What Makes Shamy Run

Arthur has been chasing Shamy, a young Indian emigrant, for money owed so long that the debt has probably taken on a personality. When Shamy finally pays up, in a stack of twenty-pound notes, Arthur should feel relief. Instead he feels the slow cold of being conned, because Dave at the Winchester Club points out that the notes are forgeries. The notes feel right and are worth nothing, which is as close to a summary of the episode as you will get.

By then Shamy is heading for the airport and a flight home to India. Arthur wants his money and the police want Shamy. Shamy, to make sure everyone stays angry, has stolen a master video tape he plans to sell once he is back on foreign soil. Somewhere in the middle of it all, Terry lends a hand in getting Shamy onto that plane, which means Terry has once again done something generous and something stupid in roughly equal measure.

The episode moves at a good clip, chasing a man who is always one step ahead and one fraud ahead of everyone else. Robbie Coltrane turns up as Mr. Henry, which is the sort of casting that rewards the patient viewer.

Leon Griffiths wrote it solo, Terry Green directed. Dennis Waterman is Terry, George Cole is Arthur, Art Malik plays Shamy, with Madhav Sharma as Mr. Mitra, Patrick Malahide as Chisholm, Glynn Edwards as Dave, Michael Povey as D.C. Jones, Jacqueline Reddin as Gayle, Chrissie Cotterill as Denise and Robbie Coltrane as Mr. Henry.

And the title plays on a famous novel about a hustler on the make, which suits the story better than anything the episode could invent for itself. Arthur ends the chase out of pocket and out of sorts. Shamy, presumably, is on a beach somewhere counting real money.