MURDER AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE! • REVIEW

MURDER AIN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE! • DECLASSIFIED

• Pre-Titles Teaser... A Pan American jet plane from America lands at London Heathrow Airport Terminal 2. Waiting at the airport gates is a young blonde, Susan Kirstner, who has come to meet her father. She has not seen him since childhood and she now lives in England with her aunt. Paul Kirstner arrives, a tall, late-middle-aged man with grey hair and moustache. There is a coldness between the two. Kirstner suggests to his daughter that she hands him the keys to her car - he'll drive. On the road journey, Susan chastises her father for being absent from her life for 15 years. He says that with a business as big as his to run, his time belongs to the 200 people who work for him. She is not impressed and questions his motivation for coming to England. Unbeknownst to them, in the middle of the road ahead is a thick-set man who wears a white fedora hat and a white carnation in the buttonhole of his white pinstriped suit. He is smoking a white cigar and laughing. Susan spots him first and warns her father to look out. Kirstner is determined to drive right on as if the man isn't there. Susan grabs at the steering wheel and the car goes off the road, but not until it is right on top of the man. Once the car has come to a rest, Susan dashes out of the car, followed by Kirstner. She is perplexed. The road is empty. She suggests that they must conduct a search, but Kirstner refuses. The man in white will find him - he usually does...

• Production Brief... Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! was the twenty-fourth episode to go before the cameras. It was the ninth and last episode written by Tony Williamson and the seventh to be directed by Jeremy Summers, who had also directed the previous episode, The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo.

• Exact filming dates for this episode are unknown, but it is believed to have been filmed between May and June 1969. A fully edited version of this episode was completed by late August 1969.

• On Location... Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! boasts a small number of location venues, but what it lacks in breadth it makes up for in quality. Piggott's Manor, also seen in Hammer's 1972 chiller Fear in the Night, is an English country manor in the style similar to the Edgwarebury Hotel. That it remains accessible to the public (as the Hare Krishna temple Bhaktivedanta Manor) is a gift to Randall and Hopkirk fans - and literally a stone's throw from the centre of Letchmore Heath, last seen in A Disturbing Case. Otherwise, the episode visits the Randall and Hopkirk offices in Harrow, Jean's locality in Maida Vale, Hadley Wood and South Kensington. The episode's flashback sequence was shot on the ABPC Elstree Studios backlot. More details in Locations: Murder Ain't What It Used To Be!

• Although what is today Bhaktividanta Manor featured prominently in this episode, the shots seen were filmed by the 2nd Unit. Actors' stand-ins were present at the location, permitting the main cast to continue their work back at ABPC Elstree Studios. It is quite possible that the 2nd Unit visited this location for a single day to shoot material for both Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! and Department S: The Bones of Byrom Blain, which was also partly filmed at this venue.

• Haunting Melodies... Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! was singled out as the only episode of the last seven to benefit from specially composed music cues by Edwin Astley. As such, it was the last Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode produced that would feature any newly-commissioned music.

• Seeing Things... Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! received its first UK broadcast on Sunday 2nd November 1969 at 7.25pm when it aired in monochrome the London Weekend Television ITV region.

• It was first shown in colour on ITV on Friday 21 November 1969 at 7.30pm in the ATV and Yorkshire regions.

• The transmission of this episode so early in the run was perhaps understandable, as it is a strong episode with plenty of humour, but it doesn't entirely make sense in the series narrative as it is set a year after the events of My Late Lamented Friend and Partner. This is established in dialogue between Marty and Bugsy Spanio, with Marty saying that he has been a ghost for one year, whereas Bugsy says he has had more than 35 years to hone his ghostly skills.

• Trivia... Although a definitive date for Bugsy's death is not given, he remarks that it happened "just before they ended Prohibition". The Prohibition of Alcohol law was repealed in the United States on 5th December 1933, thereby forcing gangsters to refocus on other money-making rackets. Bugsy tells Marty that he has been a ghost for "35 years and more". Allowing for both the production and first transmission of this episode happening in 1969, we must rely on the "and more" as otherwise the flashback sequence would be set in 1934 and therefore anachronistic.

• Bugsy Spanio tells Marty that his nickname is 'Smiler' and that he became a ghost because he swore that he would not rest until he had killed Kirstner, just as Kirstner had killed him. He has tried to kill Kirstner on many occasions: he has caused his car to crash four times, set both his apartment and his office on fire, nearly drowned him and in 1943 nearly got him with a hand grenade when Kirstner was selling ammunition on the black market. Kirstner has even tried to exorcise Bugsy and can sense his presence.

• The title Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! is taken from a line of dialogue spoken by Jeff when he finds out that Bugsy wants him to kill Kirstner on his behalf.

• Speaking to Annette Buckley for Time Screen magazine Number 11 (Spring 1988), Kenneth Cope revealed that he enjoyed episodes like this one. "It was... nice when they brought other ghosts in and I could act with them instead of Jeff all the time. It was very difficult keeping up this believeability of the unreality that when I'm in the room with another person who can't see me I try to talk to them. For instance when in with that commentator saying 'Give me the score' [in Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave], why have I suddenly forgotten that he can't hear me? It was difficult to do, and I had to work at it to make it believeable."

• When restoring this episode for Blu-ray in 2017, a transfer error present in the masters used in the Carlton and Network DVD editions was corrected. When seen in the 1980s around the ITV regions, the 1930s flashback sequence included three colour insert shots showing Bugsy and Marty observing events, but the DVD transfer had these shots in monochrome like the rest of the sequence.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• The flashback sequence reappeared in another ITC series shortly afterwards when it was seen in Jason King: Toki. It featured in this episode as a gangster film being watched on television by Toki (Felicity Kendall). Coincidentally, in common with Murder Ain't What It Used To Be!, the episode was edited and directed by Lee Doig and Jeremy Summers respectively.

Images © ITV Studios, 1972

• Only You, Jeff? Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! features Randall and Hopkirk's most front and centre ghost other than Marty Hopkirk himself: the Prohibition era Chicago gangster, Bugsy Spanio. Bugsy has long experience of being a ghost, to the point where he can levitate objects with ease, get rough with other ghosts, hold objects, smoke white cigars, and even wear a black tie and handkerchief and a pin-striped white suit.

• Ghosts and Ghoulies... Although Marty encounters the occasional ghost in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), it is surprising that Murder Ain't What It Used To Be! marks the first and only time that an episode featured a real ghost as one of the central protagonists. Marty can not only converse with the Depression era gangster Bugsy Spanio, he can also touch him. This also works the other way around, such as when Bugsy stubs out his cigar on Marty's hand, causing Marty to cry out in pain. Charming... However, Marty eventually sees the positive side of Bugsy and even plays around with a ghostly cigar and machine gun when all has been sorted out, mimicking Bugsy's style.

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

	Boeing 707 Pan American Aeroplane Registration unknown	Also appeared in: Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - 'The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo'
	1969 Ford Capri MkI Registration CVW 325G Driven by Paul Kirstner	Also appeared in: Department S - 'The Double Death of Charlie Crippen'
	1918 Ford Model T Truck Registration AD3371 Not seen in motion
	1926 Chrysler Imperial E-80 Registration EI3955 Driven by Kirstner's Driver
	1928 Ford Model A Registration A25830 Driven by Spanio's Driver
	Ford Zephyr Registration unidentifiable but likely to have been OLR 477E (4 MkIV) or OXE 998F (6 MkIV) Driven by Harry
	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'

• Seen It All Before? The much-utilised lounge and hallway sets and Sir Oliver Norenton's consulting room set from When Did You Start to Stop Seeing Things? were repurposed for this episode to represent the interiors of Susan Kirstner's lavish country house.

• The backlot area seen in A Disturbing Case as the street outside Albert Phillips' home was utilised here as downtown Chicago.

• Cock-ups... Right at the beginning of the episode we are led to believe that Kirstner's Pan American flight arrives at Heathrow Airport direct from the USA. Why then does his flight arrive at Terminal 2, which was for European destinations, and not the correct Terminal 3? Unavailability of stock footage, perhaps - or an editor who ?

• It appears that there was a problem with the door not shutting on the Randall and Hopkirk office set as, at 5 minutes and 8 seconds, a crew member has clearly been instructed to keep it from swinging open again after Annette Andre enters and closes it. A hand is clearly visible at this point.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• At 17 minutes and 8 seconds, Bugsy levitates a blue vase in Jean's apartment and directs it across the room until it is hanging above Jean's head. Naturally, we excuse the two wires that are seen to be suspending the vase as technology was limited in 1969 compared to today, but it is somewhat unfortunate that the viewer can also see the cord just below ceiling level along which the wires are travelling.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• At 17 minutes and 49 seconds, Jean reaches out for a magazine (an Observer colour supplement) from a low lying table, grabs it and starts reading. In the next shot it has disappeared completely.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• Shortly afterwards, Jeff rings at the doorbell, so Jean gets up from the sofa to go to the door. In doing so - and we can forgive this, as what else could she do? - Annette André visibly goes out of her way to avoid bumping into her character's unseen, ghostly husband.

• When we see the monochrome flashback to the 1930s at 22 minutes and 26 seconds, the setting is supposed to be Prohibition era USA, but both the Ford Model A and the Chrysler Imperial E-80 seen  are right-hand drive versions of these American vehicles made for the British market.

Image © ITV Studios, 1969

• Finally, Jeff's drink problem manifests itself at 30 minutes and 49 seconds - he can't decide which hand should be holding his whisky! Kirstner hands him his glass, which he takes in his right hand, lowers and holds in both hands. Cutting to Jeff's close-up, and he is now holding the drink higher and in his left hand. He raises the glass to his mouth, still with his left hand. At this point, we cut back to the wider shot from behind him and the glass is at his lips but now in his right hand again.

Images © ITV Studios, 1969

• And Finally... The feature location in this episode was Piggott's Manor as it was called in 1969, situated immediately south west of the centre of Letchmore Heath. The estate dates back to the 13th century when the land was granted to Thomas Picot by the Abbot of Westminster, hence becoming known as 'Picot's Manor'. A Georgian-style manor house was built there in the early 1700s, and this endured until 1884 when George Villies purchased and demolished it. Villies commissioned a larger house in mock-Tudor style, and it is this building - known as Piggott's Manor since the 1920s - that survives today. In 1957, it became the Preliminary Training College for St Bartholomew’s nurses, and was sold in 1973 to rock star George Harrison. He gifted the whole estate to International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), who renamed it Bhaktivedanta Manor and operate it to this day as a Radha Krishna temple. It is freely accessible to all and has a welcoming atmosphere.

Image © Alys Hayes, 2018

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, Annette Hill, John Holburn,
Anthony McKay and Andrew Pixley

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