Shakespeare and Hathaway get presented with possibly one of their weirdest cases to date, when they get a visit from Peter Quintus a local undertaker.
His story is most certainly bizarre in the extreme of two men claiming openly to be representatives of a criminal organisation, with members in high places.
Their visit to him is to notify him of his imminent demise, and to give him the opportunity to put his affairs in order before hand. With the caveat that if he tells anyone of them or the situation especially the police, then dire prognostications will befall him.
This episodes storyline could have been borrowed from an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, although it would have had to be one of the worst.
As many of those episodes were written by a far better writer than this script, non other than the celebrated novelist Roald Dahl.
Detective stories are invariably peppered with 'Red Herrings' false clues, and apart from the excessively strange storyline there are at least a couple of decidedly odd characters.
Peter Quintus ex wife Anne appears to have a pathological attitude to him, apparently over her allegations of being diddled in their divorce proceedings.
The Neighbourhood Watch bod Melvin Pipkin is most inquisitive, so much so that he could easily acquire the monika of 'Peeping Tom'.
The more I see of Frank Hathaway and his methods of detection I can't help wondering just how good a police detective was he while on the force, as many a time he at least gives the distinct impression of being clueless.
The local old bill chief DI Marlowe dose't exactly inspire confidence in criminology, and we have to ask what kind of deceptive team would they have made while they worked together on the force.
His story is most certainly bizarre in the extreme of two men claiming openly to be representatives of a criminal organisation, with members in high places.
Their visit to him is to notify him of his imminent demise, and to give him the opportunity to put his affairs in order before hand. With the caveat that if he tells anyone of them or the situation especially the police, then dire prognostications will befall him.
This episodes storyline could have been borrowed from an episode of the old TV series The Twilight Zone, although it would have had to be one of the worst.
As many of those episodes were written by a far better writer than this script, non other than the celebrated novelist Roald Dahl.
Detective stories are invariably peppered with 'Red Herrings' false clues, and apart from the excessively strange storyline there are at least a couple of decidedly odd characters.
Peter Quintus ex wife Anne appears to have a pathological attitude to him, apparently over her allegations of being diddled in their divorce proceedings.
The Neighbourhood Watch bod Melvin Pipkin is most inquisitive, so much so that he could easily acquire the monika of 'Peeping Tom'.
The more I see of Frank Hathaway and his methods of detection I can't help wondering just how good a police detective was he while on the force, as many a time he at least gives the distinct impression of being clueless.
The local old bill chief DI Marlowe dose't exactly inspire confidence in criminology, and we have to ask what kind of deceptive team would they have made while they worked together on the force.