'Victim As Whitebait' by Edward Boyd

One of Syrie Van Epp’s clients, Jolyn de Farge is under investigation by the Treasury over a £3 Million embezzlement scheme, and an accountant named Samson Whitby can save him; unfortunately only one person knows Whitby’s whereabouts: the duplicitous detective Phil Scrotty, who was recently murdered by an assassin… Having secured the services of professor Robag, an alcoholic scientist who has invented a means of bringing the dead back to life, Syrie sets out to exhume and reanimate Scrotty’s corpse; to cover up her scheme, she orders her henchmen to dig up five other graves as well; however, when Scrotty’s coffin is opened, it is found to be empty… Concerned at these incidents of grave-robbing, Kronk of the M.O.D.’s Department K despatches Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound on a graveside vigil to catch the culprits; he also questions the effectiveness of his secretary / assassin Miss Dunner, who was supposed to have killed Scrotty. Meanwhile, Robag, desperate to someone to drink with, reanimates the body of one of the stolen corpses, Mr Whitebait; when the drunken professor passes out under the influence, Whitebait wanders off and heads for the park, where he meets a mysterious man sitting on a bench. Elsewhere, Scrotty – very much alive after faking his own funeral – is enjoying a romp in bed with the recently-widowed Mrs Whitebait, but their evening is rudely interrupted by the news that Whitebait has just returned home. Infuriated by a visit from a smug Scrotty, Kronk sends Miss Dunbar to kill the private eye, only to learn that the peace-loving Major Ironside has loaded the woman’s gun with blanks a second time – a decision that proves fatal when the assassin takes on Syri’s henchmen. Meanwhile, Scrotty makes a rendezvous with Syri to make a deal over Whitby – little does the femme fatale know that Scrotty is playing a dangerous game of cross and double-cross…

Elizabeth Shepherd (Syrie Van Epp), John Sharp (Kronk), Gary Cockrell (Phil Scrotty), June Watson (Miss Dunner), Alan Curtis (Inspector Blood), William Maxwell (Sergeant Hound), Ingrid Hafner (Abigail Whitebait), Kevin Brennan (Whitebait), Oliver Johnston (Samson Whitby), Aubrey Morris (Robag), Ian Trigger (Nonesuch), Ray Gatenby (Bo), Patrick Kavanagh (Major Ironside), Robert McBain (Jolyn de Farge), Sandra Downes (Mary), George Ghent (Removal Man), Arthur Lester (Waiter)

Directed by David Boisseau
Produced by Richard Everitt

TX (Granada):
2nd September 1966 @ 9.40 pm

Notes:
*Featuring Syrie Van Epp, Phil Scrotty, Kronk, Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound