Give Us This Day Arthur Daley's Bread

Arthur meets a vicar who runs a social club for ex-convicts, and his first thought is a business one. Rev. Redwood wants the men to go straight. Arthur wants a cheap workforce for the garden rockery he has promised a trusting client, Mrs. Hurst. The two aims collide almost immediately.

The ex-cons are spectacularly bad at landscaping and rather better at burglary. They have been robbing local houses and hiding the loot in the very church where the work is happening, which is a degree of nerve that even Arthur has to admire from a safe distance. When Chisholm starts asking questions, Arthur and Terry have to untangle the whole mess before it lands on them. The man who thought he was employing cheap labour ends up managing a group he can't control, doing work they can't do, while the police circle outside. The suspicion falls on the operation quickly enough, and Chisholm needs no second invitation to start digging.

And the vicar watches his flock drift further from redemption with the patience of a man who has seen all this before. Norman Eshley plays Rev. Redwood with a quiet dignity that makes Arthur's scheming look even smaller than usual. The rockery, naturally, does not get built on time, and the trusting Mrs. Hurst is left with a hole in the garden and a bill for it.

Andrew Payne and Leon Griffiths wrote the episode, and Francis Megahy directed. Dennis Waterman is Terry, George Cole is Arthur, and Glynn Edwards is Dave. James Booth plays Godfrey, David Jackson is Marion, Nat Jackley is Paper, and Sylvia Kay is Mrs. Hurst. Patrick Malahide's Chisholm and Michael Povey's D.C. Jones complete the line-up.

Arthur treats a room full of ex-cons as a staffing opportunity and is surprised when they behave like ex-cons. That is the whole episode, and it is a very good one.