(White Jaguar TV) Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased): It's Supposed to be Thicker than Water

We arrive at shows broadcast in the seventies and still using the white Jaguar footage (although this show was actually made in 1968). I am not even going to pretend to do a full discussion of this show but will purely focus on what interests me - simply because it has already had very full discussion on the internet, especially the page on the Randall and Hopkirk Deceased website linked below.

I actually love this one, purely because I love the classic film set up where a family come together at an isolated house (with or without the reading of a will), all loathe each other and then the bodies start piling up. It was virtually impossible to get through this series without using that plot at some point!

As always when I watch this show I have unresolved questions about Randall's work and finances. Most obviously how he manages to afford a flat decorated in up to the minute seventies decor, despite never having any money. This episode brings up another question and I honestly don't know the answer - whether the task here is really something a private investigator would do. It turns into a mystery but to start it seems more like a straightforward security job.

Family gathering plus white Jaguar of course inevitably mean the driver is going to die. The classic TV blogosphere is indebted to eagle eyes at the Randall and Hopkirk site for their detailed analysis and also their work to identify that an extra Jaguar was of necessity used for extra footage for this show so the white Jaguar footage here uses a fifth car.

If I want to be really nit picking there are just a couple of things which don't work quite right for me. One is that the descendant of the otherwise Caucasian Crackan family from ? Singapore has not only managed to become ethnically Chinese but can't speak English in a mere few decades. Everyone knows we British keep ourselves to ourselves and refuse to speak the language, everywhere we go, so this isn't terribly realistic. I did say these things would be nit picking! The other is that the visuals aren't that well thought out in a couple of places. One where Hopkirk is in his white suit denoting that he's dead, and unfortunately Randall is also wearing a white suit. The other is that Randall's white Vauxhall is also easy to confuse with The White Jaguar.

Really, this episode is about values. Will Liz Fraser risk her neck for the Cracken fortune? The question behind this is of course the extremes you will go to to ensure the family estate doesn't go to a foreigner. Randall has his own question of values and I am afraid shows himself to be a waverer because he tells Hopkirk to leave him alone and then spends most of the episode calling for him. Marty is of course wise to what's going on.

Mr Cracken is of course certain that the estate should not go to a theatrical. So I'll just leave that here.