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Boon is a British television drama and modern-day western series starring Michael Elphick, David Daker, and later Neil Morrissey. It was created by Jim Hill and Bill Stair and filmed by Central Television for ITV. It revolved around the life of a modern-day Lone Ranger and ex-firefighter, Ken Boon.
1987
Harry has sold the Grand Hotel and bought a much more prestigious hotel, The Coaching Inn in Edgbaston. Doreen has moved to Spain and out of Ken's life. Harry is trying to raise some publicity for the grand opening that he has planned at The Coaching Inn, but the newspaper reporter isn't very interested. However Harry persuades them to print a photo if he can get it to the newspaper by their deadline. But who can perform the opening ceremony, now that the mayor isn't able to attend. By chance Emlyn Price Jones, a fiery red-haired Welsh MP, who is somewhat the worse for drink, is staying in the hotel so Harry gets him to do the honours. While Ken is taking the film of the grand opening to the newspaper office, he is ambushed by a gang of Hells Angels. Ken is starting up a motorcycle courier firm, Texas Rangers, which will operate out of the stables at the Coaching Inn, in which he has a financial stake. He is living in a flat above the stables. He has bought an ancient trans
Harry is thinking of extending the Coaching Inn and entertains a local councillor, James Petherbridge, to lunch in the hope that he will put in good word for Harry at the planning meeting. Unfortunately for Ken, the plans would involve the demolition of the stables used as Texas Rangers' office. Petherbridge is being pursued by an over-ambitious TV journalist, Linda West, who is determined to prove that he is corrupt and is accepting gifts in exchange for ensuring that applicants' plans are passed. Things look bad when it is revealed that he has just returned from a holiday in Sardinia. Then he receives a package of pornographic books, unwittingly delivered by Ken. The police arrive as Ken hands over the package. Because Texas Rangers is implicated by delivering the package, Ken investigates- to clear his own name as well as Petherbridge's. He discovers that the pornographic magazines have come from a seedy club run by Sillitoe, a florid-faced, fruity-voiced man who reluctantly reveals
Debbie thinks that Ken is getting very unfit so she takes him out jogging. A spirited elderly woman, Irene Maplethorpe, is being victimised by pranks at Moat Farm where she lives. A dead sheep is found in a water-trough; cattle get loose; the farmyard is flooded; she gets anonymous phone calls and finally a barn is "accidentally" demolished by a JCB. A consortium of unscrupulous property developers, Rathbone, Keen and Blackwater (RKB), has designs on the land where Moat Farm is situated. They are planning to build ""luxury dwellings"" there, even though they don't yet own the land. RKB put pressure on Irene's wimpish nephew, Philip Lainchbury, who runs a sawmill that is in financial difficulties, to get him to persuade Irene to move. RKB offer Harry the chance to invest in the consortium and take him shooting on the land next to Moat Farm. Irene demands that they leave her alone - and shoots out the tyres of Rathbone's car to emphasise her point. Irene suspects that her nephew is involve
Harry is searching for a group to provide entertainment at the Coaching Inn. He approaches Frankie Bass, a theatrical agent, who recommends a Country and West band, Bronco Billy's Boys. Harry hires them privately, bypassing Frankie's agency fee. Ken falls for Bebe McLintock, their raunchy blonde singer, after he has to rescue the band when they break down on their way to the Coaching Inn. Frankie Bass turns up and demands her share of the takings. Bronco and Bebe are forever arguing and Bebe is angry that she is not given sufficient chance to sing her own songs. She runs away from the band - and ends up in Ken's bed! She is on the point of leaving the band and living with Ken. However Ken's luck does not last: before long Bebe (who turns out to be Billy's wife) goes back to the band after Billy decides her needs her to stay. He is prepared to give her top billing and to let her sing her own songs. When White Lightning (Ken's beloved bike) is stolen, it is another member of the band, P
Albion Firetrucks, a local company which makes fire engines, has the computer plans for its new high-tech prototype stolen, when Ken is knocked off his bike while couriering them to the managing director. He is rescued by Shandy Tremblett, a platinum-blonde Page 3 girl who is staying at the Coaching Inn while trying to "improve her education". When the prototype itself is stolen, Ken investigates. He uncovers a conspiracy between an American consortium, led by Ed Slatterley, and Albion's director, Sir Freddie Blackton MP. The intention is for Slatterley to buy Albion at a knockdown price (because the prototype and its plans are missing) and then, having asset-stripped the company, to close it down. Ken finds the prototype hidden in a barn. Ken, wearing a brass fireman's helmet, and Shandy, dressed in a Union Jack robe, stage a publicity stunt on top of the fire engine to raise public awareness and to persuade the government to allow a management buy-out to take place.
Rocky has his bike stolen by an opportunist thief, Nick, while he is collecting a package from an office in the city centre... and being chatted up by the doe-eyed receptionist! To make matters worse, he has forgotten to renew the road tax and insurance on the bike. Harry's 84-year-old Aunt Lill has had a stroke and is found lying on her hall floor. The ambulance drivers are on strike so her neighbours, Margaret and Sam Green, have to take her to hospital by car. Harry is furious at what he sees as the drivers' selfish attitude: "What's the world coming to when the unions can use a crippled old woman to bump up their pay packets?" he asks Ken. He vents his frustration on the casualty registrar, Dr Hamill, but she lectures him about the dire financial state of the Health Service and tells him how the ambulance strike is affecting deliveries of drugs and medical samples. Somewhat chastened, Harry offers Ken's services free of charge if the hospital needs any supplies collecting or delivered.
Ken makes a delivery to a house which is being used as a studio for the making of pornographic films. When Barry Drinkwater, the film director, hears about Ken's association with 'The Coaching Inn', he decides he wants to make a film there. Despite Ken's warnings, Harry persists in believing that it will be good publicity for the hotel! Debbie's younger sister, Lindy, arrives unannounced from Liverpool - she has run away from home. Debbie tries to persuade her to go back home, but Lindy complains that there's nothing to go back for and that she is fed up of being treated as a child. Harry gives her a part-time job working behind the hotel bar, but Drinkwater entices her away to give her a part in one of his films. Ken and Debbie can guess exactly what this will involve Lindy doing! They track her down and take her away from the flat over a sex-shop where Drinkwater has taken her.
The episode starts with a bang as Rocky suspects that Texas Rangers is delivering IRA bombs. Explosions aren't the only thing in the air as Ken copes with Harry's passion for a beautiful artist.
A new recruit is oblivious of the jealousy around her as she concentrates on the man who intends to repossess her father's stately home - a man who just happens to be staying at 'The Coaching Inn'.
An unwelcome guest checks in at the Inn - Harry's Ex-wife, who is then kidnapped ! Meanwhile, Ken, Rocky and their new van attempt to deliver a large statue in which no-one seems to be interested.
Rocky's in love again. This time it's with the delectable Guiseppina, daughter of the owner of 'The Pizza Palace', an establishement so fortified that Rocky jokes about mafia connections... Harry, meanwhile, is planning a trip to Las Vegas, and Ken is involved in a number of mysterious parcels.
A huge wedding reception at 'The Coaching Inn' gets out of hand when the bride's family discovers the groom's identity.
Ken encounters an old friend and meets up with a former love, Detective Constable Margaret Daly, at an aerobics class.
1988
Harry organises a charity ball with a dodgy character who runs off with all the money, leaving Harry to face an investigative journalist's cameras; he is forced into promising to replace the enire sum. The Texas Rangers, meanwhile, are thought responsible for some industrial espionage - which threatens to close them down. Rocky helps uncover the real leak, and Boon re-establishes relations with Margaret.
Ken and Margaret finally track down the runaway Jay, but not before he's spent all the money. During the course of an unusual blackmail case, Margaret discovers that her new boyfriend is a liar. In the end, Boon does so well at both cases that she asks him to be her partner.
Ken becomes a minder for a spy who has just been released from prison - a newspaper has an exclusive story contract and wants to protect its investment. It's not easy, however: rival newshounds are soon on the scent, and even the secret services are traling behind...
Ken and Margaret try to trace a missing husband who has absconded with his firm's money. Meanwhile, Harry holds an Australian Evening at 'The Plaza'.
An unscrupulous fast-food king get his comeuppance for exploiting his young employees in spite of Ken Boon's attempts to keep the peace. Harry relives his past when he meets a long-lost love.
Margaret and Ken try to nail a gangster with little success, but they do manage to deliver a writ and help a boy when his mother decides to marry his best friend!
Ken is involved with the fire service again - this time in the pursuit of a bent fireman turned arsonist. Harry, meanwhile, embarks on a self-assertiveness course.
Margaret is hired to find a runaway rock star, and finally gets him back with Rocky's help. Ken, meanwhile, is following a man who is supposedly cheating on his ex-wife's alimony payments. Getting to know and like the man, he finds that he is indeed cheating - but that the wife is also secretly living with a rich man. Ken is faced with a dilemma: does he betray the ex-husband, or lie to his client?
When Ken and Margaret are used to provide a false alibi for a robber, they find themselves under suspicion from the police. Harry helps a fellow restaurateur recover from the damaging reviews of a nasty food journalist.
Sheep rustlers and rare-egg smugglers are tracked down, while Harry has to deal with unwanted attentions from a besotted admirer.
Ken is hired by an American evangelical preacher to find out who is sabotaging his show in Birmingham and ruining his chances of winning a cable television contract. Ken discovers that the culprits are the brothers of a rival preacher on the cable television shortlist, but his sympathy for his client is short-lived when a friend of Harry's is left suffering from the effects of his faith-healing.
While Harry has to contend with mice, Ken is hired to keep an ex-con out of trouble; the ex-con turns out to be more than capable of looking after himself.
Ken and Margaret help a jockey whose wife has been kidnapped to force him to lose a race. Rocky tracks down a beautiful graffiti artist, and Harry faces the nightmare of the 'Birmingham Trivial Pursuit Championship' at 'The Plaza'.
1986
Harry retires from the fire brigade and Ken is invalided out after his lungs are damaged while rescuing a boy from a fire. Harry buys a seedy hotel, The Grand. Ken buys a caravan, The Ponderosa, and tries to make a living as a market gardener. Harry suggests that Ken should supplement his income by offering to do odd-jobs for people - he places an advert in the local paper. His first client is Barney Spitz, a pop music promoter who wants Ken to dress up in an old fireman's uniform and star in a pop video!
Elena and Arturo Sandini (aka Helen and Arthur Sanders) run a circus lion-taming show. They ask Ken to recover their lion, Watson, which has been stolen by a group of animal-rights campaigners who want to use it to publicise their cause.
While sorting out unpaid bills at The Grand, Doreen find s one relating to a man who has since died. Ken, Harry and Doreen visit his widow, Meg Lucie, and find that she is coping very badly, both with looking after the garden and with the paying of the bills. Ken and Harry sort out the garden while Doreen sorts out Meg's bills. They decide not to tell Meg that they suspect her husband was having an affair while staying at The Grand. Harry falls for Meg but she decides to sell up and move away from the area. Harry employs a new barman, Lionel Blakey, but soon discovers that his racist comments are offending both Hanif and the Asian guests. After an argument, Blakey resigns, which prevents Harry having to decide how to sack him!
Laurie Langley, a has-been pop singer, employs Ken to look after her son after she suspects that her ex-husband, Geoff Greenaway, is trying to kidnap him.
Patsy, a young woman who is staying at The Grand, befriends Sidney Garbutt, another guest who has lost his memory. But what has caused Sidney to lose his memory in the first place?
Ken is employed by a genial Irishman, Erroll McLaverty, to bring a canal boat back to Birmingham from near London. He takes Doreen and plans a romantic weekend. But two scruffy men, Appleby and Laing, are following the boat. Then Ken and Doreen hear strange sounds from the boat's cargo hold. They discover that an escaped convict, Alan Prendergast, is hiding in the boat - McLaverty had employed Ken to smuggle Alan back to his father, Walter Prendergast.
Ken recovers the antiques that Philip Banks and Georgina Pemberton, a couple of corrupt antique dealers, have defrauded from an old man, Murdoch Johnstone. Harry is worried that Mr Dudley, an officious and demanding guest, might be a hotel inspector who will decide whether The Grand will be given a contract for housing homeless people.
Major Hopkinson, an old man who collects chiming clocks asks Ken for help after he is terrorised by some thugs to whom he owes money. But has he been completely honest with Ken?
Harry is organising a charity football match between the firemen and the All Stars. Billy ""The Kid"" Buchan, an out-of-work Scottish footballer, has flown over from Hong Kong to play in the match. Harry organises a press conference at The Grand, where Billy will be staying. Billy is a notorious alcoholic, so his manager, Peter Grant, asks Ken to act as his minder and prevent him from drinking. This is particularly important because Wally Patterson, manager of the Saudi Arabian national team, and Abdul Ibrahim, one of the team's sponsors, are coming to the match. They want Billy to act as captain and coach for the Arabian team. Grant, who has an agreement to take 25% of Billy's takings, threatens him: ""If you screw this up for me, I'll see you never play for another British club"". Ken collects Patterson and Ibrahim from the airport and takes them to the hotel, but meanwhile Billy has drunk a whole bottle of vodka and is in no state to meet them, particularly in view of the Saudis' disapp
Ken falls off his bike while he is riding along a snowy country lane. The bike is damaged and needs a new rear suspension. Neighbour Ben Gibbs helps to recover the bike in his horsebox. After a lot of futile phoning around, Ken finds a motorbike repair shop, Alpha Bikes, which can get hold of the suspension unit. Alpha Bike is run Narain Singh and his nephew Ranjit. Narain offers Ken the use of his workshop. While working there one evening, Ken hears Ranjit and his wife Surinder arguing violently. Ranjit yells ""You are my wife. You will do as I say."" Surinder screams and runs away, pursued by Ranjit. She and Ken escape on one of Narain's bikes, and Harry reluctantly offers to put her up in a spare bedroom at The Grand. When Ken returns the bike to Narain, he offers to bring Surinder back, although he tells Narain how his nephew has treated his wife. Narain resents the fact the Ken is ""interfering"". He says that Ken will only get his bike when he returns Surinder. Back at The Grand, Ken
The Karadia brothers run a carpet factory which has suffered more than its fair share of fires. The police, fire brigade and insurance company suspect arson. One of the carpets which is destroyed in the latest fire belongs to Harry - he has ordered it for The Grand and is worried because he has over-estimated its value on his insurance claim. Ken follows the suspected arsonist to a new hotel that Harry is about to buy and catches him in the act of setting a fire. Both Ken and the arsonist narrowly escape with their lives.
1991
Ken is in the process of moving into a derelict house in the village of Upper Ridley. He has arranged with the owner that he will live there rent-free in exchange for renovating it. John Pritchard approaches Harry and wants CBS to provide security guards for the launch of his new health club. He wants the guards to wear tracksuits, which he will provide, so they will blend in with the punters. Harry promotes Rocky to ""executive"" and gives him the task of employing suitable college students: no mean feat when all the tracksuits are extra small! One of the students, Vicky ""Mouthpiece"", gives Rocky a hard time, quoting the Factory and Sex Discrimination Acts as she attempts to do as little work as possible. However Rocky soon puts her in her place. John Dewar, the owner of a dairy, suspects that his wife, Melissa, may be having an affair and asks Ken to investigate. Ken is reluctant to do so, firstly because he wants to get on with moving into his new house and secondly because he hates w
Ken and Harry call in on the spur of the moment to check Don Jakes, the security guard that they have employed at a safety deposit company, Unicorn Deposit Ltd. While searching for him, they walk into the vault. The door swings shut and an unknown person locks it behind them, trapping them inside. Ken and Harry see that the vault has been ransacked and that the cable for the security camera has been cut. They realise that they will probably be trapped all weekend. They think that Don might have been attacked, which is why he can't rescue them. Don leaves the vault and meets his Scottish girlfriend, Billie. They have stolen the contents of the vault and are planning to run away together to Argentina. Ken had arranged to meet Laura, who is getting obscene phone calls at home. When he doesn't turn up and she can't contact either him or Harry, she gets very worried. She and Rocky start to investigate. Don's wife, Jeanette, becomes suspicious when she sees Don with Billie, who is her hairdr
Ken and Harry are involved in a court case, giving evidence against a landlord, Michael Roach who is accused of terrorising his tenants into leaving his houses. Some time ago, Ken had been employed by George and May Jenkins, and Aziz Hussain, Roach's tenants who live on a run-down estate. Jimmy Craven, one of Roach's thugs, had forced his way into the Jenkins' flat and vandalised the furniture, with the George and Mabel looking on in horror. When their neighbour, Aziz Hussain, had tried to intervene, he was beaten up. Roach was clearly behind the attacks: he wanted to redevelop the land on which the flats stood and had resorted to violent tactics after the more subtle approach (eg refusing to carry out repairs) had failed to work. The Jenkins and Hussains wanted Ken to gather evidence that Roach was paying Jimmy Craven. Ken and Rocky waited outside a pub that Craven was known to frequent, and photographed Roach handing over a large envelope of cash. But they were spotted and Craven and
Ken makes a start on renovating Orchard Cottage. Pam Strong, one of his neighbours and the widow of a fireman, tentatively asks him for help because her son John has changed suddenly: he has dropped out of college, become sullen and uncommunicative and has started locking himself in his room. She also suspects that he may be stealing from her. Something is wrong - could it be drugs, Pam wonders. John has become friendly with another teenager called Mark who rents room at a nearby farm. Mark and John steal a car and drive around, terrifying the locals. The car hits a man and woman on a bridge, but Mark drives on, dumping the car in a quarry and swearing John to silence. But John later recognises the man that was knocked down as a local doctor, James Harlon. It was Harlon who got John his part-time job as a porter at the hospital. Ken visits Dr Harlon, not realising that connection with John and the accident. Dr Harlon describes John as quiet and a bit of a loner, but not the sort to be
A mother and daughter, Jean and Isabella di Cesare, are staging a fashion show on board a boat and taking money for the dresses that they are exhibiting. But they have no intention of delivering - it is all a scam. They are also planning to stitch up Ken. CBS are proving the security at a charity antiques auction at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. Ken is expecting Jean to arrive soon. Jean is one of Ken's old flames: Harry's ex-wife had once described them as ""the Siamese twins - joined at the lips"". However Jean left Ken ten years ago and later married an Italian Count, Vincenzo di Cesare. Jean and Isabella are being followed by a scruffy man in an even scruffier car. Jean tells Ken that she has recently left the Count because he was beating her up. She bought her sports car with the money that she took when she left the Count, but now he is claiming that the car belongs to him. He wants it back and is threatening to get violent. Isabella is also being followed by Enzo, a ""lovesick Ital
CBS have been employed to guard the pheasants in a wood owned by Lord Melverley of Whitley Hall, in preparation for the annual Shoot on the day of the Feast of Mortimer. Lord Melverley is worried about hunt saboteurs. When Ken is on his way to join Rocky and Laura in the wood, he discovers an old Morris Minor Traveller van parked nearby, with a shotgun in the back. Could it belong to the saboteurs. The following day, his bike breaks down outside the church. The vicar, Rev Peter Bradshaw, is a keen bike enthusiast and mechanic, and gets the bike going again. He happens to mention that he also maintains the van, a Morris Traveller, belonging to Ralph Cotterell, the former gamekeeper. Lord Melverley sacked Cotterell recently after twenty-five years and Cotterell is now reduced to working as part-time groundsman for a nearby school. Ken talks to Cotterell who is indeed very bitter about the way that he was sacked, in connection with an incident when sheep belonging to a neighbour, Chris Sh
A riding stables owned by Helen Davison is vandalised. Vincent Batten, who owns most of the horses in the stables, wants CBS to provide security cover to satisfy his insurance company. Then Sultan, one of Vincent's stud stallions, is stolen while Rocky is watching the stables. CBS are made to look like amateurs. Harry offers to do a free security survey of Vincent's house by way of recompense and volunteers Ken's services to investigate the vandalism and the theft of the horse. While Harry is doing the survey, he sees Jordan, Vincent's business manager, loading up the Land Rover with water and horse feed. Harry and Laura follow Jordan to a derelict cottage where is secretly meeting Vincent's wife, Greta: they are having an affair and Greta knows that Vincent would divorce her if he ever found out. Ken is suspicious of Meia, one of the stable girls who lives with a group of gipsies nearby. Bull, Meia's father and leader of the travellers, resents the fact that whenever any crime is comm
Harry is employed by a lawyer, Caroline Mortlake, to protect her and her 16-year-old daughter Emma. Caroline and Emma are being pestered by a main in a raincoat. He is a reporter, Bill Webster, who works for the local newspaper. Bill's boss, Eddie Morgan, is determined to ""get that woman"". Harry gets Rocky to look after Emma, ferrying her around on his motorbike. Emma takes an instant fancy to Rocky and tries every trick in the book to get him into compromising situations. However he is rather embarrassed by her attentions. He asks Laura to help him fend off Emma by pretending to be his girlfriend. Laura has a quiet word with Emma who immediately leaves Rocky alone. The real reason for this only emerges much later. Bill is watching outside Caroline's office, determined to get his story. His car has been sabotaged by having its brake pipes cut. He storms off to CBS, accusing Ken of being responsible. Ken and Harry confront Caroline and ask her why exactly she is being pursued by Bill. S
Ken discovers that it is hard to find a cab when you need one, particularly when a thief has the same idea.
Harry is taken for a ride when he accepts a job minding a country mansion and discovers uninvited guests in his flat.
Harry falls for Jo Beckett (Jill Gascoine), ""The Woman Of My Life"", who owns a jazz club, ""Smoky Jo's"". He plans to marry Jo (he buys her a 2500 engagement ring) and to invest in the club. He even makes preparations to sell his share of CBS to a rival security firm.
Michael Elphick
Ken Boon
David Daker
Harry Crawford
Neil Morrissey
Rocky Cassidy
Elizabeth Carling
Laura Marsh
Amanda Burton
Margaret Daly
Saskia Wickham
Alex Wilton
Rachel Davies
Doreen Evans
1989
Ken has moved to Nottingham and has set up Boon Investigations, operating out of a small office near the Castle. His first case involves him being employed by Gerry Anscomb, manager of a local radio station, Sherwood Sound. He wants Ken to act as minder for Eddie Cotton, ""The Man You Love To Hate"", a brash loud-mouthed young DJ who has a habit of turning up for work drunk... or not even turning up at all. They want to make sure he will not let them down at a Charity Telethon this coming weekend. Eddie gives Ken chance to plug Boon Investigations on the radio. Ken and Eddie go to a snooker club where Eddie gives Ken the slip and picks up Donna Delaney, a leggy young woman who wears cowboy boots and has closely-cropped blonde hair. Eddie and Donna go to a night club where she drugs him. He makes something of a spectacle of himself and gets his photo printed in the gossip column of the local paper. He misses his show and a fellow DJ, Tony Lyons, has to stand in for him. He eventually turn
1992
Laura has left CBS: according to Rocky this is because she felt that Harry was taking her for granted. Charlie Hardiman is having to answer the phone and act as secretary. Harry is desperate to find a permanent replacement but all the girls that he has interviewed so far are proving to be singularly useless. Robert MacGuffin, a hardware designer who works for a computer company, Pictel, believes that his former secretary, Alexandra Wilton, is stealing the design for the company's latest transputer. He wants Ken and Harry to watch her. He suspects her of industrial espionage because she has just resigned for no apparent reason (or so he says) and she already has a prison record for cheque fraud. Ken and Rocky set up their cameras and binoculars in a disused warehouse opposite the studio flat where she lives. Rocky follows Alex to the ice rink where she meets her boyfriend, Jim Parham. When Ken sees a middle-aged man arrive at Alex's flat and offer her a cheque which she refuses, he trie
Ken is approached by Marion Kershaw who is looking for her missing husband, Geoff, who is in ""the import/export business"". Ken soon discovers that Geoff Kershaw owes money to the taxman. At the squash court that Kershaw uses, Ken finds a holdall containing a large amount of cash, a false passport and a gun. The police tell him that Kershaw is wanted for running an antiques smuggling business, stealing antiques around the country and sending them abroad. Ken and Harry agree to stage a fake robbery at Woodcote Park so as to have some ""stolen"" antiques with which to tempt the smugglers. The local contact for them turns out to be Eric Beveridge, an antiques dealer who has just sold Helen some chairs for Woodcote Park. Geoff and Marion meet up at a deserted quarry - the ""missing person"" story is evidently a cover. With Harry and the police tailing them, Beveridge takes Ken to the quarry where Marion recognises Ken. After a dramatic chase, Beveridge and the Kershaws are arrested. Helen catch
At the Magistrates Court, the renewal of a gaming licence for the Carrington Club run by Dick Vaughan, is postponed pending further enquiries after a punter in the public gallery alleges that he was cheated by Vaughan. Vaughan does not realise that the ""punter"" is really Rupert Cole, who runs a rival gambling club. Vaughan gets Ken to investigate - if any of his croupiers are cheating, he wants to know before the Gaming Board investigators call on him. Ken spends the evening at the Carrington but sees nothing unusual so he asks Helen to come with him the following night. She soon notices that Jackie, one of the blackjack croupiers, is cheating. Ken pretends to be a writer, researching a university psychology textbook on gambling, in order to gain Jackie's confidence. He challenges her and she admits that she has been persuaded by Cole to cheat and to make sure that she is caught, so that the Carrington will be blamed and will lose its gaming licence. Ken has one of his famous conflicts
A middle-aged couple, Terry and Gill Conroy, driving an expensive Jaguar, break down in a residential street, outside the house owned by George and Irene Boxall. The Boxalls offer them a cup of tea while the Conroys wait for the breakdown truck to arrive. In recompense, Terry Conroy invites the Boxalls to join them at a Tyrolean night. But all is not as it seems. When the Conroys never turn up at the Tyrolean night (which is being held at Woodcote Park), George and Irene become suspicious and ask Ken for help. A mysterious young woman, Meryl Spicer, turns up at Woodcote Park, looking for Helen. She claims to be Helen's long-lost daughter whom Helen had given away for adoption (!) It turns out that the Conroys used the Tyrolean invitation simply as an excuse to get the Boxalls out of their house, with Meryl at Woodcote Park to alert the Conroys as soon as the Boxalls leave to come home. The reason for this subterfuge is that Tom Vallance, a bank robber, had hidden some plans in the Boxa
Robert Messener employs Ken to act as his bodyguard and chauffeur, and to run various errands associated with the sale of his house and his nightclub, in preparation for a hasty departure to Cyprus. Messener's previous minder, Freddy Tucker, had walked out on him after being beaten up. Ken is suspicious. He wonders why Messener is leaving so suddenly and why everyone hates him. When Messener's dogs are shot, he tells Ken that he suspects Sammy Robinson, a ""madman"" who used to work for him but who is now in prison for manslaughter, for which he blames Messener. Ken traces Sammy's ex-wife, Natalie, who tells him that Sammy accused Messener of having an affair with her. Messener had got Sammy to beat up a rival night-club owner - who later died. It is Sammy's brothers who are responsible for killing the dogs and for crushing Messener's car. Sammy is due out of prison in a few days and his brothers think he will want Messener disposed of. Messener completes a deal with Douglas Cruikshank f
Ken and Harry are guarding Tinkerbell, a greyhound, at Woodcote Park, before her big race. The owner, Mr Hancock, insists that Tinkerbell must be fed ""Mr Marrow"" dog food and a detailed record must be kept of how much of it she eats. Harry gets Rocky to feed and walk the dog, and it soon becomes clear that Tinkerbell hates ""Mr Marrow"". An attractive blonde woman turns up at Woodcote, delivering cases of wine in a Range Rover. While Harry and Rocky are helping to unload the wine, she drives off with Tinkerbell. Harry and Rocky try to trace the owner of the Ranger Rover. Then Rocky has an idea: there is going to be a charity event before the greyhound race - perhaps the dog thieves will be there. They locate the car and follow it back to an opulent house owned by a Mr and Mrs Hipkiss who claim to own Tinkerbell. Mr Hipkiss tells them that Hancock used to work for him but wasn't up to the job. Hipkiss believes that Hancock had stolen Tinkerbell in revenge for (as he sees it) being sacked
Ken is employed by the owners of a nursing home to investigate a series of petty thefts of patients' money. Because of pressure of work, he passes the case to Harry who goes to stay at the nursing home, posing as a businessman suffering from stress and a nervous breakdown. Laura also helps, posing as Harry's gushing and utterly spoilt daughter! After eliminating the cleaner and the gardener, Harry soon suspects Mary Foster, an eccentric old lady who is a long-term patient. He marks a wad of 5 notes and leaves them in his bedside drawer. They soon disappear and Harry finds them in Mary's handbag. He presents his findings to the Matron, telling her that he has traced the thief. Much to his surprise, the Matron herself confesses to the thefts. She has been taking the money to give to Mary, in order to perpetuate a white lie - Mary thinks that her son, living in New Zealand, is paying for little treats on her birthday, whereas in fact the son died two years ago and the Matron hasn't the he
Mr and Mrs Sheridan, parents of Isobel, a university student studying Art History, ask Ken to investigate why their daughter has changed and why she suddenly seems to be suspiciously wealthy. Ken talks to her former boyfriend, Geoff, and learns that she used to be very keen on rowing but then suddenly gave it up a year ago and now has a new set of friends. Laura and Rocky go undercover, posing as students. They see Isobel and a friend, Dominique, all dolled-up and getting into a brand new flashy convertible. They follow her to a hotel. When Rocky sees the women leaving a hotel bedroom after a little while, and an Italian man gratefully handing over money, he jumps to the obvious conclusion - that they are on the game! Then, outside Isobel's room, Laura finds syringes and a note referring to poppies - perhaps she is a drug dealer. What should Ken tell her parents? Ken eventually discovers that Isobel is selling her essays to less able students - with the knowledge of her tutor, Dr Micha
As he is driving along a country lane towards Woodcote Park, Harry sees a racing cyclist being harassed by a souped-up car. The cyclist, Ian, turns out to be Helen's nephew. He is staying at Woodcote Park while he trains for a road-race through the centre of Nottingham. Greg Simpson, the manager of a racing team, is pressuring Ian to leave his present team and to join Greg's. He threatens to publish a letter which proves that Ian once conspired to fix the result of a race by letting a friend win. Harry uncovers proof that Greg's soignier (team doctor) is prescribing drugs to addicts; this would not go down too well with the sponsors of Greg's team, a health-food company. Faced with a clear case of stalemate, Greg realises that he cannot win and backs down. Ken is asked to trace the author of love letters written to Barbara Lake. They are apparently from her husband, Ronnie, a bank robber - but he died in a plane crash six months ago... Either he is still alive or else the letters are c
The Bisons, a secret society similar to the Freemasons, is holding its meeting at Woodcote Park. Large amounts of alcohol are consumed. On the way home, one of the Bisons, Derek Donaghue, is stopped for drink-driving. Helen asks Rocky to take some of her chairs to sell at an antique shop. Roxanne, the shop assistant, realises that he knows nothing about antiques and rips him off. He and Helen come up with a plan to get his own back. He invites Roxanne for a slap-up dinner at Woodcote, then disappears while pretending to book them a room for the night. Helen makes Roxanne pay the bill! Ken receives a peremptory phone call to meet a potential client, Vincent Brack. Brack wants Ken to watch his wife, Nina. Ken follows Nina to a pub where she changes into a tarty dress and blonde wig, and leaves without Ken realising. The following day he is ready for her and follows her to a club where he discovers that she works as a hostess and singer, using the name Susie. Suspecting the worst, Ken get
Helen is hosting a party for Argentinian polo players at Woodcote Park. She falls for Raoul Gomez, a suave Argentinian. Aiden Curtis, the husband of one of the English guests, asks Ken to watch his wife Merrily (!) who is ""terribly easily influenced"", meaning that he knows every man in the room fancies her and that he thinks she is having an affair. Ken follows her and uncovers a conspiracy between her, a local vet, David Rennet, and one of the Argentinian polo players, Celestino da Silva. Merrily's horse, Deauville Dancer, is infertile but Rennet has signed a certificate stating that it is in perfect health. She ""sells"" the horse to da Silva, thus establishing its value so that the insurance company will pay out when, six months from now, Rennet ""has no choice"" but to have it destroyed. She arranges to return da Silva's money when the insurance company pays up, but instead she leaves him as the owner of an infertile horse and disappears by plane with his money, accompanied by another
Ken is employed by Amelia Woods, a secretary at a local meat-processing factory, to investigate why various dictation tapes and letters go missing from the office and then re-appear a few days later. He soon learns from Bert and Joe, two of the drivers, that there is something very suspicious about the firm - strange late-night deliveries from Amsterdam that don't go through the books and are treated differently from the rest of the stock. And it seems that the owner, Mr Sandford, and his son-in-law, Trevor, are involved. Helped by Laura and Rocky, Ken stages a road accident to hold up the lorry containing the special cargo and they take one of the boxes back to Woodcote. Having thawed it out, they discover, hidden underneath the bacon, pornographic magazines and videos. ""Can you get that muck out of here. I find it extremely upsetting,"" Helen wails. Meanwhile, Harry and Helen are invited to a jousting tournament by a local businessman, Ben Seymour, and become mixed up in a bout of riv
Harry is making plans to sell his stake in Woodcote Park because it is losing money. He is thinking of buying ""Hugo's"", a nightclub and disco, but is warned off by a ruthless Scottish businessman, Vic Carpenter, who also wants to buy it. Eventually Harry and Helen sell Woodcote so it can be turned into timeshare apartments. Ken is seriously considering moving to Texas with Rebecca Patterson. Rebecca reveals that she is over in England to divorce her estranged husband, Terry. Having stolen nearly 100 thousand from his family firm, Terry had fled to America and married Rebecca. However five years later he has now left her and returned to England. Although he has been hiding from his brother since then, Ken reasons that he will come to his father's funeral. Ken arranges to meets him at Sneinton Windmill late at night for him to sign the divorce papers. However Rebecca turns up and, shouting ""Nobody walks out on me"", shoots Terry... dead! For a while, Ken is accused by the police of being
At a Rotary Club dinner, Harry meets Joe Green, a local businessman. Joe is at the centre of a hate campaign: his car has been repeatedly sabotaged, he has received a newspaper cutting about himself with a red dagger drawn across it and someone pretending to be his secretary has cancelled the caterers at a Chamber of Commerce dinner that he was organising. He suspects that someone is trying to prevent him going ahead with a business deal to buy a restaurant, ""Maximillians"" in Derby. He asks Harry to investigate. He also wants Harry to invest in the restaurant deal, along with another businessman, Charles Hastings, and promises him a seat in the Star Chamber if this deal goes ahead. Harry persuades Ken to act as Joe's bodyguard. At Joe's house, Ken meets Joe's wife Sheila who seems unexpectedly worried that Joe has engaged a bodyguard. Joe is extremely arrogant and peremptory to Ken, treats him like dirt and can't even be bothered to get his first name right. Ken takes an instant dislik
Mrs Van Bueren, a middle-aged widow, arrives home to find that she has been burgled. Fortunately the thieves have not taken her jewels. She enlists Ken's help to guard them. Ken takes away the jewellery box, full of tiaras and necklaces, to store it in CBS' safe. Meanwhile, Mr Fraser, a rep from a security firm, is showing Harry his company's products - a mugger-proof briefcase and a safe alar. Harry is not impressed and sends Fraser away with a flea in his ear... but not before he has seen Mrs Van Bueren's jewellery. Rocky is behaving very strangely: his heart isn't in his work any more and he hasn't turned up for work. He has started wearing aftershave and he has bought a clapped-out Ford Capri with a musical horn and a noisy exhaust. All this is because he has fallen madly in love with Melanie King, a demure cashier at his bank. Harry has noticed that Rocky isn't really concentrating and is ""on another planet"", so he gives him an easy job: guarding a sculpture exhibition consisting
Protecting a woman from her nuisance husband appears to be a straightforward assignment until strange things begin to happen.
Ken is on the brink of quitting the security business after dealing with a messy adultery case, so Harry sends him to a rural retreat run by his nephew — where life is anything but relaxing.
Ken investigates the case of a larger-than-life businessman who is accused of kidnapping a young child.
While Ken helps the traders, Harry and Alex try to win a big security contract and find themselves at odds with their partner.
Ken has a spine-chilling confrontation with the supernatural when he is called in to guard expensive antique fittings in an eerie manor.
Rocky and Alex are planning a surprise birthday party for Ken. To get him out of the way, Harry pretends that he is being harassed and needs a minder for a weekend trip — not realizing that he really is in danger.
Ken gets emotionally involved with a wealthy woman - a 65-year-old pools winner.
Ken and Harry's close and loyal relationship comes under severe strain when Harry is arrested on suspicion of fraud.
Boon's ""Girl Friday"" Alex is in love with a man who has just been released from prison. Will he slip back into crime?
Harry falls hopelessly in love with a woman he meets at a fair, but his boasting lands him in hot water.
CBS are employed to go undercover in order to solve a jewellery theft from a hotel strongroom. Max Cone, the fiancé of the owner's daughter, was imprisoned for the theft. However the daughter, Claire Walters, and her father, Jeremy Walters, are convinced of his innocence and suspect the hotel's manager, Bruce Aurit and the head of security, Mike Puckett. Ken and Harry ""sack"" all the staff of CBS and put the office up for ""sale"". They then use Lennie, one of the disgruntled ""sacked"" employees, to inform Bruce and Mike that the company is in a very dodgy financial state and that Ken and Harry are planning to raid the safe. Alex and Rocky go to work at the hotel: Alex becomes 'Julia', a chambermaid, and Rocky becomes 'Sandy', a porter. Ken and Harry check in to the hotel as 'Kenneth Smith' and 'Henry Jones' (!), businessmen who want to organise a conference. Ken and Harry drug Bruce to give Alex chance to steal his key to the safe (in doing so, she displays another of her many talents: ca
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1985
1990
Harry has evidently gone up in the world since he sold Woodcote Park because he now drives a Jaguar XJ6. He is planning to start a security business from offices at a canal basin by the Trent but his bank manager, Mr Statter, refuses him a loan. Ken, Rocky and Laura have moved from Royal Hill and are temporarily working out of a very tacky caravan. Ken is on horseback, investigating water pollution and dead fish at a quarry near Dornford Hall for his clients, the peremptory and patronising Dr Sinclair Lewis, and Simon, a member of an ecological pressure group. They believe that the pollution is due to the dumping of toxic waste, possibly solvents used in the production of ceramics. Suddenly an air-rifle pellet is fired at Ken's horse, throwing him off. A beautiful Polish woman, Irena Tadeusz, who lives at Dornford Hall, rescues him. She tells him about a friend, Brigadier Charles, who was beaten up in a robbery. She is very frightened, so Ken offers to do a free survey with a view to f
Ken is asked to investigate the fiancée of Lawrence Varlish. He suspects that she might be having an affair with her hypnotherapist, Geoffrey Phillips. Harry goes to see Phillips, posing as an anxious patient, and soon discovers that Varlish is worrying over nothing. Two suspicious-looking South African men are waiting in the car park of the newly-opened CBS offices. They are anxious to collect something from a boat on the river. Nearby a narrow-boat belonging to a certain Mrs Walters is commandeered at gunpoint by Hobson, a suave man with a painfully cultured accent, accompanied by a Scotsman called Dilkes. They urgently need transport because their own boat has broken down. That night, when Ken is asleep on his yacht, he is woken up by the sound of heavy objects being thrown in to the water. Still half asleep, he peers out of the window but can't see anything and soon goes back to sleep. After advertising in the local paper, Ken and Harry are inundated with enquiries for missing pers
Harry has a contract to guard the puppies that a pedigree Afghan hound is expecting. When the puppies are born, it turns out that the father was a mongrel! Because the puppies are not pedigrees, the contract falls through and Harry is left with a lot of surplus surveillance equipment. A Scottish footballer from Dundalk, Willie Connolly, wants Ken to act as his minder. Shortly after moving down to play in a local Nottingham team, his car was vandalised by a gang of thugs. Ken is warned off by a Glaswegian who freely admits smashing up the car and tells Ken to pass on the message to Willie that ""he's got twenty-four hours"". Willie and his girlfriend, Belinda, are planning to buy a house nearby. While they are looking round the house before buying it, a woman arrives and catches Willie and Belinda kissing... she is Willie's wife, Moira! Willie was separated from Moira whom he had left in Scotland. The ""mad Glaswegian bookie"" who smashed up the car is Moira's father, Donny McGregor, who is
Justina Bradleigh is a beautiful but spoilt 18-year-old pupil at St Godwald's, a girls' public school. She is secretly going out with Perry, a cocky young man who is constructing the school's new swimming pool. She is very bitchy to Deborah, her father's new girlfriend. Ken and Harry are employed to guard a fashion show and charity gala that the school will shortly be starting. The school receives a bomb threat, which the headmistress, Hester McCullock, says is just the latest in a long line of pranks which are starting to affect the reputation of the school. Hsster asks Ken to investigate before parents start threatening to take their girls away. Harry is keen to join the local branch of the Conservative party, of which Simon Bradleigh is the chairman. Simon tells Harry that ""the party takes a dim view of confirmed bachelors"", so Harry is under pressure to find himself a wife! Simon tells him that he knows of ""an exclusive introduction bureau"" run by Davina Barclay. Harry is very scep
Harry has just moved to the peaceful village of Upper Ridley and Rocky is lodging with him. They help Sylvia Clayborough, a young widow, who has taken over her husband's fishmongering business but is plagued by vandalism: the fish-van's tyres are let down and graffiti is sprayed over it. When Sylvia and another widow, Vivienne Blake, start to compete with each other to welcome Harry to the village, Harry begins to realise that he has uncovered a hotbed of rivalry, jealousy and frustrated passion. Harry and Rocky eventually track down the vandal: Vivienne's wayward nephew who is staying with her. Thomas O'Rourke, an Irish builder, asks Ken to investigate a break-in and theft of cash at his office. He suspects Brian Jonson, another builder. He thinks it is a dispute between Catholic (himself) and Protestant (Jonson). O'Rourke tries to settle his score with Brian by demolishing his office with a JCB. However O'Rourke's daughter, Caitlin, thinks the real culprit is her elder sister, Bernad
Lorraine Simpson is a red-headed young teenager who has just been released from borstal after serving a sentence for arson. Why has she kept a newspaper cutting which announces Ken's transition from fireman to private detective? Fiona Harper, a guest at a nearby hotel, wants Ken to get evidence that her husband, Dennis, is having an affair. She tells him a sob-story about how he has moved his girlfriend into their house after kicking her out in to the street with only the clothes she is wearing. Ken, who can never resist a pretty damsel in distress, falls for this story hook, line and sinker. In fact ""Fiona"" is none other than Lorraine Simpson, who works at the hotel as a chambermaid. But it is a long time before Ken discovers this! Ken watches the Harpers' house and sees Harper with his ""girlfriend"" (who is really his wife, Sue). He agrees to help ""Fiona"" break into the house while the Harpers are out so she can reclaim her possessions. While there, she fakes evidence of a burglary an
Laura is looking after Greg Willis, the ten-year-old son of Harry's friends who are away on holiday. Greg is very withdrawn and doesn't want to got to school. While waiting to collect him, Laura sees Greg's games teacher, Nick Fuller, bullying him. Laura and Rocky decide to give Nick a taste of his own medicine. Rocky arranges a rugby match, with his friends acting as players in both teams. Taking advantage of the fact that Nick fancies her, Laura invites him to the match, saying that a friend (Rocky) will be playing. Rocky claims he has just twisted his ankle and cannot play. A substitute is needed and Nick is the only person they have got. With Greg surreptitiously watching from the touch-line, Rocky's mates in the opposing team take great delight in tackling Nick as violently as possible and roughing him up at every opportunity, just to let him know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of bullying. Ken and Harry are involved in a more serious case of bullying. Beth Benson,
CBS are looking after security at the Theatre Royal for a charity gala. One of the ballet dancers, Jan Melzer, is quite obviously scared stiff of her agent, Eckford, and Kelp, a thug who is working for him. At the party after the performance, Jan tells Laura that she and her fellow dancer Peter Sorreno desperately need help to escape from Eckford and Kelp. Harry is captivated by Enrica Montanini, an opera singer at the gala. He persuades her to give an impromptu performance at the party to distract Eckford's attention. Acting as decoys, Rocky and Laura dress up as Peter and Jan, and Eckford chases them through the empty auditorium. Meanwhile Peter and Jan escape to Ken's boat. Jan tells Ken that Eckford is threatening to reveal that Peter was arrested for drugs offences when he was younger - unless she co-operates with him. She says that the only person who might be able to help is her uncle, Tony Margiotta, who fled from America to Britain after a family argument. Ken traces him to a
Laura and Rocky have been given the task of tailing Victor Howells, a young man who has just been released from prison. He is described by Ken's client, Mr Pollock, as ""a vindictive and disturbed man"" and is expected to try to attack Mr Pollock's client who wants to remain anonymous. Pollock won't even reveal his client's exact address but wants 24-hour surveillance so he will know if Howells goes anywhere in the same district. Howells sees Laura and Rocky, so, with their cover blown, they try the direct approach and talk to him, telling him that they have no idea why they have been asked to follow him. Howells tells them that he was imprisoned for stealing watches from a jeweller, Mr Sinton, although he claims that Sinton framed him for the theft. The three of them plan to flush Sinton into the open by warning Pollock that Howells has given them the slip. They soon discover that Pollock and Sinton are one and the same! They lure him to a deserted boathouse where Howells confronts Sint
Ken and Harry are guarding Upper Ridley Hall, near where Harry lives, and where a big Society wedding will be taking place between Sir Alan and Lady Tessa Bolton's daughter, Kate, and Rupert de Borchgrave, a Belgian Count. Sir Alan asks Ken to keep a discrete watch on one of his houseguests, Johnny Hunter, a suave gentleman who drives an Austin Healey sports car. Ken senses a tension in the house: why is Hunter nosing around the house and taking such an interest in Kate, and why is Lady Tessa so evasive about him. Why is Kate secretly making furtive phone calls and who is the man who she meets late at night? While patrolling the grounds, Harry spots two men behaving very suspiciously and stalking one of Sir Alan's stags. He reports this to Philip Braithwaite, Sir Alan's Estate Manager, who doesn't seem to take the matter seriously. Harry suspects that Braithwaite himself might be involved in the stag poaching. He follows one of the estate vans to a ruined chapel which he discovers the
CBS has been given the contract to guard a building site - a derelict church which is due to be demolished and replaced with luxury flats by a local builder, Donald Bannerman. During a violent thunderstorm, there is an earth movement and some ancient statues are uncovered. Dr Freda Butler, an archeologist at the university, insists on being given access, saying that the statues date back to the time when there was a Cistercian monastery on the site. Bannerman refuses, but Ken decides to let her have a quick look at the statues while Bannerman isn't there. During the night, one of Bannerman's JCBs is sabotaged when sand is poured in the fuel tank. Freda and her students are blamed. Bannerman threatens to hand over the security contract for guarding all his sites to Jack Fentiman, one of Harry's rivals. Harry wants to sack Frank, the security guard who was on duty at the site. However Ken feels sorry for Frank, who is the rather simple brother of another CBS guard, Bertie, and insists on
Margery Keeverton is looking after the estate of her uncle, Geoffrey Keeverton, who has just died. He had made a considerable amount of money from a fairground amusement arcade and has now left it all to her. While staying at her late uncle's house, she starts to receive nuisance phone calls which make it clear that she is being followed and which referred to an unpaid debt. Ken and Harry are asked to help. Because Harry rather fancies Margery, he is keen to help and even takes a week off work. Margery's solicitor, Peter Haymon, has very little confidence in Ken's abilities as an investigator. Harry takes Margery to the races but they happen to meet Haymon, spoiling Harry's plans for a romantic day out. A friend tells Harry that Haymon is ""one of the shiftiest lawyers in the Midlands"". Ken and Harry keep watch on the house each night and their patience is eventually rewarded when they see a shady figure prowling round in the garden. They give chase but the man escapes, after giving Har
In the weeks leading up to Christmas, Lawrence Drake, a rich ex-racing driver, asks Ken to watch his wife, Pamela, whom he suspects is having an affair. Lawrence feels that he has nothing to offer Pamela because he is now crippled after an accident on the racetrack. Pamela and her boyfriend, Alex Cavendish, are robbed at gunpoint while driving home from a restaurant late at night. Pamela's jewellery is stolen and she receives a blackmail request: "pay up and you'll get the jewels back". She starts to gamble heavily and tries to borrow money from loan sharks in order to raise the blackmail money. Rocky assists teen Pandora help track down her long-lost father who abandoned her and her mother shortly before she was born. Harry has problems trying to organize a Christmas party at The Drum when it becomes apparent that none of his friends will attend.
