The Smile Behind the Veil

"The Smile Behind the Veil"
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 26
Directed by Jeremy Summers
Written by Gerald Kelsey
Production code 26
Original air date 13 March 1970 (1970-03-13)
Guest appearance(s)
Episode chronology

"The Smile Behind the Veil" is the final episode of the popular 1969 ITC British television series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope, and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 13 March 1970 on the ITV and was directed by Jeremy Summers.

Synopsis

Only a ghost would notice the smile behind the veil of a funeral mourner (Hilary Tindall) to complete the entire series. As Jeannie visits Marty's grave, Marty stumbles upon a hidden murder mystery as the funeral mourners in the next grave look highly suspicious. He visits Jeff and begs him to pursue the case, despite any physical evidence. Jeff refuses, due to ongoing financial difficulty; but by chance, he is on the way to visit a client in the vicinity of the perpetrators, near Goldehurst, and Marty is able to switch road signs to get him to visit their estate.

Jeff arrives innocently at their manor house, asking for directions, but the guilty funeral mourners, overlooking the will of their recently murdered friend, search him, realise he is a private eye, and lock him up. Soon enough, they dump him in a river (where he nearly encounters death by drowning) and is saved by a fisherman from becoming a permanent white-suited ghost, like his friend Marty Hopkirk. Again by chance, the fisherman, Donald Seaton, turns out to be a related to the murder case in that he believes his identity has been stolen by the funeral mourners whilst he was away in Australia. He hires Jeff for the case.

Jeff investigates the mansion, and in doing so, encounters the elderly housekeeper—who, like him, is looking for official information to prove that the man at the funeral is an imposter. Jeff also tracks down a lead to a man in a farm barn who was once an employee of Donald Seaton, but he is shot by one of the funeral mourners.

Eventually, it turns out that Cynthia (Hilary Tindall) was actually once the wife of the real Donald Seaton, but had divorced, and her new husband is pretending to be the real Seaton in order to sell off the large valuable estate; but this is not before Jeff Randall is thrown down a well, leaving Marty to attract some passers-by to make a wish, with a filthy dirty Randall replying, "I wish I was out of this perishing well!" as the series ends.

Cast

Production

Although the 26th and final episode in the series, The Smile Behind the Veil was the 7th episode to be shot, filmed between August and September 1968.[1]

References

  1. ↑ "Programmes". Randallandhopkirk.org.uk. Retrieved 8 April 2014.
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