Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) Logo 'When The Spirit Moves You'
by Tony Williamson
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) Cast

After boasting about an unlimited number of bearer bonds, con-artist named Calvin P. Bream finds himself in trouble with a ruthless criminal called Miklos Corri. The bonds are forgeries, and, desperate to save his own neck, Bream tells Corri that he is only the middle-man’; in order to throw the criminal off his trail, Bream finds the name of a detective agency in the classifieds and heads off there - to Randall and Hopkirk. Bream poses as a New York detective in need of a bodyguard after putting the word around London that he is attempting to recover negotiable bonds stolen from his client back in the States. Jeff agrees to help him, planning to use Marty’s talents. Marty arrives at Bream's hotel to find the ‘detective’ getting drunk, but his annoyance is short-lived when Bream suddenly starts talking to him. Marty only has a moment to be surprised, as he realises Bream sounds very British for someone supposedly from New York. Bream admits to being a con-man, and reveals that he is using Jeff as a scapegoat. Meanwhile, Jeff is visited in his flat by two of Corri's men, Perrin and Parkin. They refuse to believe that Jeff knows nothing about the bonds, and a fight ensues; Perrin, aiming for Jeff, shoots Parkin instead, and then knocks Jeff out with a chair. When Jeff comes to Marty tells him that Perrin dragged the body away, and then tells Jeff about the set-up. Furious, Jeff confronts Bream at his hotel, planning to drag the con-man to Corri to explain the situation. Not only can Bream no longer see Marty, but when the conman goes for his coat, Parkin’s body falls out of the wardrobe, and the two detectives realise that it was put there to frame him. Jeff agrees to help Bream only on the condition that he goes to Corri and explains Jeff’s innocence. While Jeff waits in the corridor for Bream to get his hat, Inspector Large arrives; seeing the policeman, Bream ducks back into his room, leaving Jeff in the hall with a dead body. When Large knocks on the door and asks Bream to confirm Jeff's alibi, the conman, now in pyjamas, denies everything. Bream gets drunk again, and once more can see Marty; the ghost threatens to haunt him unless he explains all to the police. After Marty demonstrates his ghostly abilities, the terrified Bream goes to Scotland Yard, and Jeff is released. Bream plans to exchange the bonds for money via the night deposits at Jeff and Corri's respective banks, as neither side trusts the other. At midnight Corri puts £125,000 into the night deposit of Jeff's bank, then pulls a gun on Jeff and takes him back to his penthouse flat. When Bream attempts to put the ‘bonds’ - actually newspaper - into the night deposit at Corri's bank, Perrin intercepts him, and takes the bonds back to Corri, where they discover that they are fake. Perrin is about to kill Jeff, but the detective reminds him that dead men cannot make withdrawals from banks. So Corri decides to use a safecracker named Manny to blow up the night deposit vault with dynamite, also making sure that Jeff sits next to the night deposit, ready to be killed in the explosion. Marty manages to get Bream to get drunk on a bottle of whisky in Jeff’s office, and then makes the conman call the police. The authorities arrive just in time to save Jeff and arrest Corri and his men.

Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt), Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope), Ivor Dean (Inspector Large), Anton Rodgers (Calvin P. Bream), Kieron Moore (Miklos Corri), Michael Gothard (Perrin), Reg Lye (Manny), Bill Reed (Parkin)

Directed by Ray Austin

TX:
UK: 2nd January, 1970 @ 7.25pm

Notes:
*Featuring Jeff Randall and the late Marty Hopkirk