual, beautifully controlled and timed to heighten and lessen tension by a single shot of a glance, a smile, a look of worry."
3 Admiral Byng (July 22nd 1960) with Donald Wolfit in the title role.
With William Mervyn as President of the Court, John Horsley Vice-Admiral Temple West, Jack May as Lord Robert Bertie, Noel Trevarthen as Capt Hervey. Narrator: Andrew Faulds, commentary by Commander Kemp RN.
Also in the cast: Richard Wordsworth as Charles Fearne, Peter Bathurst as Robert Boyd, Charles Heslop as General Lord Blakeney, Nicholas Selby as George Lawrence, John Miller as Rear-Admiral Holder, Richard Butler as Capt Simcoe, and Michael Lees as Capt Moore.
Britain is at war with France, Austria and Russia. The all important island of Minorca has fallen to the enemy, and the public demands a scapegoat. On December 28th 1756, Admiral Byng, Commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean is put on trial accused of cowardice.
The critic ('RW') who reviewed this programme was most unimpressed: ""I don't think the excess of dialogue was the fault of ... the scriptwriter as the narrator was careful to point out that the play was 'in the actual words used.' Whatever it was that kept this documented play so static and so flat it certainly added nothing to the authenticity of the trial. Donald Wolfit as the unhappy and misjudged admiral... managed a look of dismay as he heard the adverse verdict, that became the only believable thing in the whole
production. The whole subject with its exaggerated attires, its background of death before dishonour, lent itself to Ham. Everyone took advantage of it."
Director: James Ormerod.
4 Spencer Cowper Friday July 29th 1960 9.35pm, Friday July 28th 1961 11.2pm rpt (Granada region)
Starring Laurence Payne in the title role. Also starring:
George Howe (Baron Hatsell), Richard Warner (Mr Jones) and Llewelyn Rees (Sir Hans Sloane).
Cast also included: Viola Keats, George Skillan, Hamlyn Benson, Derek Tansley,
Frank Crawshaw, Felicity Young, John Woodnutt, Paul Sherwood, Rory McDermot,
William Young, Bartlett Mullins, Roger Boston, David Jarrett,
Maureen Gavin, John Ronane, John Tucker.
Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Michael Scott.
The body of an 18 year old Quaker girl is found floating in a village stream.
Spencer Cowper, a rising young barrister, is charged with her murder.
On July 16th 1699 at Hertford Assizes, he conducts his own defence.
5 Oscar Wilde August 5th 1960, Friday July 7th 1961 11.2pm rpt (Granada region)
Starring Michael MacLiammoir in the title role,
Andre Morrell as Sir Edward Clarke,
Martin Benson as Edward Carson,
Harold Scott as Mr Justice Charles.
Commentary by JB Priestley.
Cast also included: Lewis Wilson, Deering Wells, Alan Browning,
Derek Sydney, Brian Alexis, Clive Colin-Bowler,
Michael Caridia, Beresford Williams, Tudor Evans, Michael Bangerter.
Documented by Peter Lambda. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Silvio Narizzano.
Victorian England idolises Oscar Wilde, but when his private life is exposed in the courts,
it seems that even his fame as an author cannot survive the scandal.
Two trials were shown, in a flashback the case brought for libel by Wilde against the
Marquess of Queensberry.The main trial is of Wilde in the dock at the Old Bailey. Critic 'GT' confessed he was "completely disappointed," in the director, "Narizzano's worst production to date. It lacked depth, excitement. Camera work was dull, cutting was slow." Surprising too, was some bad acting, "only Andre Morrell came off well." Especially disliked was "the dreadfully bad casting" of Oscar Wilde: "I have great admiration for this actor.. but MacLiammoir had the wrong looks, the wrong build and lacked the extra-delicate sensitivity of Wilde... he hammed it up." Then "the usually reliable Martin Benson... was not the fiery cunning lawyer. He only looked like one." This programme, 'GT' described as "a complete failure"
6 The Dilke Case Aug 12th 1960
with Leo Genn as Sir Charles Dilke,
Allan Cuthbertson as Henry Matthews QC,
Laidman Browne as Walter Phillimore QC,
Rachel Roberts as Mrs Rogerson,
Joanna Dunham as Virginia Crawford.
Commentary by Roy Jenkins MP.
Others in the cast were Basil Dignam, Jack Gwillim, HM Beaufoy Milton, Ronald Adam,
Ralph Truman, Donald Pickering, John Dawson,
Walter Horsbrugh, Ian White.
Documented by William Slater. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Cliff Owen.
In 1886 Sir Charles Dilke Liberal MP for Chelsea is a respected figure.
The Prime Minister, Mr Gladstone, looks on him as his political heir. Then suddenly Dilke is
named as co-respondent in a sensational divorce suit brought by a Scottish MP against his pretty
young wife Virginia Crawford.
7 The Tichborne Case Aug 19th 1960, Aug 18th 1961 11.2pm rpt (Granada only)
starring John Slater as The Claimant, with Oliver Johnston as Sir William Bovill,
Nicholas Meredith as Sir John Coleridge, William mervyn as Sgt Ballantine, Lloyd Lamble as Hardinge Giffard,
John Bailey as Henry Hawkins, Joyce Howard as Catherine Radcliffe, Edward Underdown as Lord Bellew.
Also appearing: John Harrison, John Salew, John Wentworth, Bryan Coleman,
Ian Ainsley, Malcolm Watson and Donald Bisset.
Documented by Peter Lambda. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Claude Whatham.
Roger Tichborne, heir to a baronetcy and a fortune, sets off on a voyage round the world to forget an unhappy
love affair with his cousin Kate. The ship on which he sails is reported sunk with no survivors. Eighteen years later
a butcher from Wagga Wagga Australia, comes to London claiming that he is the long-lost heir.
In 1871 begins one of the longest and strangest cases in legal history.
8 WT Stead Aug 26th 1960, Aug 4th 1961 11.2pm rpt (Granada region)
with William Franklyn as Stead, costarring Douglas Wilmer (Sir Richard Webster QC),
James Raglan (Charles Russell QC), Brian Oulton (Mr Justice Lopes),
Annabel Maule (Rebecca Jarrett), Avis Bunnage (Mrs Armstrong),
Milo O'Shea (Charles Armstrong).
Others in the cast were Abb Martin, Julia Nelson, Frank Pemberton,
Howard Taylor, Daphne Foreman, Peter Burton,
Bruno Barnabe, Robert Sansom, William Wymar, Owen Berry as Archbishop of Canterbury and
Keith Ashley as Bramwell Booth.
Documented by Vincent Brome. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Michael Scott.
In a series of articles exposing the corruption that lies beneath the puritanical surface of Victorian London, newspaper
editor WT Stead describes how he bought a 13 year old girl from her parents for £5. The scandal has an extraordinary sequel
when Stead is put on trial at the Old Bailey accused of abducting the girl.
9 The Trial of Governor Wall September 2nd 1960, September 1st 1961 rpt 11.2pm (Granada)
starring Roger Livesey as Governor Wall,
Ewen Solon as Sir Edward Law,
Anthony Sharp as Spencer Percival with
Ballard Berkeley as Mr Knowlys,
Geoffrey Toone as Thomas Poplett,
Lally Bowers as Mrs Harriet Lacy,
Glyn Owen as Evan Lewis.
Others appearing were Eric Woodburn, Ronald Ibbs, Robert Cartland, Joss Ackland,
Peter Madden, Edward Rees, Edwin Brown, David Dodimead, Henry Rayner, Raymond Mason.
Documented by Fenton Bresler. Designed by Darrell Lass.
Director: Mario Prizek.
For twenty years Joseph Wall, ex-Governor of a British penal colony, has eluded justice.
Now in 1802, he is brought to trial at the Old Bailey, charged with the murder
of Serjeant Armstong, who died after a brutal flogging ordered by this governor.
10 Horatio Bottomley September 9th 1960
starring Harold Goldblatt in the title role.
With Raymond Huntley, Geoffrey Chater, Edwin Richfield,
Hugh Moxey, Peter Williams, John Longden.
Director: Herbert Wise.
The 1922 trial of the MP on 23 counts of larceny.
On Trial
Note: A 1965 BBC series JURY ROOM also dramatised a few of these celebrated cases
Sir Roger Casement's past loyalty to the crown is outlined, culminating in a knighthood in 1911. The Ulster prosecutor alleges that after this, Casement changed. First witness is John Cronin, once a German POW who refused to join The Irish Brigade "as guest of the German government." A second witness confirms this group was formed "to fight against England." However facts about this group are not properly explored, whether because this case has been heavily redacted, or because the details of the group were unclear at the time.
Roger McCarthy and May Gorman both testify that on Good Friday, a boat landed with arms. A police sergeant found Casement that afternoon and charged him with landing arms on the shore. Apparently this was common practice. The narrator explains how "amateurish" this smuggling of arms appeared, leaving us to draw out the implications. He explains how British public opinion swayed the case after the Easter Rebellion.
Casement offers a voluntary statement, denying the charges of working for Germany, and states that "not one penny of German gold" financed the rebellion.
Sjt Sullivan of the defence becomes unwell and collapses in court. He is unable to continue.
The Crown make a final statement, pointing out that Casement had been "in an enemy country."
The judge sums up. If the jury have "any reasonable doubt," the defendant must be discharged. Otherwise they must perform their solemn duty. The verdict is unanimous: guilty.
Casement reads out his prepared response, rejecting the jurisdiction of the court, he has been convicted under an archaic law dating to 1351. Home Rule for Ireland is his mantra, "I am proud to be a rebel."
The judge prononces the death penalty. Brian Inglis concludes the case, offering the support given by Bernard Shaw. But Sir Roger's Black Diaries contributed to his downfall. He became a martyr.
This hour long play gives maybe the essence of the trial, but few questions are answered beyond the strong impression probably intended by the script, that political expediency played its part. My own summary of the play is also constricted by space
1895, Oscar Wilde is on trial accused of indecency. He pleads Not Guilty. "Abandon all prejudices" wisely advises the prosecuting counsel. However a certain bias in the script seems apparent to me.
Narrator Andrew Faulds explores the background to the case, presented confusingly and too briefly, a case involving Wilde exposing his views on art, morality and his friendship with Lord Alfred Douglas, a "sodomite" according to his own father. One line from Wilde stands out, "I have never loved anyone but myself." But his relationship with one "ugly boy" is "unnerving." This was quite advanced television for its era.
Wilde had been arrested, and put in the dock alongside Alfred Taylor, accused of procuring youths for Wilde. A valet Charles Parker testifies how Taylor introduced him to Wilde, "good for plenty of money." Then Atkins adds to this evidence, but stating there was "no impropriety." However blackmail is his business. It is easy for Wilde's counsel Sir Edward Clarke to suggest these men are tainted witnesses. But this is harder to suggest in the case of the more respectable Edward Shelley, who says he rejected Wilde's advances.
The prosecutor reads extracts from True Love, "I am the love that dare not speak its name," and this draws Wilde to comment, eliciting applause in court. He denies any "improper conduct" with all these youths, but the redaction of the case for tv actually becomes surprisingly repetitive, and we are left to wonder what has been left out. A summary by the defence offers the key point that the witnesses are suspect. "Mr Wilde is not an ordinary man."
The selection of material might suggest the scriptwriter's own sympathies. Mr Justice Charles summarises, again repeating the details about the character of the witnesses. The jury retire, and cannot agree on a verdict.
A retrial is held, Wilde is found guilty. At the end, JB Priestley explains that he believes the government needed to obtain a Guilty verdict, Wilde was "a scapegoat." This certainly reinforces the programme's own stance
On Trial
1.1 The Illustrious Client (Feb 1965)
1.2 The Devil's Foot
1.3 The Copper Beeches
1.4 The Red Headed League
1.5 The Abbey Grange
1.6 The Six Napoleons
1.7 The Man with the Twisted Lip
1.8 The Beryl Coronet
1.9 The Bruce-Partington Plans
1.10 Charles Augustus Milverton
1.11 The Retired Colourman
1.12 The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax
2.3 A Study in Scarlet (Sept 1968)
2.4/5 The Hound of the Baskervilles
2.6 The Boscombe Valley Mystery
2.15 The Sign of Four
2.16 The Blue Carbuncle
Taped Crime Menu
Who is whistling during a stormy night in an old lonely house?
Julia Stoner is to be married shortly, how relieved she will be to get away from her domineering stepfather's gloomy pile. A baboon and cheetah wander freely around it. "You're going to live happily ever after," her sister Helen tells her. "i sometimes think he's mad."
Not so, for that night there's a scream and Julia is dead. Has she fainted away from fear?.
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. 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, Grimesby Roylot (Felix Felton) bursts in to warn SH to mind his own business.
Undeterred, SH and Dr Watson travel down to Roylot's home. Nearby they meet some surly gipsies- one is wearing a speckled handkerchief round his neck.
Now SH examines Helen's new bedroom. His attention is on a bell pull, which does not work. 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 Roylot prowls the house. SH and Watson gain entry via her bedroom window. "What a nightmarish place!"
They wait.
A scream, but this is from Roylot. A deadly swamp adder had entered Helen's bedroom via the ventilator, down the bell rope. SH had beaten it off, and the snake had retreated and savaged its master, "violence recoils upon the violent"
Holmes Menu
Sir James (Ballard Berkeley) is seeking SH's aid in preventing "the Austrian murderer," 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 de Merville (Jennie Linden).
Peter Wyngarde's Baron has an edge, irascible, almost frightening as you fear for the besotted Violet who is unable to see through her love for this egocentric.
She will hear nothing against his "noble nature" for the very good reason that 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 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 that 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.
DrW 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.
Perhaps the only weakness of this, is that the Baron seems, in the last analysis, no master criminal, but a mere lothario
Holmes Menu
A very suitable candidate is Miss Violet Hunter (Suzanne Neve) who is offered the post at the Copper Beeches, five miles outside Winchester at one hundred pounds a year. For that generous salary, she must also make herself "useful." Another odd request is that she must cut her hair short.
She refuses, but seeks SH's advice when she receives a letter offering her £120. SH perceives she is a capable woman, and only suggests that she sends him a telegram if any problems arise. For she is determined to take up the position. Equally SH expects to hear from her.
At The Copper Beeches, she meets Claire Rucastle, Jephro's second wife, and ten year old Edward who "has his little ways." These include catching a mouse and killing it spitefully, "you little scamp." It is evident that husband and wife are planning something for Violet which is none too nice.
SH discovers that the first Mrs Rucastle left nearly all her fortune to her daughter Alice, who has gone to America.
Rucastle takes Violet's photograph, it draws the attention of a strange man lurking in the garden.
She makes a rendezvous with SH and DrW in Winchester, and tells them that she believes that she is there to impersonate Alice, whom she thinks is dead. SH concurs, though warns that other theories are possible. Following his advice, Violet explores the house, and finds an area that is not used. Is Alice imprisoned there? She asks SH to help, and conveniently the Rucastles are going out this evening. Violet locks the housekeeper in the cellar, and ensures her husband is drunk before signalling to SH and DrW that they can enter the house.
The only problem is that Rucastle returns unexpectedly. In the secret room, SH finds... nothing. Had the "scoundrel" guessed? A murderous attack by the infuriated Rucastle is stopped, and he unwisely releases Caspar the giant dog. Poetic justic almost follows, though SH shoots the dog to spare the villain.
All is explained, the stranger was Miss Alice's fiance, he had already rescued her from that secret room. We end with a nice misunderstanding by DrW, who thinks for a moment that SH has become engaged to the enchanting Miss Hunter!
Banker Alexander Holder (Leonard Sachs) has obtained, as security for a huge loan of £50,000, a crown.
His wayward son Arthur is in finacial difficulties yet again, gambling at cards. His pal Sir George won't honour the debt, so an IOU has to be all that Arthur can offer "for a few days." Worse follows for him, when his intended, Mary (Suzan Farmer) turns him down.
Lucy the maid notices that the crown has been locked in a cabinet and informs an admirer, Francis. At 2am Alexander awakes, to discover his son stealing the crown. The priceless jewels have been removed already. "I haven't taken the jewels," cries Arthur, but the police are called. Mary faints. Arthur is arrested.
Distraught, Alexander consults SH, desperate to recover the missing jewels. "A complex case," comments the great detective, "more in it than meets the eye," adds DrW.
SH starts outside the Holder residence, examining footprints. Then he questions Mary, who confirms that she had seen Lucy leave the house briefly, to talk to Francis, a man with a wooden leg.
Dr W is told to go to Arthur's cell and examine his hands, "you haven't cut yourself?" No. SH disguises himself and gains entrance into the downstairs rooms of Sir George's house. He learns from the butler that his master is broke.
"I am a ruined man," Alexander cries, as the jewels are not yet found. SH visits the jail and asks Arthur to remove his right shoe and sock. He examines the bare foot. "You will be a free man," he promises.
SH challenges Sir George, whose hand has been cut. The jewels are recovered and returned. Mary has left home. SH explains how the crime was committed, in flashback, "I can not believe it"
At Aldgate station, a model train draws in, a dead man lies by the track.
The "omniscient" Mycroft Holmes (Derek Francis doesn't really convey him as such) seeks SH's help in finding out who murdered this dead man, Cadogan West, a junior clerk at Woolwich Arsenal. Naval plans were found on his body, some are still missing.
SH travels on the Metropolitan Railway to Aldgate, and deduces the corpse had fallen from the roof of a carriage.
Sydney Johnson, senior clerk, held one key to the safe where the plans were kept.
The other was held by James Walter, who has just died. Col Valentine Walter claims to know nothing.
Johnson introduces SH to West's fiancee Violet. She reveals her fiance had been worried of late, but she is certain he was not the man to betray state secrets.
SH inspects the security at Woolwich. A known spy Hugo Oberstein has gone to Paris, and SH uses the opportunity of searching his house. Blood stains! The railway runs by a window of this house. "Holmes, this is your masterpiece!" exclaims the admiring DrW. The plans are found in a box, along with newspaper cuttings. These lead SH to Fleet Street.
The return of Oberstein is awaited. A surprise! All is revealed. Oberstein is arrested.
The tale ends with SH revealing to DrW a tie pin, a gift from a lady "at Windsor"
Dark Glasses pokes round the outside of Amberley's home. Next day a telegram from Rev JC Elman who wants Amberley to call on him on his parish near Frinton. Since Amberley's wife's sister lives here, Dr W agrees to accompany Amberley, who himself is hardly keen on the trip. They catch the train and have sandwiches, washed down with "Chateau Liverpool Street." After the long journey, they reach the vicar, who is in church, "I sent no telegram." The wild goose chase is made worse, when it is discovered that there is no train back to town until the morrow. "Bungling amateurs," is Amberley's comment.
But SH has been busy. He has explored the interior of Amberley's house and summons DrW and the owner to the mansion, in the inspector's presence. As a storm rages, SH introduces Dark Glasses, who does look like Ernest, but of course is not. He is actually a private detective. SH explains his solution of this case, the crime recreated for our benefit.
L takes all the credit for the arrest, much to SH and DrW's amusement
In a Lausanne hotel, servants Jules and Marie admire the jewellery of Lady Carfax while she is out on a walk. The lady is accosted by a bearded stranger. She is not seen again.
DrW is despatched to Switzerland, since the maid has cashed Lady Carfax's cheque for £50. DrW learns that last to see her had been a doctor of divinity, Dr Schlessinger. He also talks to Jules, who reveals that Marie had been dismissed. He says that Lady Carfax had met an Englishman, "I think she was frightened of this man." DrW cables SH for advice. He is hardly impressed by DrW's efforts.
DrW next finds Marie, who has a piece of jewellery which she claims is a wedding gift. Suddenly DrW spots the bearded man! The two fight, DrW rescued by a stranger, none other than SH in disguise. Hon Philip Green is the bearded man- and SH introduces him to DrW. It turns out that this man was in love with Frances, but forbidden to marry her by her father. But now he has made his fortune, he is an eligible suitor. But where is she?
SH has found out that Schlessinger is really a con man. Lady Carfax is, he is almost sure, held prisoner, somewhere in London. When one of her jewels is pawned in Westminster Road, SH gets the Hon Philip to watch this shop. A coffin is seen entering the premises of the "lately" Schlessinger. SH confronts him.
His story is that Lady Carfax had accompanied him to London, but then went away, leaving her jewels in lieu of unpaid bills. But who is inside the coffin? Dramatically, SH opens the lid - it's an old woman.
"I feel I have personally failed," SH confesses to Green. Then the penny drops. He returns to the coffin, and there inside is the dead woman as well as Lady Frances Carfax. DrW expresses the opinion that she will recover and SH explains how he solved the crime
Holmes Menu
Drebber and Stangerson, two Americans, are after Miss Charpentier. The former is taken prisoner and taken to an empty property, there to be killed.
3 Lauriston Gardens is where Inspectors Lestrade and Gregson find the corpse, and immediately summon the aid of the great detective. But there is one obvious clue, 'Rache'
is scrawled in blood on a wall. Our Scotland Yard men search for the elusive Rachel. Thus the wrong suspect is arrested.
However Holmes points out that the word is actually German for Revenge.
A wedding ring was lying by the corpse. A woman claims the ring, but obviously this is a man in disguise. Holmes gives chase but loses him. Evidently he is an accomplished actor, and thus Joey Daley is traced to a music hall. But he says he only claimed the ring as his for a wager.
Stangerson is done in, Rache is found above his corpse as before. By his side are two pills, which Holmes analyses while the Yard men patiently wait. Hol;mes deduces why the ring had been placed by the dead man. A Jefferson Hope is arrested.
He had been a cop on the trail of the two Americans. An explanation he offers a little tediously, partly in flashback. He had forced the killers of his girl friend to choose one of these pills, one was harmless, the other contained deadly poison. Drebber had taken a poisoned one, but Stangerson had refused to play the Russian roulette, and had been stabbed. "They both deserved to die."
Frankly, though this may be heresy, this plot is no better or worse than many a cheap tv crime show, let's not pretend otherwise. The only subtlety lies in the involvement of Sherlock Holmes
Holmes Menu
Dr Watson is charged with guarding him, "I shall come to no harm." Holmes is nowhere to be seen. This is a slightly plodding if authentic version of the tale, lacking the gory colour of the Hammer film, but offering, when out the studio, genuine Dartmoor locations.
Watson muddles through the clues, though of course it is Holmes' shadowy presence that penetrates the identity of the murderer. "Not a very satisfactory case," admits the great detective, even if readers might disagree, for collecting the clues proves difficult, and several blunders mar his brilliance. A trap is set, when Sir Henry is invited to dinner, rashly encouraged by Holmes to walk home across "the perils" of the moors, surely an invitation to murder. Unfastened is the chain, fog descends- "the greatest blunder of my life" cries Holmes. The hound bays and howls and attacks. Like the police in so many crime dramas, Holmes shows up too late- almost. Poor Sir Henry be nearly gored to death.
The bog claims the killer- aaargh! "No one can help him now," mutters Holmes dispassionately. This be almost Hammer
Holmes and Watson catch the train to Ross in Herefordshire to attend the inquest. James refuses to divulge the reason why he and his father had argued earlier. Holmes meets Miss Alice Turner, who is hoping to marry James. Then he examines the scene of the crime, as Watson watches on in bemusement. A stone is found, the murder weapon.
Alice's father owned the McCarthy farm, the two men had been involved in the Australian gold rush. Turner reveals that Alice can never marry James. James' father however had wanted to see them married, but it can never be, since James is married to the local barmaid.
Baccarat in Australia was a gold rush town, and that apparently was what the dying man had been saying, the end of that town's name. The clues lead to the killer, Holmes supplying the motive is a long coda, partly unusually related through pen and ink drawings. Then melodrama to finish, oh and Alice and James kiss. On the train home, Holmes elucidates all to Watson
Miss Mary Morstan (Ann Bell) rather takes Dr Watson's eye, as she relates how every year she receives a flawless pearl through the post. Sent on the anniversary of her father's disappearance. This year she has also received a letter which promises to enlighten her. She asks Holmes, and Watson, to accompany her.
Their destination is a South London house, outwardly suburban, but the interior is "an oasis of art," where dwells Thaddeus Solto (Paul Daneman, utterly unconvincing as an Indian). "You are a wronged woman," he tells her. He relates how he and Mary's father had argued over a hidden treasure. This is now somehwere in Pondicherry Lodge, home of Thaddeus' brother. They all go there, to find the brother dead, the sign of four beside his corpse in a locked room. The killer had entered via a hole in the ceiling, and in the attic the treasure was hid. Of course it is now missing.
Inspector Jones is quick to arrest Thaddeus. Holmes however, pronounces that a wooden legged man named Jonathan is the killer. Using the dog Toby, he tracks down Mordecai Smith, boat builder. A wooden legged man had hired his boat, the Aurora, They track it down on the Thames, Jonathan attempts to run off, but with only one leg, he can't get far.
The treasure is recovered.
Solto is handing Mary more pearls, as her share. Sensing a rival, Watson proudly hands her the recovered treasure chest, which is opened.
Holmes offers a somewhat melancholy epilogue
with Reginald Tate as the Professor.
Two surviving stories
July 18th 1953, and
July 25th 1953.
with John Robinson as the Professor.
The six episodes from October 22nd 1955 to November 26th 1955.
1 The Bolts
2 The Mark
3 The Food
4 The Coming
5 The Frenzy
6 The Destroyers
with Andre Morrell as the Professor.
Episode 1 was on December 22nd 1958.
1 The Halfman, 2 The Ghosts, 3 Imps and Demons, 4 The Enchanted, 5 The Wild Hunt, 6 Hob
Here is primitive tv, of its time well done, with numerous close ups, and a few models, then a rather unconvincing mock up of the wreckage. Yes, contact with the errant rocket is re-established and it is guided back to Earth, "somewhere nearer than Croydon." The studio, in fact. The unruffled Dr Quatermass is driven to the crash site, somewhere on "the west side of Wimbledon Common."
You'd expect a larger crowd to be gathered here and there's little panic or even worry evident, however one enjoyable scene as an old lady (Katie Johnson) clutching her cat is helped down a ladder from her wrecked home- she's the only actor who looks at all dazed.
Jaded journalist Jimmy is one of a (slightly) increasing crowd. "There must be somebody inside the thing," for, to Judith's intense relief, tapping can be discerned. The tension and excitement build well, then the press interviews keep us guessing up to the end of part one. The rocket door is opened and out staggers a man in a space suit, real 50's sci-fi. It's Victor, the worse for wear. But inside the ship Quatermass can find no sign of his two companions, "I don't understand"
How could they have disappeared from the rocket?
Fullalove, a reporter, probes, as he is sure Professor Quatermass has some secret worry he has not revealed. When an apparent clue is discovered on the space clothing, he won't even reveal its significance to the police.
Victor is delirious, Inspector Lomax cannot get any sense out of him, "his brain must have been damaged." His wife is distraught, even though she had been intending to tell him she was leaving him.
Another clue is found in Victor's fingerprints. Quatermass is so worried by this action of the police, he has Victor removed from the hospital. The professor's own doctor has a theory about the "change" in Victor.
The patient is shown film of the launch. His only comment is "bring something back." However he repeats some his leader's German words, and it emerges that he can understand this language.
"A sort of powder" is found in the rocket. This might have caused an electrical fault. "What went on here?"
"Another of 'em!" Captain Dillon heads for a ploughed field and finds a hot meteorite aside a dazed farmworker. Call Professor Quatermass!
He is busy trying to solve why his rocket launch in Australia has resulted in a nuclear reaction on earth, instead of heading for the moon to build his projected moon colony. "We're out of the race!" Britain that is, not going to be first on the jolly old moon. The twin of this rocket in Britain clearly has the same latent fault.
Dillon, who happens to be the girl friend of Quatermass' daughter Paula, brings the meteorite to the great man. He at once goes to question Fred the ploughman about what he had witnessed, but the poor chap is unco-operative, who can blame him?
A security area excites Quatermass' suspicions- it looks like a refinery, though the professor knows what it really is. It is strangely deserted.
What's that? That thing on poor Dillon's face...?
He encounters a tramp (Wilfred Brambell) who talks about the village that had been on this site before this huge base was built. Quatermass collects up a lot of flints, then drives to the nearby new town of Winnerden Flats, a mass of prefabs built for workers at the base.
One of their 'representatives' is Dawson (Michael Brennan) who is uncooparative when asked by the professor about the nature of the place.
A little girl who "wanders" interests him, she is in the same trance like state as Dillon, and has the same mark on her.
Analysis of the fragments, coupled with Quatermass' glimpse of something almost invisible, yield wild theories. Police refuse to help, but then Quatermass is introduced to a civil servant who says the place is researching into synthetic foods.
He finds one ally in an angry MP (Rupert Davies) who is trying to conduct an inquiry into Winnerden Flats. All he has met to date is "evasion." Quatermass is permitted to attend the next session, and oh dear, there he sees on one of the committee The Mark!
Public Relations Officer Ward has visited the plant and as he has a pass is persuaded by Quatermass to take him and the senior civil servant Fowler on a tour of inspection.
They begin at the medical centre, where there is no sign of Dillon. In fact very few people are around at all. The tour makes for the processing unit, where the suspicion is that it is not merely food for human consumption that is the end product.
Ward disappears, and reappears a sorry mess from 'The Dome,' handing Quatermass an object that he had found in there before he dies.
On the nearby beach, a picnicking family are ordered off by guards. Meeting resistance they are brought to the plant by armed guards, passing the departing Quatermass.
Leo Pugh has examined the rocks and has identified the source of the meteorites in deepest space. But now, thousands of miles away, "they are coming.....!"
Quatermass decides to alert the press. He takes Hugh Conrad, a reporter, to a pub used by the workers at Winnerden Flats, and they chat with the McClouds, a couple celebrating their silver wedding. They pick up a few useful titbits, but the people there are nervous of speaking out. Then an" overshot", as they call it, crashes into the building. Vainly, Quatermass attempts to warn them of their peril.
Conrad unwisely handles the fallen object and surely he is succumbing! He manages to phone through his horrific story before dying.
The mud flats seem to be swarming with invaders!
Quatermass breaks into the plant disguised as a guard. He stares at the inside of The Dome, swarming with a writhing mass of horrible looking gunge
Perhaps this title is optimistic, though "coming down in hundreds," are the meteorites to be transformed in the steel dome to beings that control The Earth itself. This "nest" is only one of many around the world.
A mob storms the plant and amid volleys of bullets, some dodge into the control room to where the pursued Quatermass has also fled. Quatermass reveals what he had seen in the Dome, "I don't believe it."
Pump oxygen into the dome, orders the scientist, this will destroy the process these workers had inadvertently created. As loudspeakers order them to quit the plant, union leader McCloud, who is operating the oxygen pump, capitulates and takes many of the workers with him, lured by the promise of being shown what is inside the dome.
"Blood!" Their bodies are used to block the oxygen pipe. If this had been made today, no doubt an ocean of red would have filled our screens- instead this horror is merely reported. Smoke! In the chaos, Quatermass gets away and bumps into Pugh, who is on a rescue mission, or something. Back to the rocket- quickly!
Rocket to take off... What's this? It is The Return of John Dillon, now zombified, who declares, "the rocket base is under our control." Sorry, but I didn't know whether to laugh or laugh
Consideirng there is no rocket, only scaffolding in the studio, the model behaves creditably, though maybe the drama by centering on the rocket loses the tension of their objective. Yet the scenes are performed without glorifying these space pioneers, who lurch desperately round their studio capsule.
Leo Pugh has been infected! He attempts to shoot Quatermass but finishes whirling off into outer space, "there's no gravity!" (In case you didn't know.)
Having reached his objective, Quatermass, with a cardboard cutout of Pugh wailing comically in the ether, destroys the enemy. The conviction behind the drama has necessarily to be conveyed by the strength of John Robinson's acting, and he carries it out well.
Dillon is released from his spell. Oh- and the world is saved
At a press conference, Dr Matthew Roney appeals for more time to study the ancient fossils being unearthed. The concept of a five million year old human grabs the public attention.
Quatermass is falling out with politicians over the misuse of his rocket project for military purposes to achieve British world domination (don't laugh!). His plea for peaceful uses for his rocket falls on very deaf ears.
Back at the dig, a lady alerts Roney's assistant Barbara Judd over another discovery- an unexploded bomb. Or is it? It is not made of metal. Roney calls in the disillusioned Quatermass...
The officious Col Breen is in charge of operations at the bomb site. Quatermass examines the metal alloy, finding it "harder than diamond." Thus it cannot be a World War Two bomb, though Breen persists in believing it to be so.
A complete skull is unearthed. As there is some low level radiation, a clay sample is removed for analysis, and to Roney's dismay, excavations have to stop.
Local gossip has it that the nearby house is haunted, and Quatemass explores the building, derelict since 1927. Scratch marks are on the wall. Mrs and Mrs Chilcot, neighbours, tell him about "the dreadful sounds" that would emanate from there. Then he chats with Roney about the dating of the bones.
With the radioactive all clear, Breen speeds things up with an excavator, again to Roney's intense anger. The analysis is dismissed by Breen as "absurd," though Quatermass knows that the presence of alien substances in the sample are significant.
Barbara Judd brings newspaper cuttings about The Knightsbridge Spooks of 1927. Breen has uncovered a huge rocket-like structure. Inside are strange markings, and a ghost.
Excavations reveal a door, this is made of a heatproof metal.
In a newspaper office, the story of the Apeman seems to be fizzling out. Reporter James Fullalove (Brian Worth) is sent to probe further.
The most powerful cutter fails to penetrate the void inside the rocket. All that happens is eveyone starts shaking. Research by Quatermass reveals the ghost stories are much older than 1927. In 1762 there were stories of ghosts, and several centuries previously, are found reports of demons in Hobs Lane. Each time has been after some disturbance of the ground.
A small hole mysteriously appears in the metal inside the rocket. Through this, a large eye is seen!
More noises when another attempt is made to break into the empty compartment. Success. Inside cobwebs and great demons. Dead demons
The latter's newspaper article soon has the public clamouring outside Roney's museum, inside which there is much speculation on the origins of the species.
Is Colonel Breen cracking up? He and Quatermass are called on the carpet to the War Office. The minister is briefed. Quatermass hands out his considered theory that the specimens are Martian invaders from many aeons ago. You can't blame Breen for being dubious, his idea is that the last war is to blame. His is not scientific though an "ingenious" counter theory that the Minster eagerly latches on to.
As a result the area with the rocket is declared safe. Things can be returned to normal. But Barbara suddenly becomes unsconscious and one worker, Sladden, goes beserk as he clears away, and totters wildly out of the rocket into a graveyard where he collapses. Mysterious underground rumblings underneath his body add to the mystery
Col Breen is attempting to substantiate his theory, by checking with Germany over the identity of 'their' rocket. Quatermass knows, however, that it is a throwback of the Martian invasion of Earth aeons ago. I'm not sure I knew if I believed either of 'em! That's probably the fascination of the story.
Roney has created an incredible invention, an optic encephalograph, that can depict the imaginings of the brain, and wants to use it to discover what Sladden has seen. As he is in too agitated a state, Quatermass tries to recreate what Sladden saw. It's a failure. But Barbara is more receptive and a violent reaction sweeps around the area as her mind records the scene.
Later a tape is shown to the sceptical minister and Col Breen. It is "the cleansing of the hive," and indeed looks dramatic and "most serious," though the doubters put the whole thing down to hallucination.
At the rocket site, Breen delivers his speech on tv designed to calm the nation, but it backfires when there are explosions and Lord knows what else
"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
The surviving stories:
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*
Taped Shows Menu
starring Marius Goring as Dr John Hardy, a Home Office pathologist. The other regulars were Hardy's wife Jo (a medical doctor and thus confusingly Dr Hardy), his assistant Sandra and Inspector Fleming.
There were three series shown from 1968 to 1971, with a revival in 1976.
It lacks any lightness of touch, a serious, almost grim, account of forensic police work, sometimes quite absorbing, but you do wish Marius Goring's character could be just a little more human. I suppose he's a typical anti-hero, though hero is entirely the wrong word for this good doctor with but a hint of dry humour. "Arrogance, to the point of pomposity," is his wife's accurate summing up of his character, though he does vainly protest, "I'm never pompous."
2:4 The Yellow Torrish
2.5 The Gun That Walked
2.6 One Life- More or Less
2.7 A Question of Guilt
2.8 A Famnily Affair
2.9 Death in the Rain
2.10 Protection
2:18 Lethal Weapon (August 1969)
2:22 Your Money for My Life
2:25 Flesh and Blood
3:1 A Way to Die? (January 1971)
3:2 Where are you Going?
3:3 The Man on my Back
3:5 Whose Child? The Wife, 3:6 Whose Child? The Husband
3:7 Cedric
3:11 Smithereens
3:12 Hothouse
Taped Shows Menu
Though this two part story becomes progressively more absorbing, this first half would have been tighter as a half hour story.
A fourth murder in quick succession. "Keep your door locked," is police advice. All the victims are girls aged 19 to 25, all killed in their homes. First knocked out, then stripped and gagged. The motive appears to be some sort of punishment rather than lust.
Cameras follow Viv, a fiery redhead as she shops in a supermarket then goes home. Her gossipy phone conversation is interrupted by a knock on her door. Posing as an official, the killer gains entrance and swoops immediately. Procedure as before, only this time Viv's friend on the phone can hear something is wrong. She dials 999, the police swoop, but the attacker just succeeds in escaping on his motor scooter. Then we observe him in his bedsit, fastidious in his obsession with
cleanliness.
A witness identifies a man who was proably following Viv. Another, Mary, who lives in the same block of flats, also identifies Viv's visitor, Jimmy Porter he was asking for.
Dr Hardy mulls over the Case with his wife. He builds up a possible portrait of the maniac, all guesswork but good guesswork- effeminate, good looking, and strong. An arts student, in his early 20s from a broken home. "All conjecture."
Police have been busy too, Martin Ingram is their suspect, who reluctantly but quietly is taken from his bedsit to the police station. Though he protests innocence, he certainly fits in with Hardy's theories.
Viv, dangerously ill in hospital, is just about able to identify her attacker, though the ordeal is far too much for her.
(for the continuation)
To The Expert Menu
Following the harrowing identity parade, Dr Hardy examines the suspect Martin Ingram, while Jo Hardy uses hypnosis on the victim Viv. Both scenes are well observed in detail, though the best follows. Despite Hardy's protestations, Ingram is immediately interviewed by the police inspector (John Collin).
Viv remembers the supermarket manager looking at her, and a good looking stranger inside the shop whom she quite fancied. He was in the identity parade but she hadn't seen him on that day. We reach the crux, the attack, "haven't I seen you somewhere before?" repeats Viv, though a description of him is hard, too hard to obtain.
Mary identifies Ingram as being in the flats that day. Hardy has pieced together a supermarket bag that Ingram had burned, it is from that supermarket. The manager describes a youth whom he thought might have been watching Viv, "staring" at her. He identifies Ingram in a parade.
All the evidence seems to suggest Ingram's guilt, this is the interest of the story. However what follows is unfair.
Ingram writes down a statement denying any knowledge of the girl. Cameras follow another girl being followed by a man. Ingram admits he had been in the shop, stealing, and had been at Viv's flats coincidentally to see his friend Jimmy Porter.
From his evidence, Hardy now concludes, "there is nothing to connect him and her."
Too much of a swindle is this story as police fail to pick up the right vibes and like the story end in a cul-de-sac, though the court case follows
Frank Houghton (Basil Henson) is worried that his company secretary Arthur Williams (Peter Barkworth) and shareholder Thorpe (Glyn Owen) are attempting to takeover "his" company.
In the river next to Houghton's cottage retreat, Williams finds his boss' bloodstained jacket in a drifting punt. No sign of a body but instead of phoning the police he calls in Dr John Hardy to investigate, fearful lest company shares plummet at the news of Houghton's disappearance.
Mrs Houghton (Jean Marsh) has no inkling of any accident and perturbed by the news that police have not been informed, contacts Inspector Fleming.
Hardy searches the cottage, then the river. Bloodstains indoors, and a possibility that the kitchen floor has been recently cleaned. Any initial injury, Hardy concludes, would have happened here. The boat has scratches on the side and some hair. This is later shown to be from a dog. And the jacket has two different blood groups on it.
Hardy is mystified why some clues have been left, apparently carelessly, while other fingerpritns and the evidence on the kitchen floor have been concealed. Though no fisherman, he is also intrigued why Houghton had taken two fishing rods with him.
The mystery is partly solved when old Greg admits he had borrowed Houghton's boat, he'd also borrowed Houghton's fishing rod, he's a poacher. His old dog had jumped out the boat
and is later found drowned. Though the rod is a trout rod, it was a salmon fly, a yellow morrish. The other rod had been taken by Houghton on a trip to Ireland. He returns in time for a vital board meeting, his reappearance part of his scheme to gain control of the company. He is almost guilty of wasting police time, but where's the proof? The author has led us, and the police, a merry dance
To The Expert
Lurking in the dark is Trimmer (Michael Gough), not somebody you'd want to meet on a dark night. He talks to ten year old Lucille, who is later found dead. In tears, Jack Norton her father (Glyn Houston) makes the identification in the morgue. He asks Dr Jo Hardy to help his distressed wife.
Dr John Hardy performs the post mortem, "great violence was used - fracture to the skull." A friend, Denise, says she had seen Lucille talking to a man "with a box of tools."
"They should never have done away with hanging," Norton complains. Police soon trace the suspect, a heating engineer who lives alone. Trimmer's workshop is searched, a hammer is discovered, possible murder weapon, though Hardy doubts it.
Jo Hardy finds it impossible to get through to Mrs Norton, who has shut herself off from everyone.
Trimmer is interviewed, "I am not normal," he admits, having a history of depression and attempted suicide. He's a sad case, but denies harming the girl.
At the bus garage, a wheel nut is discovered with blood on it. Hardy surmises that Lucille had been walking home when she tripped and fell against this vehicle. "There is no doubt," he is right, though Norton cannot accept this was no more than a tragic accident.
Eyes follow Trimmer suspiciously, as he walks slowly down the street, a man shouts to him Get Out
Mandy Williams is the dead girl, last seen alive at the Riviera Night Club, owned by Terry Warren. This information is relayed to Inspector Fleming by his assistant Charles Oakley, who is struggling to make ends meet with his wife Phyllis (Meg Wynn-Owen). Suddenly becoming reminscent of a 1950s film, there's a cabaret turn (by Lois Lane) at the night club where the boss is reluctant to reveal who Mandy had been with, apart from Oakley, who had used her as a minor informer.
She was a hostess here, and had a six month old child, father unknown.
One man who has accompanied her home is traced, William Lever. He claims that though he had indeed offered her a lift, once they got outside the club, she had been picked up by a man driving a Cortina.
Mrs Webster of the Adoption Society explains Mandy had been having second thoughts about having her child adopted. The name of the father is not on record, but Mrs Webster is sure he is a policeman. Now the plot is clear, Oakley owns a Cortina and this is examined thoroughly by Prof Hardy. Underneath are discovered human hair, wool fibre and a wide scattering of blood stains.
"Why can't they treat you like a human being?" Phyll asks, as her husband is now under the closest scrutiny. It's the best scene. To her, he offers to resign from the force, so that they can have a better home life.
However it has got beyond that. In charge of the investigation now is Det Sgt Perry (John Collin). His questioning of Oakley, in Fleming's presence, soon forces the admittance, "it just happened with Mandy," his relationship that is. She had wanted him to get a divorce. He had picked her up that night, they'd argued in a quiet spot, near to where she was later found. In a temper she had walked off, he'd driven after her and accidentally knocked her down.
Hardy tries reconciling the evidence with Oakley's statement. Perry goes over the story in fine detail with the accused. Oakley is arrested but denies murder.
"One of my own men, I don't like that," says Fleming. He takes it on himself to tell Mrs Oakley in another satisfying if sad scene.
Phyllis breaks down, she did know about her husband's affair, though the identity of the woman was unknown to her
On a dual carriageway, almost empty of vehicles, a car overtakes what traffic there is, and speeds down the outside lane, veers into a bridge, the driver hurled through the windscreen.
Peter Haskins, an Advanced Motorist, had been doing over 80mph, but what is most interesting about the case in charge of insurance investigator David Lynch (Simon Oates) is that he'd only recently taken out a £100,000 policy. The terrible news is relayed to his wife and children Brian and Angela. But Lynch wants to know how such a crash could have happened to a driver who'd never had any accidents before. Was Haskins worried about his son's latest student protests? Lynch engages Dr Hardy to examine the forensic evidence, which has seemed to indicate only a normal if tragic accident.
The main puzzle is why the usually reliable Haskins had turned up late for his office work that morning. The reason for his delay becomes the focal point of the story. Dr Hardy's examination of Haskins' clothing reveals several strands of hair, black white and blonde and lipstick on a handkerchief. Not his wife's. "I think his wife knew," surmises Lynch. The make-up is traced to a cosmetics company that specialises in bespoke products and Inspector Fleming is persuaded to open a police inquiry and contact this company. Over 100 customers have used this product, Angela one of them, but she certainly never saw her father that day. But the trail leads to a friend of Angela's, Penny Sparrow, a model who demonstrates the powder in question.
She provides the story of Peter Haskins' other life. To conclude, Dr Hardy goes over the evidence with Lynch in a typically vague 1970s conclusion
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Ten year old Jacky Carr is bullied on his way home from school. The purpose of this scene isn't apparent until the end.
His father Albert (Dudley Foster) and "gone to seed" mother Jeanette (Ann Lynn) take him to the doctor to see about the annoying grit in his eye. Albert unburdens himself privately to Dr Hardy's wife about his sudden doubts that Jacky is his child. It's too long a scene but he wants a blood test to confirm his suspicions. "It's not as simple as that," he's warned for this was pre DNA days. Dr Hardy does check the blood. Mother is apparently O group, so is father. So is Jacky, though that doesn't prove anything of course.
The mother-in-law from hell (Marjorie Rhodes at her best) doesn't help the growing tensions between husband and wife. "If your father had known..." and lines like that don't cheer up the atmosphere, or indeed the play.
Albert has decided that Jeanette's former boss Michael (William Lucas) must be the father. He attacks him, nothing very violent, but it's enough to get Michael to complain to the police.
Angst ridden Albert is now arguing with his wife. There was never anyone else she cries. Another more advanced type of blood test might resolve the issue for now Albert is getting ever more neurotic. Another row with mother-in-law only makes it more like the dreaded Wednesday Play.
The new tests produce an "impossible" result. "She's not his mother." The Hardys inquire into Jacky's birth and the awful truth comes out. Unexpected and not at all convincing. About a baby stolen ten years before. That brings the police into the story and Jacky's future looks bleak as he is placed in an orphanage. That's where we go back to the opening unpleasant scene, for here it seems Jacky is going to be happy. It is more than flesh and flood can stand to swallow this story
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In a giant pigsty where pigs are fattened, a young man is found locked inside, trampled to death. Head pigman Ronald discovers his corpse.
Not a lot of clothing or personal belongings left, the pigs have eaten almost everything they can. "I can hardly arrest 160 swine." So what's a shotgun pellet doing in his backside?
A scrap of scarf identifies him as a university student, and he is found to be David Lewis a second year undergraduate, known to Dr Hardy's wife as someone who had once attempted suicide. "A neurotic type," she underdescribes him. David's student friends put up a wall of silence, in a none too convincing scene. David's diary is found but "it's all Greek to me," for it is written in Russian and other languages.
Sendall, the piggery manager was allegedly staying at a London hotel on the night of the tragedy. Yet he never occupied his room. He admits he'd been covering up a dirty weekend.
A yokel named Bennett (Windsor Davies) is found to be the owner of the shotgun that fired the pellet at David. But he says he lent it to Ron, who had wanted to scare off the students. That brings on a confession from David's girl friend that they had planned to release the pigs, all to do with animal rights. Ron admits borrowing the gun, then says Snedall fired the shot. Sendall in his turn admits leaving his dirty weekend in order to deal with the students.
At the piggery Dr Hardy demonstrates to Inspector Fleming the evidence that supports his conclusions about David's death. A confession follows.
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In the rain a young hippy is hitching a lift. Another girl joins him, but he quickly leaves in an empty bus. The driver comes to a halt on the A425 when he sees a corpse by the roadside. They recall an MGB passing them driving erratically a while earlier and police promptly trace this vehicle. The owner Alan Stafford (Jonathan Newth) is detained. Dr Hardy examines his car, noting a dent on his front bumper, though nothing inside to indicate a struggle.
We see what the police don't, a Cortina driver named Brian (Mike Pratt) with a scratch on his face. It makes the story suddenly pointless as Hardy gives Stafford a detailed examination. Maybe it shows that police work sometimes involves wrong turnings.
The dead girl was Claire, who had been making for London, "one of her daft ideas," to join her poet boyfriend. Cause of death, a fractured skull, but the question is, did she fall or was she pushed? There's a well done scene as Hardy discusses with his wife about hitchhikers, whether she'd pick one up, if so whom she would, whom she wouldn't.
Another quite pointless scene follows. Another sports car driver picks up a student from Warwick University. "These cars are very fast," though we are shown the speedo reading 50mph! He makes a pass she struggles, but he does let her out of his car.
Hardy has discovered lime on Claire's clothing, but what type of lime? Slake lime, cement which suggests a building site. The name Brian crops up but all this science has proved unnecessary. Brian's conscience has weighed him down and he confides in his mum who's not sympathetic but ultimately very worried for her son. She wants to concoct a tale, but he insists on informing the police. He'd given this "beautiful girl " a lift. "I felt funny... I touched her," after a struggle "she was gone."
Not clear if he'd killed her deliberately. The final scene is one that is very unhelpful also, must have been there to fill in time. The same sports car driver, not Alan, picks up another girl. I could have provided several more satisfying and honest endings than this lazy one
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Inspector Fleming questions Jones as to whether any of his clients might have stolen the car. One possibility is the pathetic Norman Hobson, who can only produce the alibi that he was "at home in bed."
Hardy and his wife enjoy an evening meal with the probation officer and his wife Beth. It's evident from their sometimes philosophical discussion that Davis Jones has an unorthodox approach to his work, "a dilettanti," Flemings calls him, though he gets results.
Escaped convict Jock had been pally with Hobson and evidence
connects him with stealing the car. Hardy works out the corpse had been carried in the back of this car to the bridge, traces of an expensive raincoat are evident, suggesting that it must be one belonging to Jones.
Jones resigns his job. He admits giving the coat to Hobson, who claims he has "flogged" it. It seems probable that Jock is the dead man and his corpse had been tipped over the bridge onto a passing train. A goods perhaps, "try Pontypool or Crewe."
Once the body is recovered, Jones who has turned to drink, comes clean. He sees he had been used. A very immature officer, you wonder how he got appointed.
The final scene in prison is very pathetic
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Well drawn characters, even if this two parter is too drawn out.
Ruth Fletcher (Ann Lynn) has taken her baby boy to Dr Jo Hardy. She'd been so pleased after fifteen years to have this child, but her dilemma is, who's the father? There follows the familiar angst of the eternal triangle, is it her husband Harry (Anthony Bate) or her boyfriend Michael Jackson (James Maxwell)?
Though Harry's a cold fish, we do see him enjoying an evening out with business colleague Bill (Geoffrey Palmer) at a strip club. Too gratuitous though apparently "not much to write home about." Naturally, when he returns home late, he wants a bit more fun...
That decides Ruth to make a private appointment with Dr John Hardy, who as expected has a slightly high handed approach, wanting her to see the consequences of her action. Her idea is that she will live with the real father even though she loves only Michael. Blood samples taken, result: Michael could be the father. However unless Harry's blood group is ascertained, Hardy cannot say whether Harry might also be the father. Ruth is very reluctant to tell her husband anything, so borrows his hankie. She awaits that result anxiously.
Dr Hardy prefaces his comments with the rider that this hankie might have been borrowed, so could she be absolutely sure the sample on it is his? All Hardy will state is the person who used that hankie could not be the father. To be more positive, Harry's blood sample must be taken. However she decides there's sufficent proof and leaves Harry for Michael. She's all for ducking a confrontation, but Michael is honourable or maybe stupid enough to talk to Harry as he comes home from work. There's a scene outside Ruth's late home which ends in blows.
Now Harry is the one to consult Hardy. Sample taken, the evidence is that he cannot be the baby's dad. "You'll pay for this," Harry threatens his estranged wife
To part two, or The Expert Menu
On his driveway, Harry Fletcher is confronted by Michael, "please be reasonable." Divorce is the request, an argument is bound to result, Harry taps Michael with his umbrella and Michael collapses to the ground.
A postman finds the corpse. Ruth Fletcher is distraught (Ann Lynn gives us a fine study in grief).
Dr Hardy conducts a post mortem. Cause of death: a blow to the side of the neck.
Chief Inspector Fleming questions Harry who is quite open about the confrontation but states he left Michael "standing," adding, "he can't be dead."
But the postman's testimony is that when Fletcher drove away in his car, the victim was already on the ground.
"I thought he was shamming," admits Harry at last. It bears out what we watched. Harry admits he struck Michael, but "I didn't mean to hurt him." He is charged with murder.
The question is, did he intend to cause his enemy grievous bodily harm? That's what the defence refute, pleading provocation. So why did Harry strike him?
Prof Hardy gives his evidence, the prosecution manage to hint that it might have been deliberate, even if Hardy won't budge from his opinion.
A nervous Jo Hardy gives her account about the paternity of the baby. She has to mention Harry's threat to "kill" Michael, but believed it only an idle notion so had not reported him to the police.
"I thought you did very well," Dr Hardy tells his wife, slightly patronisingly.
Harry comes over as the injured party, in the light of his wife's adultery. Carefully staged questioning, and though he admits he hated Michael, his rival's taunt of impotence was what had made him strike the blow.
"It wasn't like that at all," Ruth states privately, even though she hadn't been present. The law states she is not permitted to testify against her husband.
The Hardys discuss the verdict, while Ruth and Harry pass in the street as strangers
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A typically bleak drama of the era, of an angst ridden loner, well portrayed by Peter Jeffrey.
Cedric is unwrapping a parcel, inside a rare book, a first edition by Sir Walter Raleigh- phew!
So engaged by it is he, that he consults his doctor, Jo Hardy, since he has no one else to share his find with. Evidently he is seriously depressed, though she, even if sympathetic, only sends him back to his flat. Here he gets in a state, what with the noise of the baby crying downstairs.
Dr Jo and husband John Hardy find his room in an absolute mess, Cedric himself missing. We watch him outside a woman's house. When she goes out, he follows her, and into a supermarket. Their eyes meet for an instant, then she goes home, he behind her. He knocks on her door, it seems he'd been informed she was lonely by Dr Jo Hardy.
At his place of work, a colleague Miss Lee describes Cedric as "like an old granny," hardworking though unusually he'd been off sick the last two days.
Dr John Hardy is examining the corpse of the lady we know Cedric had followed. Inspector Fleming questions a paper boy who had seen a man running away from the house, it is Cedric. Dr Jo Hardy is ridden with guilt that she might have inadvertently pointed Cedric in the dead woman's direction. She'd died of a heart attack, is her husband's conclusion, no definite proof she had been attacked, even though her head had been hit, this possibly from her falling onto her bath.
Cedric is in a pub discussing with a fellow drinker football, including Pele's beating England. Then he returns to his lonely room, now clean and tidy, as though in his old routine he makes for his office. This is on the eleventh floor. Miss Lee screams. His jump has been aborted. As usual, the police arrive after the event, such as it was, is all over.
The two Hardys take the unfortunate wreck of a man away to their home. Talk about his landlady's baby being his, an Oscar attempt at a closing monologue, thank goodness it's over
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An old widow, Mrs Carr (Lucy Griffiths), alone with her cat settles down to sleep. Outside a man in a balaclava flashes his torch and effects an entry into the conservatory. Alerted, the lady waits, poker in hand, and bravely or perhaps foolishly, confronts the thief.
Next morning the milkman finds her unconscious and she is taken by ambulance to hospital.
Dr Hardy sifts the evidence, a broken milk bottle. This is the latest in a series of thefts on lonely old people living in isolated houses, others had been robbed of small sums of money. The local pub seems a likely spot where the crook had learned of possible victims. Farmer Stan is one such. Inspector Fleming interviews Mrs Carr when she comes round, though she cannot properly describe her assailant, he wore a balaclava and goggles. She admits she kept a hoard of half crowns in the house, which have gone missing.
Eddie Rutter had been spending half crowns at the pub, he lives in a scrap yard, a bleak place, and Fleming's assistant searches for the cash while he questions the man. Though he is now chief suspect, Hardy cannot provide any conclusive proof as to his guilt. But are the traces of blood found in Mrs Carr's house Rutter's?
Hardy's most important clue is algae that must have been brought in on the thief's clothing. The interesting breakthrough comes when Dr Hardy mysteriously sets about reconstructing the milk bottle broken into a hundred pieces, "what is the point of all this?" That only becomes clear when this long shot pays off as the reconstructed bottle can display a fingerprint, built up from all the fragments, but not, admits Hardy in disappointment, definite enough to obtain a conviction. But Inspector Flerming uses his own cunning and shows the print to Rutter to bluff a confession
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The early work of that master of suspense serials has not been treated well by the BBC, who did so well out of him.
Thankfully, some memorable series have been released on dvd, here's one complete surviving six part serial from 1966:
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.
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.
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...
Episode 3
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
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...
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...
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
From the novel by Philip Jones, script by Brian Degas and Tudor Gates.
Leonard Rossiter plays the British agent Norman Lynch who will be retiring after this caper. His job is to eliminate Ramon. Though he likes to work alone, he is persuaded to take under his wing the promising young Peter (Don Borisenko), and most of the interest in the serial is their relationship, and their very different approaches.
You have to get away from seeing Reggie Perrin in Rossiter's every move, but once you overcome this, you can get involved in the characters.
In Miami, Ramon is briefed on his job to buy arms in Europe to kickstart his country's revolution. But his mission is known to others.
In London, Norman Lynch is briefed on his final job before he retires. His successor Peter is to accompany him, despite Norman's protests. Norman bids his dear old mother goodbye- she thinks he works as a travel agent.
Ramon flies in to Shannon Airport, two security men, Jim Prescott (Geoffrey Toone) and Tim Barton (Jeremy Burnham) have a watching brief on his every move.
Peter is impatient to kill Ramon off, but Norman is more patient, They tail Ramon as he is driven by car to a large house, where he is reunited with Maria Salvedor, a Cuban, whom he seems to know pretty well.
Norman leaves them there, much to Peter's frustration. As they while away the hours in their hotel, Norman explains that an agent needs a certain "flair" in his killing. But as Norman dozes, Peter goes off on his own to the house...
Peter is lurking in the garden, aiming his rifle through the open window. A gunshot. He runs off. He is not quite the fully fledged agent, for he had been aiming at the mirror image of Ramon! "Fortunately he was not a very good shot."
Lynch is furious, for he has got slightly injured in going after the wayward Peter. His precipitous action has put the enemy on the alert, though its naievty has also mystified them.
A revised schedule is drawn up for Maria and Ramon. She is first to leave by plane, Ramon kisses her goodbye at the airport. He tells her he has given up his mission, for her sake.
Lynch is confident he has guessed correctly what changes will be made to their plans. He has indeed got it right, for Ramon is heading for a private airfield in Hertfordshire. Lynch and Peter are waiting there.
For Lynch, this will be his final act before a happy retirement, but in this he is wrong, for as his boss notes, an agent can never retire
At the airstrip, Lynch and Peter await their quarry, following Lynch's cunning plan, of deviancy of Reggie Perrin proportions.
"It's too tight," objects Peter, asking pertinently, "where am I to shoot from?" In fact it's "a simple matter of geometry," timing all important. "You go for the head," Lynch orders Peter.
The plane is running a little late, due to headwinds, giving the agents on board time to mull over their lives and motivation, "we don't take any chances," they comfortingly inform Ramon.
Lynch is all prepared, "stand by." But this is only a rehearsal. They have to wait some more. Lynch is going to write a book after he retires.
The plane appears in the sky. Lynch is to drive a baggage truck, Peter concealed behind stacks of cases. The plane lands and the passengers disembark. Peter shoots.
"Right through the heart," he breathes. "I said to the head," cried Lynch. The assassins make their getaway.
The airport gates are closed quickly. But Lynch and Peter are already on a plane, that has received the okay to take off. Destination Manchester.
"We did it." But they are not yet out of danger.
At the airport, the body is brought in from the plane. Ramon, it seems, is not dead
Starring John Thaw as Mark,
and Sylvia Sims as Diana.
The wealthy Geoffrey Stewart and his young wife Diana are packing, for tonight they are off on holiday to Cannes. Second in command at work, Mark Paxton lends them a suitcase- that's how stingy Stewart is with his money! Ned is to pick them up at 17.00 to drive them to the airport.
Geoffrey is a superior estate agent, and before he takes his break, he must see an important client who is very interested in buying this large mansion the firm has on its books. He is dropped off by Mark at the empty property, where he is shot. Dead. It's all so Mark can make out with Diana. Mark dumps the body in the boot of his Cortina and locks his car away in his own garage.
Diana phones the police, who are not at this point over concerned that her husband has failed to turn up to go on holiday. The plot is very straightforward.
Mark plans to drive the corpse to a gravel pit, "they'll not find him in a thousand years." However this is where things get complicated. The body has vanished. Then Diana receives a phone call. It's Geoffrey's voice, and he warns her, "they've got to think it's me."
Panicked, Mark and Diana puzzle what it all means. It cannot have been Geoffrey on the phone. He was definitely dead.
Next day Inspector Clay questions Mark about Geoffrey's death. His body has been discovered in a gravel pit. Diana identifies the corpse. She confides later to Mark however that her husband is not dead. The phone rings...
Alunbury 8130. Mark answers. it's only bachelor Ned Tallboy, to see if Diana is all right.
Offering sympathy, family friends Walter and Thelma call to comfort her. Walter is a writer, and curiously advises Mark not to underestimate Inspector Clay. Thelma promises to come by in the afternoon to keep Diana company.
A cigarette case that Geoffrey had given Diana is returned to her, though she says it is not hers. The inscription inside from Geoffrey is odd, "who came like a bat out of hell."
Inspector Clay is mystified. A pair of gloves belonging to Geoffrey certainly do not fit the dead man. Moreover fingerprints also suggest the corpse is not that of Geoffrey.
Thelma tells Diana that she has had a call from Geoffrey saying he wants to meet her at three o'clock. Mark however is certain he had killed Geoffrey. Don't go, he advises Diana. But she goes to the Chichester Motel only to find another corpse being removed, this time it definitely is her husband. Shot dead.
Miss Tracey, owner of a sweet shop, phones Mark informing him that Diana has been arrested. She rings off after a reference to Bat Out Of Hell
Kitty Tracey's phone call has come like a bolt from the blue. Mark returns home to start packing. Diana calls. She has not been arrested as the phone call had said. She'd admitted to Inspector Clay that she had gone to the hotel hoping to meet her husband.
He had told her that the first corpse in the woods has now been identified as that of Ken Harding, who ran a betting shop.
Geoffrey's wallet had been discovered in these woods. Inside was a notebook with a list of payments to or possibly from "T." Tracey perhaps.
Alunbury 7432. Miss Tracey answers Diana's call. They fix a meeting for 7 o'clock tonight at her shop.
Ned is trying to flog an old Bentley to Walter. Thelma is against it. She tells Inspector Clay that she did not take any phone call from Geoffrey, despite what she had said to Diana.
Inspector Clay finds a message in Italian, which he gets translated: You Came Into my Life Like a Bat Out Of Hell.
At 7pm Diana arrives at the shop. A bloodstained knife is on the stairs. A dead body. But it is Thelma's corpse!
Shaken, Diana informs Mark. Inspector Clay calls round, then in walks Thelma very much alive
Diane faints when Thelma walks in. She is put to bed. Walter explains that they had called round to "have it out" with Diane over her claim that Thelma had taken the phone call from Geoffrey.
Inspector Clay, suspicious, calls at Miss Tracey's sweet shop. He soon discovers her dead body.
Next he makes for Nigel Mills, who had wanted to see Diane urgently. He is the family solicitor. He explains that under Geoffrey's will, the bulk of his considerable fortune had recently been made over to a Diana Valesco. She lives in Chelsea, and Clay is soon talking to her. She is surprised to learn of the bequest.
"I think Kitty was blackmailibng Geoffrey Stewart," Inspector Clay informs Ned Tallboy. Kitty was a tenant of Ned's. Tallboy had guessed Geoffrey was seeing another woman, but he didn't know her identity.
Mark and Diane row over the will. Contest it, is Mark's first thought. Then he changes his mind. We can guess why, when he phones Diana Valesco asking to see her. 7pm tonight.
When he reaches Diana's flat, he is confronted by Clay. What is Mark's relationship with Diane Stewart? Mark bluffs. Why has he come to see Miss Valesco?
starring Jack Warner as PC George Dixon, an Ordinary Copper. In September 1964 he was promoted to sergeant.
Other long serving cast members included:
Peter Byrne as Andy Crawford, George's son-in-law,
Jeanne Hutchinson as Mary, his wife, as well as
Arthur Rigby as Sgt Flint, the gruff but likeable station sergeant.
The series was one of the most famous creations of Ted Willis.
A "cosy" police drama which reflected 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. Despite periodic attempts to make the stories more contemporary, this was always Jack Warner's show, and he ensured it was never unpleasant. One critic at the time nicely described watching the series as like "slipping into a comfortable pair of old slippers."
Jack Warner didn't begin every story, as some think, with George Dixon welcoming us with his celebrated "Evening All," though he often did.
16 The Rotten Apple (1956)
17 The Roaring Boy
18 Pound of Flesh
19 Father in Law
120 The Hot Seat (1960)
350 Waste Land (in colour, 1971)
367 Jig-Saw
397 Eye Witness (1973)
399 Harry's Back (1974)
410 Target
411 Seven for a Secret- Never to be Told
412 Sounds
413 Firearms were issued
414 Baubles Bangles and Beads
416 Looters Ltd
419 A Slight Case of Love
422 Conspiracy
Taped Crime Series Menu
George Dixon: 'Ah, good evening!"
Now we see this gentleman crook, in Nelson Terrace, robbing the house of Mr Collings. But the owner interrupts the thief and phones the police. The captain waits unperturbed, sipping a drink. The pair exchange philosophies before the Captain catches Collings off guard, knocks him out and makes his getaway.
But Collings supplies the crook's description and it fits The Captain, "underneath he's a rat." The robber is arrested, though he denies any of the other crimes, and indeed his alibis for these remain watertight.
Mrs Gilbert in Westhouse Street is robbed that same evening, this can't be the work of The Captain since he has the very best of alibis! Observes The Captain, "someone else did these jobs, and did them to look like my work."
George is having a tiff with Mary about plain cooking, before Mary goes for a night out with Andy, all paid for by Tom Carr, who has had a nice win on the horses. George, back home, has a chat with Maurie, a bookie, who's owed a tidy sum of money. He asks George to help, as the debtor is Carr. "A damn young fool," he must be, decides George.
Next day he calls on Tom in his High Street digs. Carr does admit he is in debt, but implies that George is only making these inquiries as Maurie has given him a backhander. Naturally that riles our honest George and the pair exchange words. In the struggle stolen jewellery is exposed. "I can explain...." But it's all very clear now, "there's nothing worse than a rotten copper," pronounces George. Before Carr is placed under arrest, George forces him to take off his dishonoured uniform. "The only bad copper I ever me," he informs us in conclusion
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
Dock Green Menu
George Dixon: "Ah, good evening."
This is the joyous story of Andy and Mary's wedding, that begins with a cosy chat between George and Andy on the eve of the big day. Guests include the bridesmaid Peggy, and 23 year old Pam who had been jilted at the altar.
Next day, it's off to church as a crowd watches outside the Dixon home extraordinarily undemonstrative (well, these filmed scenes were only shot without sound in those days). "Like a white angel," Mary takes her dad's arm, tramp Billy seeing them off and receiving an unexpected invitation to the reception.
Here Sgt Grace Millard and Sgt Flint are checking over the last minute arrangements. Grace thinks she recognises one of the helpers. Pam is there early also, as she can't bear to sit through the ceremony.
There's film outside the church, Andy and Mary now happily married. Nice shots of father looking on. Dinner afterwards then dancing, Billy has a turn with Grace. Pam can't dance however.
So well it all goes off, until a hitch, the reception manager Frank has found his wallet has been stolen, £10 missing. George is forced into a spot of quiet sleuthing, "this is a fine lark."
Billy is first to be questioned, naturally he takes offence. Then Grace recalls that the cloakroom girl she recognised is Muriel, who had been in court for something.
Tempers start to fray until George calms them down and provides one of his comic monologues about his relations, then renders the sentimental Her Name is Mary, which all join in. To romantic music Andy and Mary take their leave, "I wish your mother could've seen you today." Then George gets a confession of theft, and all is forgiven
Dock Green Menu
George Dixon, "Oh good evening all."
George, Andy and Mary, plus Grace Millard spend a weekend in Paris. On the flight over the two men jest they are living the high life and are overheard by a conman. Peter Ames (Kenneth J Warren) and Joyce Cardew have a partner named Treadgold (William Mervyn) who gets to know Dixon in the hotel bar. He says he's in fertilizers, and is very impressed with George and Andy who say they're in Public Relations. He kindly loans them his car so they can tour the city.
Not so green Andy checks up with Dock Green, where there's a certain jealousy over this foreign trip, "I could do with a nice long weekend in Paris meself." Sgt Flint, tears Andy off a strip for making such an expensive phone call, but is already on the lookout for these swindlers. "They're not trying it on George, are they?" he asks incredulously.
On film we watch the tour de Paris, the flash car taking them in style to shots of them at the Arc de Triomphe, Eifel Tower and the Artists' Quarter in Montmartre. Then it's dinner with Treadgold, when Grace finds a stray wallet that is claimed by Peter Ames, and this introduces the other two crooks into the group. By way of thanks, Ames insists on buying drinks, after which Andy gets so carried away he offers to pay for the meal, kindly accepted. Then a night drive round the bright lights of the city, this time shots of the British inside the car with street scenes flashing by. At midnight they are admiring Nore Dame, by 1am it's time to turn in and Treadgold makes his move. Peter has this fantastic deal, 135,000 francs, about £10,000, would George and Andy like a slice of the windfall? A cash deal, bring it next morning, there's a big profit to follow. But it's the French gendarmes who swoop next morning and the conman find out it's they who have been conned, "we had to pick a couple of coppers."
But Andy has to pay for that meal, which George thinks funny until he gets a shock too, that fancy car had been hired out in his name
Dock Green Menu
"Good evening all."
PC Norman's movements are traced, his wife is very worried since he was a very quiet man, "he couldn't get his mind to work." (Nor could the writer, you could add.) Yet somehow he was still allowed to work as a policeman.
A woman is found who knows him. She is Ruth. Though denying she knew Norman, finally she admits she was "an ear" for him. Not more? The whole story is always teetering on the Wednesday Play until the tedious search is stopped when a body is fished from the river, drowned.
We are offered "private thoughts" on his death, but it hardly makes for satisfactory drama
To Dock Green Menu
Lee Montague has a fine role as the likeable villain, "one of the best," friend to all his mates, Harry Simpson. Among his own, he's loved by one and all, in his flash white suit, driving his flash white car. He's just been booted out of Spain.
Andy Crawford however knows Harry's other side, he's "the scum of the earth," his partner Lennie has gone to ground somewhere, though Harry with his typical Cockney generosity sees Lennie's wife's all right. Now Harry is becoming legit, marrying the posh Miss Marion Croft.
The sting for Andy is that he's up for promotion at long last, and Harry's one blot on his past, three cases against him collapsing when witnesses had mysteriously withdrawn their statements. Andy scans the wedding photos to see what villains had been present. Perhaps not unreasonably, Harry is upset when he finds out about this, and tries a quiet word with George Dixon. As George won't respond, Harry has a word with another, the chief superintendent no less. Thus Andy gets invited to a round of golf with the super, and Andy forthrightly says what he knows, or believes he knows about Harry, "he buys and bullies immunity from the law." Tread carefully, Andy is advised.
Harry's right hand man Bernie Moss is setting up another job. He leans on Freddy for his clean driving licence, reminding the poor Freddy, "Harry looked after you when you had that accident." The licence is needed for the hire a car used in a robbery of cosmetics, and Freddy is soon traced. His licence had been lost, he claims, why he'd even reported the fact. But a little leaning elicits a reluctant name, Bernie. That puts Bernie and Harry on a quest for revenge, and Freddy is "encouraged to change his tune," that is, run over and all but killed, "didn't see who it was," he moans pathetically.
Harry has decided wisely to scarper. But at the airport with his wife who seems in shock, he's asked a few pointed questions. In return Harry threatens to scotch Andy's promotion. However the news that his ex-partner's corpse has turned up is enough to prevent him flying off.
A search of Harry's luxury flat proves disappointingly fruitless, as Harry gloats and Marion remains in shock, until Andy finds a key concealed under a coffee table. A safety deposit box is later opened and the case against Harry complete when the gun that killed Lennie is found. However a lot of people still cannot believe anything bad about good old Harry
"Good evening all."
A man named Smith (Anthony Steel) collapses in a supermarket. Winston Dallas kindly escorts him to his flat in Jasmine Square. Smith should go to hospital, Dallas suggests. His reward for being a Good Samaritan is for Smith to point a gun at him. Dallas runs off in haste.
Andy Crawford has started a full scale search after an eyewitness had seen Smith being "robbed" in the street. This misinformation and its aftermath would be called over reaction these days. However a second report from Dallas about the gun means that events take on a more serious turn.
In a snooker hall, Andy chats with Dallas. "He was drunk,"" is Dallas' opinion, but actually Smith's landlady has realised that the man is suffering from malaria.
Into this minor incident appear three men, posing as Post Office engineers. They are digging up the road, but in reality waiting and watching. Andy questions them. They are part of some undercover operation waiting for The Butcher to show up, your everyday suburban story has now changed dramatically, but is this really Dock Green? Scarely less credible is when Andy advises them how to tackle Smith.
Smith's landlady learns that
he is a mercenary. The Butcher turns up amid some tension. Police surround him. He pulls a gun, as schoolgirls nearby start screaming. Gunfire. After a stand off, Dock Green is back to its wonted peace
"Good evening all."
A gas explosion in a house, one dead woman, assumed to be suicide. But George Dixon is wise enough not to take things at face value. Why was the kitchen window open, if she killed herself?
The corpse is that of Mrs Margaret Pengelly, a thoroughly unlikeable and detestable woman by all accounts. Her sixteen year old daughter Chrissie is missing. Her estranged husband Alfred isn't at all bothered by her demise. He'd not seen her for two years. Mrs Pengelly's most recent partner was Kieron O'Shea who tells George they had split up recently.
Another oddball character in her life was 'Uncle' Ralph Harding, whom we know, and Andy Crawford finds out, has taken Chrissie away. His borrowed car is found empty in Devon.
It looks sinister, as "he's off his chump." Ralph has taken her to his mother's isolated cottage, and Andy is soon there, with the invaluable assistance of local policeman Sgt Goacher.
O'Shea decides he must tell the police he knows Mrs Pengelly was murdered, though subsequent events make you wonder what he is rabbiting on about.
After a chase, Ralph takes Chrissie to a derelict house, where Goacher is waiting. Ralph explains about Mrs Pengelly's death, the reason for their flight is hardly very clear. As George Dixon had warned us at the start, this wasn't really a case at all. And of course George is always right, isn't he?
Phone call to Dock Green police station, a woman sounds as though she is being strangled. Then a young girl picks up the instrument and explains, "mummy's fallen down." Patiently Uncle George Dixon tries to find out more, but all she can tell him is that she's called Janey. These days of course, such a call can be traced, but back then all the police have to go on is their taped recording of the conversation.
There's the sound of an industrial machine faintly in the background, yes, and a hooting of a ship.. This is a simple but absorbing tale of the hunt for Janey and her mum. To obtain a fix on their whereabouts, the hooting sound is identified as that of a tug on the river, the captain of this vessel is asked to play those hoots again, with police officers recording the noise at strategic local points.
Electronics expert Dave has the task of matching these recordings with the original hooting on the phone. He also refines the noises on that original tape. Two possible areas are suggested, and the machine noise identified as that of a printers. Hammond Street is where the search homes into, and above a printers is a flat, empty. Living here is new tenant Mrs Anne Turner, separated from her husband.
Mr Davis calls at the police station. He works for a security firm whose phone number had been scribbled on a wall in the flat. Oddly, it's a special line only used for confidential matters. Davis wants to know how she got it. He does recall a Mrs Anne Turner working for the company for a short while, but then we see him phoning Anne.
She does what he orders and phones Goerge at the station. She explains she is OK now, and quickly rings off. But sharp witted George has recognised the background sound on this phone call, she's at a railway station and a police car swoops and picks her up.
Andy Crawford questions Davis. Anne's his wife. He had beaten her up, trying to persuade her to return home to him. She maintains it was an accident. A frustrated Crawford has nothing to charge Davis with, he smugly confident no charge can be laid against him, as his wife won't betray him. It's a frustrating disappointing though maybe realistic conclusion to an absorbing little story
Sam Kydd gives another of his sympathetic portraits, this one of recently released ex-con Charlie Bennett, who had served his latest sentence after a bad accident on his last job.
On the way home, he witnesses a mugging. He helps Mr Price who is badly shaken, but is most reluctant to talk to police.
But he leaves his name and address and proceeds homewards, to a welcome from many friends and family. His son Ray gives him a present, a gold watch.
The party falls silent when George Dixon pops round. But he only wants to praise Charlie for his part in helping Price. But when Charlie learns that keys and a gold watch had been taken from Price, he suspects the worst.
A lot of shoplifting has been going on of late, "organised raids." Andy Crawford's inquiries are at a dead end. In fact, we see that Charlie's wife Olive has been earning money while he was inside by getting her gang to steal goods to order, then sell them on to friends in the neighbourhood.
Charlie is touched when he receives a £20 thank you from Price. But he knows Ray was one of the muggers. As he reprimands his son, Ray realises the keys he had nicked must be those of Price's shop. He arranges with a pal to rob the place that night.
One of Olive's 'workers' is caught shoplifting. She refuses to talk. However PC Harry has been given a miniature tv as an engagement present from his fiancee Barbara. Andy spots that it is on the Stolen List. An offended Barbara says that she had bought it in good faith from Mrs Bennett.
At Charlie's house, Andy swoops with a search warrant. Olive Bennett is nicked, so is Ray when he returns home with the proceeds of his robbery, "a full house"
Good Evening all," is the familiar intro, followed by a quote, "you can't con an honest man."
Seven honest men to be more exact. A woman tells her intendeds that her aged mother needs to be placed in a home, £1,000 deposit will secure it.
She is Kate Harris (Moira Redmond) who is really only raising the money to pay her sister Fleur's debts. Her eighth and final victinm she falls for, he is Lewis Naylor, a rich businessman.
He reports her swindle to Dock Green police, but after examining files of local con women, picks out two possible women, neither of whom is Kate. He has fallen for Kate, and employs Phil Haynes, a private eye to trace her.
Andy Crawford interviews one of the women pointed out by Naylor, the scatty Heather, a known con artist, who says she has "retired." George deals with a similar, Sue.
Haynes has additional information from Naylor, and takes photos of women leaving an artist's shop. Kate is soon spotted, and Haynes takes Naylor to show him the exterior of the house where she lives, "it's the lady."
Phil informs the police that he had been followed on his latest job, though Andy denies all knowledge of Kate.
Naylor later phones Kate, inviting her to dinner. She accepts, and offers him a cheque reimbursing his payment. Instead her proposes to her, or is this more akin to "blackmail?"
Things may be set fair for them to live happily ever after, but police invite Naylor to attend an ID parade. Kate is one of the women in the line, along with Heather and Sue, but Naylor fails to pick out Kate. Andy has words with Naylor.
Others of Kate's victims however easily identify her, and George offers us the conclusion to the episode
"Good evening all."
He is the key witness in the trial of Ben Randall and his wife June, accused of drunk driving, knocking down and killing a pedestrian. However "a wellwisher" writes suggesting Warren has been bought. Against Andy's advice, George investigates, his instinct is that Warren is a good copper.
However he has recently purchased a new car. Andy questions him. Len believes Ben is out to frame him. "I don't have to prove my honesty to anyone."
George chats with Len's fiancee Sally, She does explain the new car had come from their savings. He had been receiving threatening phone calls from someone. This animosity is traced to the anonymous letter writer, who had recently been charged with assault by Len. The man withdraws his letter of complaint.
Groge observes to Andy that Len does try to play it alone, very much like young Andy used to do. Len resigns, telling George his reasons. George offers him a gentle lecture. The ending is open ended
Taped Crime Series Menu
The series was devised by Geoffrey Bellman and John Whitney. The producer was Stella Richman. The stars: Alexander Knox as Professor Lazard, and James Maxwell as Dr Henry Fox. Semi-regulars were: Zia Mohyeddin as Dr Hammond da Silva, Elizabeth Weaver as Dr Ruth Coliton, and George Moon as Stanley Garnet. Ruth Meyers as Bridget Webster, and Jacqui Chan as Tua Ling were in several stories.
The series depicted the work of a department of forensic scientists.
Surviving stories: 3 Cross Examination, 5 A Question of Involvement, 9 Sweets to the Sweet, 10 One For The Road
Taped Crime Series Menu
1 The Shape (July 16th 1964) with Zia Mohyeddin, Elizabeth Weaver, and George Moon.
Script: Roger East. Director: Stuart Burge.
The Department of Forensic Medicine is asked to investigate an unusual case, and Dr da Silva, using a new technique, produces an unexpected result
2 Cause of Death
- Professor Lazard has to decide if a charred body found after a warehouse fire has been murdered
3 Cross Examination (July 30th) with Zia Mohyeddin, Elizabeth Weaver, and George Moon.
Script:Fenton Bresler and Martin Woodhouse. Director: Peter Moffatt.
When expert witnesses clash, the verdict in a murder trial depends on the evidence of Dr Henry Fox
4 The Achilles Heel (August 6th) with Zia Mohyeddin and Elizabeth Weaver.
Script: Paul Lee. Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
When a small boy's fears prevent him from telling the truth, Dr Ruth Coliton is forced to take an unorthodox step.
5 A Question of Involvement (August 13th) with Zia Mohyeddin.
Script: Richard Harris. Director: Lionel Harris.
6 Penny Post Paid (August 13th) with Zia Mohyeddin and George Moon. Also with Kathleen Breck as Grace Aystone.
Script: Roger East. Director: Marc Miller.
Professor Lazard's investigation of a 300 year old letter could shatter a daughter's love for her father
7 The Guinea Pig (August 27th) with Elizabeth Weaver.
Script: Martin Woodhouse. Director: John Frankau.
A young scientist's inexplicable death during a test at a research unit, forces Dr Henry Fox to cancel his holiday
8 Twelve Good Men (September 3rd) with Zia Mohyeddin, Elizabeth Weaver, and George Moon.
Script: Eric Corner and Ross Salmon. Director: Don Gale.
Dr Fox is the key witness in a case of poisoning. Will the jury be swayed by emotion, or his scientific facts?
9 Sweets to the Sweet (September 10th)
Script: Hugh Leonard. Director: Peter Moffatt.
Professor Lazard uses shock treatment on a student taking drugs
10 One for the Road (September 17th) with Zia Mohyeddin. Also with Bryan Pringle as Police-Sgt Robert Oakman.
Script: John Hawkesworth. Director: Lionel Harris.
When a police sergeant causes a fatal accident, his absolute guilt is without question until Professor Lazard is called in
11 The Final Analysis (September 24th) with Zia Mohyeddin, Elizabeth Weaver, and George Moon.
Script: Peter Lambda. Director: Peter Sasdy.
Three adults are in conflicts when a baby is born
12 Missing, Presumed Killed (October 1st) with George Moon- James Maxwell not in this episode.
Script: John Hawkesworth. Director: Lionel Harris.
A crashed wartime bomber is discovered. Can Professor Lazard's findings solve a twenty year old mystery?
13 One of the Hampshire Pargeters (October 8th 1964) with Zia Mohyeddin.
Script: Ludovic Kennedy. Director: John Frankau.
How was Barry Pargeter killed? An Old Bailey jury hear expert evidence from Professor Lazard, but could he be wrong?
Post mortem on Tobias Drew, died of coronary artery disease, according to Dr Henry Fox. But Drew had been robbed in his shop, and since his larynx is slightly bruised, foul play is suspected. Police believe old lag Jackie Munson be the guilty man, "more inside than out." He admits breaking into the shop, but says he never touched Drew.
Frisby is Munson's solicitor and Fox meets him outside the courtroom, and arranges to meet Dr Jessup whom the defence are calling to examine Drew's corpse. Dr Fox takes quite a shine to her.
Dr Lazard returns from his trip to America, and is filled in on the case. In court, the defence challenge Fox's assertion that any slight bruise was found on Drew's larynx. "It can't have disappeared!" But doubt is thereby cast on Fox's report, while Lazard listens on dubiously. Doubt is also cast on photographer Stan Garnet's pictures- is that a bruise on his photo or merely an imperfection in the developing of the print?
Lazard and Fox re-examine Drew's larynx, finding "no sign" of bruising. Lazard is able to explain why it might have disappeared, and how it can be found. However since the evidence has already been presented, this new finding is not permitted. However Munson can be questioned, the key point is, how did he know that Drew was dead? "Do you realise you have just confessed your guilt?"
The case is reviewed with Dr Jessup, and it is Lazard who invites her for a meal
The corpse is identified as an eighteen year old girl, who lived 40 miles away, but had left home two weeks ago. Landlord Edwards says he had seen her making her way to Forest Lodge. So Bowen confronts Mrs Ashworth, "did you ever see her alive?" The woman is not very cooperative. Bowen notices that Ashworth is a wood carver, and that one of his chisels is brand new. Was one of these the murder weapon?
Mr and Mrs Ashworth have an argument, she is sure her husband must have killed the girl. Though she has given him an alibi, in fact she was away in London. Mr Ashworth has some dark secret.
Police dig up his record, one of violence. He is interrogated. He claims that on the fateful night, he had seen a strange car nearby. Why has he a new chisel? Where is the old one that got broken?
Fox has been dubious about Bowen's theorising, and discovers some evidence that casts doubt on the case against Ashworth
A young man, David (Ian Ogilvy), on the point of collapse, gets into his sports car, "I can't breathe, get doctor." In hospital, he dies of pneumonia, but a nurse spots he is a drug addict.
Professor Lazard is dining with old friend Andrew (Bernard Archard) and his wife Kate, in their swish apartment that looks too much like a set. Their studious son Gerry, a friend of David's, is given a lift by Lazard afterwards, off to a club. Lazard realises that Gerry must be on drugs too.
The professor consoles Carol, David's fiancee, who eventually confirms that David was an addict. It seems he had tried with persuasion from Carol to kick the habit, but his body had rebelled.
With Andrew, Lazard searches Gerry's room and a powder
is discovered which Fox analyses as purple hearts.
In the club, Gerry is on a high, but in a police raid, he flees to Carol. In an unconvincig scene, they argue and he beats her up.
The script moralises, as Andrew confronts Gerry, "where's the harm in me taking something that bucks me up for a few hours?" Counters his father, "what's not natural, can't be altogether healthy."
Sporting a black eye, Carol tells Andrew that she had been beaten up by Gerry. The son flatly denies it, cannot even recall the incident. "You little monster."
"I took too many of those things," admits Gerry. It was pressure from his father to be a success.
Lazard talks to them both, Fox reading out his post mortem findings on David, and making Gerry formally identify the corpse. Shock tactics might have an effect, though the story concludes open endedly
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. In fact, the main story is on tape, though a generous dose of film inserts using Parisian locations is added.
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. In all, four series of thirteen episodes each were screened during the autumns of 1960 through to 1963.
A girl leaves a low strip joint, and walking home in the dark (not what you are expecting), stops a gendarme. She wants to report a murder. She is 24 year old Arlette, and Maigret questions her in his office. It transpires that this murder is yet to take place: Arlette had overheard two men plotting to rob a countess, one of them was called Oscar. But when Maigret wants to talk to her boyfriend Albert, she withdraws her story.
Actually, it is Arlette who is done in, when she returns home. Maigret: "she was killed because she came to us."
Maigret's first call is to the Picratts Club, but neither the owner nor his wife know of any Oscar or countess. It turns out that Albert is a policeman, and he believes Arlette had been afraid of someone. It was not her real name.
A second death, an old lady, a countess, strangled. Clearly she was living in reduced circumstances, although robbery appears to have been the motive.
Philippe is her unsympathetic nephew, a drug addict like his aunt. He is released, but tailed by Albert.
The identity of Oscar is established, fifteen years ago he had been a servant of the countess, and has recently been seen in the district. Arlette's real identity is also discovered.
Philippe is seen collecting dope, and then he goes up the Funiculaire, "obviously looking for someone." Oscar, surely, whose identity is revealed when Philippe finds him. As police swoop, Oscar tries to get away, but Albert shoots him
Freddie the Safebreaker smashes a pane of glass, breaks in and is about to crack the safe, when he sights the body of a dead woman. Quickly, he runs away.
Maigret is about to go on holiday to Brittany, but is approached by Freddie's young wife Ernestine (Andree Melly), who, as she reminds the great detective, once was seen naked by him. She knows he is incorruptible, and she relates the story above to him.
The house belongs to a "respectable" dentist, M Serre (Hugh Burden) who lives here with his wife and mother. He says his second wife Maria left him two days ago. Maigret notes the smashed window but is told that "there'd been no burglary." However the dentist's car has been stolen.
Maigret joins his wife, promising they will be off and away tomorrow. But for now, he returns to the Serre house and makes a search. In the safe is gold. Maigret questions the dentist and they talk of his wife who is nowhere to be found. Obviously he is hiding something. Maigret is very suspicious that Serre's father, and his first wife both died of heart problems.
The missing car is discovered half a mile from the house. After a clue is found in it, he warns Serre, "as soon as it's light, the river will be dragged." Maigret gets Ernestine to put a bit of pressure on Serre's elderly mother.
Another round of interrogation at the station. Serre admits the truth, "it's fantastic." Exposed is "a systematic murderer." Maigret prevents another poisoning before the story finishes
A stranger has called at Maigret's home to see him on a "personal" matter, but the detective is out, and while he waits, the man nicks Maigret's gun, and runs away.
The theft is only noticed later. Maigret learns that Alain 19 year old son of his friend Baron Legrange is missing. The concierge in the ailing baron's block tells Maigret she saw a trunk being transported down the stairs. It is traced to the Gare du Nord, and inside is the corpse of a man named Andre. Reports come in that Alain had purchased some bullets, though the dead man had not been killed by them.
Alain had been seen at the home of Mme Debul, but she has just gone to England. Her maid Georgette shows Maigret round her home, and an open safe is found. It is empty.
Maigret flies to London to stay at the Somerset Hotel, where Mme Debul is also booked in. He meets Inspector Pyke (Campbell Singer) who had arranged for Alain, who is also in town, to be tailed.
Maigret sees Mme Debul and asks if Alain is her lover. He is not, but when Maigret searches her empty room later, he discovers it not quite empty. Someone is hiding in the cupboard! It is Alain. Maigret conducts a one way conversation: Andre it seems, had stumbled on Andre's corpse in his father's room. He wanted advice from Maigret, but had stolen the revolver instead. Legrange is being blackmailed by Debul. Alain emerges from his hiding place and hands over the gun. Maigret offers some comfort to Alain, by revealing that Debul used his dad to put the "squeeze" on victims like Andre.
When she returns to Paris, she will be arrested. Maigret chats sympatically to young Alain.
Perhaps not entirely convincing, with Margaretta Scott cast in the role of blackmailer, but I liked the touch of Maigret in England not perfectly understanding the language. Police car used: WWL317
Maigret Menu
On the Med, two women dash away from a large house carrying cases. Later in their garden, a corpse is dug up. "Very peculiar," observes Maigret. Dead man is William, once of Deuxieme Bureau. The two women, mother and daughter, are interviewed, they claim he had been drunk after collecting his usual money from an unknown source.
Slot machine tokens in his possession are traced to the Liberty Bar in town. Ja-Ja (Renee Houston) is the owner, here lives William's goddaughter Sylvie. "He used to throw his money about." Last Saturday he had left here around 2pm, but Maigret knows that he hadn't reached home for three hours. Where else had he been?
Maigret also meets Giovanni, Sylvie's boyfriend, and Harry Brown (Paul Eddington), William's son who had taken over the family business after his father "lost all dignity." He paid his father an allowance every month, though he'd not met him "for years."
All of them attend the funeral, "one of them killed him," notes Maigret. Those missing hours seem to have been spent at a hotel, where Maigret finds Sylvie, and also Brown. In her handbag is a huge sum of money, given her by Brown. This was payment for the return of his father's will, which Giovanni had nicked.
Some flowers purchased by Brown lead Maigret to a florist, who had sold flowers to the dead man last Saturday. In a nice touch, Maigret buys some flowers for the mother and daughter. Then he gets the truth out of Ja-Ja, though it's too late
Maigret's Citroen draws up at Les Marguerites, he is the bearer of bad news for Mme Gallet- her husband Emil has been found dead. He died in Sancerre, where he was staying in his capacity as a commercial traveller. However it emerges that he gave up this job fifteen years ago.
Maigret examines the papers of Emil, while his son Henri relates how his father passed his time. An eyewitness claims Emil was seen arguing with a man with horned spectacles, this is evidently Henri. His mistress is a widow, and is hoping to marry Henri when they have enough money.
Emil had visited a M de St Hilaire (Maurice Denham) while in the town, apparently they were both staunch Royalists, Emil helping raise funds for impoverished Royalist supporters. I'm a Republican, admits Maigret.
Lukas is in the room where Emil died, when someone takes a pot shot at him. Police trace Jacob (Wilfred Bramble) who passed letters, suggesting that Emil was being blackmailed. Then a taxman named Louis advises Maigret that he knows the identity of the killer... a Tonkinese. But he had not met Emil for 25 years, so this comedy interlude can be dismissed, except that Louis inadvertently puts Maigret on the right trail.
The dead man is not Gallet, and Maigret confronts the real Emil. A complex story emerges, perhaps too complicated, or at least in this presentation it doesn't come across clearly enough. Nevertheless it offers some pleasing touches, such as with Louis, and with the local police inspector (Peter Barkworth) who is extremely zealous and eager to help Maigret
Maigret is working at home to avoid interruption, but he is interrupted by news of a murder of a prostitute named Louise. Maigret goes to her flat in the Avenue Carnot, where Pierre, who works in a night club, used to visit her.
The concierge informs Maigret that eminent surgeon Professor Etienne Gouin (John Robinson) paid the rent of her flat. He lives in another flat here, but he had been called away the night of the murder.
Lukas traces Pierre to the club, where he is playing the piano. He sings his answers to the policeman's questions! When he is informed that Louise is dead, he does a bunk. After a chase through crowded streets, Lukas loses Pierre among railway sidings.
Dr Paul advises Maigret that the girl had been pregnant. She had been shot by a pistol.
Mme Gouin tells the inspector about her husband's numerous dalliances. Antoinette, her elder sister, did not approve of Etienne's behaviour, "I've seen this coming for years," she tells Maigret. She is certain that Etienne killed Louise, even despite his alibi. His colleague Dr Decaux does confirm the alibi, even though earlier we had seen Dr Gouin kissing her. Did he kill her? Maigret asks her.
Pierre gives himself up, "I didn't kill her." Listening in to Gouin's phone calls, shows that he was being blackmailed. Gouin admits it. Maigret is reluctant to question the famous man, but in their conversation, they cover Louise, Pierre, and life in general. Gouin repeats his alibi. Maigret has "a sort of instinct" as to the identity of the guilty party.
He phones Lukas ordering him to issue a warrant for the arrest of Antoinette. For once Maigret is in error, and a confession from the killer results from this action. Gouin is almost unmoved by the scene.
Later Maigret tells his wife that he had used Antoinette to force a confession from the real killer. Ah, so he hadn't made a mistake!
In this, Maigret's investigations are rather interrupted by the zealous magistrate (Noel Howlett).
"I'm in great danger, Inspector Maigret," a man on the phone warns. Shortly after, his corpse is dumped from a yellow Citroen.
Maigret is suffering from a slight cold, so it is Lukas who establishes the identity of the dead man, Albert, who worked in a cafe. From here he had phoned the police. The Citroen had been seen outside yesterday. A man entering this cafe is shot dead and his attacker runs off. A lot of money is on the dead man's person.
Some of this cash had come from Maria, a Czech girl who is found in a low boarding house, heavily pregnant. She is taken to hospital. She is one of a number of illegal immigrants living together, the source of their cash is evidently something illegal. Maigret questions Maria after she has given birth. A nurse castigates him for being too severe. Two men attempt to 'rescue' her but are rather needlessly shot dead by police.
A thief is traced who owned the Citroen, he had been going to drive Albert out of Paris, except Albert had been shot first.
Maigret establishes that Albert had chanced on a railway ticket which in a complicated way had led to his death. The killer is one of these immigrants who were "doing pretty well" out of robbing farmers in isolated rural homes. It was his ticket and he is arrested
Stabbing of a fortune teller as she gazes into her crystal ball. The killer drives hastily away in his green sports car, spotted by one young lady. A note by the corpse says The Fortune Teller Is Doomed To Death.
Maigret is dismissing Mascouvin, a nervous estate agent who is confessing to robbing his employer, who however claims no money is missing. "Go home," Maigret warns the shaking man.
Maigret inspects where the fortune teller lived. In a locked room, he discovers a man skulking, an old retired mariner. His wife says he had had a stroke, and neither she nor her daughter know of any fortune teller. The girl who witnessed the man driving away is scatty, though Maigret gets her to pick out a suspect.
Maigret takes his wife up river to a hotel where the dead woman stayed a lot. His interest seems to centre on a villa on the opposite bank, the Villa Verdi.
Back in Paris he searches the old mariner's room, more a "cell." The old man is discovered hiding in the loft. "I don't think you're mad," Maigret tells him, "or a master mariner." Lapointe arrests his wife, since she is found with 50,000fr on her person. It transpires that her real husband is dead, this new 'husband' is posing as her husband. The fortune teller had found out her crime, and demanded money, 50,000fr to be placed in a green sports car. Mascouvin who collected the money has been silenced. From his employer, Maigret learns that the lessee of Villa Verdi is a M Blaise, he was indulging in blackmail, and is about to flee to Switzerland. Despite offering Maigret a huge bribe he is arrested.
Maigret and his wife enjoy a dance at the hotel, though the dance looks a trifle modern for him
Grocer's delivery boy Hertain (John Ronane) is chief suspect, but it seems obvious that he has been framed. He insists he has "nothing to say" to police.
Though he has to be arrested, Maigret risks his career in letting him escape, with the idea of following him.
An anonymous complaint about this "pseudo comedy" leads Maigret to Emile Radek (Anton Rodgers), an impoverished medical student, as well as his wife and his mistress. Hertain jumps into the Seine, and is taken unconscious to hospital.
Kirby (Jerry Stovin) is the man who is set to inherit the fortune, but he shoots himself. Now Maigret finds himself taunted by this Radek who is suddenly in the money. Radek is supremely confident that Maigret cannot touch him. He is interrogated in a strip club, with a stripper noisy in the abckground who never disrobes. Later he drops into Maigret's office to continue their little chat. "There could be another murder," Radek warns.
But Maigret can play cat and mouse too, and he toys with Radek at the scene of the murders
Unusual Christmas edition, with Maigret at home with his family, only updated by phone by Lucas.
It is Christmas. A lad breaks in to an upstairs apartment, removes a small box and leaves via the stairway. He follows a burly man, and smashes several emergency police call point glasses. He chucks the box he has picked up, a lunch box, into the river.
An eyewitness had spotted the lad, twelve year old Francois climbing in to the apartment of an old moneylender. She has been found murdered, latest victim of a killer nicknamed The Sunday Man. Francois is the son of Olivier (James Maxwell), who is brother of Lecouer (Alfred Burke) who is currently the police officer in charge of the police call centre. He is able to give Lucas some useful background on unemployed Olivier, who is picked up by police. He admits he had borrowed 75 francs that night from the murdered woman.
Francois is still following the man, but why has he smashed seven police glasses? Francois is spotted by the burly man, who is Sgt Gaston Lubet, who had recently been sacked from the police force. Lubet points a gun at Francois' head. He takes the lad to a cafe. Police work out that Francois has been alying a trail, but reach the cafe too late. Lubet has forced Francois down to the river to kill him, for Francois had seen the killing. He had removed his dad's lunch box that his dad had left behind in the apartment.
Police prevent Francois being killed. Maigret is informed. He has been very inactive.
At times this story seems like a French Z Cars, though much less coarse
A more straightforward story than usual commences with the Montmartre killer striking again. At least, that's what the press think, though in fact it's a ploy by Maigret to lure this killer who knows "every alley" of Montmartre.
Police are deployed to watch the district, as policewomen trained in judo walk the streets. Eventually, one is attacked, and police swoop, "she'll be all right." Lucas gives chase but unfortunately loses the trail.
The shaken attacked women is only able to give a vague description of her attacker. But she had torn a piece of his coat. Through this, Marcel Moncin is traced, "I wasn't there." He is an architect and says he had been working at home. His domineering wife supports the story. The overcoat is his, but he claims he had given it away.
Maigret talks to Moncin's domineering mother, who tells the inspector,"he hasn't been here for months."
At an ID parade, Moncin is successfully identified. A tramp named Armand is found, who has the discarded coat. Maigret surmises Moncin's motives and charges him with murder.
However that night there is another murder! Moncin finds this highly amusing, "your murderer is still at large!" But Maigret is sure he has got the right man, and deduces that either the mother or wife must have done this last killing- though I must say they look unlikely suspects physically. He arranges a confrontation between the two possessive women, and the truth comes out
Now there has been a third victim, an old tramp. Alain Vernoux, Gilbert's son had found the body, and is popularly assumed to be the murderer. Maigret vainly attempts to dissociate himself from investigations, but owing to a misunderstanding Lucas also shows up.
Class tensions are mounting, as Maigret tries to get some sense out of the peasant girl Alain is in love with. Her squalid room is such a contrast with Gilbert's opulent mansion that Maigret is shown round.
Rioters begind throwing stones and Chabot has to issue a warrant for Alain's arrest. He is found with his girl friend, who is nearly dead.
Maigret finds that Gilbert has cracked under all the strain of his son's arrest, and is much the worse for drink An unlikely scene sees the real murderer exposed.
At night a girl aged about 20, is knocked down by a car. Fractured skull. With some assistance from Inspector Lognon, Maigret investigates, since it is a matter of murder. Her clothing had been made by Madame Irene, who had hired them to the dead girl, who had left her own clothes at the shop. The girl's landlady says the girl Louise had kept very much to herself, but when she lost her job, she couldn't pay rent and was forced to leave.
Lucas travels to Nice to talk to her mother, whom he finds at a casino, none too bothered to hear her daughter is dead, "she ran away two years ago." She reveals where she had first stayed in Paris.
Lognon has traced her movements- she had attended a wedding reception on the evening she died. Her friend Janine, with whom she had shared a room, was the bride, groom was Santoni. Maigret manages to contact him on his honeymoon and learns that Janine had just lent Louise some money. She points the inspector in the direction of The Pickwick Club.
As has happened several times already on this case, Lognon is one step ahead of Maigret, he has got there first! The barman Albert says he had kept a letter for Louise, and after she had read this, she seemed a bit happier. Albert is brought in for further questioning, and reveals the letter had been from her dad, telling her to go to Brooklyn, behind it all is a 100 grand robbery. In a Brooklyn house, is found the stashed cash. Louise had been the courier, when she had been murdered
Her husband (Peter Dyneley) is called back from his trip to Rome. He admits he had spent the night with his lover Helen.
From Charlotte, Donge's partner, Maigret learns about Jo (Diana Coupland), a stripper in Cannes. Lukas is despatched to interview her. The story is that Madeleine had once been Mimi another stripper who had got Clark to marry her, thinking she was bearing his child. Blackmail had ensued, the payee appears to have been Donge, though from what his partner says, it seems it was not he who had killed Mimi.
His dark secret is removed from a case in the locker room, and he goes to see His son. Lukas arrests him. But it transpires someone else was the blackmailer, using Donge's name, and this man is tailed to the bank where he is withdrawing his blackmail money, and is arrested
Despite Maigret's best efforts, Adrien Josset is found guilty of murder. The inspector relates the background.
Eight years ago, Josset had married rich widow Christine. He had taken over the running of her successful business, and maybe neglected her a little. He also had an affair with Annette. His wife he had found dead in their luxurious villa, he doesn't know if he killed her or not! He hadn't phoned doctor or police. So why had he washed blood off his shirt, and why had he planned to go to South America?
The maid Julie tells Lucas that a dagger is missing- was this the murder weapon? When this is found, it has but one fingerprint on it, that of Josset. Though Maigret is sceptical, the guilty verdict is a foregone conclusion.
Maigret is dissatisfied with the defence lawyer the unfortunately named Pardon, because it hadn't been strongly enough brought out how Josset loved his wife. (His affair might be the reason it isn't part of the defence case.) With no reprieve granted, Maigret visits Josset in his cell. The condemned man has decided that he must have been too drunk to recall killing Christine.
Maigret traces one contact of Christine's, Popaul (Philip Madoc), who possessed a key to her house and has "a rotten alibi." Maigret also interviews Colonel Latinde, who lives the other side of the road to Josset, who had claimed he saw Josset entering the house that night. Maigret is surprised to find the maid Julie in his house, and it turns out she had been there the night of the murder. The truth emerges
Maigret is called in when an unmarried mother disappears. Last seen in a shop run by the Peeters, a despised foreign family. He meets the ladies, Anna and nun Maria, who tell him that Joseph, who is to marry another of them, Marguerite, is not the father. Local gossip centres on this "modern Casanova," alternative view is he is "a crossover of Einstein and an angel." But he admits he is the father.
Gerard (Robert Gillespie) is hiding on a barge, he stands to gain a fortune if the missing girl is dead. A witness named Cassin claims to have seen a body being thrown into the river by the quayside.
Maigret examines a bedroom in the shop and finds a photo- it's of Gerard. Then the corpse turns up in the river, beaten to death with a hammer. Maigret can perceive that both Joseph and Anna knew she was already dead. Maigret tries to question the distressed nun, but cannot get the truth from her.
Lucas arrests Cassin, while Maigret talks to a mute lad who works for him.
At the wedding of Joseph and Marguerite, there is an interruption by Maigret himself. Questioning Anna, all is revealed. But Maigret cannot prove his theory. Anna is confident that nobody will speak out the truth, but Maigret uses Maria's vows to reveal what actually happened. "You've destroyed yourselves"
A row between brother Richard Gendreaux (John Carson) and his sister Lise over her inheritance, when she shortly comes of age. He runs the family business, but soon she will have an equal control.
Richard blackmails Count Bob to marry Lise. What Richard doesn't know is that the pair have been having a clandestine affair.
At 1am Sergeant Lapointe happens to be passing the Gendreaux residence when he hears a shot. It comes from Lise's room, but when he searches the room, nothing is discovered. Exit one embarrassed sergeant. But after he has left, we see Louis the butler removing a corpse.
Maigret reads Lapointe's detailed report. He suggests that Lapointe trace the sports car that he saw outside the house. It belongs to Bob and he had been driven there by his friend Dede. Bob is lying in the morgue.
Lise is being sent away to America all of a sudden. Lapointe gets a break when he sees the sports car, and he watches Dede visiting a friend Cleo. When Lapointe calls, Dede knocks him out and ties him up. Maid Germaine later frees him. Dede is 80,000 francs to the good, but he is relieved of it when police pounce and the gang are arrested.
Maigret talks to Richard's retired father who confides that his two children are at daggers drawn over running the firm. He learns from Germaine that Bob had visited Richard that night, and from Richard and Louis the butler, Maigret gets the truth. Or is it? Maigret has a shrewd idea who was the intended victim of the killing, but there is no real evidence and thus no prosecution. However Maigret reflects that at least Richard will lose his control of the business
Maigret is wrapping up a smggling case in Honfleur, when, in a very protracted opening, Lucas playing with a football with local lads, a corpse is reported at the judge's house. "He's going to throw it in the river tonight at ten to eleven." That's the time of high tide. Sure enough, as they keep watch on the property, Maigret and Lucas see the judge dragging something heavy. He admits it is a corpse (even though the actor is inadvertently breathing), though he is not the killer, nor does he even know the man's identity.
Lise his daughter, suffering from dementia, is the only other person living here, though the judge's son, Albert, lives nearby. The dead man is identified as a guest staying at the same hotel where Maigret is residing. He is a psychiatrist, and had been killed in Lise's bathroom.
Albert's mate Marcel had been seen with Lise- but he has disappeared. The judge confesses to the killing, but this is obviously only to deflect from the fact that he thinks his daughter is the killer. No way is she the killer, says Maigret. Lise is taken away to a nursing home.
Albert tells Maigret that Marcel was planning to marry Lise, they had approached this psychiatrist to find out if it was safe to marry Lise. Marcel is found and Maigret gets the two men to fall out, and after a punch up, he makes his arrest.
This is a sad, moody tale, with a sympathetic performance by Leslie French as the judge
Lucas examines her corpse later, she had been strangled. Three boats had been moored at Lock 14 that evening. Maigret cycles the five miles to the next lock, where the boats now are. Here we see Jean (Andrew Faulds), who had spotted Marie, he helps the old lady who runs the cafe here- she has sort of adopted him, "he's like a baby, but a good bargeman."
Maigret talks to the owner of the Southern Cross, a rich man named Lampson (Hugh Burden), who identifies Marie as his wife, his fourth wife actually. Those on this boat are an unpleasant lot, morals suspect, "we don't interfere in each other's lives." The two ejected girls had been picked up. The question is, was Marie robbed for her missing necklace?
Jean lives on a barge, The Providence, caring for numerous pets. Mario, a sidekick of Lampson's, is an intruder, ransacking the boat. Jean returns to find him, and in the ensuing fight, Marco falls into the river and drowns.
It emerges that Jean had once been married to Marie and the chase is on to catch up with him. Maigret gets to his barge, but he has left, "gone beserk." He must be making for The Southern Cross. A lot of running through woods and fields by Lucas, to a showdown on the boat. Jean boards it, confronting Lampson, but a police bullet finishes him off, too dramatically
13.20 - arrival of the train from Amsterdam, Maigret watches as Peter Oppenheimer (Marius Goring) alights. He's "a successful swindler," known as Peter the Lett. Maigret's job is to "make him unsuccessful."
At the Majestic Hotel, Maigret inspects the man's passport and leaves Torrance to watch him. Then a corpse is found on the 13.20 train, and he looks like Peter!
Maigret pokes round Oppenheimer's hotel room and finds a photo, which takes him to Le Portel, and a female photographer, wife of the dead man Johannsen. Lucas spots Peter Lett here and trails him through the snow to Paris, where he loses him. In fact Lett is arranging business with Strophades (Peter Illing), and Torrance, although not authorised to do so, searches the Greek's room and finds many share certificates. However a waiter named Moreno sees him, and knocks him out.
At a low club, infamous for dope peddling, Maigret finds Peter with Strophades. Maigret takes Peter in for questioning, but is shot at, slightly wounded. Thus Peter eludes police again.
Torrance is found with a steel pin through his heart, and search is made for Moreno, at whose house Peter is spotted. After a strange war of silence, Maigret confronts Peter. "Peter the Lett is dead," Maigret is informed. Once again, Peter, or is it Oppenheimer, eludes police, and goes to Strophades for a shouting match. End of the Greek, and his forged bonds racket.
Peter returns to Le Portel. We learn that this man had shot his identical twin brother dead- should have guessed that one! Explanations follow, "the only way," a sad tale of forgery. Once more Peter eludes Maigret, only for his body to turn up on a frozen beach. The killer Moreno is dragged in
Almost a take off of a drama serial starring Derek Fowlds as Ambrose Frayne, and Jeanne Roland as Dominique Frayne, his new wife, who together run a sort of detective agency.
The cartoon opening and closing credits set the mood, which is hardly improved by some weak acting and a script that uses every cliche in the book. As a comedy it fails, as a drama it never ignites, so all that's left is to enjoy the polished acting from those of the cast not afflicted with the above mentioned malady.
Inspector Ross wants to know if Ambrose has discovered anything about Lady Grayden's missing pearl necklace. But Ambrose has no information to offer. He consults his mentor, Hector (Sam Kydd) who points him in the direction of the man in the mask, Feinster, a fence.
However this crook's home is "well wired." But Ambrose and Nicky find a way in via the roof tiles.
After a search, behind a mirror, Ambrose locates the safe. Cracking it takes longer than it should due to interruptions in the form of a few kisses with his new wife. She retreats to watch quietly, but then nearly screams when a hand dangles in front of her face.
End of part one
A corpse is sprawling above the four poster bed. Ambrose cuts away the awning so that it falls on to the bed, then he leaves a note in the dead man's hat.
Hello hello hello, a constable on the beat spots Ambrose's car parked outside, and nicks him and Nicky as they emerge from the house.
Inspector Marshall listens to their doubtful story, and they are put behind bars. But Ambrose sneaks out of his cell and enjoys a cuddle with his wife.
Raoul Feinster returns home and keeps the corpse away from police eyes. He claims nothing has been stolen. He then mysteriously corroborates Ambrose's fiction that he had been replacing a few loose roof tiles- what, at dead of night?
Charles checks up on Crozier, who has the pearls. This villain drives a large van from his weird shop, to deliver a large wooden crate...
Clearly, possibly, the corpse has something to do with the missing pearls. With the assistance of Hector, Ambrose works out that the dead man was Roger Curran, a known embezzler. Ambrose waits, for Feinster is bound to show up. But in his office, Charles discovers that a corpse has been delivered
Charles swallows a tablet after finding the corpse in his office.
Hector offers Ambrose and Nicky a transmitter and receiver in the shape of a pen and lighter.
In a feeble scene, Amvrose is introduced for the first time to Nicky's dad at the French embassy. He is suffering a painful massage. "'e is my 'usband," she tells dad, which drives the man to drink. Ambrose relates his dubious family history.
Feinster phones Inspector Roth, advising him of the corpse in Ambrose's office. It isn't there. the policeman informs Ambrose that Feinster is moving out of his office.
The body proves to be that of an Armenian client of Charles. It was, so the story goes, there for Charles to arrange to have it embalmed.
Feinster now phones Cokey Brock, a crook for whom he acts as a fence. Subject: "a little job."
Ambrose poses as the Armenian's brother, requesting the embalmed body be delivered to Feinster's home at 1.30am. Of course it's "to give Mr Feinster another shaking." Ambrose disconnects Feinster's home alarm system so as to watch proceedings. But in his car, Nicky discovers another corpse...
At 1.30am promptly, as per instructions, Charles delivers the corpse to the property, amid funereal music. Naturally the noise awakens Feinster and he prowls round suspiciouasly with his gun. He finds Ambrose's written demand to return Lady Grayden's pearls, "a very curious business."
Other sidelines which may and may not be significant: Dominique encourages her dad in his desire for a new alliance, "voila!" The lady in question is Marian, who is very inhibited, but by what? Inspector Ross is angry because Ambrose had tricked that bobby. Hector provides Nicky with a useful tip. Then Charley is given another job by Feinster, who wants "the boot putting in" to Ambrose and his wife, anything short of actually killing them.
At a club, the couple listen to a song, and indulge in a slight disagreement over women. When they return home, Charley's men lie waiting...
corpse...
The masked men are startled in the car headlights. After a punchup, Ambrose knocks them both out of course. Nicky sketches the unmasked faces, enabling Hector to identify them as members of Cokey's mob. Ambrose beards him in his den. He gets his own back by setting light to Cokey's pride and joy which reduces the pathetic criminal utterly to tears.
Ambrose has been "casing" Feinster's joint, which is a set of the creeky variety. Next door Crozier is putting cash into an envelope.
Nicky watches from next door to Crozier's shop, but she is spotted, and packed away in a large trunk, a magic box in the shop. However Ambrose rescues her.
Crozier and Feinster are definitely in cahoots she tells Ambrose in her broken English.
Lady Grayden is grateful to receive back her pearls- from no less than Feinster! Happily, she kisses Dominique's dad- obviously the pair are an item. But he is unamused. Ambrose tells them these jewels are fake. "It's all very complicated."
Ambrose and Nicky renew surveillance of Feinster's office, Nicky by posing as a model in rooms opposite. After dressing up as December, she dresses down for July...
Feinster calls at the room where Nicky is posing. It's to collect a passport photo of Alfred Crozier, who turns out to be his brother.
Nicky spies on Feinster in his office and sees Crozier enter via a cupboard. "We're going to pull out." After a disagreement over this, Alfred is shot dead.
Ambrose discusses his next move with Hector, who then confides in Nicky's dad, to the latter's advantage, over a painting Hector had once nicked. Magnanimously, Hector is going to return it, anonymously, to no less a place than the Louvre. Then he shows Ambrose how to rob Feinster's safe to recover the stolen pearls. (Why couldn't he have done this is episode 1?)
Feinster kidnaps Nicky at gunpoint. She's a hostage. Cornelia, the late Crozier's assistant, drives Ambrose in her Mini to the magic shop where is prepared the latest illusion- a guillotine. Naturally it is Nicky's head at the end of the chopper, and unless Ambrose returns the jewels and smuggles them out of the country for Feinster, she is for the chop!
But of course Ambrose rescues her and Feinster is left trapped in the guillotine for Inspector Ross to collect.
"Spies don't have friends, only enemies and lovers."
The BBC's long running series ran from 1962 until 1978, a total of 799 stories! I'll be honest, I am no fan.
James Ellis as Lynch appeared in the most stories rising from the patrolman in episode one up to superintendent. Next most episodes are credited to John Slater as Detective Sergeant Stone. However, surely the best remembered detectives were that first pairing of Stratford Johns as Barlow and Frank Windsor as Watt. Many others made their names in the series, to name a few, Brian Blessed, an acquired taste, as PC Fancy Smith and Colin Welland as PC Graham.
Series One. 1 "Four of a Kind" - (Jan 1962)
2 "Limping Rabbit"
3 "Handle With Care"
4 "Stab in the Dark"
5 "Big Catch"
6 "Friday Night" - (February 1962)
7 "Suspended"
14 "Found Abandoned"
15 "The Best Days"
16 "Invisible Enemy"
17 "Down and Out"
18 "Further Enquiries"
20 "People's Property"
21 "Hi-jack!"
22 "Incident Reported"
26 "Contraband"
28 "Appearance in Court"
Series Two. 72 "The Whizzers" (1963)
Series Three. 75 "Made for Each Other" - (September 1963)
76 "A La Carte"
87 "Tuesday Afternoon" - (December 1963)
102 "Happy Families" - (1964)
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)
Series Seven. 656: "Relative Values" (1972)
660 "Breakage"
Series Eight. 667: "Damage"
668 "Day Trip"
Series Ten. 752: "Incitement" (1975)
Series Thirteen and last. 791 "A Woman's Place" (1978)
My reviews of:
1:17
Victim of the Dark
3.6 The Widower
3.12 Told By a Dead Man
3.26 Dead Ringer
4.8 Car in Flames
4.12 Inquest on an Idol
4.27 Contents Noted
4.32 The Front Man
4:34 Death on the Doorstep
4.37
Beware of Weepers
4.38 A Pocketful of Bones
4.40 Operation Tiptoe
4.44 A Bird to Watch the Marbles
5.8 Expert wth Salt
7.1 Whoever's Right Sweeney's Wrong
7.12
Music for Murder
7.14
Smokey
9.2
Ask Me If I Killed Her
9.14 A Home Posting
all 14 stories on dvd:
1 Landscape with Bandits
2 The Bottle Shop
3 Happy Is the Loser
4 No Forwarding Address
5 The Loop Men
6 The Stamp Collection
7 It Could Happen Here
8 Freedom
9 The Pirate
10 The Deadly Chameleon
11 Who Kidnapped Lazoryck?
12 Channel Crossing
13 Cargo for Corinth
14 The Reluctant Thief
Rehearsals begam on February 28th 1964, and the first programme went out on Saturday March 28th that year.
"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.
1.1 The Case of the Reluctant Widow
1.2 The Case of The Girl Upstairs
1.3 The Case of Two Drowned Men
1.4 The Case of the Knotted Scarf
1.5 The Case of the Stagedoor Johnnie
1.6 The Case of the Respectable Suicide
1.7 The Case of the Slithy Tove
1.8 The Case of the Persistent Assassin
1.9 The Case of the Sleeping Coachman
1.10 The Case of the Soldier's Rifle
1.11 The Case of the Public Paragon
1.12 The Case of Ella Barnes
1.13 The Case of the Gold Salesman
2.1 The Case of the Fenian Men
2.2 The Case of the Fourth Visitor
2.3 The Case of the Ormsby Diamonds
2.4 The Case of the Hangman's Noose
2.5 The Case of the Bristol Mail
2.6 The Case of the Silent Suffragette
2.7 The Case of The Self Made Man
2.8 The Case of the Stricken Surgeon
3.1 The Case of the Two Poisons
3.2 The Case of the Six Suspects
3.3 The Case of Big Ben Lewis
3.4 The Case of the Amateur Spy
3.5 The Case of the Elegant Mistress
3.6 The Case of the Medicine Man
3.7 The Case of the Dumb Witness
3.8 The Case of the Monk's Hood Murder
3.9 The Case of the Penny Plains
3.10 The Case of the Hero's Return
3.11 The Case of the Great Pearl Robbery
3.12 The Case of the Killer's Mark
4.1 The Case of the Vengeful Garnet
4.2 The Case of the Wounded Warder
4.3 The Case of the African Murder
4.4 The Case of the Dutiful Murderer
4.5 The Case of the Pious Patriarch
4.6 The Case of the Merry Widower
5.1 The Case of the Fellowship Murder
5.2 The Case of the Wayward Wife
5.3 The Case of the Missing Cabinet Maker
5.4 The Case of Horseless Carriage
5.5 The Case of the Prominent Thespian
5.6 The Case of the Dutiful Bride
5.7 The Case of William Huckerby, Platelayer
5.8 The Case of The Notorious Nun
5.9 The Case of the Rogue Regiment
5.10 The Case of the Travelling Texan
5.11 The Case of a Lady's Good Name
5.12 The Case of Albert Watson VC
5.13 The Case of Vanishing Victim
5.14 The Case of the Threatened Rajah
5.15 The Case of Devil's Daughter
5.16 The Case of the Unpopular Judge
5.17 The Case of the Painted Boat
5.18 The Case of the Strolling Players
5.19 The Case of the Chelford Changeling
5.20 The Case of the Silent Bell
5.21 The Case of the French Mademoiselle
5.22 The Case of the Simple Savage
5.23 The Case of the Fallen Family
5.24 The Case of the Crystal Ball
5.25 The Case of the Silent Policeman
5.26 The Case of the Hooded Students
This series had originally been mooted for the summer 1961 schedules, when The Casebook For Sergeant Cork would have been a filmed series.
"The idea came to me," creator Ted Willis 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. The jokey name that workers on the series used for it was "H-Cabs" (ie hansom cabs).
"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. Now, for better or worse, it has resurfaced on excellent quality dvds.
Each story was strung out to an hour, with John Barrie stolid but uninspiring as the 1890's policeman. His assistant, played by William Gaunt was simply stodgy.
Cork's boss, Supt Rodway, turns up in the later stories, played by Charles Morgan.
For my research on transmission times
Taped Shows Menu
Taped Shows Menu
2.3 Race Against Time
2.8 The Missing Cheese
Network dvd have issued all of these:
1.1. Tell the Truth
1.2 Hello Lazarus
1.3 The Years of Glory
1.4 Confidential Report
1.5 The Millions of Muzafariyah
1.6 The Seat of Power
1.7 Safe Conduct
1.8 A Minor Operation
1.9 Find the Lady
2.2 Vendetta
2.3 The Black Witch
2.4 First Steal Six Eggs
2.5 The Catacombs
2.6 Where There's a Will
2.7 The Fissile Missile Makers
2.8 Goddess of Love
2.9 Undue Influence
2.10 Lady Luck's No Gentleman
2.11 The Standard
2.12 Saints Are Safer Dead
2.13 Never Fall Down
3.1 Arson
3.2&3 Inside Out (in 2 parts)
3.4 Wherein Justice Lies
3.5 The Golden Goose
3.6 Spindoe's Move
3.7 A Snatch in Time
3.8 The Domestic Diplomat
3.9 Final Demand
3.10 No Cage for this Bird
3.11 Violence
3.12 The Straight Way
3.13 The Solicitor
Room 17 was Somewhere in Whitehall, a secret centre handling cases that baffle the security services.
This 13 part Granada series started on 11th June 1965 with Richard Vernon starring as Edwin Graham Oldenshaw ('EGO') an "ex-Oxford type with a superior IQ," and
Michael Aldridge as Ian Dimmock ('ID'), "Oldenshaw's red-brick equal."
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.
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.
A third series in 1967 now in the new location of a Cambridge college, was retitled The Fellows (Late of Room 17).
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 was another semi-regular character.
Roy McAnally, Roy Marsden and Allan Cuthbertson appeared in a sequence of stories which gradually become more surreal, almost 'kinky,'
despite those original claims. For sure, they were now far too over the top to be viewable, the sequences with The two grumpy Fellows remote from the action, attempting an uncomfortable intellectualism.
I only wonder what a fourth series might have contained- perhaps Dimmock has disappeared again (no doubt with Mrs H) leaving an ageing Oldenshaw working in his broom cupboard, sorting out what on earth could be the plans of fiendish worldwide spies
Taped Shows Menu
This was stark Granada, simple sets, made on the cheap, but a televisual film noir, a genre entirely Granada's own, at its best brilliant!
1.1 The Grim World of the Brothers Tulk (Jan 1964)
1.2 One Man's Right
1.3 Speak Ill of the Living
1.4 More Ways of Killing a Cat
1.5 Wake the Dead
1.6 A Room with No View
1.7 A Case for Identification
1.8 You Play the Red and the Black Comes Up
2.1 The Guilty World of Hosea Pitt (Feb 1965)
2.5 A Slight Case of Matrimony
Taped Shows Menu
It is said that Cecil Bernstein "coveted" William Mervyn. His role as Charles Rose first came to our screens in The Odd Man in 1963, then starred the following year in It's Dark Outside. He
continued as a popular character in Granada's Friday night viewing in these 1967/8 series, though the character created by Eddie Boyd had retired from the police force, becoming considerably less acerbic. Producer Philip Mackie stated, "Inspector Rose was becoming too hard, ruthless, so I retired him. " Nevertheless the series still oozed style, thanks to Mervyn's polished performance. He enjoyed the high life in his classy Rolls Royce, 4267PP, for ever about to write his memoirs. These are to be typed
by his secretary in series one, Drusilla Lamb (Gillian Lewis).
His 'man' John Halifax (Donald Webster) is a reformed criminal. His memoirs finally published, in series 2 Mr Rose moves into a swish town flat, and oddly now chauffeur John drives his new Mini ETE328F. He is still working on more memoirs, typed by a succession of unreliable secretaries. Even John has deserted him in series 3, which introduces a new assistant, Robert Trent.
1.1 The Bright Bomber (February 17th 1967)
1.2 The Naked Emperor
1.3 The Noble Roman
1.4 The Black Beast
1.5 The Jolly Swagman
1.6 The Unquiet Ghost
1.7 The Tin God
1.8 The Bad Halfpenny
1.9 The Honest Villain
1.10 The Deadly Doll
1.11 The Avenging Angel
1.12 The One Woman
1.13 The Good Loser
2.1 The Frozen Swede (May 31st 1958)
2.2 The Fifth Estate
2.3 The Golden Frame
2.4 The Unlucky Dip
2.5 The Dead Commercial
2.6 The Heralds of Death
3.2 The Bogeyman
3.3 The Missing Chapter
3.4 The Jolly Good Fellow
3.5 Free and Easy
Taped Crime Menu
starring John Longden as the immortal detective
and Campbell Singer as Dr Watson
(For the 1954 Sherlock Holmes series starring Ronald Howard . . For the 1960s BBC series . . For the 1979 Geoffrey Whitehead series)
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
A 1960 pilot made by Revue, filmed in Mexico.
and starring
Richard Greene as Jonnie,
and Robert Strauss as "me" (Hank)
with, in this story
Hazel Court,
also Fernando Wagner, Jerome Cowan, Elsa Gardenas.
Teleplay: Danny Armold and Roland Kibbee. Directed by Danny Armold. Producer: Richard Irving.
This pilot was made but no series ever materialised from it. It introduces the main character, Jonnie, a wealthy playboy but secretly working for the US government, and his rival "me" aka Hank.They enjoy an uneasy relationship trying to spy out secrets and obtain the best price possible for them.
This adventure has the added bonus of an appearance by Hazel Court.
Jonnie stumbles on a note which shows that a millionaire named Karnak had had his ship fitted up with just such a torpedo. Jonnie invites himself to an exclusive party on this vessel.
A beautiful guest, Victoria, catches him taking photos so he chats her up and dances with her. Then he goes below to try and locate the torpedo and bumps into Hank. Behind a bulkhead he finds what he is looking for. He photographs the torpedo but they are discovered and dragged into the presence of Karnak. "You may die," he tells them. They are chucked overboard, which seems hardly murderous intent as the pair swim ashore.
Now Hank wants to share the vital photos, but Jonnie has to concede he hasn't got them. When he was searched he had handed them to Vicky.
When she comes ashore, she coldly informs Jonnie and Hank she has sold them to a higher bidder, ie Karnak. But later, at the airport, she kindly hands them to Jonnie alone, for a kiss or two. Hank however is wise to that and butts in to grab his share.
All very tongue in cheek, anticipating the mood of the 1960s spy genre, if this had been made a few years later it would surely have caught on. It's a very slight story, but interesting to watch Richard Greene attempting to throw off the shackles of his Robin Hood, alas, that was just impossible with the series ever being repeated
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. 83 stories were made.
Writer of all the stories was Jack Roffey.
Introducing each story, and acting as narrator was Charles Leno as Boyd's clerk. However John Glyn-Jones played Boyd's clerk George in the first series only. Executive Producer series 1: Caryl Doncaster.
The set was an adaptation of Courts Three and Four at the Old Bailey, though this was never
actually referred to, in the stories. Publicity claimed the programme's success was down to 1 authenticity coupled with suspense and excitement, 2 the court theme and 3 its authoritarian approach to the question of right and wrong in law. "The treatment of all cases is tough and realistic."
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:
Douglas Blackwell (series 1 or 2), Jane Downs (either series 1 or 2 or 3- she played a nurse), Jeremy Geidt, David Blake Kelly, Doreen Keogh (series 1), Paul Massie, Jill Melford, George Mikell, Jean 'Jill' Moore, Peter Stephens, June Thorburn, Susan Travers, Selma vaz Dias, Mavis Villiers, Lockwood West.
John Horsley also made at least one appearance in Boyd QC before that listed in #4:1.
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.
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.
Cast includes Jane Downs
Monday 7th January 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott
Cast includes: Junia Crawford... Ruby Wheeler.
To quote Boyd himself-
"When is a bigamist not a bigamist?" The results
of the marital adventures of a soldier, Pte Jones.
"There are four complete answers to a bigamy charge... proven absence of the marriage partner for seven years coupled with a genuine belief of death; dissolution of the first marriage and nullity of the first marriage. There is also a fifth which is not laid down by law, but which is equally effective. We meet it when Boyd QC defends a certain Private Jones, Casanova Jones as he became known in this case."
Monday 14th January 1957
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
"Richard Boyd is by no means invincible nor is he intended to be a 'clever dick.' There comes a time when his client is not quite so fortunate- when evidence is stacked too strongly against him. As Boyd's clerk, George, points out, 'You can't build bricks with straw.'... In this episode the case against Hatton Garden's diamond merchant Rosenstiel is black indeed, innocent as he would appear to be. This is a story of diamond smuggling that starts when an Irish runner is apprehended at the airport and refuses to divulge the names of his accomplices. Police investigation leads to the diamond merchant who by a circumstantial twist of fate finds himself in the dock."
January 21st 1957, 8pm.
Director: Cliff Owen.
TV Times synopsis: "A ring at the door... a night watchman answers it- and the next moment he lies battered and bleeding on the floor. The defence of those accused of the crime was an alibi, but to be effective an alibi must be unshakeable"
Rediffusion synopsis: "Boyd's clerk George quotes Mr Weller's advice on how to conduct the case of Bardell v Pickwick- 'Stick to the alleybi' says Mr Weller, 'a alleybi's the thing to get him off!' George ends the programme some 27 minutes later, 'An alibi is like a chain. The more links in it the longer it gets... the difficulty lies only in finding its weakest link.' Finding that weak link is Boyd's task. He is confronted with the seemingly cast iron alibi of two crooks plaintively protesting their innocence to a charge of breaking and entering an office and stealing jewellery and silver to the tune of several thousand pounds."
Cast includes Michael Medwin
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.
February 4th 1957
Director: Michael Currer Briggs.
Cast includes:
Raymond Francis... Col Barlow
Margo Johns... Mrs Barlow
Noel Coleman... Mr Eastley, Defending Counsel
James Raglan... Judge ("once again")
Of nearly 4,000 cases of forgery known to British police in a year, two thirds are cheque forgeries and of the few odd ones, one would certainly have been the falsely time-stamped betting letter. Colonel Barlow, assisted by his wife perpetrates a simple but effective method of putting this fraud into operation. A £10 treble win placed on three outsiders would win the Barlows a five figure fortune. All the runners had of course come in first but Barlow's bookmaker smells a rat. So does the Post Office, so do the police; and so the colonel finds himself in the dock. It seems fairly obvious that he has engineered a betting swindle but it is going to be difficult to prove, and Boyd as Prosecuting Counsel begins to feel that the defendant is going to get away with it. But Col Barlow did not keep up to date with his racing and it turned out to be all a matter of time and a horse called Crumpet that unseated him
February 11th 1957
Director: Michael Currer Briggs.
Cast includes:
Richard Gatehouse... Blackmailer
Gladys Boot... Housekeeper
Honor Blackman
An American woman in her mid thirties is accused of murdering her aged husband. Blackmail by an old American friend of hers enters the plot... Jealousy by her husband's housekeeper complicates the issue. The accused pleads not guilty.
Monday February 18th 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott.
'The Stage' reported the following were part of this cast:
Betty McDowall... Jill Harris (Defence Counsel)
Christine Pollon... Helen Porter
Boyd's clerk says, "A mean cowardly sort of crime, and quite rightly the courts come down on it hard. All the same there are always two sides to every story." This robbery takes place in a railway carriage and the young man, Peter Hayman, is arrested on the charge in which he is alleged to have been armed with an offensive weapon, a revolver, and robbed Helen Porter of a necklace. The accused pleads not guilty, and Boyd QC is briefed to prosecute.
Additional details: "... This time the hitherto invincible paragon of
the law courts takes a beating from the defending counsel who has
'the face of an angel and a mind like a needle.'"
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.
March 4th 1957
Director: Cliff Owen.
Cast includes:
William Franklyn... Jack Main
Barry Keegan... Police Inspector Roberts
Frank Shelley... Mr Donkin, Prosecuting Counsel
The charges concerns a road accident. The case in question is an up to date one from the point of view that causing death by dangerous driving is a new offence in Great Britain created by the Road Traffic Act of 1956. Replacing the charge of manslaughter which hitherto covered the same cirumstances, death by dangerous driving is no longer a felony punishable by life imprisonment, but a misdemeanour carrying a maximum sentence of five years. However, when a man's car kills a cyclist one night, police find him intoxicated at home. Boyd QC defends. But even he finds this a tough nut to crack.
March 11th 1957
Directed by Ronald Marriott
Cast includes:
Philip Dale... Mr Black, Prosecuting Counsel
Meier Tzelniker
Jeffrey Segal
Delia Paton
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.
March 18th 1957 (note- this story is definitely still in existence)
Cast includes:
Victor Maddern... Lee Blake.
Synopsis: Lee Blake, the safebreaker
is standing in the dock.
This case, the last in this series, is one of breaking and entering. A safe is blown open so expertly that it points to only one man. Eventually arrested, he stands in the dock, but Boyd finds his alibi as tough to crack as the Bank of England vaults. However, even good witnesses are persuaded that the timings of a defendant's alibi can be wrong, even by ten seconds.
Boyd's clerk ends the series with these words, "The Guvnor is going to France for a holiday with his eyes looking like roulette wheels."
2.1 The Up-and-Coming Man
Wednesday April 9th 1958, 7.30pm
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
Synopsis: A girl decides to end her relationship with a married man. He takes the decision badly and threatens her life. One night she is razor slashed by an assailant, and she accuses her ex-lover. Nevertheless, arrested and charged, his case seems certain to be dismissed. Boyd, as prosecuting counsel, has to work hard against strong evidence to get a conviction.
April 16th 1958
In the second edition of Boyd QC, Richard Boyd acts as prosecuting counsel in a case of drug trafficking. An Indian, Mustapha, is caught in possesion of hemp.
Wednesday 23rd April 1958 7.30pm
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
Synopsis: Ken Morris pleads guilty to a charge of receiving stolen goods.
Did his beautiful girl friend who is charged with him know the truth?
Cast:
June Laverick... Elizabeth Oliver
Barrie Cookson... Kenneth Morris
Russell Waters... Albert
Cyril Renison... Mr Bodkin
David Garth... Mr Moss
Fred Johnson... Judge
Weyman McKay... Clerk of court
Owen Berry... Usher
Ian Ainsley... Inspector Briggs
Jill Melford... Kay Steers
Laurie Main... Sonder Struniewski
Robin Lloyd... Walter
Hilary Crane... Rita
April 30th 1958
Says Boyd's clerk Albert, 'By the MacNaughton rules of 1843, no person can be convicted of any crime if it can be shown that at the time he committed it the balance of the mind was so disturbed that he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. And it is up to the defence to prove this...' The story opens with the murder of a middle aged lady by her twin sister, an epileptic. A next door neighbour hears the sounds of the killing and calls the police.
May 7th 1958
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs
Boyd QC finds himself defending an unpleasant character charged under the Prevention of Corruptiion Act. Richard Coote, a Licence Enforcement Officer, threatens a small Soho cafe proprietor with a traffic offence and suggests the matter could be glossed over for a small consideration. The cafe owner reports the matter to the police and Coote is arrested.
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.
Storyline: Charles Woodman, a young tough is in the dock charged with robbing a jeweller at pistol point. Woodman pleads Not Guilty and Boyd takes on his defence though the evidence is strongly stacked against the accused.
May 21st 1958
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
"A young mother, Mrs Pearson, is in the dock after attempted suicide by gas poisoning. She is charged on an indictment containing two counts- attempting to murder her baby and attempting to commit suicide. Boyd defends."
Cast included Carmel McSharry as Mrs Pearson.
May 28th 1958
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
Although every possible detail is carefully checked by police, it does sometimes happen that the vital clue remains stubbornly elusive. In such a case the work of counsel is rendered doubly hard.
"Synopsis: A young woman is found strangled in an East End coalyard and her husband Edward Dixon is charged with her murder. Prosecuting counsel produces damning evidence of Dixon's guilt and Boyd has to use all his powers of defence." (Sounds like Perry Mason all over again!)
June 4th 1958
"Did old Mr Maitland write the libellous letters to discredit his son or was Dr Tom Maitland's cunning responsible for his father's appearance in court? That is the question posed in this edition of Boyd QC. Boyd is briefed to prosecute Mr Maitland on a charge of publishing a defamatory libel. Opposing him across the court is defence counsel Emrys Williams. The libel takes the form of anonymous letters which allege that popular Dr Tom committed an illegal operation on a young girl. This the doctor heatedly denies. By some careful police work and a little bit of luck the machine on which the letters were typed is traced to Maitland's own house- to his father's room. But in court Counsel Williams insists it was planted there by the doctor, eager to gain long-awaited revenge on his father for something which happened in the past
June 12th 1958
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
"Marjorie Nelson is a wilful spoiled girl, accustomed to getting her own way, and living in an atmosphere of Only The Best Will Do.
Her association with young Frank Atkins, eager to please her every whim but financially prevented from doing so, seems headed for unhappiness.
In this tenth story of series two the story has gone a step further, from unhappiness to tragedy. Frank is in the dock accused of Marjorie's murder. Returning home on the last train after an expensive night out, the problem of money again causes an argument. Marjorie becomes hysterical, threatens to kill herself and opens the door of the carriage. Frank attempts to save her but the girl slips and falls from the moving train. An obvious accident, but in a dying declaration, Marjorie accuses Frank of pushing her.
At the trial Boyd defends Atkins."
TV Times add the explanation that the evidence of a deceased person can only be admitted if the judge is satisfied the deceased was aware of their impending death.
June 18th 1958
"Three men, Quentin, Martin and Milne, are charged with conspiring together to obtain £12,000 from an insurance company by false pretences. The first two plead Not Guilty, but Milne anxious to return to the path of honesty he has followed for nine years admits the crime and offers evidence to the Crown against his former accomplices. Upon Boyd falls the responsibility of proving that Quentin and Martin are indeed guilty of fraud. All he has is Milne's uncorroborated statement, nothing at all in writing to connect two seemingly innocent men with the crime. And Milne is a former criminal whose last conviction was for a similar offence to the one with which he has now pleaded guilty."
June 25th 1958, 7.30pm
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
TV Times synopsis: "Richard Boyd plans to spend a weekend in Kent with his family, but soon finds that it is not as quiet as he had imagined."
A-R synopsis: "Richard Boyd finds himself in court defending a member of his household, German maid Putzi Weigel. Putzi faces a charge of child stealing and another of causing the baby grievous bodily harm. When the baby, bruised and beaten, is found in the wardrobe of her bedroom, Putzi at first denies hysterically all knowledge of it. Later she admits taking the child from its pram but vehemently denies cruelty, alleging that the baby's mother is to blame. She is brought to court where Boyd finds himself in the strange position of cross-examining not only Putzi, but his own father and sister, Joanna.
This is the first time Boyd's family have appeared in the series."
December 30th 1958, 10.15pm
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
"Two Scots go out on a pub crawl on New Year's Eve and become involved in a fight. They are charged with assault and causing an affray. Boyd is asked by an old friend to represent them under the Poor Prisoners Defence Act, does so, securing their release under two points of law. The results are highly amusing although based on actual law and authentic legal procedure."
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.
January 13th 1959
"Old Tom Brown, on the brink of receiving a life pension and £1,000 gratuity after 40 years with the post office, is charged with stealing three postal orders from a letter."
Tuesday January 20th 1959
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs
Synopsis: Three weeks after Christmas is the harvest time for a bumper crop of Christmas crimes. Why did Boyd take this case? Was John Wainwright really involved in the turkey racket?
January 27th 1959
Directed by Tania Lieven
"A good alibi is a cheap ticket to an acquittal any day of the week- and the alibi Bill Minto cooked up was the cleverest in many a long day."
February 3rd 1959
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
"Was Pollard's confession voluntary, or made under pressure?
How does a barrister reconcile his conscience to defending a man he believes to be guilty?"
February 10th 1959
"Like many burglars, Harry believed in working with inside help, and, like many burglars, he was caught.
It seemed an open an shut case. But Boyd was warned that Harry might still have a trick up his sleeve."
February 17th 1959
Murder for gain and murder for revenge. Most cases of killing fall into one of these two categories, but murder for jealousy is not so common, and poses more difficult problems.
February 24th 1959
Directed by Geoffrey Hughes
It is said the camera cannot lie. But when a photograph proved Elizabeth Wayne guilty of theft, there were some who thought the camera had made a mistake. For my review
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)
March 3rd 1959
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
It is not generally known that a Queen's Counsel can sit in a judiciary capacity as well as continuing his normal work. In this episode, Boyd, as Commisioner of Hasleford Assizes, is confronted with the tragic case of Olga and Eva Kristof (my review).
Tuesday March 10th 1959
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
Murder on the high seas. Cragg always picked on Gaston Ledoux, until one day he went too far.
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.
Tuesday March 24th 1959
A famous French actress was injured in a car crash and a pedestrian killed. Was Yvonne la Fayette guilty of driving 'in a manner dangerous'?
Tuesday March 31st 1959
This story deals with a phoney estate agent who induces people to pay registration fees as a condition of obtaining particulars of available flats. In fact he has no list of flats, but keeps his clients dangling until the fee expires.
Tuesday April 7th 1959
In this final episode of the series, Peter Donovan, a confidence trickster, tries to defraud Valerie Frinton of her life's savings with an illegal marriage certificate.
4:1
A Case of M'Shimba
Wed 29th June 1960 8pm
"Martha, an African girl, intends to marry a coloured American GI. Odapi, to whom she had been betrothed by a tribal custom, comes to England to take Martha back. A row develops, a policeman is called and Odapi attacks him with a knife. Odapi is arrested. In defending him, Boyd explains that Odapi believed the policeman to be a 'blue devil' sent by a witch doctor to punish him. (Odapi had been chosen as a vehicle for a dead chief's spirit, a belief known as M'Shimba, and had broken tribal custom by leaving his village.) The High Court Judge believes Odapi and orders the jury to acquit him."
Cast:
Dan Jackson... George Albert Memorial 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
Wed 6th 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.
"Helen Laird, Paul Soames' secretary and mistress, is charged with blackmailing him. She employs Boyd to defend her and convinces him she has been framed by Soames' wife. Mr Waring, the Prosecuting Counsel, has a strong case. However Boyd finds irrefutable evidence which convinces the court that Helen Laird is not guilty, and that she has been the victim of Mrs Soames' jealousy"
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
Wed 13th July 1960
"De Viani, a notorious confidence trickster, is in prison awaiting his trial. He decides to employ Boyd to defend him and to this end he commissions Green, a representative of Chetty and Winthrop to employ Boyd in his defence. Green denies all knowledge of De Viani and his request. De Viani claims that he told Green to collect a suitcase containing £250 so that there would be enough money to cover the brief. Green is charged with stealing the money and Baird, another employee of Chetty and Winthrop, is accused of receiving stolen goods. Boyd's prosecution reveals that Baird had disguised himself as Green, had visited De Viani in jail and had subsequently stolen Case and money. Green was acquitted"
Wed 20th July 1960 8pm
Directed by Pat Baker
TV Times 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.
A-R Synopsis: A young pop singer, Peter Dalton, is arrested and charged with unlawful killing of a woman while being drunk in charge of a car. His manager, Lewis Gorman, is the only witness who can enlighten the court about Peter Dalton's condition on the night in question. He testifies that Dalton was extremely drunk and that his driving was dangerous on the journey home. In Dalton's defence, Boyd cross-examines Gorman and casts doubt on his version of the story. Further questioning proves Gorman to have been the culprit and shows that he deliberately framed Dalton so as to avoid a prison sentence.
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
Wed 27th July 1960 8pm.
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs
Storyline in TV Times- Rosie's eels and pies are 'doing very nicely,' but her ambitions grow too large against the better judgement of her crafty accomplice Willie.
A-R Synopsis: "Rosie Gould runs a cut price meat stall. Willie provided 'cheap' meat for Rosie, who then made meat pies which she sold on her stall. The meat used had been stolen from local farms by Willie. Eventually they were caught, but, however, this possibility had been foreseen and they had provided themselves with an alibi. Lottie Machin, who was known to be scrupulously honest, staunchily upheld their alibi.
She said that they could not be responsible for the paricular theft in question because she was with them at the time having her picture taken; in the background of the photo was a clock showing the time and date which apparently 'verified' what they said. At the last minute, Boyd for the prosecution, finds a flaw in the alibi and the case is proven against Rosie and 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
Wednesday 3rd 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.
A-R Synopsis: "Helen Mackenzie is murdered. Her fiance James Lyons discovers that Helen had somehow been mixed up with a gang of criminals; she had wanted to leave the gang but the boss, Benjamin Turley, threatened to kill her if she did. Helen left them and Turley shot her. In a blind rage, Lyons goes to Turley's flat, shoots him once, and stabs him twice, then gives himself up to the police.
In defending him, Boyd points out to the court that it is not known whether Turley died from the bullet wound or the stab wounds, and on this fact would depend whether Lyons was to be sentenced to death or life imprisonment.
Dr Lifford, who examined the body, could not say from which wound Turley had died. This doubt over a technical point, caused the judge to sentence Lyons to life imprisonment."
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... Benjamin 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
August 10th 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.
A-R Synopsis: "Joanna Harriden, Jonathan Courtenay and Caroline Swinden have an argument. A fight develops and Caroline is accidentally killed. In desperation, Joanna turns to her uncle, George Pack, who agrees to help. Pack decides that in return for a sum of money, he will accept responsibility for the accident. At the Assizes, Pack is charged with manslaughter. Boyd, who is sitting as Special Commissioner and Judge, decides that Pack's story is inconsistent and suggests to the police a further search for another witness. This is successful and important evidence comes to light which causes Pack to confess to the court the full story. The Case is dismissed and Pack, Joanne and Jonathan are imprisoned for perjury."
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
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
August 17th 1960
Synopsis: Every now and then a case has the fascination of a jigsaw. No violent passions, no banner headlines, but, all the same, a fiddle that has been worked on the public by clever rogues.
A-R Synopsis: "Kenneth Martin and Gordon Nicholls are charged with defrauding the public by selling a useless hair tonic, and with rigging a competition which is part of their sales campaign. However Nicholss' true identity is revealed by Biron, a blind man, and subsequent examination by Boyd proves that the setup is a 'fraudulent device.'"
Colin Keith Johnson... Henry Stevens
Lucy Griffiths... Mrs Austin
Douglas Ives... Mr Austin
Ronald Fraser... Kenneth Martin
David Nettheim... Gordon Nicholls
Charles Morgan... Supt Latham
Philip Leaver... Mr Borland
Arthur Lowe... Mr Biron
James Raglan... Judge
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of Court
Owen Berry... Usher
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
August 24th 1960
Synopsis: Boyd is entrusted with the defence of John Parsons, but Parsons has confessed that he killed his wife. Boyd seems faced by an impossible task.
A-R Synopsis: "John Parsons is accused of strangling his wife Connie. He had intended to ask her for a divorce so that he could marry Florence Twiss, the woman he really loved. He and his wife had quarrelled, and in a scuffle Connie is killed. When he hears that the police are looking for him, Parsons gives himself up and admits to the killing. Boyd defends Parsons, and his thorough investigations reveal the true facts of the case. Boyd shows the court that Dr Attard, who conducted the postmortem, was inexperienced with death by strangulation and had inadvertently but wrongly diagnosed the cause of death. The correct diagnosis is given by Boyd's surprise witness Dr Burton. The jury returns a verdict of Accidental Death and John Parsons is acquitted."
Mervyn Johns... John Parsons
Ann Wilton... Florence Twiss
Doris Yorke... Connie Parsons
Edwin Brown... Milkman
Denis Holmes... Dr Foote
David Phethean... Supt Smith
Ronald Masters... Simpson
Martin Lawton... Det Sgt North
Ian Parsons... Prison Officer
Bryan Pringle... PC Nutting
Leonard Osborn... Mr Blackerler
Jessica Dickinson... Buffet Attendant
Richard Vernon... Mr Trottman
James Raglan... Judge
Michael Bates... Dr Attard
Robert Sansom... Dr Burton
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of Court
Owen Berry... Usher
August 31st 1960
A-R Synopsis: "Aristotle Loukis is charged with the forging of hallmarks on antique silver, and also with intent to defraud Arnold P Kriebel of £5,000.
In defending Loukis, Boyd explains that the antique silver had been left in the shop safe since before the war. He also explains how a set of modern hallmark punches came to be left in the safe.
Boyd's defence appears strong, and it seems the case will be quickly wound up. However Mr Burton, the prosecuting counsel, produces further evidence which convinces the judge and jury that Loukis is guilty."
Director: Pat Baker
September 7th 1960
Synopsis: Family loyalty and the love of a father for his son have been two essential elements of social behaviour. Unfortunately these very same qualities sometimes become warped, and that means trouble for everyone, especially the police.
A-R Synopsis:
"James Sprott is accused of murdering his ex-girl friend. Boyd, the prosecuting counsel, establishes the approximate time of the murder at around 3pm to 4pm. Casement for the Defence calls as a witness a Mr Lewis
who swears that the girl was alive between 3.30 and 4pm on the day of the murder. Casement also proves that Sprott was at the local hospital from 3.15 until 7.45pm.
Boyd is convinced Sprott is guilty.
Investigation proves that Lewis had perjured himself in order to repay Sprott's father for saving his (Lewis') son's life a year before. Boyd presents this new evidence to the court. Lewis confesses that he had not seen the murdered girl on that day. This fact along with the police evidence of fingerprints and bloodstains convinces the judge and jury of Sprott's guilt. He is sentenced to life imprisonment."
Robert Flemyng... Defending Counsel
Michael Brennan... Lewis
Joyce Barbour... Mrs Rumbold
Norman Bird... Mr West
John Wentworth... Dr Spiller
Reginald Smith... Judge
Mona Bruce ... Miss Nelson
Douglas Muir... Mr Sprott
Raymond Mason... Detective
John Dunbar... Mr Howarth
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of Court
Owen Berry... Usher
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
September 14th 1960 8pm
A-R Synopsis:
"James Burriss, an old lag, is charged with breaking and entering a garage and stealing tools. He pleads not guilty, and is defended by Boyd.
His defence is that his car broke down and that, as he was close to a friend's garage, he thought he would borrow the necessary tools. However he did not know that the garage had changed hands and he swears that he got in through an open window.
The garage owner, Arthur Todd, insists that all the windows and doors were locked. Evidence substantiating Burris' story is revealed when Todd's daughter is found to have been secretly courting and had used the open window in question as an exit. The window had stuck and she left it open all night. His case is proved not guilty, and Burriss is discharged."
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of Court
Leslie Dwyer... Jimmy Burriss
Margaret Bull... Miss Manners
George Bishop... Mr Huckle
Reginald Smith... Judge
Peter Vaughan... Sgt Curtis
Peter Howell... Mr Borford
Michael Harrison... PC Moss
Bert Platt... Charlie Barker
Cameron Hall... Arthur Todd
Leon Garcia... Ernie Etchingham
Owen Berry... Usher
September 21st 1960
Director: Michael Currer-Briggs.
A-R Synopsis:
"Ethel Courtenay, the daughter of Boyd's sister's housekeeper Ada, is arrested and charged with sending poison pen letters to people in her village. Vera, the wife of Dr Ticehurst, who is Ethel's employer,
tells the police that she found a bundle of the letters in Ethel's room. Boyd defends Ethel and almost proves to that court that Dr Ticehurst was responsible for the libel. However Vera stands up, stops the case, and admits to having written all the letters"
James Raglan... Judge
Maureen Pryor... Ethel Courtenay
Helen Jessop... Penelope Boyd
Joan Young... Ada Courtenay
Oliver Johnston... Dr Ticehurst
Nora Nicholson... Vera Ticehurst
Margot Bryant... Mrs Cooper
Geoffrey Denton... Inspector Halpin
Martin Wyldeck... Mr Shoreham
Weyman Mackay... Clerk of Court
Owen Berry... Usher
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
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
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
Wed 14 June 1961 8.55pm (this had originally been announced as the first of this series)
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
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
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
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. Note: unusually in this tale,
the accused confessed in court to previous convictions.
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)
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)
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
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
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
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
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
It seems to have run for 16 stories, 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 (6.14), 10 A Little Learning, 11 Square Peg (see 6.13 below), 12 The Reluctant Persecutor (sic- see 6.15 below), 13 The Case of the Lazy Eye (see 6.16 below), 14 The Hurricane,
15 The Simple Question, 16 End of Term (see 6.10).
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).
TV Times stated that in 1963 Boyd QC was screened in six countries abroad, and that included Australia, where according to Michael Denison it was "immensely popular."
Taped December 24th 1962. Original transmission date had been scheduled for June 4th 1963, but only shown on
Friday October 18th 1963, 10.15pm.
Director: Richard Gilbert.
The sinking of the SS Loveday in a hurricane 150 miles off the coast of San Moy means a journey for Boyd to Hong Kong and his appearance at the Queen's Bench on behalf of an insurance company.
Mark Dignam... Captain Adams
Andrew Crawford... Captain O'Reilly
Hugh Latimer... Mr Quentin
Robert James... Lucas
Tom Bowman... Petersen
John Boxer... Saunders
Yolande Firmin... Receptionist
Wemay Mackay... Judge
James Goei... Barman
Leslie Weston... Old Seaman
Joe Ritchie... Insurance Broker
Ronald Falk... Naval officer
Jimmy Gardner... Waterfront Man
Taped January 14th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for March 5th 1963, thus this would have been the first of the series.
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 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
Taped January 21st 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for March 12th 1963.
Taped January 28th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for March 19th 1963.
Probaly taped on February 11th 1963. Shown on November 22nd 1963
Taped on March 4th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for April 23rd 1963, but only shown on
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
Taped on February 25th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for April 16th 1963.
Taped March 18th 1963, the second on this day. Shown on
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
Taped: January 7th 1963. Original transmission date scheduled June 18th 1963 as last of series, but finally shown on
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
Taped March 18th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for May 7th 1963.
Taped March 25th 1963. Original transmission date had been scheduled for May 14th 1963, but only shown on
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
6.14 The No-Hoper
Director: Richard Gilbert.
Taped on March 4th 1963 (2nd on this day). Shown on
March 5th 1964.
Synopsis: Joy Tyson, a successful model, pleads guilty to a serious crime and comes before Boyd QC who is Recorder at Springfield Assizes. Her refusal to talk puzzles him, but Boyd discovers the reason for her silence.
Rest of cast:
Ian Macnaughton (Det Insp Burtenshaw),
Walter Brown (Peter Blandford),
Daniel Thorndike (Mr Pitcairn),
Janine Grey (Joy Tyson alias Alice Springer),
John Flint (George Ireland),
Hamish Roughead (Clerk) and
Peter Hutton (Usher).
Directed by Richard Gilbert.
Taped December 3rd 1962. Original transmission date had been scheduled for May 21st 1963, but only shown on
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
Taped December 17th 1962. Original transmission date had been intended to be May 28th 1963, but only shown on
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
---
Brief details of some of these live stories:
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 and shapes for holding clues
like hair, cigarette ends, dust etc, a small but powerful magnifying glass, pliers,
tweezers- everything the detective needs for his first survey of the crime.
September 23rd 1957
Written and produced by Barry Baker
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Viewers will see how the whole force of the law can be brought to bear on one case.
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.
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.
October 28th 1957
Written and produced by Barry Baker
Directed by Jean Hamilton
Supt Lockhart is faced with the most difficult type of case to prove- one in which the body of the victim cannot be discovered.
November 4th 1957
Written by Barry Baker.
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
When the police are called to investigate what appears to be suicide, they are careful to see there has been no foul play
November 25th 1957
Written by Peter Ling, based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
There are more ways than one of telling a story, but when Supt Lockhart investigates a murder, he has to find the truth behind the story.
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.
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.
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.
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.
January 20th 1958
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.
January 27th 1958
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Written by Glyn Davies
Designed by Frank Gillman
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
When Supt Lockhart encounters the dread of all police officers, the 'sticky' murder inquiry, he meets also an old police trick put to a new use- by the murderer.
March 31st 1958
Written by Glyn Davies
Designed by Michael Yates
Directed by Jean Hamilton.
Jeslousy, greed, love- these three emotions mixed with plain water equal the hardest case of Lockhart's career.
Note: this plot is advertised in TV Times for the above date, though the case number should be no 29, and it is possible this programme went out as Case 30 the followuing week (ie April 7th)
June 30th 1958 8pm
Written by Barry Baker based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by George Haslam.
Directed by Cyril Coke.
Faced with a particularly complicated case of murder, Supt Lockhart
proves that the behaviour of the human mind can sometimes provide a vital clue
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.
August 4th 1958 8pm
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies
Designed by Frank Gillman
Directed by Cyril Coke.
There are no two people exactly alike; no two people do anything exactly alike, from tying a shoelace to committing a murder. Watch Lockhart follow this line of thinking in an unusually difficult case
August 11th 1958
Written by Barry Baker based on a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Fred Pusey.
Directed by Cyril Butcher.
A man is shot dead on an upper floor of a block of flats.
How did the murderer enter and leave without being seen?
August 18th 1958
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Cyril Coke.
Usually in a case of murder, the victim at least is known.
But what if a body has been in the river for six months?
How can its identity be established?
September 1st 1958 8pm
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn.
When criminals play for stakes high enough to make it worthwhile to take any risk, they are dangerous. For Supt Lockhart, it becomes another case of murder
September 24th 1958 7pm
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
Three people could not see the railway station clock which caused their death
Wednesday October 15th 1958
Written by Barry Baker,
from a Story by Glyn Davies
Designed by Henry Federer
Directed by Roger Jenkins
The prospect of easy gains on the race track has often led men to back more heavily than they can afford. But when luck is against them their despair may lead them to violence, perhaps even suicide.
October 29th 1958 7:30 pm
Written by Barry Baker, from a Story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Roger Jenkins,
designed by Henry Federer.
In the eyes of the law, there are few motives which extenuate murder. In the eyes of the public however, a distinction may be made between some cases, which seem more deserving of the maximum penalty, than others where the motive is revenge
Wednesday 5th November 1958
Written by Barry Baker, from the Story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
Please to remember the Fifth of November, Gunpowder Treason and Plot.
The plot is untangled by Supt Lockhart, who has occasion to remember
a particular Guy Fawkes night when the guy was not made of straw.
Wednesday November 12th 1958 7.30pm
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Roger Jenkins.
Did she fall, or was she pushed? A stock question in murder mysteries perhaps, but when a body is found beneath a balcony, it is the question Lockhart has to answer
Wednesday November 19th 1958 7.30pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
There is always something sinister about an anonymous letter. In this case, a tip off
had a quick reply- one that the writer certainly did not expect.
November 26th 1958 7.30pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Roger Jenkins.
Supt McWeaver's irritability has grown worse during the two years he has been trying to catch Stockingfoot, a successful sneak thief. In this case, Stockingfoot is tracked down, but hardly to McWeaver's satisfaction
December 3rd 1958 7.30pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
Joe Coote 'sings' to the police, but the tune doesn't seem to please some of the boys. Lockhart visits their favourite night club and makes them face some unexpected music
December 17th 1958 7.30pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Peter Robinson.
A suburban council estate, a boxer's training camp and a nylon stocking make up the pattern formed by Supt Lockhart's investigations
December 24th 1958 (not fully networked)
Written by Peter Ling from the story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Roger Jenkins.
"Boodle of queer and snide" - the jargon of making counterfeit
money has a suitably odd ring about it. But, even at Christmas,
passing dud florins may lead to murder.
Thursday January 1st 1959 10.15pm
Script: Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Sylva Nadolny.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
The case begins in a timber yard, where a man is killed.
There is no weapon, but when Supt Lockhart has collected all the clues, he finds the murder weapon in his hands
Thursday January 8th 1959 10.15pm
Written by Peter Ling from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by William Brodie.
Directed by Michael Currer-Briggs.
A torso on the river bank, a wet blanket, and the hairs of a dog
are the main factors in Supt Lockhart's murder investigation.
January 15th 1959
A team of country house breakers plan a robbery,
but murder intervenes.
January 22nd 1959
Written by Bill Hitchcock
Directed by Daphne Shadwell
In the early hours of the morning Supt Lockhart is called
in to solve a murder.
January 29th 1959
Written by Bill Hitchcock
From the Story by Glyn Davies
Directed by Jonathan Alwyn
Designed by Frank Nerini
A prisoner escapes, £20,000 is stolen and Lockhart finds
himself with a double murder on his hands.
February 26th 1959 10.15pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Graham Watts.
When the nurses in Ward Four go off duty, one of them makes a date- with murder.
February 26th 1959 10.15pm
Written by Peter Ling from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
PM here means Post Mortem! When Supt Lockhart is called on official business to the village of Clinton Priory, his visit is a matter of life and death
March 5th 1959
Written by Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Michael Wield.
Directed by Graham Watts.
A literary agent is getting his clients' manuscripts published in his own pen name, and when murder is committed, Lockhart has a wide field of possible suspects
March 12th 1959
Written by Peter Ling
From the Story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Michael Wield.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
An arrest is made; the murderer is charged; and another of Supt Lockhart's cases comes to an end. But when does a murder case begin?
Wednesday 18th March 10.15pm
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Directed by Graham Watts.
Albert Fox is out on bail. Within 24 hours he is dead.
Was it murder or suicide?
Written by Peter Ling
From the Story by Glyn Davies
Designed by Frank Gillman Directed by Penny Wootton
Rose's Cafe means cheap food and a night's lodging for
long distance lorry drivers. But for one man, it means ...
death.
The title was changed from Murder Bag so that cases other than murder could be investigated by Tom Lockhart.
Introduction read by Redvers Kyle: "Crimes like these can happen
at any hour of any day. Crimes against you, the citizen.
The Crime Sheet is the official police record of all crimes as they are reported.
The first step in bringing criminals to justice.
This is London, a city of ten million people in 750 square miles.
Metropolitan Police District 5, the area under Chief Supt Lockhart, 150 square miles of streets
in which any crime can happen now."
April 15th 1959, 10.15pm
Written by Peter Yeldham.
Director: Penny Wootton.
To many people the theatre means excitement and glamour, but for those working behind the scenes it is often a different story
April 22nd 1959, 10.15pm.
Written by Peter Yeldham
from the Story by Glyn Davies
Designed by Bernard Goodwin, Directed by Roger Jenkins.
A skilful gang will organises a safe cracking job witht he meticulousness of a military operation. But the unexpected always happens, in this case, a few blood stains provide Lockhart with the esential clue.
Note-this may be the first story in which Gerald Case replaced Raymond Francis- see below.
April 29th 1959
(Raymond Francis had gone down with mumps, so Gerald Case replaced him for this and a few other stories.)
Script: Peter Ling from the Story by Glyn Davies
Director: Penny Wootton.
Also in this cast:
Ronald Leigh-Hunt... Insp Nick Clarke
Helen Shingler... Hilda Maclean
Dorinda Stevens... Carol Betterton
William Kendall... Major Lucas
Shay Gorman... Hector Grey
Frank Hawkins... Waites, receptionist
Philip Leaver... Mr Abercrombie
Brian McDermott... PC Gittings
Victor Charrington... PC Harris
Clive Chapman... Page boy
John Nicholson... Waiter
Brenda Haydn... Barmaid
May 6th 1959, 10.27pm
starring Gerald Case.
Written by Peter Ling
From the Story by Glyn Davies
Designed by Frank Nerini, Directed by Roger Jenkins
The police are baffled when they find that the man they believe responsible for an assault is lying in the hospital bed next to the victim.
May 13th 1959
Script: Barry Baker from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Penny Wootton.
In a game of dominoes, the Superintendent draws a double blank,
and hopes this is not an ill omen for his investigations into the Jenner case
Raymond Francis definitely returns to the series.
20th May 1959 10.15pm
Written by William Hitchcock from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Henry Federer.
Directed by Roger Jenkins.
For the law to be upheld, citizens must be prepared to give evidence against an accused person. In this case, the accused seeks revenge.
Wednesday 27th May 1959 10.15pm
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Michael Weald.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
When the postman arrives with a special delivery for George Spennet
on his early closing day, he finds himself involved in a crime of robbery with violence
Tuesday 9th June 1959
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Michael Wield.
Directed by Daphne Shadwell.
The scene is set, the actors know their cues. But when Lockhart walks on stage, it is not for applause
Tuesday 16th June 1959 10.15pm
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by John Emery.
Directed by Roger Jenkins.
A hooligan breaks into a shop, carrying a knife, with overwhelming consequences
Wed July 1st 1959, 8pm
written by Peter Ling.
Director: Roger Jenlins.
A police investigation of a minor offence sometimes sets off a major crime. In this case, when a postman reports a letter addressed in pencil, he little suspects that this will end with a man lying dead in an alleyway
Wednesday 8th July 1959, 8pm
Script: Peter Yeldham from a story by Glyn Davies.
Director: Daphne Shadwell.
Wednesday 22nd July 1959
Script: Peter Yeldham from a story by Glyn Davies. Director: Daphne Shadwell.
A confidence trickster has to win the friendship of his victim- but in this case friendship is repaid by death.
July 29th 1959
Rest of Cast:
Brian Worth...Sgt Melvin
Carl Bernard... Harry Dane
Lawrence James... Danny Wilson
Jane Hylton... Linda Allen
Raymond Young... Mark Jacobs
Frank Hawkins... Manager of messenger Office
Frank Pemberton... Messenger
Leslie Heritage... Teller
Peter Swanwick... Chief Bank Clerk
John Wentworth... Bank manager
John Falconer... Waiter
Script by Peter Yeldham from an idea by Glyn Davies
Designer: Roy Walker
Director: Penny Wootton
August 19th 1959 9.30pm
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Bernard Goodwin.
Directed by Penny Wootton.
A girl is murdered in a night club.
Lockhart has a small clue- a laundry mark.
August 26th 1959 8pm
Written by Edward Dryhurst from a story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Geoffrey Hughes.
An old man dies from natural causes. But then the will is read,
and Chief Supt Lockhart is in the thick of it again.
September 2nd 1959
Written by Peter Yeldham from the story by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Frank Gillman.
Directed by Graham Watts.
'A nice friendly pub' it seems to Chief Det-Supt Lockhart, but just what
is the connection between it, the Romeo and the poison pen letters?
September 9th 1959
Written by Glyn Davies.
Designed by Bernard Goodwin.
Directed by Ian Fprdyce.
Lockhart sets out to find an escaped prisoner,
but instead finds a murderer.
Interesting, this was shown on November 8th 1961. Possibly it was one of the episodes made during spring 1959 when Raymond Francis was ill- it was screened over two years later.
Script: Raymond Marshall. Director: Daphne Shadwell.
Gerald Case... Chief Supt Carr
Reginald Marsh... Insp Nicholson
Paddy Joyce... Teddy
Victor Charrington... Desk Sergeant
Charles Gray... Jimmy Bellamy
Maureen Pryor... Maureen Morley
Ewen Solon... 'Dreamy' Daniels
Warren Mitchell... Bob Green
George Tovey... Sam
Keith Faulkner/ Tony Ford... Police Constables
When a chief superintendent meets a sandwich board man, he finds that more than sandwiches are at stake
Bill Fraser was in a story of Murder Bag series 1.
Sarah Lawson was in one Murder Bag in Jan or Feb 1958.
Douglas Blackwell appeared in one Murder Bag.
Richard Thorp also appeared in Murder Bag, in an unknown story.
Others who have stated they appeared in unknown editions of Murder Bag: John Blythe, Angela Browne, Tom Chatto, Harriet Johns, Noel Johnson, Duncan Lamont, Ronald Leigh-Hunt, Myrtle Reed, Sally Ann Shaw, and Peggy Thorpe-Bates.
Others who have stated they appeared in Crime Sheet: Robert Henderson, Harriet Johns, and Vic Wise.
Roger Jenkins stated he directed fifteen stories in Murder Bag/ Crime Sheet.
Hugh Munro stated he had also directed Murder Bag.
Ben Jordan (Patrick Jordan), international thief, is brought from Paris by Robbie Robinson (Ferdy Mayne). Police notice his arrival, and he is kept under observation. After arranging an alibi, Jordan with the aid of associate Archie Martin, eludes police by slipping out of a taxi. During the robbery, Martin, who is looking after the getaway driver, decamps.The robbery is unsuccessful, and Jordan and George Kean hurry after Martin.
It is discovered that a woman named Patricia Dunn had gone away with Martin. Because nitroglycerine in a certain form had been used, the trademark of Ben Jordan is recognised, and Baxter is sent after him. In Patricia's flat, Jordan is found, but he has an alibi.
Martin is murdered, and police connect him with the robbery. Lockhart learns that a light coloured shooting brake was seen near where the body was found. He has a tyre imprint photographed.
George Kean, armed with a false passport, joins his wife. Both are taken to the Yard, where they learn that the passport had been supplied by Robinson. This crook however denies knowing Kean or Martin. But Baxter finds a blood stained towel, Kean claims he had cut himself shaving off his moustache. Lockhart taxes Robinson with the towel and the tyre imprint. Robinson tries to tell the truth, thus breaking Jordan's alibi by saying that Pat Dunn was with him
Alexander Alexander, a shy young graduate training to be a barrister, takes Jennifer Buckley, the girl he wants to marry, home to meet his mother.
Mrs Alexander (Pauline Letts) is shocked and tries to dissuade them. At a party Jennifer gets into an argument with Gary Benson, Pete Gonzales (Gerald Harper) and Ricky about her forthcoming marriage. There is a scene when Mrs Alexander breaks in, she leaves, then Alexander with jennifer. Next morning Jennifer is found murdered.
Time of death is established at 2.30am, and it is also found that she was two months pregnant. Lockhart and Baxter break the news to Jennifer's father Dr Buckley, who is shocked. Mrs Alexander is upbraiding her son as Lockhart and Baxter turn up to inform them of Jennifer's death. Alex says they left each other at midnight, but cannot account for his movements afterwards. Baxter interviews those at the party, and learns that Pete left soon after Alex and Jennifer.
A wooden chair leg, the murder weapon, is found. Lockhart and Baxter discard the idea of the murderer being one of the party guests, since they all seem to have alibis. Therefore they return to the Alexander house. Alex admits that Jennifer did go out with other men, but he doesn't know about that particular night. As he is obviously under suspicion, his mother comes forward to admit killing Jennifer
"Tregunter, Clarke and Palmer plan to steal a safe from the office of a building firm. They spray a yellow van with grey paint, cover the number plate with mud, cut the lock at the rear of the premises and substitute a new padlock. While Tregunter keeps watch outside the office, the others, using a battery operated fork lift truck, steal the safe. The only clues are the marks of the truck and the substituted padlock. The grey van is seen leaving the scene of the crime and a general call is put out, but by this time the thieves have reached Palmer's garage, washed off the grey paint, and managed to get away through the road blocks. Lockhart returns to his office with the padlock which was issued by a government department, but which department? Had he seen Clarke and Tregunter at that moment, he would have known the answer, as they were returning to prison, being parolees on a rehabilitation course.
Baxter and Lockhart get a lead on Tregunter and depart for the prison, but by the time they arrive, Tregunter and Clarke have been released. However a prisoner tells the governor that he heard Joe Dean, Palmer and Clarke discussing a burglary using a fork lift truck. The police go to Palmer's garage, but when they arrive they find the body of Palmer beside the empty safe.
Clarke is found, and detained on a charge of stealing the money, which he admits. Tregunter is found at the house of a girl called Frances, a secretary at the building company. The police find the proceeds of the robbery there, so Tregunter is taxed with the murder of Palmer, but he proves that he was not there at the time of the killing. Attention is then focussed on the girl, who admits that she killed Palmer to prevent him getting away with all the money"
"Anne Cassett is assaulted by John Clint. He is charged, found guilty and sent to Northmoor Mental Hospital, but escapes one year later. Baxter visits the hospital and finds the walls of Clint's cell covered with drawings of cats, panthers and lions, and is given samples of poems written by Clint to someone named Peggy.
Clint gets to London and telephones an attractive model
Joanna Simpson (Catherine Woodville). She anwers the phone, but he does not speak. The same night, Clint attacks a motorist near Joanna's address in Chelsea. Lockhart sees the injured man in hospital, who identifies Clint.
Baxter visits Clint's mother, but the only information he gets from her is that Clint had been employed in a gown shop, and that he had loaned an amount of money he had won on the pools to one of the girls. That night Joanna returns home with her fiancee, and after he leaves she goes into the kitchen to call her cat. Clint is there.
Following the information that Clint had worked in a gown shop where models were employed, special attention is given to models called Peggy. Eventually a girl named Peggy Dawson is found, but although she knew John Clint, she denies receiving money from him, and names Joanna as the person who did. It is then discovered that Joanna had previously occupied the same address as Anne Cassett.
Joanna, alone in her flat with Clint, has succeeded in convincing him that she had intended to marry him and had kept his money for this purpose, but a telephone call from her fiancee changes the situation and Clint rounds on her. The police arrive and Clint, in attempting to run away down the fire escape, falls to his death.
Baxter picks up Joanna's cat, on the collar is the name Peggy. John Clint, in his mental illness, had thought that the cat had come between him and Joanna"
When Baxter is told by an informer that Alan Klein, a wireless engineer, is going to be 'sprung' from Dartmoor, Lockhart plants Benson, of the Special Branch, in the cell with Klein. Benson talks Klein into taking him with him on the breakout. They escape safely and drive to a derelict flour mill owned by John Pentelow. Here they are met by Lee Gilbert and Lofty Rogers (Jack Watson), who need Klein for a crime their boss has planned. Benson receives a cool reception, it is made plain that he is not to be trusted. Lee Gilbert goes to see Mr Big, Bryan Fellows (Hugh Manning) in his office, to complain about Benson's introduction. Gilbert returns to the mill and after being bested in a row with Benson, says that Klein will be responsible if Benson comes with them on the job.
Benson works on Klein, who finally tries to phone his wife because he is worried about her, but he is stopped by Rogers. Baxter tries to trace the call, but is unsuccessful. Meanwhile Rogers is given the briefing for the job, a raid on a security van. Fellows takes a plane to Paris with his secretary Wendy. The raid now takes place, and is successful.
The van used by the raiders is found, and inside is a piece of plaster with a phone number, left by Benson. The number is that of Lee's girlfriend. Baxter sees her and by playing on her greed for money by mentioning the large reward, is given Fellows' phone number. Lockhart connects flour found on Gilbert's trousers with the miller's van which had gone through a road block earlier. The van is traced to John Pentelow and searched.
Benson contacts police, but in so doing, is found out. The gang are about to deal with him, when Lockhart and the police burst in to arrest them
Ben Morland (Barry Keegan), just released from prison, has a message for his cell mate's widow, Jane Hobbs. But when he visits her, she won't listen to him.
Lockhart receives a call to tell him that there is a bomb at Paddington Station, and another in a pillar box in Pimlico. Both bombs are found, but neither has a fuse, and Lockhart suspects that it is the work of a hoaxer, and forbids any publicity.
Next morning, the lab reports on the newspaper wrapping around the bombs. Cut into the second page of one, there is the number 21, followed by the letters C and L. An article appears in the Evening Citizen, which denigrates police, and Lockhart in particular.
After inquiries, Lockhart interviews Harvey, Wand and Morland. Another bomb is found in a library, and Lockhart finds another, this one with a fuse, on the back seat of his car.
Police keep watch on Morland, and he is followed to Jane's house. Baxter enters, finding Morland unconscious.
Lockhart keeps a rendezvous with the Bomb Man in a mews garage, arriving early to find Jane Hobbs with her brother in law and a dummy wearing an old raincoat. The message Morland was to have given Jane was to tell her to disperse a load of gelignite. She has found this and tries to kill Lockhart, whom she blames for her husband's death
Pearce uses an ingenious method of fraud, and has had success with it for some time, but police are almost on to him. He decides to run away with the week's takings, approximately £700, planning to go abroad, abandoning his girl friend Nell Burroughs.
Five miles from Dover, he passes a garage run by Sean McMurdoch (Eddie Byrne), but then gets a puncture.
Sean is called out to repair it. He drives there in his little van, and notices a bag with the stolen money. He strikes Pearce on the head, puts him in the van, drives it down a steep slope and sets fire to it.
Bowman and Baxter, who are on to Pearce's crimes, have obtained information about his car and the amount of money stolen. Next morning Lockhart is told about the body in the burnt out van, and travels to Dover. He quickly establishes that the body is not that of Sean, and it is identified as that of Pearce. On the car radio, while he is near Liverpool, McMurdoch hears a broadcast calling attention to the car he is driving. He abandons it, and sets off for the docks, carrying the stolen bag of money.
A letter found in McMurdoch's house intimates that he might go to a pub in Belfast, so the quest moves to Northern Ireland. The publican, apprehensive of his position because it is murder, reveals that McMurdoch has left for the border. Just short of here, McMurdoch's car breaks down. he spots the police car in the distance, and attempts to rush across the border, but is felled by Baxter, and arrested for murder
Berry who is planning a jewel robbery, employs 'Petty' Smith to recruit assistants. With Harry Matters (John Junkin), Petty engages two men, Wills and Petrie, and together with ex GPO man Swallow, they plan the job. Lockhart is informed of the plan, so a watch is kept on Berry. The raid is carried out, and a broken window sets off an alarm in the security office. It is arranged that security men meet up with police at the jeweller's, these men are Petrie and Wills.
The plan works- the security van arrives and the guards are deceived. Matters, also in uniform, sits out of sight, monitoring police radio calls. When the guards open the vault, they are attacked and their keys stolen. A quarter of a million pounds worth of jewellery is stolen.
Seen by Baxter in his home, Berry explains where he has been, and blames Godfrey for the job. Continuing his pressure, Lockhart instals Det Sgt Bowman outside the door of Berry's house, and has Berry's phone tapped.
The stolen jewels are hidden in Wills' room. But Berry is unable to move the stolen property. He is nervous, and gets angry when Petty Smith calls at his home. There is a row and Baxter is waiting with a car when Berry emerges from the house.
Lockhart interviews Godfrey, and is given an account of his movements, then purposely lets Godfrey know what Berry has alleged about him. He pinpoints in this allegation that the information could have started at a billiards hall owned by Berry, and frequented by Petty Smith. Godfrey swallows the bait, and sends his right hand man Wally to see Petty. After some intimidation, Petty talks. Wills becomes nervous, and after talking with Petrie, phones Berry. This call is traced so Lockhart obtains the address of the hideout. Wally and a strong arm man get there first. Wills is beaten up, the jewels taken. But police arrive and they are all arrested. Berry is picked up later
Archie MacLaren, an ex police officer turned private investigator, is shot dead in his office. Lockhart, an old colleague of Maclaren, is called in. With Baxter, he investigates the scene of the crime, and finds a piece of torn off paper stuck on the typewriter, indicating that something had been typed has been pulled from the machine. The only thing the police have to work on are MacLaren's address book, and his bank statement, and they find his three most recent clients were a Mr Littleton, Westbrook and Sons, and a Mrs Anstruther.
Baxter sees Mrs Anstruther (Dandy Nichols), who employed Maclaren to get divorce evidence against her husband, a womaniser and a violent man. Baxter obtains a photograph of Anstruther from a newspaper, which is circulated to the police and the press. Det Sgt Tandy investigates Littleton, and establishes that he could not possibly have been to MacLaren's office.
Lockhart starts on the third client, Westbrook and Sons, and finds this company had not used MacLaren for over two years. It is decided to see the person who drew MacLaren's cheque, a Mr Oliver Westbrook, at his private address in Sussex.
Anstruther, located at a hotel with a woman known as Mrs Anstruther, is taken to Scotland Yard, coincidental with the arrival of his real wife, who produces a letter from MacLaren returning her documents, thereby clearing her husband of all suspicion. However as a result of Lockhart's investigations, Anstruther is arrested for bigamy and fraud.
This leaves one remaining suspect- Oliver Westbrook, but when Baxter arrives at his Sussex home, he is informed that Westbrook has died during the night. Baxter goes back to Lockhart with the news, and he applies to the Home office for a post mortem.
Lockhart examines the clues on the typewriter revealed by Forensics, as a result of which Westbrook's nephew Julian is accused of murder
Joey Beeble (Aubrey Morris), a tramp, finds a human skeleton in the Epping Forest. The man had been shot. Dr Penton finds some granite dust and gunpowder on the clothes and in the hair of the skeleton. Graham Crowley (Andrew Faulds), a sculptor, is called in to reconstruct the man's features, and a photograph is taken and circulated. Through this the police are led to a stonemason's yard, where a man named Begg works. His wife screams when she sees the photo- she knows the dead man.
Lockhart and Baxter visit Mrs Grace Begg at her home. She tells them that the dead man's name is Rinaldo Sarto. He was an Italian and used to work at the yard. She had become friendly with him, but her husband disapproved. A report on the gunpowder is received: it is known as black powder. Lockhart thinks Rinaldo might have blown a safe just before he was murdered, and checks on recent safe blowings using this method. A result soon comes, and Sgt Plimmer of the Essex police, provides the information. A man named Redding, with an address in King's Cross, has been arrested in a stolen car containing some of the proceeds from the safe blowing. Also found in the car: a cartridge case, and some blood stains. Baxter returns to the office- he had been to an address in King's Cross where Sarto lived, along with another man who answers to the description of Redding.
Redding is sent to prison for five years. When he is faced with a possible charge of murder, he blames Joe Rezkowski. Joe's premises are searched, and police find odds and ends of jewellery settings, and an automatic pistol. The settings are identical with some stolen in the safe blowing, though the gems have been removed. Ballistic tests show that the rifling on the bullet was different to that on this gun barrel, but a further test shows that the impression on the discharged shell case was the same. Rezkowski is arrested for murder
The story opens in the Crucible Club, where a chemin-de-fer game is in progress. There are seven players, fashion model Raine Smith (Gabriella Licudi), Harvey Hale (Gerald Campion), Nigel Carpenter (Terence Longdon), Arnold Hurst, Johnnie Lightman, Frank Drover, and the owner of the club Suzie Dart (Petra Davies). The game ends when Carpenter, who has won £500, leaves.
Next morning Carpenter is found dead. News of the murder appears in the morning papers. At Carpenter's flat, Lockhart and Baxter find that a sum of money has been stolen, and they also find a £5 gambling chip with the name Crucible on it.
Lightman's girl friend Claire, reads the report of the murder and rings Lockhart's office. She also speaks to Frank Drover who works with him. When Lightman comes into the office, he is told about the phone call. He denies that he killed Carpenter, though Frank says, 'what exactly do you want Arnold and me to say?'
Lockhart and Baxter meet Suzie Dart at the Crucible, where they learn about the game and all those who played it. They all seem to have some sort of alibi, icluding the croupier, who implies that he had been with Suzie. That night, Drover walks into the flat of Raine, and asks for a false alibi. He is refused. Arnold Hurst tries a similar thing with the croupier, and he also is refused.
A reconstruction of the previous night's game, with everyone except Carpenter present, takes place. Following this, all the people except Drover, Lightman and Hurst, establish concrete alibis, but the latter three alibi each other. Drover and Lightman's stories do not tally, and Lockhart decides to see Hurst, the third man in the alibi. They find him at The Crucible, and after Lockhart has asked several questions, a flaw is found in his story. Hurst admits murder
Frank Evans, Harold Slessor and Stanley Bridges, all men with clean records, are enlisted by Bill Warren to rob a wages car. They net a quarter of a million.
After the share-out, Bridges drives to London and on the way is involved in a motor accident and is killed. When police find the money, Lockhart and Baxter are called in. They examine with fingerprint expert Fellows, the unusual mark on Bridges' hands. The marks were caused by playing golf. His photo is circulated to golf courses, and three days later Bridges is identified by a professional in Gloucester. Lockhart and Baxter see him, and he names two associates in golf, Evans and Slessor. The following Saturday, the pair visit the course, and are followed by Baxter and Hodgkins. Later two cases of money are discovered in a railway station. Observation is kept here.
Barbara Green, Bill Warren's mistress, has a boyfriend, an ex-con named Alfred Jackson. After the raid, she tells him what has happened, and that Bill plans to cross the Channel to France in a cabin cruiser. Warren gives Barbara the name of the mooring place and of the vessel, and as soon as he has left, she phones Jackson.
A car park attendant who saw Warren at the races, identifies a photo of him, this concentrates the search on the Brighton area. A policeman stops Warren, accompanied by Barbara, and he produces a false driving licence.
A box of tablets marked Bethnal Green has been issued to her, and she pretends she has lost them to delay Bill's departure. He finds these tablets she has hidden, and realises that she has deceived him. He takes his money and leaves. Barbara, unable to get any of her tablets, collapses. Semi conscious, she phones the police. She is brought out of a coma and informs on Warren and Jackson. The police dash after them and find the vessel Fair Maid stranded with the two men on board. It had missed the tide
Charlie Gibbons (Leslie Dwyer) has a stepdaughter April who works at the Emerald Club. Derek Patterson, owner of this club, is infatuated with her, so for this reason she keeps her friendship quiet with Colin Hartley.
Ex Det Sgt Leyland is employed by Colin's dad to watch whom he meets. Lockhart, on a routine visit to the club, sees Leyland outside. When Colin arrives at April's flat, Leyland reports the infornation to Colin's dad. Later he challenges Colin about his relationship with April, Colin's response to to say that he is going to marry her because she is pregnant.
Next evening April does not show up at the club, and Patterson is told she is leaving to get married. He leaves the club hurriedly.
Lockhart and Baxter are called to April's flat. Murgatroyd the porter had found her body. He gives information about Patterson and Hartley. Lockhart finds Colin at the Emerald Club. He has an alibi, but Lockhart breaks it.
He then admits he went to see April at her flat, at her request, but he had found her already dead.
Patterson also admits going to her flat, but says that on seeing Colin's car, he had driven away. He had gone to a bar and drunk steadily.
Lockhart then talks to Charlie Gibbons, who says he knew about the baby, because she had written to him about it. However it is established that he cannot read, and eventually he admits to murder
Samantha Grey (Hariette Johns) runs a photographic studio with her partner and lover Simon McCowen. The story opens with a photo session in progress, which Samantha is directing. She sees model Vicky West (Nyree Dawn Porter) and orders her to leave the studio. In her office she has a row with Simon, and slams the door, and makes for home. But that night she is found murdered.
Lockhart finds her place has been expertly burgled. He obtains a list of property stolen, mainly jewellery, and has it circulated.
Tony Harris, a burglar, gives his girlfriend Marcia a watch. She sells it to a jeweller who takes it to Scotland Yard. Opening the back, Lockhart finds an inscription, To Samantha All My Love S.
The Method Index at the Yard turns up several thieves using the special technique of burglary, one being Tony Harris. Baxter finds Marcia in a pub, but she is called to the phone. When she runs off, Baxter goes to her address to resume his questions. Tony shows up and is detained.
He claims he bought the watch from a man in a cafe. Lockhart sends for Simon McCowen.
McCowen is married, and the burglar Jimmy Humphries tells his wife of her husband's affair with Samantha, after Humnphries falls out with McCowen. Lockhart forces Humphries to admit to a charge of burglary, and later finds Simon at the opened safe in Samantha's house. Simon gives himself away and is arrested
Solomon Dancey (Harry Locke) is released from prison just before Christmas, and having no money, steals a handbag. But the contents are worthless so he throws it away. The owner of the bag refuses to prosecute him, and he then attempts to obtain a loan from bookmaker Charlie Monkton (Sydney Tafler). He is ordered out of Monkton's house, on the way he steals their Christmas tree.
He returns home carrying the tree to find that his wife Sheba (Liz Fraser) has not only been given a turkey, but their lodger Alexander Mudgeon (Bob Grant) has produced whiskey and a necklace for her.
A parcel arrives from prison, from an old associate of Dancey's who has died and left him clothes, a banjo and the lease of a house, which has only ten days to run. This annoys Sheba, who throws it all into the dustbin. In a temper she picks up the stolen tree, and crashes it to the floor. The pot breaks and they find £3,000 inside.
Thus they look forward to a merry Christmas, buying new clothes, and Solomon purchases an identical tree which they return when Charlie and his muscle man Alfred (Danny Green) call for it. After they go, Solomon, worried what they will do when they find the money gone, reveals the source of his wealth to Mudgeon. When Solomon goes off to play bridge, Mudgeon phones Lockhart.
The bookmaker discovers his loss, and is on the point of searching for Dancey when Lockhart turns up to question him. Charlie denies any loss of money. Then Solomon asks Lockhart for protection, his story is that he found a lot of money in the garden of the house left to him. Lockhart wants to examine it, and they find a note from Sheba saying she has got the money and has run away with the lodger.
Without the money, it is not possible to prosecute Solomon. When the police have left, Solomon finds Sheba locked up in a cupboard, Smudgeon had done it and taken the cash. They know he is on his way to London Airport, so Sheba informs Charlie what has happened, and he and his wife settle down to the turkey provided by Mudgeon
Lockhart and Baxter, investigating a wages snatch, have only one lead, a grey saloon car.
Ginger Smith (Howard Pays), who organised the snatch, is now planning another at the North Wickham government research station. A second group are watching the station: Adrian Melius, Peter Westbury, and Eugene Milo, but they are only waiting for the delivery of a certain advanced isotope formula. In fact they are watching the station when Ginger with two men and a woman start their raid. As they are taking the money from a security van, Melius sees through his binoculars, that they have got the canisters containing the new formula. They send Milo after the car on his motor bike, but he crashes and is killed.
Lockhart visits the research station and learning about the isotope, arranges for a warning to be put out.
Back home, Ginger has managed to open one of the canisters, only to find a slug of metal. When he hears the police warning, he goes straight to hospital. The doctor phones the police who search Smith's house where they find the canisters and the money.
Police believe Milo to be connected with the crime, but they also need the names of the others involved, so Ginger's name and address appears in the press report as the one mixed up in the raid. This gets the gang to swallow the bait and all are arrested
The Assistant Commissioner of New Scotland Yard's car is stolen. Though Lockhart is on the case, it is Sgt York of Bow Street who arrests the thief, Charles Newell. Bail is opposed, but a surety from Janet Nelson, wife of Harry Nelson (Alan Tilvern) enables Newell to be remanded on bail. Lockhart sets Baxter and York to make further inquiries, after examining a marked map found in the stolen car.
Newell realises this map must have been found by police, and skips bail, going off with a Charlotte Ryan. But when he switches on the ignition of the car, it blows up and he is killed.
With York and Baxter and Inspector Morrison, Lockhart goes to the scene of the murder. Saunders and Owen admit lending Newell money, but deny trying to kill him. Joseph Ryan had threatened Newell because he knew his daughter intended to run away with Newell. But though he intended to thrash him, Ryan says he had changed his mind. However he has no alibi.
Examining the shattered car, Morrison finds evidence to identify Nelson as the killer. But in the office of Nelson's automart, police find him dead. Time of death is established at between midnight and one o'clock. Joseph Ryan admits that he murdered Harry Nelson, because they had argued about money. On the murder weapon are found traces of a face powder which matches that found in Charlotte Ryan's handbag