The Wrong Goodbye

Arthur is having one of his bad weeks. The bank manager will not extend the already considerable overdraft, and the sheriff has seized the car lot, the lock-up and the goods for unpaid bills. Retirement starts to look sensible, until Arthur remembers he has not paid National Insurance since 1956. No contributions, no pension. It is the kind of arithmetic that would break a lesser man.

Salvation arrives in the shape of a mysterious businessman with a very attractive offer for the whole of Arthur's struggling empire. You do not need to have watched much of this programme to suspect the price will be higher than it looks. The offer comes with the smoothness of a man who has done this before, and Arthur, who has conned enough people to know a con when he sees one, cannot quite say no.

Terry is about, played by Dennis Waterman, and Dave, in Glynn Edwards' hands, keeps the glasses moving. Paul Eddington, fresh from Yes, Prime Minister, appears as Guy Wheeler, with Simon Cadell as William Pierce. Peter Childs plays Rycott, Michael Povey Jones, Mark Farmer Justin, Iain Cuthbertson Bernard McKenna and Michael Troughton Melish. That is a great deal of name talent for one episode, and most of it gets to be suspicious of Arthur.

David Yallop and Leon Griffiths wrote the script, and Francis Megahy directed. The episode runs on Arthur's money panic, and the camera stays close enough to George Cole's face to catch every small flinch as the figures get worse.

It is not a big episode. There are no heists and no car chases, nothing for the highlight reel. But the show was always good at watching a man talk himself into trouble, and The Wrong Goodbye does that for a full hour. Arthur's empire, such as it is, has never looked closer to falling over.