Doomwatch s01e07 The Devil's Sweets

michaellevenson

Member: Rank 8
A very interesting story from series 1, about the extremes of advertising including subliminally transmitted instructions to unsuspecting public. Maurice Roeves , Stott from Dr Who Caves of Androzani is great in this. Archivetvmusings review below, as mentioned the tension between Quist and Ridge is evident here and really adds a level of intrigue to the series as a whole. Recommended.

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The episode opens with four young women, dressed in checkerboard miniskirts, who are offering samples of sweets. A group of businessmen are eager to sample them and Pat Hunnisett, who’s a bit pressed for time, also grabs one.
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In the Doomwatch office, Quist is interested in a computer report that smoking has increased by 49% in the local London area. There’s been no new brands launched, so why the staggering change in the figures? Ridge is sent to buy sample cigarettes from various shops whilst Wren visits Checkerboard cigarettes.

Checkerboard certainly seems to be the common factor – Ridge discovers that the majority of the increased sales are for their products. The trail leads to Shiptons, an advertising agency who have the Checkerboard contract. The company is run by Peter Shipton (Maurice Roëves) who clearly has something to hide, as well as a very natty dress sense.
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After numerous tests, the incredible truth comes out – the chocolates are laced with a drug that over time generates a craving for Checkerboard cigarettes. Since Pat has eaten a chocolate, she’s an ideal guinea pig for the team to test, but she becomes increasingly ill and is rushed to hospital.
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Ridge is still attempting to get the truth from Shipton and Pegg (the owner of the chocolate factory) when he receives a devastating call – Pat is dead and his anger is enough to force the whole story out of them. Ridge remains angry though, especially when he learns that Pat is fine – Quist had arranged for the call to be made stating that she’d died in order to force Shipton and Pegg’s hand.

RIDGE: Are you telling me that she’s alive and you knew it?
QUIST: Sitting up in bed… and cheeky.
RIDGE: You bastard.
 
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michaellevenson

Member: Rank 8
The Devil’s Sweets is a story about manipulation. The pretty young women are used to manipulate people into taking the chocolates and then the chocolates themselves manipulate the people who have eaten them. Shipton is the one pulling the strings as he’s able to convince the cigarette manufacturers that it’s his advertising that’s increased their sales (they don’t know about the doctored chocolates). And finally Quist is able to manipulate Ridge into extracting the truth when he believes Pat has died.

This is a key moment between the two of them and the bald transcript, reproduced above, can’t really do the moment justice. Given the episodic nature of the series, the needle between Quist and Ridge tended to wax and wane but this is still a powerful scene.

The episode allows Wendy Hall a larger than regular role as Pat. Normally confined to answering the phone, line-feeding the others or simply standing around looking glamorous, this is a welcome change from the norm. Sadly this was to be pretty much a one-off, so it’s no particular surprise that she quit at the end of the first series. Maybe in retrospect, given how underused she was, it might have been a good idea to kill her off anyway?

Maurice Roëves is the stand out performer from the guest cast – he’s very good as the unscrupulous Shipton, keen to get ahead in advertising by any means necessary. And like Ridge he dresses in a way that just screams early seventies.

Unlike most of the previous stories, this isn’t a Government conspiracy – instead it’s private enterprise (courtesy of Shipton and Dr Benson, who developed the drug). And the fact that one of the Doomwatch team is affected adds a little more frisson to their efforts to bring things under control and prevent any deaths.
 
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