Episode 19: 'A Sentimental Journey'
First Transmitted: Friday, January 23rd, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed by: Leslie Norman
Screenplay: Donald James
- Quotes: Marty disappears, much to Jeff's annoyance: "Typical!"
Marty, out of sight: "I heard that!"
Jeff is uncomfortable in the dining car: "I've got no desire to eat in a fishbowl."
- Plot: Jeff is visited in his flat by two unsavoury types, who promptly proceed to beat him up when asked what is going on. Two more follow them, albeit more business-like. Unknown to Jeff, they are gangland bosses known as Seymour (William Squire) and Hamilton (Anthony Baird). They offer Jeff a job - to take an item worth £10,000 from Glasgow to London on the overnight express, hand the item over to Seymour, and then take the receipt back to Hamilton in Glasgow. At first, Jeff refuses, but after several more blows, reluctantly agrees to do the job for £200.
Arriving in Glasgow, Jeff is surprised to find that the courier he is to chaperone is attractive blonde Dandy Garrison (Tracey Crisp). A small briefcase is chained to her wrist. On the train to London, Jeff realises they are being shadowed by two men, and asks Marty to keep an eye on Dandy during the night. Naturally, it's not long before Marty wakes Jeff, and tells him Dandy's cabin has been broken into. However, the culprit turns out to be Detective Sergeant Watts (Victor Maddern) of the Glasgow Police. Dandy is forced to open the case and show the contents - which appears to be a selection of lingerie!
After the police officer has left, Dandy tells Jeff that it is she who is the valuable item. It gets even more confusing for poor Jeff when they reach Seymour's gymnasium. The lights go out, and in the ensuing chaos, Dandy makes a break for it. Jeff manages to grab the receipt envelope, and also escapes with Marty's help.
Realising he is also now a wanted man, Jeff searches for Dandy. Marty tracks her down to a London hotel, where they discover she is in league with one of Seymour's men, Tony (Drewe Henley). Jeff loses the ensuing struggle and the receipt and is knocked out cold. Tony calls Hamilton and reports that Jeff has stolen the receipt.
Jeff meets up with Watts again, and together they begin to make sense of the whole thing. There is a rare stamp on the receipt, one of two stolen recently from the Laxton Philately Company and worth £10,000. But where is the second? Another visit to Seymour's gym provides the answer: it is inside Seymour's pocket watch.
Dandy and Tony meanwhile are making their getaway in Seymour's limousine, with Marty in the back seat. Dandy tricks Tony into checking the rear of the car, and drives off with the stamp. Marty tells Jeff to call the carphone. When Dandy finally picks it up, leaving it off the hook, Marty is able to relay directions back to Jeff and Watts. Watts realises she is headed for an airfield and Seymour's private plane; but Marty blows the aircraft, moving it away from her long enough for Watt's men to catch up.
- Scenes to Rewind For: Marty's impeccable behaviour in the lady's room! Marty's 'Operation Desert Storm.' Marty gives an aeroplane a blow job... don't ask!
- Fashion Victims: Dandy Garrison - everything! Jeff's jumper. The Excelsior Suite's decor; especially the bathroom!
- Jeff Gets Creamed: On no less than 4 occasions - ouch!
- Double Entendres: "Is this a pair?" - Jeff
- Death Toll: 0
- Now There's A Novelty: Having the episode, most of it anyway, set on a train. Jeff resisting a woman's advances!! (shock horror!)
- Continuity: Marty can't track someone if he doesn't know where they're going (not for long, anyway), and can make lights flicker (as seen in previous episodes).
Episode 20: 'Money To Burn'
First Transmitted: Friday, January 30th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Ray Austin
Screenplay: Donald James
- Quotes: Miss Benson on a photo of Jeff: "To me it's a nothing face."
- Plot: Jeff becomes interested in a proposition from an old friend, Kevin O'Malley (Roy Desmond). He offers to cut Jeff a cut of £500,000 in notes that are to be hijacked en route to the incinerator. Wary, Jeff gives no definitive answer; knowing O'Malley's reputation as an opportunist, he may well be set up as a fall guy.
O'Malley leaves the offer open, and tells him he can be contacted through Anne-Marie Benson (Linda Cole) at a club where he is working on a cabaret act with both her and another woman, Angela Kendon (Olga Lowe). Time is at a premium, however - the money is to be burned at the Battersea Power Station the next evening.
The police are alerted of the switched notes when a carton is dropped, spilling old newsprint into the road. Jeff becomes a prime suspect, his car being spotted in the vicinity at the time. Inspector Large (Ivor Dean) builds what appears to be a water-tight case against him, whose only alibi is Anne-Marie Benson. Jeff claimed to be dining with her that night, but when questioned, she tells them she has no knowledge of him. Even worse, some of the missing money is discovered in his apartment.
Marty is afraid for his partner, as is Jeff's lawyer, Elizabeth Saxon (Sue Lloyd), who is even more dismayed when Jeff reveals he was indeed at the scene that night. He claims he was simply curious. O'Malley is baffled - he backed out at the last minute and did not attempt the theft - so who did? He believes Jeff's innocence, leaving one other person who knew about the plan - Anne-Marie. He arrives at the club too late to prevent Anne-Marie and her cohort, Angela, escaping. Marty arrives on the scene as they take off in a light aircraft, believing they are on their way to France, but the ever-resourceful ghost manages to confuse the compass and the two women land at another private airport where the police are waiting.
- Scenes to Rewind For: Marty thinking in the office alone; Marty having it out with Jeff for lying to him; and his efforts to redirect the aircraft. Jeff on the pull again with his lawyer!
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: O'Malley sings 'I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen.'
- Fashion Victims: Jeff's sickly green pyjamas; his dressing gown; Miss Saxon's hair; the club dancers; Miss Kendon; O'Malley's tie; Jeff's jumper; Anne-Marie's tartan skirt.
- Jeff Gets Creamed: He doesn't! He spends most of the episode in jail. O'Malley gets clocked one though!
- Death Toll: Also 0!
- Now There's A Novelty: The Green Shield stamp signs in the supermarkets. Jeff spending most of the episode in a police cell. No green and white interior this week!
- Continuity: Jeff, Jean and Marty went for a picnic once near a private airport in Surrey. Marty doesn't like coffee. Again, reiterating, Marty can hear sounds related to Jeff or Jean. There's a 'bit of Irish' in Jeff somewhere! Jean has an aunt in Sussex, and had gone to see her during this episode. O'Malley's car is a black-top version of Jeff's, registry RXD 997F.
Set November 23rd - 25th.
- Notes: Not much of a pre-credit sequence. The black-top FD Victor is used again in 'The Ghost Talks.' All the shots of the aircraft have the landing gear down. Where did the police get that photo of Jeff? How did O'Malley get in? The two women got into that plane and took off a bit quickly!
Episode 21: 'The Ghost Talks'
First Transmitted: Friday, February 6th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Cyril Frankel
Screenplay: Gerald Kelsey
Quotes: Joe to Marty: "No wonder you're a detective, Hopkirk. You've a nasty, suspicious mind."
"Any place you'd care to have a last look at?"
Marty: "Scotland Yard?"
- Plot: After falling from a balcony attempting to apprehend a safebreaker, Jeff is confined to a hospital bed, a captive audience while Marty recounts a case he successfully handled while he was still alive and Jeff was away in Scotland. It was a case of national importance, the details of which he had never revealed to Jeff.
Marty's case began with a telephone call from a man who claimed to be Sir Basil Duggan, the deputy head of MI5. He was to meet him at his military club. At the club, Sir Basil tells Marty of the mission - to recover essential documents stolen by a counter-spy. Marty accepts the mission, and with the help of seasoned safe-breaker Joe Hudson (Jack MacGowran), recovers the papers from a private house. It is only later he learns that he actually broke into the home of MI5 chief Major General Hickson; and that 'Sir Basil' was in fact the counter-spy named Major Brenan (Alan MacNaughton).
Out of favour, Marty takes it upon himself to track down Sir Basil to discover that he is not the same man who hired him. He has to find Major Brenan, but in doing so, he has unwittingly put Jean's life at risk. Another member of the spy ring, Parker (James Culliford), has appeared on the scene and is intent on keeping Marty quiet for good. However, Marty had written down the fake Sir Basil's car registration, and is able to find Brenan's address. He follows Brenan to the docks, and manages to halt the spy's escape and close the case.
Jeff, who has done his best to interrupt throughout the whole story, is relieved when Marty concludes his tale. Jean arrives at the hospital. She's been thinking about Marty and realises that Jeff has never heard the tale of Marty's spy case that he tackled single-handed, and, despite Jeff's assurances that he has, she proceeds to tell him anyway...!
- Scenes to Rewind For: The first scene with Jeff in hospital; Marty blowing a nurse's skirt! The sauna room scene; the grimace on Jeff's face as Jean begins the story again.
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: The bit where Marty brakes hard to knock out the heavy sitting next to him; Jean being overwhelmed by being silly.
- Fashion Victims: Jeff's hospital pyjamas; Marty's tie x 3; Jean in lime green; Marty's pyjamas.
- Jeff Gets Creamed: Wow - it's Marty's turn this time - he gets done in twice!
- Death Toll: 0
- Now There's A Novelty: Marty's alive! Jeff is bedridden. A black female character gets lines.
- Continuity: Jeff went away for two weeks on a poaching case in Scotland. Jean came in to help out while he was away. Marty drinks tomato juice. Jeff served in the Army, and has a photograph of his unit. Jeff has a contact in Records called Hinkley. Marty knows a safe-cracker.
- Notes: The green and white interior reappears again as the military club. The black-top version of Jeff's car from the previous episode pops up again as Sir Basil's car. Jean's gold medallion makes another appearance after being in 'When Did You Start To Stop Seeing Things?' Black sculptures make a re-appearance again. The ITC boat and warehouse sets get recycled. The whole episode plays like an escaped version of 'The Saint'!
Episode 22: 'It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water'
First Transmitted: Friday, February 13th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Leslie Norman
Screenplay: Donald James
- Quotes: Marty blows the door shut: "Olé!"
"Marty - you're back!"
"It's all right, Jeff, it's all right. You don't have to grovel, you can get up!"
Plot: Jeff takes a job from the elderly Joshua Crackan (Felix Aylmer). It seems simple enough - deliver an envelope to his nephew, the escaped convict Johnny Crackan (John Hallam). The envelope contains an invitation to a family reunion of all the surviving Crackans to celebrate Joshua's 80th birthday.
Probably the easiest £50 that Jeff has ever gotten, he inadvertently manages to offend Marty when he suggests he finds Johnny Crackan alone. Miffed, Marty disappears, but keeps at a distance, out of Jeff's sight. Returning after completing the job to Joshua's mansion, Jeff is offered another task - to work as a guard at the 'party' and allow only those with invitations inside. The Crackans form a veritable melting pot of nationalities - there's Reverend Henry Crackan (Neil McCallum) from America; Chinaman Sung Lee Crackan (John A Tinn); the Spaniard Ramon Burgos y Crackan; and the blonde Fay Crackan (Liz Fraser), a magician's assistant.
The event however turns out to be a little more sinister when the guests begin to die - Ramon first, then Johnny, followed by Sung Lee and the Rev. Henry - leaving only a panicked Fay, who makes good her escape before she can be the next victim.
Joshua admits that he wishes his estate to pass to his butler, Hodder (Meredith Edwards), rather than the strangers that make up his family. The only way for that to happen means all the relatives must be dead... and Hodder is on Fay's trail. She has gone back to her profession as magician's assistant. Meanwhile, Jeff is being kept captive by Joshua, leaving Marty to step in and save the day once again. Jeff apologises to Marty later on.
- Scenes to Rewind For: Jeff trying to put it gently to Marty that he'd like to solve the case alone; the famous ITC Jaguar footage is in here; Fay Cracken yanking Jeff into her hotel room; Jeff apologising to Marty - or rather, thin air!; the hypnotist's performance; Marty saving Fay, and her subsequent hypontic walk to the telephone to get the police. Marty manages to strum a guitar.
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: Sung Lee's death scene.
- Fashion Victims: Jeff's tie x 2; Jean's blue and white dress.
- Death Toll: 4
- Now There's A Novelty: No lines painted down the centre of the road; loads of Silver Cross prams left outside Sainsbury's! Jeff *isn't* wearing that leather jacket! An aerial shot is used. A horse and carriage (carrying Joshua Crackan).
- Continuity: Jeff knows a bit of Spanish; Marty could play the guitar. Marty makes a cup shake.
- I've Seen That Face Before: Liz Fraser has been seen in several 'Carry On' films.
- Notes: Not the best pre-credit sequence. Clip re-used from 'That's How Murder Snowballs' with Marty dancing alongside the cabaret girls. The Daly's poster that hangs over Jean's mantelpiece pops up in the audition room. The green and white interior appears yet again. Johnny Crackan steals a very spiffy white Jaguar. Two white cars plus a white exterior shot equals sunglasses! The audition room is used again as Susan Lang's apartment in the following episode, 'The Trouble With Women'. The room with barred windows is also used again in the next episode. I'm amazed Jeff doesn't suffer from déjà vú!!
Episode 23: 'The Trouble With Women'
First Transmitted: Friday, February 20th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Cyril Frankel
Screenplay: Tony Williamson
- Quotes: Marty on Susan Lang: "Her aura's all wrong."
Jeff: "It looked all right to me."
"You can't see it!"
"Can you?"
"No... but I've got my intuition!"
- Plot: Jeff is hired by blonde Susan Lang (Denise Buckley) in what appears at first to be a straightforward matrimonial dispute. She wants him to trail her husband Paul (Edward Brayshaw) and make notes of where he goes and what he does. Marty is suspicious, but Jeff takes the £100 advance payment, ignoring his friend's wariness.
It becomes clear very soon, however, that Susan neglected to tell Jeff that her husband is the owner of a crooked gambling club; and when Jeff attempts to investigate, he is forced to play by the club manager, Alan Corder (Paul Maxwell), losing nearly £300 at the table as well as his charge. He is given just 24 hours to repay the debt. Jeff does know, though, that Lang is having an affair with a brunette that he spotted at the races.
With Marty's invaluable help, Jeff wins back the money the following night, recouping his losses with interest. It appears the case will soon be closed, but things get complicated when Susan phones Jeff and tells him that her husband will be out of town for the day, presenting Jeff with an opportunity to visit their home and obtain the evidence against Paul Lang. It proves to be a setup, for as Jeff is searching the study, the body of Paul Lang is discovered - just as the police arrive and arrest him for murder. Jeff tries to get Mrs Lang to come to the station to prove he was working for her, but when she turns up, it is not the blonde who employed him, but a brunette, who claims never to have seen him before!
The Inspector (Frederick Treves) reluctantly allows Jeff a short time to try and clear his name. He visits Susan at her apartment, and while he is there, Marty makes a discovery - the brunette was really Susan Lang - the blonde version was for Jeff's benefit. Now that Paul is out of the way, the way is clear for Susan and Corder to take over the club and pin the murder on Jeff. Now that he knows the truth, he too must be murdered. The couple take him to a lime quarry, where he will be shot and the lime will eradicate his body quickly. Marty visits the British Spiritualist Society and manages to jump the queue of ghosts waiting to deliver messages, getting the police to arrive on the scene just before Jeff is shot - but Jeff doesn't escape a dunking in the lime!
- Scenes To Rewind For: Jeff and Marty take on poker and win. Marty inspecting the brunette at the races. Marty enlisting the aid of the Spiritualist Society.
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: The bad CSO at Ascot. Any scene involving Susan Lang and Jeff (overacting alert!).
- Fashion Victims: Susan Lang - everything, including that wig. Jean in lime green again. Jean's blue dress. Jeff's tie.
- Jeff Gets Creamed: Once
- Death Toll: 1 - Paul Lang.
- Now That's A Novelty: Jeff on a stakeout. Wide pavements! It's a red and white room this week - no green and white one!
- Continuity: Jeff hates divorce cases. Marty talks about insurance policies; but in the first episode he was going on about not having anything like that. There's a restaurant across the road from the office. The combination for Paul's safe was 628143. There's a typewriter on a table by the entrance to the office.
- Notes: A different interior is used - all wood panelling. Icky! It's very dark behind Jeff in the lime quarry as we see over his shoulder, yet when we see his back, it's daylight!
Episode 24: 'Vendetta For A Dead Man'
First Transmitted: Friday, February 27th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Cyril Frankel
Screenplay: Donald James
- Quotes: Emil: "Who are you?"
Marty: "Oh yes!" *PUNCH* "Marty Hopkirk - my wife's husband, that's who!"
Jansen on Marty: "He's not in the phone book!"
Jeff: "I should think not. He's six feet under!"
- Plot: Nearly a year after his arrest, hardened criminal Jansen (George Sewell) escapes from incarceration in a prison psychiatric ward, intent on wreaking revenge on Marty Hopkirk, the man who put him there. He has a plan which he intends to execute to the exact minute of the anniversary.
He's understandably annoyed to discover then, on breaking into Jeff's flat, that Marty is already dead. Not to be denied, Jansen decides that his widow, Jean, will be an acceptable subsitute. Jeff tries to call Jean but there is no reply. Fearing for her safety, Jeff notifies the police and they are waiting for her when she gets home. She has been out with Emil Cavallo-Smith (Barrie Ingham), which infuriates the jealous Marty who still considers her his wife. Not surprisingly, Jean manages to outwit the police guard and heads off to meet with Emil again, convinced he is about to ask her to marry him. Jeff and Marty think he may be in league with Jansen; so take it upon themselves to find out as much as they can about Emil. An interrogation of Jansen's former associate Sam Grimes (Timothy West) reveals nothing, although the discovery that Emil is already married serves only to anger Marty further.
Jean has a narrow escape in the Hall of Mirrors when Jansen confronts her, and it is Marty's ability to break glass that allows her to escape. She is put under police protection yet again, but she is not entirely secure. Jansen forces Emil to call Jean and arrange a meeting at his apartment, which is over the cold storage plant he owns. Emil is imprisoned with the pig carcasses in cold storage, while Jean arrives to be captured by Jansen. He bundles her off to a nearby cliff edge where, a year earlier exactly, he was cornered by Marty Hopkirk.
Marty and Jeff, hot on Jansen's trail, arrive at the cold storage plant. Freeing Emil, Jeff demands to know where Jean is. He refuses to answer, but Marty tells Jeff to put him back in cold storage. After a while, Emil is so close to death that Marty is able to question him on equal terms. The threat of death if he does not co-operate is enough to make Emil talk. Before he lets Emil go, however, Marty takes the opportunity to do what he has been nagging Jeff to do since he found out about him, and bops Emil right on the nose.
Up on the cliffs, Jean is being held at knifepoint. Jansen is waiting for the time of five minutes past midnight. Jeff arrives, and, faced with the prospect of going to jail again by the hand of the other half of the detective duo, Jansen chooses to jump from the cliffs to certain death in the cold waters below.
- Scenes to Rewind For: Marty's interrogation (through Jeff) of Jean about her new boyfriend, and her subsequent amorous advances towards Jeff that make Marty freak out; the 'Hall of Mirrors' sequence; the scene where Marty gets to punch Emil Cavallo-Smith.
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: Jeff at it again with another woman.
- Fashion Victims: Jeff's jacket, as always!
- Jeff Gets Creamed: 3 times!
- Death Toll: 1
- Now There's A Novelty: A Hillman Imp doing more than 20mph down a country lane.
- I've Seen That Face Before: George Sewell has done a great deal of television work, including the recent BBC comedy series The Detectives. Also Timothy West, and a pre-Star Wars Dave Prowse.
- Continuity: It was a year ago to the day that Jansen was put inside, putting his arrest, if we use the transmission date, at February 27th 1969. It's said that it was seven months before Marty's death, which would put it in September of 1969. Amazingly, yes, it *does* correspond with the series' start date!!! (21st September 1969!)
Marty can shatter mirrors. Again it's said that cold doesn't affect him. Jean's aunt in Essex is mentioned again.
- Notes: No green and white interior! We see an unusually dark side of Marty Hopkirk when he tells Jeff to put Emil back in the cold storage unit, which should tell you never to get him mad at you!
Episode 25: 'You Can Always Find A Fall Guy'
First Transmitted: Friday, March 6th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Ray Austin
Screenplay: Donald James
- Quotes: Jeff to Marty: "Start worrying when the doors fall off!"
Jeff to Kershaw: "There's more information stolen these days than diamonds."
- Plot: Jeff staggers back to his flat one morning after a binge to find a hallucination sitting at his table - or rather, as it turns out, an attractive nun (Juliet Harmer). She tells him that St. Ursula's Convent needs him to help them prove that their accountant, Douglas Kershaw (Jeremy Young), has embezzled £6,000 from the convent funds. They do not want him to be sent to jail, but they do want their money back. Jeff can collect the evidence from the convent the next evening. Jeff agrees, and the nun leaves - although once she is outside the building, she sheds her nun's habit and takes off in a red sports car.
Jeff borrows Jean's Mini as his is in the garage (under protest from Marty), and goes to the convent near Winchester, where the nun is witing in the driveway. She gives him an envelope and departs, but as Jeff and Marty leave, an alarm sounds. Jeff throws the envelope into the bushes just as the car is surrounded by patrol men with dogs. Edwards (Garfield Morgan) takes him away.
Marty has been suspicious of the nun all along and his suspicions are founded when the building turns out to be the Winchester Electronics Research Corporation instead of a convent. Philp Yateman (Patrick Barr), one of the executives, accuses Jef of trespassing, and is further annoyed when he finds Kershaw's card in Jeff's pockets. Kershaw has apparently been stealing information from WERC and selling it on. Yateman demands Jeff returns the papers or he will call the police, at which Marty conjurs up one of his gale-force winds and Jeff makes his escape, retrieving the envelope as he goes, to find it contains only newspaper.
Edwards pays Jeff a visit, claiming he traced him by his car, although Jeff knows better. Jeff explains that he has been conned. Calling on Kershaw at his houseboat, Jeff finds that he was the fall guy in a case of industrial espionage. The police by now have a warrant for Jeff's arrest, so he heads back to WERC, and recognises the personnel manager, Miss Holliday, and the red sports car, as the nun who set him up. Paying another visit to Kershaw's boat, Jeff is rudely interrupted by Holliday and Yateman. Yateman overpowers him using martial arts.
Yateman reveals that within 24 hours, he will obtain all the company's research, worth approximately £500,000. Jeff is taken back and locked in the basement of WERC. Yateman tells him he will return to kill him. Marty again has to find a way to get help, and after skulking round a hospital, finds a patient who has momentarily died on the operating table. The man's ghost appears briefly, and Marty tells him to phone the police and get them to search WERC's basement. The patient regains consciousness and demands a telephone. Miss Holliday and Yateman are arrested in the nick of time, and Jeff's skin is saved once more. To show his gratitude, Jeff sends the hospital patient a fruit basket - although the patient is baffled - he doesn't know any Jeff or Marty!
- Scenes To Rewind For: Marty's protests (again!) at Jeff borrowing Jean's car and his subsequent backseat driving; Jeff's confrontation with Edwards in Jean's Mini; Marty skulking around the hospital to find someone who can help him save Jeff.
- Scenes to Fast-Forward Past: The scene with the patient gasping for a telephone - the doctor and nurse must be deaf or something! There's some bad CSO with Jeff and Marty in the car.
- Fashion Victims: Douglas Kershaw - everything - his boat, his kerchief, his wig...
- Jeff Gets Creamed: Once
- Double Entendres: "Don't keep it up!"
- Death Toll: 0
- Now There's A Novelty: Being able to park on the Thames embankment with not a yellow line in sight!
- Continuity: Marty 'gets a feeling' about Jeannie. His reflection can appear before him! After being in limbo, once the anasthetic wears off, the person will forget any supernatural experience they had.
- Notes: There's a boom mike shadow on the wall of Yateman's office (second scene inside the office). We're back with the green and white interior again! And yes, it's another wine cellar moment!!
Episode 26: 'The Smile Behind The Veil'
First Transmitted: Friday, March 13th, 1970 at 7:30pm
Directed By: Jeremy Summers
Screenplay: Gerald Kelsey
- Quotes: Hiker: 'I wish I was a millionaire!"
Jeff: "And I wish I was out of this perishing well!"
Jeff: "I've been beaten up, thrown in a river, half-drowned - "
Marty: "Ah! but only half-drowned!"
Cynthia: "'Randall and Hopkirk'? I presume Hopkirk is the one with the brains!"
- Plot: Marty Hopkirk watches his widow, Jean, place flowers on his grave, and remains behind to see the funeral of racing driver Caroline Seaton. Among the mourners are her brother, Donald (Gary Watson), and his wife Cynthia (Hilary Tindall). Marty is suspicious, however, when he sees that behind her veil, Cynthia is smiling...
He begins to wonder if, like him, Caroline's death was indeed an accident. Jeff is reluctant to help Marty's investigation, preferring to take a paying job for a change. Marty has to trick Jeff into visiting Donald Seaton's country home; and even though Jeff is genuinely lost and innocently reveals he is a private detetctive, he is overpowered by two heavies and thrown into a river from a nearby bridge! Marty's suspicions are confirmed, but it takes good luck to get a near-death Jeff out from the river thanks to a fisherman. Jeff is revived by CPR and and the fisherman takes Jeff to his cottage, where he reveals *he* is Donald Seaton. The 'other' Seaton had stolen his identity, after he ended up in prison and fell out with his father at 18 years of age. He went to live in Australia and returned recently for a death-bed reunion with his father, but he died before it could take place. The imposter, being backed by crooked solicitor Brooks (George Howe), is claiming the estate following Caroline's death.
Jeff's main problem is trying to determine which Seaton is genuine. Mrs Evans, the first Seaton's housekeeper, gives him a newspaper cutting which puts her own life in danger. Further attempts are made on Jeff's life, and is saved on one occasion by the wrong man being murdered. It is soon apparent, then, that Cynthia is the real Mrs Seaton, and she and her husband are both ruthless killers. The story takes a further twist when she and the real Donald Seaton meet. She and Donald have been separated for a long time, and the imposter assumed his identity so that he and Cynthia could inherit the fortune. Now he knows the truth, Jeff find himself this time down a well!
Marty spots a hiking couple walking near the well. Blowing the man's hat off, he directs it so that it lands on the sign pointing towards the wishing well. The couple decide to try their luck, find Jeff instead, and free him in time for the two detectives to help the police arrest the criminals.
- Scenes To Rewind For: The whole scene involving Jeff in the river; Jeff's interesting stint in a well; Jeff defusing a bomb; Jeff gets into Donald Seaton's office and finds himself sharing a hidey hole with Mrs Evans!
- Scenes To Fast Forward Past: Any scene involving Cynthia; the scene involving Joe Dyson and the fake Donald Seaton. Cynthia placing the bomb in Jeff's office.
- Fashion Victims: Jean's skirt. The Seaton house. Mrs. Evans' scarf. Cynthia's hat.
- Jeff Gets Creamed: 3 times - although Jeff wins the third time!
- Death Toll: 2 (one is off-screen).
- Now There's A Novelty: Jeff wears a suit for a whole 20 minutes!
- Continuity: Marty can tell when somebody's coming. He can make flowers wither, and bark like a dog. Jeff can defuse a bomb (presumably from his stint in the Army). Caroline Seaton used to be a 'neighbour' of Marty's.
- Notes: It's the green and white interior - but it's all for the last time, folks! This is the last episode (wibble!). Somehow Marty makes the white-suited Jeff disappear.The room Jeff is in has conveniently barred windows. Jeff manages to change into a white shirt and jacket between the hay barn and the office, despite his big rush!
