Inspector Alleyn - Opening Night - video Dailymotion

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Glamorous Chief Detective Inspector Alleyn investigates the mysterious death of a leading actor.  Another tale of Dame Ngaio Marsh’s gentleman detective.  Starring Jeremy Clyde.  Dramatised by Michael Bakewell.  CDI Alleyn ...... Jeremy Clyde Detective Inspector Fox .... Tim Treloar Martyn Tarne .... Beth Chalmers Adam Poole .... Michael Cochrane Helena Hamilton .... Elizabeth Bell Dr John Rutherford ...... John Hartley Clark Bennington ...... Gavin Muir Jacko Doré ...... Ioan Meredith JG Darcey ...... Paul Gregory Gay Gainsford ...... Gemma Saunders Parry Perceval ...... Tom George Clem Smith ...... Christopher Kelham  Director: Enyd Williams  First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in February 2000.   Do you enjoy the variety on Oldtuberadio? Like, Share and Subscribe to be notified of our new shows #radio #crime #thriller #drama To Support this channel please visit https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oldtuberadio https://ko-fi.com/oldtuberadio98 https://www.patreon.com/oldtuberadio https://locals.com/Oldtuberadio

Transcript

00:00But don't you realize his death has set us free?

00:09No more hiding, no more lies.

00:12And what will you do with your freedom?

00:14Will you stay or will you go back?

00:17Back to the island?

00:19Back to my refuge from the world?

00:23Oh no, that's no longer an option.

00:27I'm going to stay.

00:29It won't be easy.

00:30Life isn't meant to be easy, my dear.

00:33But it is meant to be lived.

00:36Come.

00:44Everybody on!

00:45Are we all here?

00:46No, where's Ben?

00:47Mr Bennington! Mr Bennington!

00:49We can't wait for Ben. Take it up, Ben.

00:58Where the hell's Ben got to?

01:01What's the better he comes on for a star call?

01:03He's locked himself in!

01:05He's probably passed out. Had a couple more drinks since he came off.

01:08I've got a spare key.

01:09Take it up, Ben.

01:10On you go, Dr Rutherford.

01:18Thank you all.

01:20I'm much obliged to you, ladies and gentlemen, and to our actors.

01:24The actors are much obliged to, no doubt to you, but not necessarily to me.

01:32Gas.

01:33There's a smell of gas.

01:35You're right.

01:37Tell Clem to get the curtain down as soon as he can, without creating a panic.

01:40He needs no bushel, therefore to beg will not become me.

01:44What the devil do you think you're playing at? I have nearly finished!

01:47It's Ben.

01:48He's gassed himself.

01:51Looks as it is dead.

01:59We present Jeremy Clyde as Chief Detective Inspector Alan in Opening Night by Nioh Marsh.

02:10Gassed himself in his dressing room.

02:15Something about that rings a bell.

02:17Does it with you, Mr Allen?

02:19A positive peal of them, Brer Fox.

02:21The Jupiter Theatre murder five years ago.

02:23Oh, yes.

02:24Homicide dressed up to look like suicide, wasn't it?

02:27Were you on the case, sir?

02:28I certainly was.

02:29There was a gas fire in the dressing room and another one in the room next door, back to back with it.

02:33The job was done by blowing down the tube of the gas fire next door.

02:37This put the fire out in the dressing room, but left the gas on.

02:41The victim was in a drunken stupor, and the trick worked.

02:44We only got the murderer because of traces of crepe hair and grease paint left on the tube.

02:48So what became of the theatre? There's no work called the Jupiter now.

02:51Oh, that's just the point. It's the same place.

02:54It was shut up for two or three years at least, and then Adam Poole took it over,

02:58got a permit to renovate it, and named it the Balkan.

03:01I imagine this is only his second production there.

03:03And now the same thing's happened all over again.

03:05It looks very like it, Brer Fox.

03:08And actors are a pretty superstitious bunch at the best of times.

03:11God knows what kind of a state they'll be in by the time we get there.

03:16This theatre, this awful theatre.

03:19I know, Helena, darling. It's as though there's some sort of jinx on the place.

03:22Ben was haunted by it, I'm sure of it, J.G.

03:25All right, Helena.

03:27Perhaps what happened here five years ago did give Ben the idea of gassing himself,

03:31but he would have found the means in any case.

03:33Why? Why did he do it, Adam?

03:35He was in a bad way, Ella.

03:37He'd gone completely to pieces and he knew it.

03:39He was certainly in the mood to do something desperate.

03:41And I wasn't much help, was I, Parry?

03:43Though I did my best to be a good wife to him for as long as I could.

03:46I knew just as soon as I smelt the gas.

03:49There's a thing in this theatre.

03:50I just sat there and I knew.

03:52Oh, I do feel sick.

03:55Gay, for pity's sake, what are you talking about?

03:58It was fate, Parry. I just felt it.

04:00You mustn't let yourself get obsessed by this thing, Gay.

04:02I wasn't a bit surprised, J.G.

04:04I just knew something had to happen tonight.

04:06Do you mean to say that you sat here by yourself in the green room waiting for fate to strike?

04:10Isn't it amazing?

04:12I'm so terribly sorry, darling Helena.

04:15But we're together in this, aren't we?

04:16He was my uncle and your husband.

04:18The police are here.

04:19They're in Ben's dressing room with Dr. Rutherford.

04:21Do you think they'll want to keep us here long, Clem?

04:23The inspector, Inspector Allen, asked me to say that if the whole thing's straightforward, it shouldn't be too bad.

04:28What do you mean, straightforward?

04:30I imagine he means if they're satisfied that it was suicide.

04:33But they can't think that anyone murdered Ben, surely.

04:36Murder?

04:37That's what it was last time.

04:39Murder made to look like suicide.

04:40And now it's happened again.

04:42And this time it's Uncle Ben!

04:46Filthy smell, Gas.

04:47Always hangs about in cases like this.

04:49He looks pretty ghastly in that make-up.

04:52But here, chap, the make-up was required for my play.

04:55It should, in fact, be a damn sight more repellent.

04:57Why is he so thickly powdered?

04:59He needed it.

04:59He sweated like a pig.

05:01Alcohol and a dicky heart.

05:02Did you look after him, Dr. Rutherford?

05:04No, I don't practice nowadays.

05:06I gave it up when the writing business began to pay off.

05:09I don't know who his medical man was.

05:11His wife can tell you that.

05:12Helena Hamilton?

05:13Yes, poor woman.

05:14There's a mark under the jaw.

05:17Make-up is thinner there.

05:18Is it a bruise?

05:19Looks as if someone threw a punch at him.

05:21We can get a better idea when they've cleaned him up a bit.

05:24Who found him?

05:25Jaco, I believe.

05:26Jaco?

05:26Jacques Doré.

05:27He's French-Canadian.

05:29Adam's assistant, among other things.

05:31You'll find him in a night watchman's kitchen.

05:33Well, thank you for all your help, Dr. Rutherford.

05:35I'd be grateful if you could hang on with the others in the green room for a while.

05:39Until the situation becomes a little clearer.

05:41Of course, of course.

05:42I shall curl up in an armchair and hand myself over to Care Charmer Sleep.

05:47Wake me up if you require my services.

05:51You are Mr. Poole's assistant, I believe, Monsieur Doré.

05:54That is something of an understatement, Inspector.

05:58Let us rather say dog's body and ordinary to the Vulcan Theatre.

06:02Set designer, costume designer, Johannes Factotum.

06:06Not without bells on.

06:08At the moment, I'm boiling up cans of soup.

06:11For the company.

06:12Another of my little talents.

06:14I gather it was you who found the body.

06:16I unlocked the door.

06:18The call-by had been hammering away at it unavailingly for a long time.

06:22And can you describe to me what you found?

06:24Clark Bennington was lying near the gas fire.

06:28I could only see his legs and the lower part of his body.

06:31The rest of him was hidden by his coat, which was pulled up over the fire and his head and shoulders.

06:37It looked rather like a tent.

06:39I could hear the hiss of the gas fire going on underneath.

06:41The lead to the fire had been pulled away and was in his mouth.

06:46I turned off the gas.

06:49So you will doubtless find my fingerprints, Inspector.

06:55Plain sailing, wouldn't you say, Mr. Allen?

06:57On the face of it.

06:58Probably the past history of the place.

07:00The previous suicide preyed on Bennington's mind and led him to do away with himself in the same fashion.

07:05He must have also entertained the very nasty notion of throwing suspicion of foul play on his fellow actors.

07:11If there's a gas fire in the dressing room back to back with this world...

07:14Which there is.

07:15The devil there is.

07:17So what does this Bennington chap do?

07:20He recreates as far as possible the whole set-up.

07:22Leaves no note.

07:23No indication of his intention to gas himself.

07:26Hmm.

07:27Who's next door?

07:28Mr. Perry Percival.

07:29The juvenile lead.

07:31Though I gather he's not so juvenile as he used to be.

07:34So Bennington does himself in.

07:36Leaving our ageing juvenile ostensibly in the position of the Jupiter murderer.

07:40A rotten sort of suicide, wouldn't you say, Brer Fox?

07:43We don't know anything for certain yet, of course.

07:46Do you want to read Sergeant Gibson's inventory?

07:49If the sergeant's been his usual meticulous self, perhaps you could skip some of the more dispensable points of detail.

07:56One cardboard box containing false hair.

07:59Substance labelled nose paste.

08:01One unopened tin of face powder.

08:02Six sticks of grease paint.

08:04No powder pad?

08:05Powder pad.

08:06For him to powder his face with?

08:08It's not in the inventory.

08:10A cigarette case with three cigarettes and one packet of fifty.

08:13Used tumbler smelling of brandy.

08:15And flask one-sixth full of brandy concealed behind mirror.

08:19A fairly ineffectual hiding place.

08:21Anything else?

08:22A considerable quantity of powder spilt on shelf and on adjacent floor area.

08:26Well, that's certainly true.

08:28Somebody must have knocked down a box of powder.

08:31It's gone over everything.

08:32Could you check with Mr. Dory whether this happened after he found the body?

08:35Yes, sir.

08:35Some paper ash on the floor, original form indistinguishable, and signs of something having been burnt in the hearth.

08:43What was in his clothes?

08:45Bills, old racing card, checkbook.

08:48That's about it.

08:49Right.

08:49I wish I could say I believed in all this, Brer Fox, but I can't.

08:53There's something wrong, but I can't put my finger on it.

08:56Have you got a list of the company?

08:57Yes, Mr. Island, I've got it here.

08:58Who have we got exactly?

08:59We have Adam Poole himself, popularly known as the Governor.

09:03Shades of Henry Irving.

09:05Yes?

09:06Helena Hamilton, the leading lady and wife of the dead man.

09:10Gay Gainsford, who is Bennington's niece, I believe.

09:13J.G. Darcy, whom I think we might describe as the character man, and Parry Percival, the aforementioned juvenile.

09:21Oh, and there's a girl called Martin Tarn, an understudy who went on for Miss Gainsford this evening.

09:27Why was that?

09:27Well, some kind of hysterical breakdown, I understand.

09:31Miss Tarn comes from New Zealand and has only been with the company for three days.

09:34Oh, is that so?

09:36Well, when we come to question everyone individually, perhaps we should start with Miss Tarn,

09:40so that we can see the whole set-up through a fresh pair of eyes.

09:44Oh, I suppose we'd better go and have a word with the cast.

09:46We can't put off the dread moment any longer.

09:50It's going to be damn bad publicity.

09:52Heavens above, the publicity.

09:54None of us thought of that.

09:55Did we not?

09:55I must say, I would like to know what's going to happen.

09:58Do we carry on with the run of the play, or what?

09:59Yes, we go on.

10:01Isn't that so, Adam?

10:02Ella, I've got to think.

10:03There are so many...

10:03We go on.

10:04We must go on.

10:05Does that mean I take over from Ben?

10:07I was his understudy, after all.

10:09I can't bear it.

10:10I think you're all awful to sit round and talk about the show as if nothing had happened,

10:14when beyond those doors, he's lying there, dead and forgotten.

10:18It's the most brutal thing I've ever heard of, and if you think I'm ever coming near this horrible, fated, haunted place again,

10:24I'm telling you now that wild horses wouldn't drag me back.

10:27Oh, child, child, you're overwrought.

10:29You don't know what you're saying.

10:30You'd got rid of me anyway.

10:31Oh, darling, we've done no such thing.

10:33Just because I would on view tonight, Gay, doesn't mean...

10:35Oh, doesn't it?

10:37You angled for this wretched part, Martintan, and now you've got it.

10:41I think it's extremely likely you're responsible for what's happened.

10:45Stop that at once, Gay.

10:45Stop it.

10:46I won't.

10:47I won't be gagged.

10:48It drove my Uncle Ben to despair, and I don't care who knows it.

10:52Please, darling.

10:53Chief Inspector Allen.

10:55I'm afraid the first thing I have to say to you won't be very pleasant news.

11:00We don't look as if we're going to get through our side of this unhappy business as quickly as I'd hoped.

11:04I know you're all desperately tired and very shocked, and I'm sorry,

11:08but the general circumstances aren't quite as straightforward as you'd probably suppose them to be.

11:13What exactly do you mean, Inspector?

11:15Miss Hamilton, I believe.

11:17Perhaps at this moment it would be better to call myself by my married name, Helena Bennington.

11:23Yes, of course.

11:24I'm sorry, but I'm sure you will have guessed that one can't overlook the other case of gas poisoning associated with this theatre.

11:30Yes, of course.

11:31We've all been talking about it.

11:33I'm sure you have, and so have we.

11:36And I expect you've wondered if the memory of that former case could have influenced your husband.

11:41I'm certain it did.

11:42We all are.

11:43Have you any specific argument to support this theory?

11:46Nothing specific, no.

11:48But I know that my husband didn't like this theatre on account of that other dreadful business.

11:53He felt that there was an unpleasant atmosphere in this place.

11:57In a way, I think it had a rather horrible fascination for him.

12:00Did anyone else notice this fascination of Mr. Bennington's?

12:05Oh, yes.

12:06I did.

12:07He talked to me about it.

12:08But when he saw how much it upset me because I'm so stupidly sensitive to atmosphere, I just can't help it.

12:14You are Mr. Bennington's niece, I believe, Miss Gainsford.

12:17Yes.

12:18It was a rather marvellous relationship.

12:21My father died in the war and Uncle Ben really felt we were awfully near to each other.

12:25Do you know?

12:25That's why it's so devastating for me, because I sensed how wretchedly unhappy he was.

12:31Do you mind telling us why you thought him so unhappy?

12:33I don't think any of us have any doubt about my husband's unhappiness, Mr. Allen.

12:39Ben drank so heavily that he had ruined his health and his work quite completely.

12:43I wasn't able to help him, and we were not...

12:48Our life together wasn't true.

12:51Tonight, he behaved very badly on the stage.

12:54He coloured his part at the expense of the other actors, and I think he was horrified by what he had done.

12:59I feel he suddenly looked at himself and couldn't face what he saw.

13:03It would help me very much if any of the rest of you could tell me any happenings or remarks that might indicate that he had this thing in mind.

13:14I think perhaps...

13:16Forgive me, but I don't yet know all your names.

13:18I expect she's hoping to see hers in lights, aren't you, darling?

13:22This is Miss Martin Tarn.

13:24She is, or should be, our heroine tonight.

13:27Miss Gainsford was taken ill, and Miss Tarn, who was the understudy, took a part at half an hour's notice.

13:33We'd all be extremely proud of her, if we had the wits to be anything but worried and exhausted.

13:39And what have you remembered, Miss Tarn, that you think might help us?

13:42It was something he said when he came off in the last act.

13:45For his final exit in the play?

13:46Yes.

13:47He spoke very disjointedly, but I do remember one thing quite distinctly, because it puzzled me very much.

13:54He said, I just wanted to tell you that you needn't suppose what I'm going to do, and then he broke off.

14:01Thank you, Miss Tarn.

14:02I begin to get the idea that none of you was very surprised by this event.

14:06Is that, sir?

14:07Oh, I don't know that I'd...

14:08Let it pass.

14:10Pipe up now, Scissor.

14:11The inspector won't bite you.

14:12Oh, shut up!

14:14You're all being so bloody frank and sensible about the suicide.

14:17You're so keen to show everyone how honest you are.

14:20I am myself indifferent honest.

14:22How have we offended you, young Ganymede?

14:25I know what you think of me, Doctor, and it doesn't say much for your talents as a diagnostician.

14:30But if it's queer to feel desperately sorry for a man who was miserable enough to shove a gas jet down his throat,

14:35if it's queer to be mentally and physically sick at the thought of it, then by God, I'd rather be queer than normal.

14:40If you're the normal man you'd have us all believe, why the hell don't you show like one?

14:44Here, ladies and gents, is an alleged actor who an hour or two since was made a public and egregious figure of fun by the deceased

14:51before an audience of whinnying nincompoops,

14:54who, before his final and most welcome exit, suffered himself to be tripped up contemptuously by the deceased

15:01and who fell on his painted face.

15:03That's quite enough of that, Rutherford.

15:04Ladies and gents.

15:05You're supposed to be in charge here, Inspector?

15:07Yes, Alan.

15:07I really do think this is all getting fantastically out of hand.

15:12If we're all satisfied that this case of suicide...

15:14Which we are not.

15:16What?

15:16We've reached a point where it's my duty to tell you that I'm by no means satisfied that there is, in fact, a case for suicide.

15:25Is it not strange how loath one is to pronounce the word that is in all our minds?

15:30Murder.

15:31So beastly, isn't it?

15:33Is there somewhere I can use as an office, Mr. Poole, where I can talk to each of you independently?

15:39Yes, of course.

15:40Use mine.

15:41It's on the other side of the stage.

15:42Thank you, Mr. Poole.

15:43If I may, I would like to have a word first with Miss Tarn.

15:48May I ask a question?

15:50As many as you like, Miss Tarn.

15:51Why me?

15:52Why do you want to speak to me first?

15:54You're not my prime suspect, Miss Tarn.

15:57It's simply because you've only been working at the Vulcan Theatre for three days that I want you to give me your first impressions of the company.

16:03I gather you've recently arrived from New Zealand?

16:06Just over a fortnight ago.

16:08I can hardly believe it.

16:09You see, my money was stolen on the ship and I had to get some kind of job rather quickly.

16:14As an actress?

16:14Well, yes.

16:16I had a bit of experience in New Zealand and I didn't think it would be all that difficult.

16:21I left my name with all the agencies.

16:22I went to every audition that was going, but no one wanted to know.

16:26After two weeks of dragging around London without any luck, I was exhausted and starving and pretty well beginning to give up hope.

16:34And then, one evening, I just happened to find myself outside this place.

16:38The Vulcan Theatre?

16:38Yes, I wandered inside without really thinking and I heard Clem, the stage manager, phoning someone about a replacement for Miss Hamilton's dresser, who'd been rushed to hospital for an appendix operation.

16:49Yes, what is it?

16:50I believe you're looking for a dresser.

16:52Are you from Mrs Greenacres?

16:54I understood your required a dresser and I will be pleased to apply.

16:57It's for Miss Helena Hamilton.

16:59We open on Thursday, two quick changes and so on.

17:02You've got references?

17:03I haven't actually brought any.

17:05Oh, look, there isn't time.

17:06Can you start straight away?

17:08It really was the most astonishing piece of good fortune.

17:11It certainly was.

17:13The only drawback was that I had no money, so the night watchman let me spend the night in the theatre, sleeping in...

17:17What's the matter, Miss Tarn?

17:19Oh, I shouldn't have told you that.

17:21I don't want him to get into trouble.

17:23It's hardly a matter for Scotland Yard.

17:26Go on with your story.

17:27I was terrified of meeting Miss Hamilton at first.

17:30I thought she'd see through me straight away, but she couldn't have been friendlier.

17:34You've come to help me, haven't you?

17:36Well, now that is kind.

17:39I'm sure we'll get on famously together.

17:42And she turned her back on me.

17:44It took me a moment or two to realise that this was my cue to take off her coat.

17:49And then Mr Bennington came in.

17:51It never occurred to me that he was her husband.

17:54I've been having a word with Rutherford.

17:56Oh, really?

17:57What about?

17:58About young Gay.

17:59He's been going on at her again.

18:01So has Adam.

18:01I wanted to talk to you.

18:03Well, so you shall.

18:05But I shall have to change now, Ben.

18:07This is my new dresser, Martin Tarn.

18:10You see, I thought she must be married to Adam Poole.

18:13What made you think that?

18:14Well, they seemed so loving towards one another.

18:18And then a beautiful box of orchids arrived from him, and that seemed to clinch it.

18:23Darling!

18:24Ella!

18:25Hello!

18:25He had the next-door dressing room, and they called to one another through the wall.

18:31Darling!

18:31They're quite perfect!

18:33Thank you, my sweet!

18:36Oh, hello, Gay.

18:38Everything under control?

18:39I suppose so.

18:40I'm trying to be good and sort of biddable, but underneath it all, I'm simply trembling with fright.

18:44Now listen, Gay.

18:45You're going to make a great personal success of this part.

18:49It's a marvellous chance for you.

18:51So everyone keeps on telling me.

18:53But Dr Rutherford obviously thinks I shouldn't be playing it at all.

18:57He says I'm a misfit.

18:58Oh, that's nonsense, Gay.

19:00He may seem hard at times.

19:02Seem?

19:02Well, he may be hard, then.

19:04He's famous for it.

19:05But he's written a marvellous play.

19:08I'll have a word with him.

19:09Can I tell him that?

19:11Yes, Gay.

19:12You may tell him.

19:14Oh, you're so miraculously kind, Auntie Ella.

19:16Oh, do forgive me.

19:18Helena, darling.

19:20And she was off.

19:21I don't know whether she even noticed me.

19:24But I just happened to catch sight of Miss Hamilton's face in the mirror.

19:28She was looking at me very intensely.

19:31And at that moment, Dr Rutherford came in.

19:35Odds teeth, what have we here?

19:37My new dresser.

19:38Martin.

19:40Dr Rutherford.

19:41Stay me with flagons.

19:43That fool of a wench, Gainsford, said you wanted to have a word with me.

19:47Yes, I did.

19:48What on earth have you been saying to that poor child?

19:51Nothing at all.

19:52I merely asked if for the sake of my sanity, she'd be good enough to play the central scene

19:56without a goddamn simper all over her face.

19:58You frightened her.

19:59She terrifies me.

20:01I wrote this part for an intelligent actress who could be made to look like Adam.

20:05What do you give me?

20:06A moronic amateur who looks like nothing on God's earth.

20:10If I had my way, I'd have kicked her out long ago.

20:12Even now, it's not too late.

20:14John, we open in two days.

20:16An actress worth her salt could memorize the part in an hour.

20:20And I may as well tell you, I don't like the way that Ben is shaping up in the big scene.

20:24If Adam doesn't watch him, he'll be up to some bloody leading man hocus pocus.

20:28John, he won't.

20:29I'm sure he won't.

20:30No, you're not.

20:31And as for that discard from the waxworks, Mr. Parry Percival,

20:35have I not stipulated from the beginning that I will not have any of those queer abortions in my works?

20:41Parry isn't queer.

20:43Oh, yes, he is.

20:44I have an instinct for these things, my girl.

20:46I give up.

20:47You don't do anything of the sort, my sweetie pie.

20:50You're going to be a sensation in the part I've written for you.

20:53Just think of that and leave all the rest to me.

20:57For God's sake, don't quote from Macbeth.

21:00If Gay Gainsford heard you doing that, she really would go off the deep end.

21:03Which is precisely where I'd like to push her.

21:05Oh, go away.

21:07You're a wonderful playwright, but you're quite hopeless.

21:10The audience is concluded?

21:11It certainly is.

21:13And close the door after you.

21:17I need a cigarette.

21:22Martin, run round to my husband.

21:24He's got my cigarette case.

21:26And of course, like a fool, I went straight to Mr. Poole's dressing room.

21:30Helena's cigarette case?

21:31No, I haven't got it.

21:32Ella?

21:33Yes, darling?

21:34I haven't got your cigarette case.

21:36No.

21:38Ben's got it.

21:40I said my husband, Martin.

21:42Mr. Bennington.

21:43So, I went along to Mr. Bennington's dressing room.

21:47On the opposite side of the passage?

21:48Yes.

21:49He had a glass of brandy in his hand, and he was talking to Mr. Darcy.

21:53It's not my place to interfere, old boy, but I do feel for the poor child damnably, you know.

21:58Rutherford never loses an opportunity to take it out on Gay.

22:01I couldn't agree more, and I'm damned angry about it.

22:03Yes, my dear.

22:06What can I do for you?

22:08This is my wife's new dresser, J.G.

22:12Really?

22:15Good morning, child.

22:17See you in a while, Ben.

22:18And what can I do for the new dresser?

22:25Miss Hamilton sent me to ask if you could let her have a cigarette case.

22:28Have I got it?

22:30Try my overcoat, my dear, behind the door.

22:35This your first job as a dresser?

22:37I've worked in the theatre before.

22:39Ah, and where was that?

22:40In New Zealand.

22:42Really?

22:43In New Zealand?

22:45I'm afraid the case isn't here.

22:47God, what a bore.

22:49Pass me my jacket, will you?

22:52He rummaged about a bit, and eventually he found it.

22:55And then he gave me a long, hard look.

22:58The kind I'd had from Mr. Darcy and Miss Hamilton.

23:01New Zealand, eh?

23:03He saw the resemblance between you and Adam Poole.

23:06Yes, I was coming to that.

23:08Take your time, Miss Tom.

23:10What happened next?

23:11There was a photo call on stage, with everyone in full costume.

23:16Darling!

23:18It's not going to be a flash, is it?

23:19With all of you looking like village idiots,

23:22and me like the third witch on the morning after the cauldron scene.

23:26Not if you can hold the pose for three seconds, Ella.

23:28It all went pretty smoothly, until it came to the photograph of Gay Gainsford scene with Mr. Poole.

23:35He wanted her to run the lines, and I could see that she was terribly nervous.

23:40It's not enough for you to look like me, Gay.

23:42You've got to be me.

23:44You're supposed to be my heredity, confronting me like a threat.

23:48So, now, let's take it with the line.

23:52You've got your head in your arms.

23:54You raise your face slowly to look at me.

23:57Don't you like what you see?

24:00Yes, but with a little gesture, remember?

24:06Don't you like what you see?

24:13My head has leaked a town choir, spoke my last.

24:16Oh, do shut up, Rutherford.

24:18Oh, I defense my soul to hear my passion toward attackers.

24:21And, of course, poor Miss Gainsford burst into tears.

24:25After it was all over, the man they called Jacko came up to me.

24:29No one makes any introductions in this theater, so we introduce ourselves to each other.

24:34I am Jacques Doré.

24:36Right.

24:37And you are the little chick whom the stork has brought too late, or dropped into the wrong nest.

24:44It is a pity you are a little dresser, and not a little actress.

24:50Before the first dress rehearsal that night, he insisted on taking me out for a meal.

24:55I think he was rather sorry for me.

24:58I wanted to talk to him about the play, but he was rather nervous about it.

25:01I don't know why.

25:02It is a modern morality play, a new play with a very old theme.

25:07And do you think it's any good?

25:08Oh, sure, it's a good play.

25:09Rather in the continental manner of Sartre and Ennui.

25:13It is about a man confronted by his own heredity.

25:16And it is essential the secondary part actress should resemble the leading man.

25:21From hundreds of anxious ingenue, we select the one who is least unlike Adam, but still very unlike.

25:28And though I am a genius with makeup, there is very little I can do about it.

25:32So we depend entirely on the acting, on the way the girl will reflect Adam's way of speaking and his mannerisms.

25:39But this Miss Gainsford cannot do, because she is an actress of very little talent.

25:46Upon this scene, there enters in the form of a dresser.

25:51What are you trying to say?

25:55If I sat down to draw the daughter or younger sister of our leading man, you are what I would draw.

26:01And so, of course, the theory is full of rumours and suppositions about a child born the wrong side of the blanket.

26:07But he knows nothing about me.

26:09I've never seen him before, except in films in New Zealand.

26:12And tell me, was it to get a job as a dresser that you came all the way from New Zealand?

26:17For any job.

26:19All right, I wanted to work as an actress, but if you think I'm secretly hoping that Miss Gainsford will get laryngitis or break a leg, you couldn't be more mistaken.

26:27Not even a little touch of laryngitis?

26:30I think you are either a little hypocrite, or perhaps you are not a very good actress.

26:37After the dress rehearsal had got going, I managed to watch some of it from the wings, and I realised the truth of what Jacko had said.

26:44Miss Gainsford was not good?

26:45It was not that so much.

26:46There were gestures of Adam Poole that she was supposed to mimic, and lines she was expected to echo.

26:52But she just couldn't do it.

26:53And the harder she tried, the worse it got.

26:56But it's you!

26:57Don't you see?

26:59You can't escape from it!

27:02What I didn't realise was that Mr Bennington was standing beside me.

27:06He smelled terribly of brandy.

27:08So you think you could do better?

27:10I'm sorry.

27:11Miss Hamilton want me to change over the third act.

27:13No! I want you to tell me what this is all about, and who the bloody hell you are!

27:18You know who I am! Please let me go!

27:21My wife's dresser, and my wife's lover's little bi-blow!

27:25How is that the story? Tell me!

27:29Off you go, Miss Tarn. Miss Hamilton will be waiting.

27:33You're an offensive fellow in your cups, Ben. Get along and change for the last act.

27:38The rehearsal didn't end until well after midnight.

27:42I still hadn't been paid anything, and I had nowhere to go.

27:44So you decided to spend another night in the theatre?

27:47I went into Miss Hamilton's dressing room to wait until everyone else had gone home.

27:51But I found Mr Poole in there, sitting in front of the gas fire.

27:55Come in, Miss Tarn. I want to talk to you.

27:58Do sit down, please.

28:00I want to apologise to you for Mr Bennington's behaviour.

28:03He's not likely to do so for himself.

28:05That really didn't matter.

28:06Well, of course it mattered. For both of us.

28:09You're a New Zealander, I understand.

28:12How old are you?

28:13I'm 19.

28:14I toured New Zealand in my first job 20 years ago, and Bennington was in the company.

28:20Hence his charming little line about my bi-blow.

28:24Under the circumstances, I hope you won't mind my asking you who your parents are.

28:28My father was Edward Tarn. He was killed in the war in Crete.

28:33And your mother? What was her maiden name?

28:35She always thought it sounded silly. Paula Poole Passington.

28:40Of course, that's it.

28:42An old cousin of my father's. His name was Poole.

28:45Married someone called Passington and went off to New Zealand.

28:49Did you know of the connection?

28:51Yes, I did.

28:53You might have mentioned it.

28:54I preferred not to.

28:56Too proud?

28:56If you like.

28:57And did you know about the girl's part in this play?

29:01When I was at one of the agencies, someone told me they'd been looking for a girl who looked like you.

29:06But by then, the part had been cast.

29:08I didn't want to come here.

29:10But when I discovered there was a vacancy as a dresser...

29:12The question is, what are we going to do about it now?

29:17Let's go down to the stage, shall we? Jacko's waiting for us.

29:20You saw the scene from The Wings this evening.

29:24It's quite simple.

29:25All you are required to do is to sit at the desk.

29:28Adam will come in and he will run his hand through his hair.

29:30And you will make the same gesture.

29:33Then you will say, don't you like what you see?

29:37Is that understood?

29:38Yes, I think so.

29:39Then let's try it.

29:40Sit down at the desk.

29:41Oh, I'm sorry.

29:42I didn't realize you were in here.

29:44I just wanted to...

29:46Don't you like what you see?

29:50Can you do that again?

29:52I don't know.

29:53I suppose so.

29:54Do you want me to try?

29:56I don't think so.

29:58You did that very well.

30:00You can understudy the part from here on.

30:04And now Jacko will take you home to his house...

30:06...where there's a small flat in the attic.

30:08You need have no fears.

30:10You'll be perfectly safe.

30:11You are not my type, Miss Tarn.

30:13I prefer my ladies more mature.

30:17More mundane.

30:19One other thing.

30:20Take this.

30:22It's the part.

30:22Thirteen pages of it.

30:24By tomorrow, you will be word perfect.

30:27And were you?

30:28Pretty well.

30:29Bar one or two fluffs.

30:30Although I wasn't so sure when the stage manager took me through the moves.

30:34I was going over them by myself in the wardrobe room...

30:36...when I realized that Miss Gainsford was watching me.

30:39I suppose you know what you're doing to me.

30:41All I know is that I'm going to be your understudy.

30:44I'm damn grateful.

30:45But it's just any old understudy.

30:47I think it's pretty cool to talk about any old understudy...

30:50...and you're the spitting image of Adam Poole.

30:52I've had to have an urchin cut and dye my hair...

30:55...and all I get is everybody screaming insults at me.

30:58I loathe the play and everything to do with it.

31:01Why couldn't Uncle Ben leave me where I was?

31:04Playing in weekly rep.

31:06But he made me go on with it.

31:08I hate him.

31:09I was miserable enough, God knows...

31:11...but now I just don't know what to do with myself.

31:13If you have any pity for me at all...

31:16...you'll go and tell Adam Poole you can't do it.

31:20But you didn't give in to her?

31:22Oh, yes, I did.

31:24Mind you, it wasn't just the understudy she wanted me to give up.

31:27She wanted me out of the theatre altogether.

31:30I went to see Mr Poole, but he wouldn't hear of it.

31:32And when it came to the second dress rehearsal...

31:34...was she any better then?

31:37To be honest, she was worse than ever.

31:40She just looked so desperately miserable all the time.

31:44But Mr Bennington was doing his best to convince himself that she was fine.

31:48I overheard him talking to Jacko about it...

31:50...in the passage that leads from the stage to the dressing rooms.

31:52The kid was all right, didn't you think, Sir Jacko?

31:55One minute to curtain call, please.

31:56Sure, sure, I must go there.

31:58Wait a bit.

31:59If the fools would only leave her alone, she'd be perfectly all right.

32:02I can tell you one thing.

32:04If our celebrated author makes any of his nasty quips about it tonight, I shall take a hand.

32:11I've still got a trick or two up my sleeve.

32:15What did he mean by that, I wonder?

32:16I've no idea.

32:18Dr Rutherford was very quiet while Mr Poole was giving his notes.

32:22But I thought he looked like a slumbering volcano.

32:25And he kept turning his eyes in my direction.

32:27But he didn't say anything.

32:29Not until I was about to go home.

32:31And then he suddenly exploded.

32:33I don't want that wench to leave.

32:35I've got to talk to you, Adam.

32:37Oh, run along here, Miss Tarn.

32:38You must be very tired.

32:39Oh, no, you don't!

32:40I want the wench to stay, Adam.

32:43I didn't stop to hear any more.

32:45I just fled as if my life depended on it.

32:47And the following morning?

32:48This morning, I should say.

32:50Nothing.

32:51If Dr Rutherford was trying to persuade Mr Poole to give Miss Gainsford the push,

32:55he obviously didn't succeed.

32:57And how was she?

32:58Oh, she looked scared stiff when she came in.

33:01Mr Darcy brought her in a taxi.

33:04I'm so frightened of him, JG.

33:06I won't have it!

33:07My God, if he worries you again, author or no author...

33:09It's not him.

33:11I know he's simply filthy to work with, but it's not him, really.

33:14Then who is it?

33:16It's Uncle Ben.

33:17I'm just plain terrified of him.

33:19I don't know what to do.

33:21So what finally tipped her over the edge?

33:24Macbeth, I think.

33:25Macbeth?

33:27Jacko was in her dressing room, putting the finishing touches to her make-up.

33:30She was pretty hysterical already from what he told me.

33:33There's a jinx on this place, Jacko.

33:36Something that drove that man to murder.

33:40In the very dressing room where Uncle Ben is now.

33:43And it's out to get me tonight.

33:46What am I going to do?

33:48You are going to go on and play your part and stop all this nonsense.

33:53It is the eye of childhood that fears a painted devil.

33:58What did you say?

34:00That's from Macbeth.

34:03You quoted Macbeth in my dressing room!

34:06She just went berserk.

34:08Threw a bottle of wet white at the mirror and screamed the place down.

34:12After that, there was nothing for it but for me to go on in her place.

34:15And Miss Hamilton had to do without me as a dresser.

34:19I can't remember anything else.

34:21I was in a kind of daze.

34:23Apart from actually going on, I didn't notice anything until Mr Bennington came up and spoke to me after he came off stage.

34:30I just wanted to say...

34:32I suppose you aren't to be blamed.

34:36You saw your chance and took it.

34:38No...

34:38But I'm not worrying about that.

34:41I just wanted to tell you that you didn't suppose what I'm going to do.

34:47You needn't think...

34:49I mean...

34:51And I think that was just about the last thing he said to anyone.

34:56Thank you, Miss Tarn.

34:57I think I now have a pretty clear overall picture of the tensions that were going round the theatre,

35:02apart from those normally associated with the first night.

35:06What I need to establish now is what everyone was doing between Bennington's final exit and the time of his death.

35:14If you would go and join the others, I think the best plan would be to get the whole company on stage.

35:18Yes, sir.

35:20I was on stage for the entire time, Mr Alan.

35:24There's a scene before Ben's exit between Mr Darcy, Parry, Percival, Ben and myself.

35:30Then Darcy and Parry go off and Ben follows them a moment later.

35:34And Adam and I finish the play.

35:37And were you on stage too for the whole period, Mr Poole?

35:40I go off for a moment after Ben's exit.

35:44It's a rather macabre coincidence that in the play Ben's character commits suicide offstage.

35:49He shoots himself.

35:51When I hear the shot, I go off and return almost immediately for the last scene with Ella.

35:56Did anyone notice Mr Poole while he was standing there?

36:00Well, the doors recessed. I was more or less screened.

36:03Darcy and I went straight back to our dressing rooms.

36:05Together?

36:06You were slightly ahead of me, I think, Parry.

36:07Yes, I was.

36:08Miss Tarn was in the passage and I spoke to her for a moment.

36:11Do you remember that, Miss Tarn?

36:13Yes.

36:14Mr Percival stopped and spoke to me.

36:15So did Mr Darcy.

36:17And they went on down the passage to be followed by yourself and Mr Bennington.

36:21And that was when Mr Bennington spoke to you?

36:23Yes, that's right.

36:24And then Mr Dore joined you?

36:26Yes.

36:27He said my make-up needed fixing.

36:29So that after Mr Bennington had gone to his room, you, Mr Percival, were in your dressing room, which is next door to his.

36:36Mr Darcy was in the dressing room, which is on the far side of Mr Percival's.

36:39And Miss Tarn was in her own dressing room?

36:42Actually, it's my dressing room, Inspector.

36:45In Miss Gainsford's dressing room.

36:47How long were you all there?

36:48I briefly adjusted this infant's make-up and returned with her to the stage.

36:53I think that Mr Percival and Mr Darcy left their dressing rooms and went back to the stage for the curtain call before we did.

36:59I heard them going out the passage together.

37:01And where were you, Dr Rutherford?

37:03Confined to my box, suffering the torments of the damned at what they were doing to my play.

37:09And you, Miss Gainsford?

37:10I was in the green room all the time.

37:14Have you got a cigarette, JG?

37:16I must have left mine somewhere.

37:18Oh, yes, of course, dear.

37:19You're quite certain that you didn't leave the green room at any time?

37:23I don't know.

37:25I don't remember.

37:26My dear Gay, I don't suppose the inspector imagines that you went into Ben's room,

37:30knocked him senseless with a straight left to the jaw, and turned the gas on.

37:34It would be interesting, Mr Poole, to hear how you know about the straight left to the jaw.

37:41I merely guessed.

37:43If Ben was killed, and I still don't believe that he was,

37:47it seems the only way in which the murder could be brought about.

37:51And what about you, Mr Darcy?

37:53What?

37:53Do you share Mr Poole's views on the straight left theory?

37:57Oh, I believe with the others that Ben's death was suicide.

38:00And we still don't know whether Miss Gainsford left the green room.

38:03Oh, for goodness sake!

38:05This is too tiresome.

38:06You looked in at the green room door when we were going up for the curtain call, didn't you, JG?

38:11Oh, yes, of course.

38:12Silly of me to forget.

38:14Gay was sound asleep in the armchair, yes.

38:17And do you have any idea when you dropped off, Miss Gainsford?

38:20Was it before the beginning of the last act?

38:22No, because JG came in to see how I was in the second interval, didn't you, darling?

38:28Yes, my dear.

38:29Did anyone besides Mr Darcy go into the green room during the second interval?

38:33No.

38:33But, my dear chap, surely you're wrong there.

38:37Ben went into the green room during the second interval.

38:40Did he?

38:41Ah, yes.

38:42Perhaps he did.

38:44It quite slipped my mind.

38:45Why on earth are you being so mysterious about it, JG?

38:48Well, perhaps the reason is in your left trouser pocket, Mr Darcy.

38:53May I speak to you privately, Inspector?

38:57Of course, Mr Darcy.

38:58We can go into Mr Poole's office.

39:01The rest of you can relax for a few minutes.

39:03I did my best to cover up the grazers on my knuckles with grease paint, but obviously I didn't succeed.

39:10I suppose I behaved very stupidly, but it has nothing to do with Ben's death.

39:14I think you'd better tell me exactly what happened.

39:17I can give it to you in a sentence.

39:19I hit Ben on the jaw in the green room during the second interval.

39:22I didn't knock him out, but he was so astonished he took himself off.

39:26What sort of condition was he in?

39:28Damned unpleasant.

39:29Ugly drunk.

39:30He behaved atrociously throughout the first and second acts.

39:33In what way?

39:34Well, as only a clever actor with too much drink inside him can behave, playing for cheap laughs.

39:38And was it because of his performance that you hit him?

39:40No, no, no.

39:41It wasn't.

39:42It was because of Gay.

39:44He was damned offensive.

39:45Well, you'll have to tell us about it, I'm afraid.

39:48I was giving Gay a couple of aspirin.

39:51She was terribly upset.

39:52Well, she's a frail little thing, you know.

39:54All heart and sensitivity, and between them, Ben and Rutherford have brought her to the edge of breakdown.

39:59Miss Tarn's arrival was the last straw.

40:02And in the end, she couldn't go on.

40:04And tonight, Gay heard everybody raving about the girl's performance in the second act, and as they came off,

40:10I'm fond of Gay, and she just fell into my arms, sobbing her heart out.

40:15And then Ben came in and...

40:17Go on, Mr. Darcy.

40:19He went for her.

40:20He was crazy.

40:21I tried to shut him up, but he was quite off his head, and began saying the most filthy things about Helena.

40:26About his wife?

40:27About her and Adam.

40:29He used the sort of words that Othello and Leontes use, if you remember your Shakespeare.

40:33I remember.

40:35Well, he was talking pretty wildly, but I think this afternoon, while they were at home, he tried...

40:42He...

40:42We had tried to rape her.

40:44I see.

40:47And so you hit him.

40:48Only when he started to say the same kind of filthy stuff about Gay and me.

40:53Thank you, Mr. Darcy.

40:54I don't think I need bother you anymore for the moment.

40:58Can I take that poor child home?

40:59I'm sorry.

41:00Not yet.

41:02Not just yet.

41:03It might account for Bennington doing himself in.

41:08Being hit on the jaw?

41:09Not exactly, but it might have sobered him up a bit.

41:12All that business with Helena Hamilton.

41:15I imagine they stopped living as husband and wife some time ago.

41:18Self-disgust, you mean?

41:20This is quite possible, but there's one fact I can't get over.

41:23And what's that, sir?

41:24If a man's going to commit suicide, he doesn't carefully and heavily powder his unbecoming make-up

41:29as if he meant to go on and take his curtain call with the rest of the cast.

41:33Now, does he?

41:34Come in.

41:36I'm sorry to trouble you, Inspector, but I've remembered something.

41:40It's probably nothing, but...

41:42Come in, Mr. Darcy.

41:44So, what's it all about?

41:46It was on that first morning when Miss Hamilton sent me round to Mr. Bennington to ask for her cigarette case.

41:51When he was going through the pockets of his jacket, an envelope dropped to the floor.

41:57Oh, we mustn't lose that one, must we?

42:02There's someone who'd give a hell of a lot for that.

42:06One hell of a lot.

42:09Take a look at it.

42:11And did you see what it said?

42:12Yes, I did.

42:13It was addressed to Mr. Bennington and had a foreign stamp on it.

42:17The name of the cinder was written on the back.

42:19Do you remember it?

42:19It was Otto Brod, and the address was a theatre in Prague.

42:24At least I think so.

42:26And what was in the envelope?

42:28Nothing very much.

42:29A single sheet of paper, I should think.

42:31Well, thank you very much, Miss Tarn.

42:33I think you may have given us something very important.

42:35Do I still have to stay?

42:37I'm afraid so, along with everybody else.

42:39Of course.

42:40We should be calling in some of the others shortly.

42:42Do you really think it's important, sir?

42:46Hard to tell, Brer Fox, but it does put things in a rather different light.

42:50I think we might try dropping the name Otto Brod into the conversation and seeing what kind of a reaction we get.

42:56Why don't we have a word with Helena Hamilton for a start?

42:59Otto Brod?

43:02Yes.

43:04He's a Czech or an Austrian, a bit of an intellectual.

43:07We met him three years ago when we were doing a continental tour.

43:11He had written a play, and he asked my husband to read it.

43:14It was in German, and Ben's German wasn't really up to it.

43:18The idea was that Ben should get someone over here to take a look at it.

43:22But he was dreadfully bad at keeping those sorts of promises, and I don't think he ever did anything.

43:26Have they kept in touch, do you know?

43:28Oddly enough.

43:30Ben said a few days ago that he heard from Otto.

43:33If you want to see the letter, it'll be in his jacket.

43:36He was rather odd about it.

43:39In what way?

43:40He held the letter out to me and said,

43:43That's my trump card.

43:44Did you get the impression that he meant that it was a trump card he could use against anybody in particular?

43:51Yes, I did.

43:52It seemed to me that it was myself he meant, or Adam, or both of us.

43:56But we've both got alibis, haven't we, if it was murder?

44:00You have, certainly.

44:02You didn't come down to the theatre this evening with your husband?

44:06No.

44:08He was ready before I was.

44:11And in any case...

44:12Well, I... I think I must tell you that I know something of what happened at your home this afternoon.

44:20But how can you possibly know that?

44:22Well, your husband didn't exactly keep it a secret.

44:27It was a kind of revenge, I suppose.

44:31I was in my bedroom trying to relax before opening night.

44:34Hello, Ella.

44:38How comfy you look.

44:40What is it, Ben?

44:41I'm resting.

44:42I thought you might be interested to know.

44:45There'll be no more nonsense from Rutherford about gay.

44:48Well, that's good to hear.

44:50Yes.

44:50I got him to see reason.

44:52And another thing.

44:54Do you both imagine I can't see through this dresser-cum-understudy racket?

44:59When was it?

45:00On the New Zealand tour of 1930.

45:03Ben, this is nonsense.

45:05Is it?

45:06You've cast me for the part of the cuckold in your restoration comedy.

45:11Well, just for once, I'm going to play the lover.

45:16It was degrading.

45:20Disgusting.

45:22That's why I'm certain that Ben killed himself.

45:26It was a final act of despair.

45:29He'd got nothing to live for.

45:32I don't want to talk about it anymore.

45:36Otto Broad?

45:37I think he was very fond of Ella for a time.

45:41An affair as brief as summer lightning floated out of some midsummer notion of Vienna and Strauss-Waltzes.

45:49Why bring him into it?

45:50When Bennington came into the theatre this evening, he had a letter from Otto Broad in his pocket.

45:56Why shouldn't he?

45:57The letter is nowhere to be found.

45:59Oh, my dear chap.

46:00He probably chucked it out or burnt it or something.

46:02I hardly think so.

46:04He told Miss Hamilton it was his trump card.

46:06Now, what did he mean by that, I wonder?

46:09Does anybody else in the company have any acquaintance with Otto Broad?

46:13I should hardly think so.

46:14It was too long ago.

46:16No, wait a minute.

46:18I think Jacko may know something about him.

46:22Why didn't you ask him?

46:26I have heard of him.

46:27Did you know him?

46:29I have never met him.

46:31Never.

46:31Perhaps you've seen some of his work.

46:33Would I be right, Monsieur Doré, in supposing that you speak German?

46:42Yes.

46:43You would.

46:44Oh, then I think you may be in a position to tell me why Bennington regarded a letter that he had just received from Otto Broad as his trump card.

46:54You have been very clever, Inspector.

46:59Huh?

47:00Very clever.

47:02I think you'd better tell me all that you know, Mr. Doré.

47:07They're all on stage, sir, as ordered.

47:09Do you think I'm taking a rather risky life?

47:12Well, sir, it's a very unusual sort of procedure.

47:15It's a very unusual case.

47:17Come on, old trooper.

47:18Let's get it over with.

47:19Right you are, Chief.

47:20Thank you, Chief.

47:50What is conclusive, Mr. Darcy, is that there was a box of face powder overturned after Bennington's death.

47:58It was over the coat which had been used to cover his head, and it was over his fingerprints on top of the gas fire.

48:04The powder could only have been scattered after, and not before, Bennington's death.

48:08So where exactly is all this leading, Inspector?

48:11It is leading to a question, Mr. Percival.

48:14How is it possible to get Bennington down on the floor, disengage the tube from the gas fire, put the rubber end in his mouth, turn on the gas, and cover him with his own overcoat?

48:24He was probably dead drunk.

48:26Well, he was not too drunk to make up his own face.

48:29It seems more likely that he was drugged.

48:32How the drug was administered, I cannot say with certainty.

48:35It may have been in the brandy, but we shall, of course, be having a chemical analysis made of everything he used.

48:41His cigarettes, his makeup, and even the grease paint on his face.

48:44Death by grease paint, how richly Jacobean.

48:48Following this line of thought, it seems clear that two visits would have had to have been made to Bennington's dressing room.

48:55The first, to plant the drug during his scene on stage with Miss Hamilton in the last act,

49:00and the second, after he had come off, and before the smell of gas was noticed by Mr. Percival.

49:06But why should any of us want to kill him?

49:08Well, you all, I think, had a reason to dislike this man.

49:12Yes, but there's a world of difference between...

49:15In one of you, the cause was linked to that particular kink, which distinguishes murderers from the rest of mankind.

49:23With such beings, there's usually some explosive agency which, if it's touched off, sets them going as murder machines.

49:29In this case, I believe the fuse to have been a letter written by Otto Broad to Mr. Bennington.

49:36The letter has disappeared and was probably burnt in his dressing room.

49:40As the powder pad may have been burnt.

49:43By his murderer.

49:44But what can Otto possibly have had to do with anything?

49:48As for opportunity, if there were two visits to Bennington's dressing room during the last act,

49:53I think that all of you, except Miss Hamilton, could have made the first one.

49:58But for the second, we have a more restricted field.

50:01I think we can probably put Miss Tarn out of the picture.

50:04That must be quite a change for you, darling.

50:06As for Miss Gainsford, she was in the green room throughout the whole period and tells us that she was asleep.

50:13There is no witness to this.

50:14Oh, George!

50:16It's all right, my dear. We know it couldn't have been you.

50:18Mr. Darcy and Mr. Percival are also on the list of persons without alibis during the crucial second period.

50:25They were alone in their dressing rooms.

50:27Dr. Rutherford could certainly have visited Bennington's room during this period,

50:31as at any time during the performance, by coming down from his box and crossing the stage behind the scenery.

50:40Mr. Poole could not, in my opinion, have affected what had to be done during his very brief period offstage.

50:47Thank you, Inspector.

50:48Mr. Doré is in a somewhat different category.

50:52After he had escorted Miss Tarn back to the wings, everyone's attention was riveted on the stage,

50:58and he could have been almost anywhere.

51:00As befits my role as Jacques, of all trades.

51:04That is all I have to say.

51:06I'm going to ask you all to return to your dressing rooms and collect your things.

51:10I would also be obliged if you would call in on your way out and leave me a note of your addresses and telephone numbers.

51:15That will be all.

51:17If any of you wish to have a word, I shall be in Mr. Poole's office.

51:23So, Mr. Parry Percival has checked out and gone home,

51:27and Mr. Darcy and his little friend, Miss Gainsford,

51:30and Miss Tarn has gone off to dream of stardom,

51:32and Miss Hamilton has gone home in a taxi.

51:35So what do you reckon now, Mr. Allen?

51:37A confession? An attempt to escape?

51:39There'll be no escape.

51:41The place is surrounded.

51:42Well, if I've bungled it, at least I've done it in a big way.

51:46Come in.

51:48Inspector, if there is to be an arrest involving a member of my company,

51:53I'd rather be present.

51:54Of course, Mr. Poole, I fully understand, but I think that perhaps you'd...

51:57Inspector, I think you'd better come at once.

52:00It's Dr. Rutherford.

52:02He's still sitting where he was on the stage, in the dark.

52:05He says he wants to talk to you.

52:06I've an idea he's taken something.

52:13Get an ambulance here, Brer Fox.

52:15Quick as you can.

52:16Yes, sir.

52:16Don't waste your time, Inspector.

52:20There's no use sending for ambulances and doctors.

52:24If I've calculated correctly,

52:26I've just left myself time to confirm what I suspect

52:29that Inspector Allen has already found out for himself.

52:32It was Otto Brod's play that the audience applauded tonight, wasn't it?

52:37Not such a bad little effort in its way,

52:40but I improved it beyond all recognition.

52:44It would have been nothing without me.

52:47But Ben did recognize it.

52:50Otto Brod gave him the play for his opinion,

52:53but old Ben's German wasn't up to much,

52:56and so Jacko and I had a rate of it.

52:58But Ben understood enough German to realize

53:01that your new play was the one that Otto Brod had given him.

53:05Yes.

53:07Jacko recognized it, too, of course.

53:10But he had the decency to keep his mouth shut.

53:14Ben wasn't so charitable.

53:16One wrote off to Otto Brod to get his suspicions confirmed.

53:20And I suppose Ben attempted a little blackmail?

53:23He said that if I didn't stop insisting

53:27that the wretched Gainsford wench be sacked,

53:30he would publish Brod's letter.

53:34I had no alternative but to give way.

53:37But when the stupid girl had her breakdown

53:40after Jacko quoted from the Scottish play,

53:43Miss Tarn went on anyway.

53:46And so Ben decided to go ahead, despite it all?

53:49Five minutes before the performance began,

53:54Ben informed me that at the final curtain

53:56he intended to advance to the footlights

53:58and tell the audience I'd pinched the play.

54:01Knowing that Ben meant business,

54:03I slipped into his dressing room

54:05and loaded his powder pad

54:06with a handy little poison called Bethardine.

54:10And he got about two grams of it

54:12on his sweaty upper lip

54:14when he powdered himself after his exit.

54:16Yes, I suspected something of the sort

54:18at the moment I realised the pad was missing.

54:21Bethardine works very fast,

54:24as I can confirm from present experience.

54:27I've taken a considerable dose of it myself.

54:32When I returned before the curtain call,

54:36Ben was already comatous,

54:39and I doubt whether the gas

54:40would have been necessary.

54:41But I went ahead with it anyway.

54:45Because of the other death by gas poisoning,

54:47and to suggest suicide.

54:49It might have worked,

54:52with a shade more attention to detail on my part.

54:56But I was always a little slap deaf.

54:59The ambulance has arrived, Inspector.

55:08Let it allow.

55:11I'm already on the edge of the viewless winds.

55:15I knew it would come too late.

55:20Opening night and last night,

55:22on the same evening.

55:23It may have given Rutherford

55:24a certain grim satisfaction.

55:26Oh, poor old Rutherford.

55:28It all seems such a tremendous waste.

55:31And all for a little harmless plagiarism,

55:34which you couldn't bear to see exposed.

55:36You'll be looking for a new play, I suppose.

55:37And a new theatre, I shouldn't wonder.

55:40Tonight has thoroughly confirmed

55:42the jinx on this place.

55:43At least you won consolation, Mr Poole.

55:46I can't see any, Inspector.

55:47You've discovered a long-lost relative.

55:50And when you're looking for a bright young actress

55:51to play your next juvenile lead,

55:54at least you won't have far to go.

55:56In Opening Night by Nayo Marsh,

56:09Chief Detective Inspector Alan

56:11was played by Jeremy Clyde,

56:13Detective Inspector Fox,

56:15Tim Treloar,

56:16Martin Tarn,

56:18Beth Chalmers,

56:20Dr Rutherford,

56:20John Hartley,

56:22Adam Poole,

56:23Michael Cochran,

56:23Helena Hamilton,

56:25Elizabeth Bell,

56:26Clark Bennington,

56:27Gavin Muir,

56:29Jaco Dore,

56:30Yohan Meredith,

56:32Gay Gainsford,

56:33Gemma Saunders,

56:34J.G. Darcy,

56:35Paul Gregory,

56:36Paddy Percival,

56:37Tom George,

56:39Clem Smith,

56:39Christopher Callum.

56:44Opening Night was dramatised for radio

56:46by Michael Bakewell

56:47and directed by Enid Williams.

56:53Altyazı M.

56:56Altyazı M.

Inspector Alleyn - Opening Night

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