User Reviews

It begins with the usual Agatha Christie opening, with the 'phone ringing, but it can't be answered, as it then cuts to a body on the floor, I think the same was used on 'The Avengers' a few times. Then it goes to Brian Staples' flat where he 'phones the police to admit to a robbery he didn't commit, and also to an assault on a Co-op Manager. The late actress Diana Coupland is featured as his older girlfriend (Iris Peason), her acting here is very serious, but then she was better known for her comedy and playing Jean Bless, the wife to Sid James in 'Bless This House' Also there is another great piece taken from somewhere else, in that Sergeant Mann is asked to see Lt.Col.Hilden, who (because of his cholera) is in a heated room growing plants, which is a lot like when private detective Phillip Marlowe meets General Sternwood in Raymond Chandler's 'The Big Sleep' (with Humprey Bogart). The series was very like the early 'The Avengers' in that it was generally studio bound with variable sets, but then it's still okay. Also with the usual great Roger Marshall scripts (which you get used to), there is then a nice twist, as the Co-op manager dies from his injuries and so Staples is going to be charged with murder. He then admits his innocence and that he only said he was guilty, to have time to marry his girlfriend Iris. He is later released because he's wasting police time. It's well directed but the only bad point I see in this episode, is that one of the (English) police inspectors has an American accent throughout the episode but it keeps slipping into a welsh or Irish one every now and again. But overall it's still a good episode.