The Birdman of Wormwood Scrubs

An old friend of Arthur's walks out of Wormwood Scrubs determined to recover what's left of the loot from the bank job. He's an old lag, he did the time, and in his view the money is his by right. The loot was never all recovered, and the rest of it has been out there waiting ever since. Because he's a friend of Arthur's, the whole affair arrives with him, and it is the sort of affair nobody else wants. He is not a young man, and the money is not getting any younger either.

But word gets around. The retired copper who sent him down hears of it. So does a prison warder, the other member of the gang, and various interested parties who all believe, correctly, that leftover money belongs to whoever gets there first. What follows is a paper chase across the city, everyone after the same cash and none of them trusting each other. Everyone involved is old and tired, and suddenly very interested in arithmetic. Arthur sits in the middle, working the angles and keeping his old friend in one piece.

Leon Griffiths wrote it alone, Ian Toynton directed. Maurice Denham is Billings, Rula Lenska is Kate, Stephen Greif is Spencer, Avril Angers is Mrs Knight, Joe Ritchie is Grundy, Frederick Treves is the bank manager, Charles Rogers is the shop assistant and Max Wall is Ernie, alongside Dennis Waterman and George Cole. Max Wall as Ernie is the sort of guest turn the show did without fuss.

Nobody plans a bank robbery expecting the hard part to come years later, in daylight, with old men and paperwork. That is the quiet joke at the centre of this one. The crime was the easy bit. The aftermath is where the damage gets done. For a show about scams, it has always been good on this sort of mess.