The Smile Behind the Veil

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“The Smile Behind the Veil”
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode
Image:RandallHopkirk26.jpg
Episode no. Season 1
Episode 26
Written by Gerald Kelsey
Directed by Jeremy Summers
Guest stars Alex Scott
Hilary Tindall
Gary Watson
Production no. 26
Original airdate 13 March 1970
Episode chronology
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"You Can Always Find a Fall Guy" –
List of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)episodes

The Smile Behind the Veil is the final episode of the popular 1969 ITC British television series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope, and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 13 March 1970 on the ITV and was directed by Jeremy Summers.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Only a ghost would notice the smile behind the veil of a funeral mourner (Hilary Tyndall) to complete the entire series. As Jeannie visits Marty's grave, Marty stumbles upon a hidden murder mystery as the funeral mourners in the next grave look highly suspicious. He visits Jeff and begs him to pursue the case, despite any physical evidence. Jeff refuses, due to ongoing financial difficulty; but by chance, he is on the way to visit a client in the vicinity of the perpetrators, near Goldehurst, and Marty is able to switch road signs to get him to visit their estate.

Jeff arrives innocently, asking for directions, but the guilty funeral mourners, overlooking the will of their recently murdered friend, search him, realise he is a private eye, and lock him up. Soon enough, they dump him in a river (where he nearly encounters death by drowning) and is saved by a fisherman from becoming a permanent white-suited ghost, like his friend Marty Hopkirk. Again by chance, the fisherman, Donald Seaton, turns out to be a related to the murder case in that he believes his identity has been stolen by the funeral mourners whilst he was away in Australia. He hires Jeff for the case.

Jeff investigates the mansion, and in doing so, encounters the elderly housekeeper—who, like him, is looking for official information to prove that the man at the funeral is an imposter. Jeff also tracks down a lead to a man in a farm barn who was once an employee of Donald Seaton, but he is shot by one of the funeral mourners.

Eventually, it turns out that Cynthia (Hilary Tindall) was actually once the wife of the real Donald Seaton, but had divorced, and her new husband is pretending to be the real Seaton in order to sell off the large valuable estate; but this is not before Jeff Randall is thrown down a well, leaving Marty to attract some passers-by to make a wish, with a filthy dirty Randall replying, "Get me out of this perishing well!" as the series ends.

[edit] Cast

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)

21 September 1969 - 13 March 1970
Actors  Directors
Mike Pratt Kenneth Cope Annette Andre

Episodes:

  1. My Late Lamented Friend and Partner
  2. A Disturbing Case
  3. All Work and No Pay
  4. Never Trust a Ghost
  5. That's How Murder Snowballs
  6. Just for the Record
  7. Murder Ain't What it Used to Be
  8. Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?
  9. The House on Haunted Hill
  10. When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
  11. The Ghost Who Saved the Bank at Monte Carlo
  12. For The Girl Who Has Everything
  13. But What a Sweet Little Room
  14. Who Killed Cock Robin?
  15. The Man from Nowhere
  16. When the Spirit Moves You
  17. Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave
  18. Could You Recognise That Man Again?
  19. A Sentimental Journey
  20. Money to Burn
  21. The Ghost Talks
  22. It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water
  23. The Trouble with Women
  24. Vendetta for a Dead Man
  25. You Can Always Find a Fall Guy
  26. The Smile Behind the Veil

[edit] Video and DVD release

The episode was released on VHS and several times on DVD with differing special features.

[edit] External links