Plot

Sir Tim is Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures. He discovers that some of the pictures in his charge are fakes. But they never used to be. Was his predecessor making money on the side?

Sir Timothy, curator of the Royal art collection, calls in UCOS when one of the paintings is found to be a fake. Art expert Totty Vogel-Downing pinpoints the forgery to have been created in 1978, apparently by a forger who killed himself after his studio was destroyed in an arson attack aimed at a Kurdish sweatshop. The arsonist, Pat the Rat, has connections with George Wilson, the criminal who effectively ended Gerry's career, and Gerry is taken off the case. However, he pursues his own enquiries, leading him to believe that, whilst he may charm Sandra, Sir Timothy is not all he seems to be.—don @ minifie-1

The UCOS team find themselves at Buckingham Palace when the curator of the Queen's collection, Sir Timothy, reports that some of the paintings are fakes. Their situation only came to his attention when a painting up for auction turned out to be the real thing. With the help of a police art expert, Totty Vogel-Downing, they find a fingerprint on one of the fakes but the artist committed suicide after painting the fake in the late 1970s. The dealer who sold the art is also dead but a fire in the forger's studio eventually leads them to George Wilson, a criminal who landed Gerry in it a long time ago. Although he's taken off the case, it doesn't prevent him from investigating the case.—garykmcd