THE TROUBLE WITH WOMEN • REVIEW

THE TROUBLE WITH WOMEN • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... On a cold, rainy night, a policeman is walking his beat. Nearby, on Sycamore Street outside a gaming club, Jeff Randall sits in his Vauxhall keeping an eye on the apartment block across the road, complaining that he should have worn his sheepskin lining. Marty is sitting on the back seat, his feet resting on the front passenger seat. He tells his friend that he is getting soft. Jeff readies himself to light another cigarette. The policeman turns into Sycamore Street, sees Jeff in the car and approaches him, gesturing that he should wind down his window. Jeff explains that he is a private detective and that he is on a divorce case. Satisfied that Jeff is not breaking any laws, the constable leaves, but not before he has made a sarcastic comment about Jeff's profession: "I suppose we've all got a living to make," he says archly. Shortly after the policeman walks off, a car pulls up across the road. In the Vauxhall, Jeff complains that they'll probably be on watch until dawn, to which Marty replies that, "There's no point in us both hanging about!" and promptly disappears. Jeff is less than impressed. Meanwhile, the passenger window of the car across the road is wound down and a pistol fitted with a silencer appears from behind it. It appears Jeff, who has decided to settle down for a brief nap, may well be the target, but then a man exits from the club. Two shots are fired and the man staggers towards the Vauxhall. Jeff awakens from his snooze to see a man's face against the driver's door window. The man slowly slides to the floor. Jeff gets out of the car and goes to investigate as the assassin's car is driven off. Having heard the commotion, the policeman has returned. "Divorce case, you say?" he asks of Jeff. Jeff pleads his innocence and tells the officer about the car that drove off. He has to admit that he had not seen the registration number.  The constable insists that he must give a statement at the station.

• Production Brief... The Trouble With Women, the ninth episode to be filmed, was the second script for the series by Tony Williamson.  Meanwhile, director Cyril Frankel (also the series Creative Consultant) took charge of his third episode.

• Tony Williamson's script borrowed an idea - the 'waiting list' of ghosts at The Society of Spiritualists seance - from Dennis Spooner's original series outline (see our Origins section for further detail about this document). The scene as depicted in The Trouble With Women omits the upturned wine glass routine - that turns up in Williamson's first script for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Who Killed Cock Robin. The relevant section of Spooner's outline is reproduced below.

• Furthermore, the 'queue of ghosts' sequence called for the Costume Department to come up with some clever shortcuts owing to the number of ghosts to be seen on camera together. To begin with, all of Kenneth Cope's spare outfits were utilised, after which the remainder of the ghosts were dressed in white or cream costumes from stock. This led to actor Howard Goorney being called on to wear a woollen polar neck jumper and white trousers, a female extra donning the white fur hat and costume of the deceased Mrs Pleasance from For the Girl Who Has Everything, and a chef being hastily included in the scene!

• The episode was one of those rare ITC animals - one with night-time scenes that were actually shot at night, rather than using day-for-night filters on the cameras. The opening pre-credit teaser was shot on Standish Road in Hammersmith, London W6 and, in another one of those rare occurances, actor Mike Pratt was actually present at the location (they must have given Harry Fielder the night off!).

• The success or failure of this episode depended upon actress Denise Buckley's ability to convince the audience that she was playing two very different characters. Courtesy of a strawberry blonde wig, a beauty spot, subtly reshaped nose and heavy make-up, the illusion was complete. Director Cyril Frankel was obviously sure of Buckley's abilities, and those of the make-up department, as otherwise he wouldn't have left his camera lingering in big close-up quite so much.

• The Scottish actor Robert Russell, who plays Harry, one of Lang's bouncers at The Pelican Club, is dubbed throughout, and not terribly convincingly at that. The overdubbing of actors by voice artistes was a common practice in the British film industry at the time. At around the same time, Russell was dubbed by Bernard Kay (of Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave) for Michael Reeves' cult horror Witchfinder General (1968), as Reeves felt that Russell's actual voice didn't fit his body!

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but in his DVD liner notes, Andrew Pixley states the filming commenced in late September 1968. It is believed to have been concluded in November 1968.

• Post production work on this episode was completed in mid-January 1969.

• On Location... The Trouble With Women is an episode without a standout showpiece location, although Stanmore Hall could certainly be described in that way, but it features merely as an establishing shot - it would later be used to much greater effect in All Work and No Pay. There's some excellent night shooting in Hammersmith and a few more nice surprises. More details in Locations - The Trouble With Women.

• Seeing Things... The Trouble With Women received its first UK broadcast when it aired in monochrome in the HTV region on Sunday 28th December 1969.

• It was first shown in colour on ITV on Friday 23rd January 1970 in the ATV Midlands region.

• Trivia... The scene at The Society of Spiritualists is something of an eye-opener on the costume front. As the scene called for an assembly of ghosts, costumes were hastily cobbled together for the shoot, some white, some cream, and this reveals that Marty's white suit is cream, or at least off-white, and not white at all! The colour choice with Kenneth Cope's outfit will undoubtedly have been to do with white often burning out on camera.

• In the earlier episode, For the Girl Who Has Everything, Jeff tells Marty he can't afford an electric razor. Here, we see he has one, so obviously somewhere along the line he has turned a small profit for long enough to buy one!

• After Mrs Lang pays Jeff a £100 advance, Jeff confides to Jeannie that he might even be able to pay her wages this week. Clearly, Jeannie is working at the office more out of charity than anything else!

• Harking back to Jeff's previous gambling record, Marty obviously has very little faith in his friend's talents at the poker table: "Two aces and your face lights up!" he complains.

• The title The Trouble With Women is taken from a line of dialogue in the episode, delivered by Marty Hopkirk: "The trouble with women is they always take you for a sucker – and the trouble with that is they're always right."

• Only You, Jeff? In this episode, Marty is able to communicate with the medium, Mrs Holloway, at a seance she is holding at the North London Division of The Society of Spiritualists. She can hear him clearly and helpfully passes his message on to the police.

• While Susan Lang cannot see or hear Marty, she feels a chill when Marty is near her at The Pelican Club.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... A whole horde of ghosts in this one, in the seance scene, where a number of departed souls are seen queuing up to communicate with Mrs Holloway. Amusingly, their queuing system is so long that those nearing the front of the queue claim to have been waiting three months for their chance to talk to the medium!

• The Vehicles... Appearing in this episode were the following wonders of transport...

	1968 Vauxhall Victor FD 2000 Registration RXD 996F Driven by Jeff Randall	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - used extensively throughout the series Department S - 'The Last Train to Redbridge', 'The Man from X'
	1960 Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre Limousine Registration YUS 36 Driven by Alan Corder and Lang's Chauffeur	Also appeared in: Department S - 'The Ghost of Mary Burnham' Film - Crossplot (1969)
	1968 Ford Zephyr Deluxe MkIV Registration PXD 976F	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'My Late Lamented Friend and Partner', 'A Sentimental Journey', 'You Can Always Find A Fall Guy', 'Who Killed Cock Robin?', 'Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?', 'Never Trust A Ghost', 'Vendetta for a Dead Man', A Disturbing Case', 'Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave'  Department S - 'The Bones of Byrom Blain' and other episodes

• Seen It All Before? The hallway set was utilised once more and was heavily redressed (along with sections of the study set) to form the gaming room set of The Pelican Club.

• Cock-ups... The Trouble With Women is barely underway when we get our first blooper. It's not a blooper in the real sense, more a production shortcoming that raises a wry laugh. At just 37 seconds into the episode, when PC Russell turns into Sycamore Street, we see the street sign and it's clearly cardboard with two holes punched in it, through which it's been tied to a metal railing with cotton! It is doubly unconvincing because it fails to replicate any standard street sign layout and fails to note the London Borough it falls under.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

• The best known blooper from this episode concerns Jeannie's trip to the restaurant across the road to get coffees for her and Jeff. As she crosses the street (at 8 minutes and 31 seconds, on location at Springfield Road, Harrow), she is clearly seen carrying two white cardboard cups with red bands at their tops. When she appears in the office and hands them to Jeff (at 9 minutes and 08 seconds, in the studio), they have miraculously changed to pink. Some sort of heat sensitive chameleon effect, perhaps?

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• When Jeff is taken to the lime quarry to be killed, we see Mike Pratt's double (Harry Fielder) walking off with his back to the car. Aside from the fact that the reverse shots of Mike Pratt walking are against black drapes and we don't see the car in the background, there is also a rather bizarre attempt at matching the location quarry floor (which looks dusty and dry) with a sludgy, wet floor on the backlot. To make matters worse, in some shots, such as this at 50 minutes and 49 seconds, you can see the boundary of the effects pit (see top right hand corner of the picture below).

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

• Finally, when Jeff awakens in the Randall and Hopkirk office after his ordeal at the quarry, we see a very blurred picture of Jeannie. The next shot is of Jeff with his eyes closed – clearly he can see through his eyelids!

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• And Finally... Considering Jeff Randall's normal hand-to-mouth existence, he does quite well out of this escapade. He receives a £100 advance from Susan Lang, from which he gives Jeannie £10 to buy a coffee percolator. The rest is lost at the gambling table, and more besides. When he returns to the Pelican Club to win back the money he owes, he does exceptionally well thanks to Marty's spectral assistance. He now has enough money to repay his debts and still comes away from the club with £208 profit! Despite his relative flushness, this doesn't stop him sleeping two nights at the office where he even keeps a shaving mirror, which causes Jeannie to wonder why he bothers to rent an apartment!

Plotline: Scoton Productions / ITC • UK Transmissions by Simon Coward and Alan Hayes
Review by Alan Hayes • Declassified by Alan Hayes
with thanks to Vince Cox, Alys Hayes, John Holburn and Andrew Pixley

All timings given on this page relate to the Blu-ray editions of this episode