Arms and the Dog

Arms and the Dog sets Harry and Rocky to guard a greyhound and sends Ken to the boxing ring. The dog is Tinkerbell, kept at Woodcote Park before a big race, and her owner, Mr Hancock, has strict instructions. She must be fed Mr Marrow dog food, and a careful record kept of how much she eats. Harry hands the job to Rocky, who discovers that Tinkerbell will not touch the stuff.

Then a blonde woman delivers some wine in a Range Rover and, while Harry and Rocky are unloading, drives off with the dog. They trace the vehicle to a rich couple, Mr and Mrs Hipkiss, who claim Tinkerbell belongs to them and that Hancock, who used to work for Hipkiss, stole her in revenge for being sacked. Tinkerbell wins her race, and Hipkiss tells the television cameras that she has always been fed on Mr Marrow. Rocky knows she will not eat it.

Hancock is found at last, and the truth is a publicity scheme. Hipkiss owns the company that makes Mr Marrow and was using the dog as free advertising. Hancock, who worked for him, knew that top dogs refuse the product, and wanted Harry's careful feeding record to prove it.

Ken's case is a harder one. Charlie Fowkes wants him to find his son Ben, a gifted boxer who has deserted from the army after his father refused to lend him the money to buy himself out. Ben's girlfriend, Alison, is hiding him; the military police and the civilian police are both after him, the latter because some plastic explosive has gone missing from a quarry.

Ken catches up with them just as Ben's trainer, Peter Mortan, arranges an unlicensed fight against an American professional, Valdez. If Ben wins, the prize money will buy him out.

At the warehouse where the fight is held, Harry overhears that Valdez has lost his licence because of a blood clot on the brain. Ken tells Ben that a punch could kill the man. Ben fights defensively and does not land a blow, and loses. Alison, who knew he would not try once he knew the facts, has bet all her money on that result, and her winnings buy him out of the army.

Nick Whitby wrote the script, Christopher Baker directs, and the cast includes Bill Paterson as the trainer and the former world champion John Conteh as Valdez. The title plays on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, which fits a deserter and a dog.

The boxing story is the strength, because it rewards honesty rather than cleverness: Ben wins by not fighting. The dog story is slighter, resting on a brand of food no dog will eat, and IMDb users rate the episode lowest of the series. But the contrast works, and the ending of the boxing plot is one of the neatest of the fourth series.