The Prizefighter

The broken body of a bare-knuckle prizefighter turns up on the street, carrying counterfeit money, and the trail leads Dempsey and Makepeace into the illegal underground fight circuit and the money laundering scheme running beneath it. Posing as an American couple called Dwayne and Lu, they talk their way into a world that does not welcome questions.

Murray Smith wrote it, Baz Taylor directed. The fight world is well stocked: Ben Howard's Jerry Curtis, Frederik de Groot's Olaf Schram, Lee Walker's Mick Tucker and Patrick Durkin's Horse Johnson, a name that deserves its own series. Seeta Indrani's doctor tends the damage, and the ring itself is given the grimy, smoky treatment it needs. It first went out on 20 September 1986, and the guest list runs deeper than the principals, with Kevin Lloyd, Greg Powell and Philip Ryan among the names.

And somewhere between the rounds, Mrs. Spikings is making her husband's life miserable, forcing him to put his men onto the search for her stolen car. It is a small domestic subplot, but it gives Ray Smith some of his warmest material, and it is the kind of thing the show did better than most: the boss at home, outranked by his own wife. June Barry is Mrs. Spikings, and the joke about the stolen car keeps landing even as the main case turns serious.

The episode works because the two worlds bounce off each other. The ring is all grime and sweat; the counterfeit operation is all polish. Dempsey and Makepeace stand in the middle, an American couple who are not a couple, working a case that keeps threatening to break the cover story. The cover story carries much of the hour, and the slow work of keeping Dwayne and Lu believable is where the pair earn their keep.

It is a workmanlike hour, the sort the show turned out with one hand tied behind its back, and Horse Johnson alone makes it worth the visit.