'A Spanner in the Works' by Bob Block

Robert is having big problems: his new Maintenance Robot is causing havoc, not only breaking everything it tries to repair, but also those items that don’t need fixing – including Eric; and Robert’s new Sanitary Robot keeps getting muddled, putting Aunt Millie’s crockery in the washing machine and scrubbing Robert’s shirts into shreds amongst the washing up. When Robert decides to hold a dinner party for Angela, Aunt Millie resolutely refuses to use the robots as servants, and sets off for a domestic agency; but on the way she meets Gimble, who pretends to be a cook so that he can get close to her nephew’s electronics secrets. But when Gimble spies on Robert’s lab he sees the inventor deactivating one of the troublesome androids; he immediately believes he has just witnessed a murder – and that he will be the next victim...

John Clive (Robert Sommerby), Nigel Pegram (Eric), Doris Rogers (Aunt Millie Townsend), Richard Davies (Gimble), Leon Lissek (Stanislav Marken), Michael J. Jackson (Maintenance Robot), Christopher Saul (Sanitary Robot), Michael Richmond (First Robot), Terrance Woodfield (Second Robot)

Produced and Directed by Vic Hughes

TX (ITV):
26th November 1973

Notes:
*Featuring Robert Sommerby, Eric and Aunt Millie