Get Daley

Arthur's bad week starts in the simplest way possible. He happens to be standing nearby when a punter collapses and dies after being threatened by Albert Wendell, an illegal bookie the man owed money to. Arthur is the sole witness, which makes him the man everyone suddenly wants to talk to.

Chisholm questions him and lets him go, but the release only lasts a moment. The dead man's family want answers and the police want cooperation. Wendell wants Arthur to remember nothing at all. Arthur checks into hospital for a minor operation expecting a rest and instead finds Wendell's threats arriving at his bedside. He treats the stay like a convalescence in a spa, which makes the bedside visit even ruder than it sounds. Arthur, who usually knows everything, this time genuinely knows nothing, and nobody believes him.

It falls to Terry to break the deadlock. He persuades Chisholm that Wendell has gone too far, and the bookie is finally arrested. Arthur survives, which is more than the punter did, and the episode restores the usual balance: the law looks the other way just long enough for Terry to do the actual work.

Andrew Payne and Leon Griffiths wrote it, Ian Toynton directed. Dennis Waterman is Terry, George Cole is Arthur, with Maureen O'Farrell as Sandra, Patrick Malahide as Chisholm, Roger Hammond as Albert Wendell, Ian Bartholomew as Keith Wendell, Michael Povey as D.C. Jones, Kevin Lloyd as Dermott, Brian Peck as Vic Harrison and Glynn Edwards as Dave.

But the real pleasure is watching Arthur chased from all directions at once. The police want him as a witness, the bookie wants him silent, and the dead man's family wants somebody to blame. For a man who prides himself on being in the right place at the right time, this is the one occasion he would gladly have missed.