More Work For the Undertaker

SNT

Author : Margery Allingham

Play : More Work For the Undertaker

The Palinode family are relics of a gracious past, and not the sort to get themselves poisoned. But this is what seems to be beginning to happen, and Campion, as an old friend of the family, decides it is time to look into the matter

Francis Matthews as Albert Campion Geoffrey Matthews as Lugg

Jas Bowels GEORGE PARSONS
Charlie Luke TIM MEATS
Renee Roper JENNIFER PIERCEY
Clarence/Capt Seton
HOWARD GOORNEY
Henry James/ Glossop
PHILLIP MANIKUM
Evadne/Housekeeper SHEILA GRANT
Lawrence/Dice MANNING WILSON
Jessica RACHEL GURNEY
Rowley/Congreve STUART ORGAN
Dr Smith/Yeo PAUL NICHOLSON
Voice JAMES GOODE

Directed by BRIAN MILLER

First Broadcast 30 December 1986 (Murder for Christmas)

BBC Bristol

The undertaker in question suffers from the unfortunate name of Bowels, but that’s rather the least of his worries. More problematic is his location in Apron Lane, a little bit of Dickensian London that still appears to be flourishing in this brave new post-War world. Urchins abound, and a quasi-feudal order is maintained by the eccentric Palinode family, once the squires of Apron Street and still expecting a certain forelock-tugging deference, even as their fortunes have evaporated.

The Apron might be nothing more than an amusing anachronism if its Dickensian aspect did not include a distinctly Bill Sikes-style of omnipresent threat. The smell of crime in in the air, and it would be foolish not to have adequate buildings and contents insurance given some of the unsavory neighbours. With the police prototypically baffled, Campion takes up local lodgings in an effort to identify the source of the violence and, incidentally, lend a hand with the Palinodes’ beloved crossword puzzles.