The Main Characters

Ken Boon (Michael Elphick) was a rough but romantic biker who was devoted to his red and silver BSA 650 motorbike, “White Lightning”, read Raymond Chandler detective stories and day-dreamed about being a modern-day Lone Ranger. He had never married but had been involved in his fair share of relationships in the past which had never lasted. He was invalided out of the fire brigade after sustaining lung damage when he rushed into a burning building without his breathing apparatus to rescue a boy who was trapped. His gruff London accent and his tough-guy image hid a romantic streak: it was not unknown for him to be employed by a client to watch a suspect, but to end up sympathising with the suspect especially if she was a vulnerable and attractive woman! Ken was very good at sorting out other people’s problems but not so good at getting his own life in order.
Harry Crawford (David Daker) was a rather pompous and yet strangely naïve man who was always planning yet another money-making business venture which required him to ingratiate himself with the Masons or the local Golf Club. He had retired from the fire brigade to run a bar in Spain with his wife, but she ran off with a Spanish hairdresser and Harry came back, having got divorced. Harry was a shrewd businessman who, over the years, owned two hotels, a ballroom, a country club and a security business.
Doreen Evans (Rachel Davies) was a brassy divorcee in her mid-thirties who hailed from near Manchester. She worked as an accountant for Harry in the Grand Hotel. Ken and Doreen had a bit of a fling but she eventually decided to move to Spain. “Funny how both our women ended up in Spain”, Ken remarked in “Texas Rangers”.
Ethel Allard (Joan Scott) was a rotund, motherly woman who worked as the Grand Hotel’s cook. She was fiercely proud of her kitchen and quick to take offence if her cooking was criticised.
Nick (Bill Gavin) was an elderly, doddery Scottish porter whom Harry “inherited” when he bought The Grand. He was a born pessimist and was forever complaining about being overworked and under-appreciated.
Hanif Kutha (Gordon Warnecke) was a young Indian lad who worked as a porter and a receptionist. He was very keen to create a good impression with both Harry and the guests. Harry soon gave him additional responsibilities, which did not meet with Nick’s approval!
Rocky (Richard) Cassidy (Neil Morrissey) was a rather gormless, long-haired lad from Birmingham. He made his first appearance, clad in biker’s leathers with “Rocky” embossed on the jacket, as a reluctant hero who rescued Ken from a gang of Hells Angels that were trying to put Texas Rangers out of business. Ken offered him a job and he stayed for the remaining six series of “Boon”, gradually working his way up from motorbike messenger (with Texas Rangers) to “trainee executive” and Ken’s assistant investigator (with CBS).
Debbie Yates (Lesley-Anne Sharpe) was a chirpy young lass from Liverpool whom Harry had employed as a chambermaid. She soon made it quite clear that she would much rather work for Ken, manning the radio for the motorbike courier firm, Texas Rangers, that he was running from the stables of The Coaching Inn.
Margaret Daly (Amanda Burton) was a detective constable with a soft Northern Irish accent who had recently got divorced from her airline-pilot husband. Ken met her in “A Ride On The Wild Side” when they used Margaret’s teenage daughter, Jo, to entrap a man who was suspected of sleeping with under-age girls. By the third series, Ken and Margaret had set up Boon-Daly Investigations and were more than just business partners. However at the end of the third series Margaret and Jo went to live in California.
Jo Daly (Emma Davies) was Margaret’s precocious red-headed fifteen-year-old daughter. She had a cut-glass accent and a habit of disdainfully tossing her head. She was a keen horse-rider and during her school holidays she worked at the racing stable where Charlie Hannigan was kidnapped in “The Not So Lone Ranger”.
Linda (Teddie Thompson) was a buxom woman with a heart of gold and a good singing voice (“Banbury Blue”). She worked as a receptionist at The Coaching Inn (Series 2) and The Plaza Suite (Series 3).
Glynis (Barbara Durkin) was a drippish, ineffectual woman with an irritating high-pitched girlish voice. Like Linda, she worked as a receptionist at The Coaching Inn and The Plaza Suite.
Helen Yeldham (Brigit Forsyth) was a rather strait-laced middle-aged widow whose husband, Philip, had recently died. Harry and Helen remained purely business partners, running Woodcote Park, a hotel and country club at Spondon, between Nottingham and Derby. In “Vallance’s Liberty” it was suggested that Helen had a long-lost daughter, possibly given away by adoption, although this storyline was never referred to in any other episodes.
Laura Marsh (Elizabeth Carling) was a pretty and rather naïve brunette from the North East (Rocky once described her, slightly inaccurately, as “Laura Meatloaf, the Bat out of Hull”). She was working as a receptionist for a radio station that Ken investigated. As a result she lost her job, so Ken offered her a job as secretary and personal assistant for his newly-founded company Boon Investigations. Rocky had the hots for Laura but she didn’t seem interested: in “Pillow Talk”, he tried to pass her off as his fiancée to discourage the unwanted attentions of a teenage girl (played by Liza Walker) but Laura retaliated by convincing the girl that Rocky was gay!
Alex Wilton (Saskia Wickham) was a beautiful and curvaceous blonde who was fiercely independent, street-wise and a bit of a tomboy. She had spent time in prison for cheque fraud and was working for an electronics company when Ken was asked to investigate her because she was suspected of stealing the company’s secret designs for a new computer (“MacGuffin’s Transputer”). Despite the obvious risk of employing someone with a criminal record in a security firm, Ken and Harry offered her Laura’s old job as secretary and assistant investigator. She was skilled at unarmed combat but could also dress to kill if the job required it! In “Deadline” she used a whisky bottle to knock out a violent policeman who was attacking Ken. In “The Sharp End” she wore a provocative off-the-shoulder black dress to tempt a potential customer so that CBS would win a security contract with the local council. When Rocky was wrongly accused of stealing a client’s jewellery (in “Walkout”), she organised a strike to protest his innocence, and nearly lost her job in the process. When Harry was trying to join the committee of the local golf club but they wrongly accused him of absconding with investors’ money (in “Blackballed”), Alex accompanied Harry to the committee’s annual dinner and launched into a very forceful and spirited defence of him. In short, she made a very good friend and a very bad enemy!

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1999

Page last modified: 08 February 2009, 12:57