Another Robert Holmes Cracker- Doomwatch-s02e11 The Inquest

[michaellevenson]

Always a joy to find another Robert Holmes written episode of any series, because it's usually pretty good. The Dr Who and Blake's 7 writer here comes up trumps with this Doomwatch script. Watched this last evening and it was gripping, but not in the usual Robert Holmes way.
Story- A little girl has died of rabies and Doomwatch's Geoff Hardcastle is sent to the village to investigate. His enquiries lead to an animal research laboratory and a Dr Fane who runs the place. A local " battleaxe' Ms Lincoln convinced a rabid tsetse fly has escaped from the lab and infected the girl and insists that none of the dogs at her residence and kennels are responsible.

Dr Fane tells Geoff the lady has conducted a campaign against his lab, and when someone fires a gun through the window hitting Geoff suspicions fall on Ms Lincoln. Colin Bradley is despatched by Doomwatch to carry on investigating and to speak at the Inquest on Doomwatch's behalf. It's actually nice to see Bradley played by Joby Blanshard get an episode where he has a fair bit to do. He is usually seen in the Doomwatch lab in a white coat being all sciency.

Most of the rest of the episode deals with the Inquest, a lot of chat which Robert Holmes makes exceedingly interesting as Ms Lincoln protects her dogs from accusations regarding rabies ,which Bradley says is the likely source of the rabies, even though Dr Fane's experimentation on tsetse flies is uncovered it is dismissed as far fetched to say the cause of the rabies is from a mutation of DNA. We get a long and interesting rundown of how tsetse flies may indeed develop rabies or a similar disease from a biological process called ' passage" pronounced ' per- sarge'.
The authorities round up dogs in the neighbourhood that are strays and when one is found to be rabid the case seems closed. Unfortunately the dog in question escaped from Ms Lincoln's kennels and when Bradley suggests all dogs within 5 miles are shot as a precaution all hell breaks loose.
When Dr Quist , head of Doomwatch arrives to collect Geoff Hardcastle from hospital and see how Colin is getting on at the Inquest the story takes a twist. The little lad who is the son of the publican has a bite mark on his arm and a Continental vodka unavailable in Britain found in the pub run by the boys father leads to the truth, which I'll not reveal here. Recommended viewing for Robert Holmes diehards.

 

[michaellevenson]

Review by Archivetvmusings.com

Geoff heads down to the country as Doomwatch’s representative at an inquest due to be held into the death of Marion Duffy, a ten year old girl who died from rabies. John McAlister (Robert Cawdron) from the Min. of Ag. and Fish believes that this rabies infection was due to contact with an infected dog, but Mary Lincoln (Judith Furse) has another theory.

Ms Lincoln is a local resident who is bitterly opposed to the laboratory run by Dr Henry Fane (Frederick Treves). Dr Fane’s lab is licenced to carry out experiments on animals – something which Ms Lincoln is horrified about – but he also conducts research on insects. Ms Lincoln is convinced that an infected tsetse fly escaped from the lab and bit Marion, thereby causing her death.

The smooth running of Geoff’s preparation for his appearance at the inquest is rather derailed after shots are fired at Dr Fane’s lab and Geoff finds himself laid up in hospital, with Bradley called on to deputise for him.

The Inquest is another Doomwatch episode with a strong hook in the pre-credits sequence. After a couple of shots are fired, Dr Fane finds Geoff senseless on the floor – although since he was clutching his shoulder it’s clearly not a fatal wound. The post-credits meeting between Quist and Bradley is also memorable, as Quist casually mentions that Geoff’s been shot and he therefore needs to hop on a train and take over his work. Quist’s seemingly unfeeling and cold nature is again highlighted here – although it appears to be more that he knew that Geoff was fine (with only a superficial scratch) and had therefore had mentally moved onto more pressing matters.

With both Simon Oates and Jean Trend absent, this is that rarest of beasts – a Bradley-centric episode. Joby Blanshard naturally seems to relish having more to do then simply react to the others. Bradley’s a key participant at the inquest, although when he expresses the opinion that all dogs within a five mile radius should be shot he doesn’t find many supporters amongst the villagers!

It’s an interesting twist that

Spoiler

for once there’s no twist. Since we’ve become so used to seeing Doomwatch stories where a death that appears to have been caused by x was actually caused by y, it’s a neat trick when it’s revealed that a rabid dog was responsible after all.

This follows lengthy and passionate arguments from Ms Lincoln at the inquest, who remained insistent that Dr Fane’s tsetse flies were responsible – to the growing exasperation of the coroner (very well played by Edward Evans). The revelation that it was just a dog does take the wind out of her sails, but Dr Fane is still culpable (the infected dog had been released from his lab) but he’s not the only one.

It was the landlord of the local pub who obtained the dogs for Fane – and with the money that Fane was offering he wasn’t too choosy about where they came from. The long arm of coincidence comes into play when it’s established that the landlord’s son Harry was responsible for tending to the released animals (and also was the one who took a pot-shot at Geoff). Like Marion, Harry’s been bitten, and the episode ends with the boy taken to hospital and it’s left open as to whether he’ll live or die.

The nature of the story means that this is a static, wordy episode. The scientific content is pretty low – although Bradley goes into considerable detail about why he believes tsetse flies couldn’t be responsible for carrying the rabies virus, since that whole part of the plot was a red herring it doesn’t really matter either way.

Judith Furse is excellent as the animal loving Ms Lincoln and the ever-reliable Frederick Treves is equally as good as her implacable enemy Dr Fane. Given that Fane has a licence for animal experiments, it’s never made clear why he should have gone to such extreme measures to obtain potentially dangerous dogs (unless he needed infected animals for his experiments?) It’s also never explicitly stated, but it seems probable that Ms Lincoln released the dogs, if so then she must take part of the blame for the child’s death.

Quist keeps a fairly low profile, although he pops up at the end of the inquest (rather stealing Bradley’s thunder!) And even though he gets shot, Geoff is still something of a third wheel, although the absence of both Ridge and Fay means that he does get a few more lines than usual.

Scripted by Robert Holmes, The Inquest is a well-written character piece.

 

[michaellevenson]