THAT'S HOW MURDER SNOWBALLS • REVIEW

THAT'S HOW MURDER SNOWBALLS • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... It is dusk, and the Palace Theatre has attracted a healthy audience for the evening show. The act currently on stage is The Fabulous Fernandez and Abel, who bill themselves as "the greatest mind reading act in the world". Fernandez is on stage, wearing a blindfold, while his partner is down among the audience, strolling up and down the centre aisle. He holds a stamped envelope in his hand, and asks Fernandez to tell him the address it carries. After some deliberation, the mind reader proclaims: "Mr Bernard Kempson, 23 Tudor Close, Watford". Abel asks a member of the audience to read the address, and the audience applauds when it is reveal that Fernandez was correct. Fernandez removes his blindfold and Abel then announces the climax of their act. He holds a six-shot revolver in his hand and reveals that he has one blank cartridge that he will ask a member of the audience to place in the chamber of their choice, then, with the gun aimed at him, Fernandez will foretell on which chamber the gun will fire. Abel walks to the seventh row from the stage and asks a woman to load the gun. The weapon armed, Abel thanks her and aims the revolver at Fernandez, alone on the stage. "Are you ready, Fernandez?" asks Abel of his partner, who confirms that he is. Abel then asks which chamber the gun will fire on? Fernandez declares that it will fire on the third. He is proved right, but the shot mortally wounds him. The cartridge was live. Fernandez falls to the floor, and pandemonium reigns in the Palace Theatre. Jeff Randall and Jeannie Hopkirk, who had been in the audience watching the show, dash to the man's aid. Jeff cradles Fernandez in his arms. The mind reader's last words are "he said he would kill me," causing Jeff and Jeannie to look to Abel, who still holds the gun and shakes his head in denial of the accusation.

• Production Brief... That's How Murder Snowballs was the eleventh episode to go before the cameras. It was the first television script that erstwhile director Ray Austin had ever written, the commission being made possible by Dennis Spooner, who encouraged the former stuntman when he expressed a desire to write for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). The episode would be Austin's only script for the series, but he went on to write for Department S and Shirley's World for ITC and The Adventures of Black Beauty for London Weekend Television, in tandem with a thriving directorial career, before emigrating to the United States of America in 1978. In the business there, he combined writing and directing and was much sought after for both. In his later years, he turned his hand to writing novels, his authorial debut being The Eagle Heist (2002). He was the only person who both wrote and directed episodes of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

• Just as That's How Murder Snowballs would prove to be Ray Austin's solitary writing credit for Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), it also proved to be a one-off engagement for the episode's director, Paul Dickson. Born Alan Paul Dickson in Cardiff on 18th January 1920, he was educated at Llandaff Cathedral School, and later became a boarder at Ellesmere College, where he joined the amateur dramatics group. At the outbreak of war, he applied to the forces as an ordinary soldier, even though he would have been officer material, as he "wanted to experience more". Consequently, he spent seven years in the Royal Artillery and worked with the Special Operations Executive in northern Italy using radar to pinpoint landing operations for Allied agents. After the war in 1946, he entered the film industry working as assistant director for Paul Rotha at Films of Fact, a documentary unit producing public information films, before moving to World Wide Pictures. At the turn of the decade, he collaborated with writer Ted Willis on The Undefeated (1950), a film Dickson directed which told the story of how a disabled ex-serviceman overcame his wartime injuries. The film was nominated for an Oscar and also won a British Film Academy Award, judged as Best Documentary. The next year saw Dickson deliver what many recognise as his most accomplished work, David (1951), a drama-documentary focusing on the life of a school caretaker and poet, David Griffiths. It was made for the Festival of Britain, commissioned to represent Wales. Later, in 1960, he directed Stone into Steel, a 35 minute documentary for the United Steel Companies, which was filmed at their Scunthorpe Works. This won the Best Documentary category at the Venice Film Festival and remains highly acclaimed today. Dickson also showed his flair in the direction of commercial films, beginning with a commission for Unilever, and this work ultimately led to his being invited to ply his trade in the United States, where he achieved some considerable success in the field. Returning to Britain in 1966, he quickly picked up where he left off and made contact with people who he had worked with at Kenilworth Films and the Danziger Film Studios. He soon became a favoured director on television film series such as The Champions and Department S, and also chalked up single engagements on The Avengers and, of course, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), despite having a reputation by then as something of a hell-raiser. In 1980, Paul was appointed Head of Direction at the National Film and Television School in Beaconsfield, where he found great satisfaction in passing on his knowledge of the industry, narrative approaches and filming techniques. Paul Dickson died aged 91 on 6th October 2011.

• The opening shots following the title sequence, showing the audience exiting the auditorium and descending the stairs, were filmed on a studio mock-up rather than at the Palace Theatre, Watford. Note the wallpaper that doesn't quite match that seen through the double doors from inside the auditorium (the thin dividing line between the light and dark blue strips is missing). This choice was no doubt made due to the difficulties installing cameras and lights in such a small space in the theatre. Consequently, the extras seen in the audience had to be available for both location and studio filming.

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but in his DVD liner notes, Andrew Pixley stated the filming was carried out between October and November 1968 and a report in The Stage and Television Today (28th November 1968) stated that filming had just been completed on this episode. A fully edited version of this episode was completed in mid-April 1969.

• On Location... Just the one, solitary location beyond the Elstree Studios backlot was utilised in this episode, but it was employed for both exterior and interior filming - the Palace Theatre on Clarendon Road, Watford. More details in Locations: That's How Murder Snowballs.

• Seeing Things... That's How Murder Snowballs received its first UK broadcast on Friday 10th October 1969 at 7.30pm when it aired in monochrome in the ATV, Channel, Granada, HTV, Ulster, Westward and Yorkshire ITV regions.

• It was first shown in colour on ITV on Sunday 2nd August 1970 at 9.05pm in the Tyne Tees  region.

• Trivia... When interviewed for Time Screen magazine, Kenneth Cope recalled that the sequence where Marty dances across the stage to meet Jeff was included at his suggestion. "The original scene was Michael standing in the wings, and I appear next to him and was to play the scene like that. As I said to Ray Austin, 'Let's have a bit of fun,' as I was desperate to get some comedy into it. 'Let me appear on the wrong side by accident, as it's always funny when the ghost appears in the wrong place. Let's be shy at first walking across, then let me do a dance and let me get confident, go back and do it again and then come along and play the scene."

• Another innovation claimed by Kenneth Cope is Marty singing the lyric, "Next day on your dressing room they'll hang a star", when appearing in the doorway of Jeff's dressing room at the theatre. The lyrics hailed from Irving Berlin's world famous song, There's No Business Like Show Business, which was written for the 1946 musical, Annie Get Your Gun.

• We learn in this episode that Jeff has a less than moral sideline to help pay the rent - he supplies news stories to the press via his old school friend Barry Jones (Patrick Holt). When he reports the death of Fernandez to the press and not the police, he finds himself on the receiving end of criticism from Jeannie and Inspector Nelson, both of whom make digs about his "bloody money".

• We also discover that Jeff once paid Jeannie's salary in kind, with a gold-plate earring with a pearl on the end of it. Marty implies that he is not impressed that it wasn't even solid gold.

• Marty reveals that even though he is unable to eat a meal, he still frequents restaurants out of habit. He tells Jeff that his last visit to such an establishment was to The Savoy, one of London's top hotels, where he was in the company of the Prime Minister.

• The improved definition of the 2017 Network Blu-ray edition reveals that the show playing at the Palace Theatre when the exterior shots were filmed was Beauty & the Beast. This was the theatre's 1969 pantomime, which was specially written for the Watford Civic Theatre Repertory Company by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, then appearing in the television comedy Do Not Adjust Your Set and soon to come to international fame as part of Monty Python's Flying Circus. A year earlier the two friends had written the theatre's 1968 pantomime Aladdin.

• Only You, Jeff? For a moment, we think that the old lady at the boating lake can see Marty, and Jeff shares our concern. He then realises that the talkative old dear has seen him taking to "Marty", but that she thinks Marty is one of the ducks bobbing around near the jetty they are standing on.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Marty is the only ghost we see in this episode, even if no-one else can see him - even when he shows off, skipping between the dancing girls on stage.

• The Vehicles... That's How Murder Snowballs is an episode practically devoid of vehicles. Even Jeff's Vauxhall is notable by its absence, and although two cars appear, they are actually one car!

	1967 Ford Zephyr 4 Mark IV Registration OLR 477E Incidental Vehicle	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'All Work and No Pay', 'Money to Burn', 'The Man from Nowhere', 'The Ghost Talks'
	1967 Ford Zephyr 4 Mark IV Registration OLR 477E This is the same car as above, now doubling as a police car	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'All Work and No Pay', 'Money to Burn', 'The Man from Nowhere', 'The Ghost Talks'

• Seen It All Before? The crew returned to the Elstree Studios backlot, where they had been filming the park bench sequence for the previous episode, Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying? The jetty stretching out into the water tank can be seen in the background in those shots, and is used here more extensively for the scene where Jeff talks to Marty and then the old lady.

• The sequence showing Marty dancing on stage, weaving between the female dance troupe, is all too familiar as the footage had been borrowed and superimposed into an earlier episode, It's Supposed To Be Thicker Than Water.

• The song that Gloria Marsh (Grazina Frame) performs on stage, Out to Get You, composed by Chris Andrews, had previously featured in an episode of The Saint, Portrait of Brenda (Spring 1968), where it had been sung by Anna Carteret in a recording studio. Both programmes used the same recording, and the actual vocalist is unknown.

• The fur traders warehouse interior set seen in Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying? was redressed for this episode, notably with the addition of Snowy's office. This set was long thought to have been filmed on location at the Palace Theatre, a suggestion that was made feasible by the one-time presence of a spiral staircase at the theatre, but the layout of the theatre does not support the theory. Additionally, the lighting has a different quality to the scenes shot in the theatre.

• The hallway set was heavily redressed to double as the theatre foyer, and the interior of the cafe near the theatre had been seen in the series before in For the Girl Who Has Everything, where it was dressed as the interior of The Buttery.

• The corridor with the sloping floor and industrial lighting was a set that had previously been used in The Champions as the interior of an arctic base in Operation Deep Freeze, a production also directed by Paul Dickson.

• Cock-ups... This is an episode that features a cock-up before it even begins - in the ITC synopsis provided to television companies and the press. It goes to some lengths to explain what went wrong with Fernandez and Abel's "Russian Roulette" act, describing that "one cartridge is live; the others blank. The routine has been performed time and time again, but this time the live cartridge is in the wrong chamber." In the episode, there is only one bullet in the gun, and it is meant to be a blank cartridge, but it is a live round because it has been switched by the member of the audience asked to load it.

• Due to the tight filming schedule at the Watford Palace Theatre location, the exact same audience of extras are seen sitting in the same seats for performances taking place on two consecutive nights. Was there nothing else to do in this town? Or maybe they enjoyed witnessing Fernandez's murder so much that they came back hoping for more!

• At 12 minutes and 10 seconds into the episode, the stage manager (James Belchamber) arrives to see Jeff's audition piece on stage. As he goes to his seat, Marty realises that he is sitting where the man wants to sit, so the ghost gets up and moves to the next seat. Despite the fact that the stage manager cannot see Marty, he waits for him to vacate the seat before he himself sits down. This is actually a mistake by the film labs where they have miss-cut the negative. The point where the stage manager stops when he gets to the seat is the usual freeze point as shouted by the director. The actors hold their position and you just see Kenneth Cope then start to move and then it cuts to the next shot with the stage manager and Marty already in their seats. Unfortunately, the action of not cutting the negative in the right place meant the tail end of the shot facing the stage, with Marty popping across to the adjacent seat and the stage manager sitting down, was lost as the duration there was fixed. As this was not what the director or film editor planned for this sequence, when the episode was restored for the 2017 Network Blu-ray release, the restoration team debated whether to cut the end of that first shot down. However, as this would have resulted in even more of a jump in action to the following scene it was decided to leave it as was.

• When Marty bows to the audience, his tie is hanging out. When the shot cuts to a close-up and he is back standing it has magically become tucked inside his jacket.

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• When Jeff returns the pair of shoes that he has found in his dressing room, Snowy accepts them and explains that they belong to either Fernandez or Abel. Unfortunately, the actor Arthur Brough stumbles over his line and declares that "Those must be for Mr Fernandez's or Abel's". The line would have been either "Those must be Mr Fernandez's or Abel's" or "Those must be for Mr Fernandez or Abel." Brough, however, delivered something in between - but we love Snowy, so he's forgiven!

• At 43 minutes and 11 seconds, one of Inspector Nelson's colleagues enters the auditorium through the double doors. He slams the door behind him, but it makes no audible noise.

• At 48 minutes and 41 seconds, Michael Griffiths (playing Inspector Nelson) appears to find something amusing and nearly breaks out of character. In fact, the whole scene feels rather rough around the edges, as though previous takes had been difficult and the cast had broken into fits of the giggles.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

• In the end credit sequence, titlers Chambers and Partners once again drop a clanger, this time by crediting actor John Cazabon and John Gazabon!

• And Finally... On Sunday 13th December 2015, Randall and Hopkirk fans (including the team behind this website) gathering for their Christmas get-together were delighted to be introduced to singer-actress Grazina Frame, who played chanteuse Gloria Marsh in That's How Murder Snowballs. Grazina was warmly welcomed and regaled us with stories of her time working on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and other productions made at Elstree. She also spoke of how she worked and became friends with many of the greats of music and television - comedians Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise, singer Tommy Steele and actor and entertainer Reg Varney, among many others. Although she had not kept any memorabilia from her Randall and Hopkirk episode, she did bring along the dress which she wore as Gloria Marsh - a dress which she had made herself. A very talented and delightful woman, whom it was a massive pleasure to meet.

Grazina Frame meets the RAHDAS gang!

Image © RAHDAS, 2015

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