A young couple's stolen furniture becomes a moveable feast
as Eddie takes on the case and causes the thieves to panic. |
Series 2, Episode 8:
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"ANOTHER MAN'S CASTLE"
written by DAVE HUMPHRIES
directed by DOUGLAS CAMFIELD
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SYNOPSIS BY NICK:
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NICK'S REVIEW:
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Original BBC1 tx:
7 DECEMBER 1980
2120 - 2215hrs,
watched by 11 million
Filming dates:
4 - 19 August 1980
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Philip and Diana Hosken are moving house. When they arrive at their new home, they find
that the removal van containing all their belongings has been stolen en route.
Meanwhile, Terry Bowen, an ex-boxer, acquaintance of Erica's, and businessman, shows
Cleo and her boyfriend into a house by the sea, which they have rented. Bowen has furnished the house with the Hosken's stolen property. To provide themselves with spending money, Cleo suggests that they sell the colour television to a trader in the local market. When the police are told of the Hosken's theft, they question the trader as to where he got the television; it matches the description given by the robbed couple.
Eddie is asked to help, and questions Howard and Billy, the removal men. The younger of
the two surreptitiously makes a phone call to Bowen's associates whilst Eddie talks to the other worker.
Bowen's latest scheme is to frighten an old man out of his cottage. Nearby, he is sheltering
two wanted criminals.
Hearing about the trader, Eddie visits him and hears about Cleo, the 'girl in the red top.'
Terry Bowen becomes suspicious about Eddie and invites him to a seaside charity event,
where he participates in games with kids. Watching Eddie sketch portraits of kids, Bowen chances to se a drawing of Cleo, based on the trader's description, among his earlier work.
Bowen confronts Cleo and her boyfriend about the television, taking all their money from
them. The girl, however, has kept an antique chess set and proposes to sell this to the trader. When they do so, the trader tells them that he needs to consult a friend about the price, asking them to come back in an hour.
The trader tells Eddie that the girl has returned. Eddie, having recently been knocked
unconscious by one of Bowen's men whilst investigating a vacant house, comes to the stall and talks to the girl, who eventually agrees to help him.
Cleo visits Bowen in his office and tells him that she needs money to 'disappear', as Eddie
wants to use her as a police witness. Bowen pays her and confronts Eddie at the old man's cottage, the next property on a list which Erica has given him. Bowen is about to assault Eddie when the old man sets fire to his cottage and disappears inside. Rescuing him, the two men are surprised when the police arrive and arrest the two criminals, now exposed as bank robbers, that Bowen has been hiding. They were forced to move in when they saw the fire. |
A wonderful episode crammed with incident and character. The
plot is intricate, yet easy to understand, and devoid of padding, whilst the two prominent one-off characters, Bowen and the trader, are memorable. Bowen is played with arrogant gusto by John Forgeham, whilst the trader, dressed in a wonderful array of old army clothing, and given a series of wry lines, is equally outstanding. Eddie is at home in the marketplace, bantering with the stall owners and finding himself, at one point, mistaken as a trader himself! It's difficult not to laugh at his use of Erica's exercise bike. Within the dense narrative of this episode, the production team manage to find room for a plot thread involving Erica, where Eddie is thrown out of the flat when her ex-husband comes to visit. Series two seems to become faster paced with the addition of Chris Boucher as script editor. After the enjoyable though slower moving episodes such as "Utmost Good Faith" and "The Farmer Had a Wife", this differing approach maintains the latter half of the series' verve. |
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS BY DENE:
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Eddie finally traces Cleo,
the girl who had sold the Hoskens' property |
Erica is invited for lunch
by her old friend Bowen
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A terrific performance by
JOHN FORGEHAM as shady businessman Terry Bowen |
Eddie investigates when the
Hoskens' furniture is stolen on route to their new home |
Bowen thinks it is Eddie who has
called the police at the conclusion of "ANOTHER MAN'S CASTLE" |
Trader helps Eddie when
the Hoskens' furniture turns up in the market |
Don is not amused
when Eddie's antics almost lead to his arrest |
EPISODE GUIDE
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CAST & CREW
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EPISODE GUIDE
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This is John Forgeham's episode. Ex-boxer Terry Bowen is a villainous character certainly
(who wouldn't be out of place in an episode of Minder, the theme music to which is heard briefly here!), but he has a lot of genuine charm. He is even a friend of Erica's - they had met, she tells Eddie, when he was her "star pupil" at a summer business class she taught. I don't think she would have been taken in by him if he weren't, on some level, sincere. We see his dealings with other people too, his secretary for one, and although he most certainly has an unpleasant side, that's not all there is to this man. I reckon his success isn't just down to shady practices.
Not that he doesn't deserve his fate, but Bowen seems genuinely hurt when the police
show up at the conclusion; as if it's the end of his 'fun and games'. His cry of "You b*****d, Shoestring!" is almost plaintive. But for once, Eddie's involvement turns out to be ancillary (akin to "AN UNCERTAIN CIRCLE") as Bowen has been under police surveillance for some time, for reasons different to those being investigated here. In fact Eddie needn't have been there at all (preempting Raiders of the Lost Ark perhaps? Maybe not). |
There is more potential for Erica in this episode than is
realised I think (especially given the indisputable talents of Doran Godwin). We could perhaps have had a scene at the end where we hear her thoughts on the fact that Bowen has been arrested. In addition, in this episode more than any other, she has good reason to be completely infuriated by Eddie (wonderful chap though he is): she is as helpful as ever with his investigations, etc. and yet he runs out on her, rudely, on more than one occasion. Her feelings on this behaviour are certainly written all over her face (and she must know by now what he's like), but maybe it would have been nice to give voice to them. Not that Eddie, in the midst of a case, would have listened mind you! |