Private Detective Season: Public Eye - The Bankrupt

Public Eye (1965 to 1975) has appeared on and off on this blog because it is one of my favourite shows. It is about the private detective Frank Marker, who is famous for being screwed over on every occasion, even ending up in prison, and the show is famous for being considered rather bleak and gritty. Marker is in so many ways the archetypal private detective - alone, could be seen as having difficulty getting on with other people, does work which nobody else wants to...damnit he even wears a trenchcoat. Oh, and he drinks out of a mug called Frank.

The Bankrupt is essentially everything which makes TV unappealing to me personally - it's about a bankrupt so quite a lot of it takes place in a court room, and it's about the said bankrupt trying to get away with cheating, which normally doesn't appeal to me as entertaining because it just irritates me. It is therefore a tribute to how good this episode is that it immediately drew me in and kept me interested for the whole 52 minutes.

The genius of this episode, which even suggests that the private detective genre may be a distinct one from the detective genre, is that there isn't a mystery to be solved in this episode. It starts off with Marker losing his work in credit checks because the bankrupt has taken his client for 锟�15,000 and he's also taken Marker's friend Tom Lewis for 锟�1,500. It is abundantly clear from the start of the episode that Melville Hayden-Peters, the bankrupt, is cheating and has concealed assets, transferred others to his wife, while also declaring himself bankrupt to avoid paying other creditors. If there is the slightest doubt about Hayden-Peters being an utter shit, we also have the magnificent sight of him driving up to his appearance in the bankruptcy court in a Rolls Royce which of course belongs to his wife. We even have a scene where he tells his wife exactly what he has been doing.

There is therefore no mystery as such to be solved; instead what the episode does is show just how Marker gets to find how he has been breaking the law and communicate all this to the court so he can't get away with it. The scenes in court are made wonderfully entertaining by the judge's sardonic humour, which can only come from sitting in a court full time listening to bankrupts lying to him about their financial circumstances. The episode's depiction of bankruptcy proceedings is strangely absolutely fascinating (seriously if you can say that about a TV show you just know it's wonderful). We also have Marker talking to the official receiver in the pub after the court appearance, and the receiver making the point that he doesn't have to do any investigation of bankrupts' suspected hidden assets because creditors are usually so furious that they make a point of communicating any dodgy dealings to the court.

We also have the fascinating procedural aspect of Marker actually getting to the bottom of what is going on. Being Marker. he either knows everyone involved or can find some kind of lever with them. He knows the bankrupt's dodgy solicitor (who also as much as says that Hayden-Peters has assets squirelled away), he knows a useful turf accountant who gives him his first major break, and he manages to get a hotel to lend him a cheque which Hayden-Peters has written them on his hidden account in a different name.

Hayden-Peters is one of many interesting examples of the middle class, white-collar criminal (strangely suitable for this week, eh, USA?) which Public Eye rather specialised in. There is a bit of sotto voce social commentary in that the show contrasts the posh racecourse gambling with the help afforded Marker in a technically illegal and underworld betting shop. Apart from the rippling effects of the bankrupt's failure to pay, there is further human interest in Hayden-Peters's marriage, including the way Mrs Hayden -Peters is seeing Tom Lewis behind her husband's back! The episode leaves us with the series's characteristic bitter taste where nobody looks any good by the end of the episode, and the only positive people are the court officials who are purely functionaries. In Public Eye almost everyone is a victim of some sort!

There is no possible criticism of this excellent episode. You have probably rarely heard such fulsome praise from me as I'm lavishing on this show, and so I must also comment that the screeplay is written by a previously unknown to me writer, James Doran. I see from IMDB that he also wrote screeplays for The Ipcress File, Z-Cars, other episodes of Public Eye, Enemy at the Door, and many other classic TV series of this period.

My favourite bit is where Marker tells the solicitor that the contracts he has drawn up are likely to be fraudulent, the solicitor protests, and Marker tells him that there's no point suing Marker for slander because he's got no assets.

A wonderful episode of a great series, which manages to transform the dull subjects of bankruptcy and court proceedings into fascinating viewing.

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