Armchair Theatre: The Man Who Came to Die

The curse of the old TV fan (at least in Britain) is the prolific wiping of shows, especially black and white shows. I've gone into the reasons at length before, but basically there was a perception that nobody would want to see black and white shows once they were in colour, the video tape was expensive and reused, and there was a culture in television that shows would only be shown once. This last one of course comes from the theatre, and Armchair Theatre made the connection with the theatre explicit by showing actual plays, as did many other shows well into the seventies, even though apparently Armchair Theatre was already perceived to be old-fashioned. The genre of TV plays isn't one that I've ever got on very well with because I prefer ongoing series with the same characters who get developed.

The Man Who Came to Die aired 18th April 1965, and is one of the ones to escape the junking. It is essentially a straightforward detective story about a couple who come home from celebrating their anniversary to find a family acquaintance dead in their spare bed. It is clear that this man is a bit of pest to the couple. The play introduces various other characters in the village, and the local police. You would be right to think that this sounds very much like a classic Christie.

We are gradually told information about what has led up to the death of the man in the bed and a complex web of relationships and conflicts is gradually revealed. For me personally it is much more notable for the characters it reveals. The shifty doctor. The police sergeant who pretends to be incompetent. In fact pretty much all of the characters are among the most unpleasant characters you could wish to meet. And best of all the char who hams it up no end and in fact is more of a caricature of a char lady than a real person. I actually don't mind this because this play has to rise to the difficult task of sketching out some complex relationships in only an hour and so they're all rather larger than life.

There is one major problem with the play, which is that while there is a great deal of misdirection in the play, it is fairly obvious who is at fault from the start. Because I like it as a play I am going to say that this plot shortcoming would only be a problem if you are watching it as a mystery and trying to solve it. If you watch it as an entertainment for the characters, that isn't such a problem.

I have kept saying that this play is a mystery, and in fact there are two mysteries about it which I have been completely unable to get to the bottom of. On both Wikipedia and IMDb this play is listed among the episodes of Armchair Theatre (1956 to 1974). But the titles and bumpers all give its title as Armchair Mystery Theatre (1960 to 1965), but neither Wikipedia nor IMDb lists it among that show's episodes. I cannot account for why it has the titles of one show, clearly fits in to that show's theme, but is listed as an episode of another show. Then there is the mystery that the pirate copy I have begins with the current Studio Canal jingle so looks like it has come from a commercially released copy. Yet this episode is not listed among the commercially released episodes of Armchair Theatre and as far as I know no episode of Armchair Mystery Theatre has ever been released commercially. It's a complete mystery.

So in summary, despite a plot problem, this is a classic mystery/detection play set in an English village populated by a cast of the most unpleasant, eccentric people you've ever met.

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