ALL WORK AND NO PAY • REVIEW

ALL WORK AND NO PAY • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... On a residential street late at night, a distinctive vintage Bentley tourer approaches, its yellow headlights scything through the gloom. It turns right and shortly afterwards is brought to a halt by its driver in the roadside opposite Jean Hopkirk's apartment. The vehicle is carrying two immaculately dressed rogues, brothers Henry and George Foster. The pair gaze up towards Jean's window, and see that the room beyond is illuminated - their victim is at home, so their plan can be set in motion. Henry reaches under the steering wheel and retrieves a small case, which he hands to his brother George. George removes the cover of the case and a compact control device is revealed beneath it. He extends a radio aerial and studies the device's controls. He turns the unit on and adjusts a couple of controls, after which he and his brother turn their gaze once more to Jean Hopkirk's window. Inside, Jean is reading, stretched out on her setee. Suddenly she notices one of her china vases flying across the room before her. She reacts, startled as it careers into a picture on the wall to her left, and shatters. Then her dining table rises from the floor and rapidly falls back, toppling over. A small chair hurtles across the room and smashes her television. She drops to the ground and reaches for the telephone. She grabs the receiver and calls Jeff, who is at home in bed in his pyjamas, strumming at his guitar. He picks up the phone when it rings and hears the sound of things breaking before Jeannie's panicked voice cuts in. Jeff asks if she's at some kind of party, but quickly realises that something is wrong. Jean pleads for Jeff's help. He puts the receiver down and throws on his overcoat without bothering to change out of his yellow bedwear. Minutes later, he is on the road. Jeannie, meanwhile, runs out of her flat and up the road. She runs out into the path of an oncoming vehicle - Jeff's! He slams on the breaks and manages to stop the Vauxhall just in time...

• Production Brief... All Work and No Pay was the twelfth episode to go before the cameras. It was the fifth episode to have been written by the prolific Donald James, and it witnessed the return to the director's chair of Jeremy Summers, who had directed The Smile Behind the Veil two months previously, here delivering his second episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased).

• Malcolm Christopher, who had been Production Manager on episodes of The Saint for ITC, took over the Production Manager role from this episode. He replaced Jack Morrison, who had filled the position on all episodes between Who Killed Cock Robin? and That's How Murder Snowballs. Christopher's association with ITC continued into the 1970s, and saw him engaged as Production Manager for the entire series of The Persuaders! and Production Supervisor for Return of the Saint towards the end of the decade.

• While most of the poltergeist disturbances such as flying ornaments, rising furniture and so on were achieved by the employment of 'invisible' wires, some were hand-operated just off camera. These latter instances included the table that Jeff and Jeannie are hiding beneath for protection at the Fosters' during their ordeal, and the sword that Jeff has to fight off with a chair. However, the shot of the sword approaching and passing to the left of the camera at 42 minutes and 24 seconds was achieved optically in post-production.

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but in his DVD liner notes, Andrew Pixley states some filming was carried out in November 1968. A fully edited version of this episode was completed by mid-May 1969.

• On Location... This episode returned to one of the most recognisable filming locations in British adventure series of the 1960s, the impressive Stanmore Hall, a period gothic style mansion which is Grade II* listed. It had originally featured, albeit briefly in The Trouble With Women. Additionally, there is good use of the Maida Vale locations, with Annette André on location at Lauderdale Road, home of Jeannie's apartment, along with brief visits to the ever dependable Elstree Studios backlot. More details in Locations: All Work and No Pay.

• Seeing Things... All Work and No Pay received its first UK broadcast on Friday 26th September 1969 at 7.30pm when it aired in monochrome in the ATV, Channel, Granada, HTV, Ulster, Westward and Yorkshire regions.

• It was first shown in colour on ITV on Sunday 19th July 1970 at 9.05pm in the Tyne Tees region.

• Following their transmission of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner in black and white, the Tyne Tees ITV channel moved to colour broadcasts in time for the second episode in their run - All Work and No Pay. The region's Pontop Pike transmitter switched to colour on Friday 17th July 1970 and Tyne Tees transmitted All Work and No Pay two days later at 7.30pm.

• It is unclear whether Border Television screened this episode as scheduled on Friday 16th January 1970 as it was scheduled again at the end of the run on Friday 2nd July 1971. Since Border didn't repeat any other episodes until 1973, it seems likely that the first scheduled screening was pre-empted, even though it was listed on the day of broadcast in The Times newspaper.

• Trivia... The Foster brothers' beautiful Bentley 3½ Litre Low Door Vanden Plas Tourer, manufactured in 1934, remains a working vehicle today. It was originally purchased by the Hollywood actor Robert Montgomery and delivered to his London home in May 1935 by Jack Barclay Ltd. The car was shipped to America for Montgomery's use in September of the same year. It is unclear when it was returned to Great Britain, prior to its employment in All Work and No Pay, but by the time it received an extensive restoration in 2000, it was back in the United States. Between 2000 and 2009, it resided in the prestigious Keeler Collection in Latham, New York, where it was maintained to a scrupulous condition, before it was sold for €184,253 (approx. £165,115 in 2009) to its new owner who lives in Germany. When the car was originally registered in 1934, the colour of its bodywork was recorded as being green, but when it appeared in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) it had been repainted in black. The 3½ litre engined model was in production between 1933 and 1936 and a total of 1,771 examples were manufactured. Today, BXM 514 sports its original engine, chassis (registration B63DK) and bodywork, and its livery has been returned to the original British racing green.

Images © Anamera.com, 2008 except ITV Studios, 1968 (top left image)

• We learn in this episode that Marty can tell when the telephone is about to ring, seconds before it actually does. We also get an idea of how long he and Jeannie were married, since he reminisces about his bachelor days of "six or seven years ago". He is however, not impressed when he finds Jeff in Jeannie's flat in his pyjamas, with his wife. Jeannie, meanwhile, reminds Jeff that the detective agency has been running for about six years, so it would seem that Marty married Jeannie and went into business with Jeff at approximately the same time. Knowing Marty, he would have seen the venture as a way of providing financial security for himself and his new wife.

• Also, we see Jeff trying to pawn some items, but the Foster brothers pay the pawnbroker not to accept anything. However, Jeff later manages to pawn the curtains and carpet from his apartment.

• At the start of the episode, we find Jeannie reading The Penguin Dictionary of Saints by Donald Attwater, published in 1965. Undoubtedly this was an ITC in-joke concerning the highly successful adventure series The Saint, which had ceased production after six years just prior to the creation of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). Annette Andre guest starred in five episodes of The Saint, deepening the connection between the two series.

• This is one of only four episodes in the series which doesn't feature Jeff in a hand-to-hand fight with an adversary. The other episodes that feature this unusual turn of events are Money to Burn, The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo and The Ghost Talks. However, his luck hasn't changed completely, as he has to fend off a poltergeist attack in which he is faced with flying ornaments, furniture and a sword with a life of its own, and we also hear that, mirroring the Randall and Hopkirk company cashflow, Jeff's own bank account is in a bad way - he is £27 overdrawn. Jeannie also points out that after six years, the fact that he is still lunching in the local Laundromat is a sure sign that the business has not improved.

• Only You, Jeff? Henry Foster claims to be in contact with Marty and tells Jeannie that he has a message from her late husband. Marty is present when Foster makes this claim and retorts that he is not in contact with him, is completely unaware that he is there, and that his message to Jeannie is that Foster is a fraud. Needless to say, the message is not heard by Foster, and not delivered to Jeannie!

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Marty is the only ghost we see in this episode, and although there are a number of poltergeist incidents, they are all faked by the Fosters.

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

	1934 Bentley 3½ Litre Low Door Vanden Plas Tourer Registration BXM 514 Driven by Henry Foster
	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'
	1964 Austin Mini Super Deluxe Mk I Registration BAP 245B Driven by Jean Hopkirk	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'My Late Lamented Friend and Partner', 'You Can Always Find a Fall Guy', 'Never Trust a Ghost', 'Vendetta for a Dead Man', 'Just for the Record', 'Could You Recognise the Man Again?', 'A Disturbing Case', 'Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave', 'The Ghost Talks' Department S - 'The Man from X' The Saint - 'The Time to Die' The Persuaders! - 'Greensleeves'
	1967 Lotus Elan Plus 2 (Type 50) Registration LPW 120E Driven by Laura Watson (not seen driving in episode) and Henry Foster	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'The Smile Behind the Veil' Department S - 'The Last Train to Redbridge'
	1967 Ford Zephyr 4 Mark IV Registration OLR 477E	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'That's How Murder Snowballs', 'Money to Burn', 'The Man from Nowhere', 'The Ghost Talks'

• Seen It All Before? Another visit to the Elstree Studios backlot, this time to one of the street sections, here representing a yard area of the Fosters' mansion. The sequence also features the 1967 Lotus Elan Plus 2, registration number LPW 120E, last seen being driven by Hilary Tindall as Cynthia Seaton in The Smile Behind the Veil.

• The Stanmore Hall location had previously been seen in The Trouble With Women as the base of the Society of Spiritualists. Once wonders if the Fosters were hosts and active members!

• To represent the interior of the Fosters' mansion, the hallway and study sets, seen in most of the previous episodes of the series in one form or another, were again redressed.

• Cock-ups... It takes just 28 seconds for the first cock-up to present itself, when Henry Foster pulls the car over opposite Jean Hopkirk's flat. The sequence cuts from an on-location shot on Lauderdale Road to an in-studio shot against a painted backdrop. The style of house depicted in the backdrop is not present on Lauderdale Road and does not match the previous shot at all.

Image © ITV Studios, 1968

• In the scene commencing at 1 minute and 5 seconds in which Jean Hopkirk is subjected to a supposed poltergeist visitation in her lounge, wires can be seen in some shots depicting vases, tables, etc being levitated. This is also the case with similar happenings later in the episode at the Fosters' mansion. These effects would have been difficult to achieve without wires being visible on Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'s budget and with the technology of the time, and it is to the credit of those working on the series that the wires are often very hard to pick out even on modern telecine transfers viewed on large screens.

• At 1 minute and 33 seconds, as part of the poltergeist attack, a small chair flies across the room and smashes the protective glass screen of Jean's television (not the actual tube), also moving the set back several inches on its stand. When we see it again a few seconds later, the television is lacking the broken glass and it has magically moved back to the fore edge of the stand!

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• At 3 minutes and 11 seconds, we see Jeff in the Vauxhall, slamming on the brakes. This is shot in studio against a blue screen, but there is no street background optically printed over the shot. This could simply be an instance of cost-cutting. This is more noticeable on the DVD print (where the shot appears at 3 minutes and 3 seconds).

• At 8 minutes and 16 seconds, when Jeff is eating his lunch at the laundromat, we see Marty is sitting beside him, but further back than Jeff. When the shot cuts to the front, the pair are level. When the shot cuts back to the side view, again they are staggered. This is a compositional consideration, but still it looks a little odd.

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• At 9 minutes and 53 seconds, Jeff drives Jeannie around four central London streets - Charlotte Street, Goodge Street, Tottenham Court Road and Grafton Way, all in W1. However, due to the haphazard selection of optically printed background footage from the World Backgrounds BP 1009 reel, their journey actually makes little geographical sense and we see the same buildings going past the windows on a couple of occasions. Was Jeff enjoying the conversation so much that he was going around in circles? The route is different for each:

  • Jeff's route is Charlotte Street (opposite Scala Street) then down Goodge Street to the junction with Whitfield Street. We pick him up again after he has turned off Tottenham Court Road onto Grafton Way.

  • Jeannie's route is Charlotte Street past the Tottenham Street and Scala Street intersections. She then turns on to Goodge Street (twice!) and we then pick her up again on Tottenham Court Road by the row of shops that used to be between the deep level shelter entrance and Lloyd's Bank.

  We wouldn't normally cry "cock-up" for backgrounds not making real world geographical sense, but the repeated shots of the same buildings land it slap bang in the middle of cock-up territory!

• At 12 minutes and 32 seconds, Jeannie turns into the Fosters' drive in her Mini. In the wide shot she begins to turn left off the road and the camera then cuts to a process shot close-up of the inside of the car as she turns the steering wheel and the reverse shot straightens up. We then cut back outside and the car is pretty much at the point it was at before she turns the steering wheel.

• At 12 minutes and 53 seconds, Jeannie exits the Mini and goes to ring the Fosters' doorbell. It is clearly an acting double and not Annette André and the stand-in has long blonde hair, very curly at the neck (quite possibly a wig). When we cut to the interior, Annette André's hairstyle is a little shorter, straighter and styled upwards at the neck. She also has a brick wall behind her outside the front door which wasn't there on the location!

Images © ITV Studios, 1968

• At 26 minutes and 50 seconds, the shadow of a moving boom microphone can be seen on the upper part of the wall, swapping left and right between Kenneth Cope and Mike Pratt as their characters' conversation about Laura Watson plays out.

• At 34 minutes and 17 seconds, we see Jeff ringing the Fosters' doorbell as Jeannie had done previously. As in the earlier scene, a brick wall has magically appeared outside when George opens the door to him.

• At 45 minutes and 58 seconds, Mike Pratt, having cut the electric cable to the lock above the door at the Fosters' with the sword, tries to swipe at lock itself and break it off. He fails to make any impression, but then continues as if he has!

• And Finally... One wonders whether the Foster brothers' audacious scheme has been hatched out of desperation when faced with mounting bills resulting from so many years of failed spiritual experimentation. The costs involved in replacing broken chinaware alone must have caused them to remortgage their mansion several times over!

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, Corinna Hoptroff,
Anthony McKay and Andrew Pixley

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