Two Men in a Vault

Two Men in a Vault is the episode in which Boon becomes a double act. Ken and Harry call at a safety-deposit company, Unicorn Deposit, to check on the security guard CBS has placed there, Don Jakes. They cannot find him, and while they search they walk into the vault. The door swings shut behind them and someone locks it.

The vault has been ransacked and the camera cable cut, and they realise they may be stuck all weekend. They suppose Don has been attacked, which would explain why he cannot let them out. In fact it was Don who locked them in. He has stolen the vault's jewellery and is off to meet his Scottish girlfriend, Billie, with whom he plans to run away to Argentina.

Outside, Laura has been receiving obscene phone calls and was meant to meet Ken. When he does not turn up and neither he nor Harry can be reached, she worries, and she and Rocky start asking questions. Don's wife, Jeanette, becomes suspicious when she sees him with Billie, who is her hairdresser, and tips off the police, who arrest the pair on the way to the airport and recover part of the loot.

Inside the vault, Ken and Harry decide that Don, with his good army references, must be guilty. Ken suggests looking for food in the deposit boxes, and they find caviar and vodka. Harry's conscience tells him it would be theft to eat the caviar, but Ken persuades him that survival comes first. They gorge themselves and drink a lot, and are soon drunk, rambling about life in the fire brigade and their hopes for the future.

Ted Hatchard tells Laura and Rocky that Don has a criminal record. They return to Unicorn with the manager, who eventually opens the vault. Ken and Harry are on the floor, drunk and incapable, with sheepish grins.

Peter Palliser wrote the episode and Nicholas Laughland directs. Don Henderson plays Don Jakes and Stephanie Turner plays Jeanette; both have pages on this site.

The vault is the whole point. For fifty minutes the series strips away the cases and the supporting players and leaves the two old firemen to talk. When David Daker's obituary in the Guardian in 2026 picked out one story to describe, it was this one, with Boon and Crawford locked in a vault, reminiscing about the fire service and mulling over the meaning of life.

The weakness is the outside. Laura's phone calls are never explained, and the police business around Don is told rapidly, so that the episode depends entirely on the two men in the vault. For that reason it is probably the best single place to see why the partnership worked.