Banbury Blue

A bluff Cumbrian farmer, Lambert Sampson, employs Margaret to find out who is stealing his Banbury Blue sheep which he keeps for cheese-making. Rocky helps to keep watch but doesn’t get off to a good start when he falls asleep on the job. The farm is being watched by a young couple, Tabitha and Winston Hammond. They appear to be up to no good. Rocky follows them and, after they take him prisoner, he discovers that they are using the Sampsons’ cheeses to smuggle rare falcons’ eggs abroad.

Harry is running afternoon tea-dances for pensioners at The Plaza Suite, with Linda romantically singing nostalgic songs such as “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Him Now” and “Red Sails in the Sunset”. Harry is less than complementary about her style of singing: “she makes ‘Red Sails in the Sunset’ sound like lace panties”, “I’m running a Thé Dansant, not a bar in downtown Marseille” and “I asked for nostalgia, not Madonna with backache”.

He is being plagued by an anonymous writer of love letters. He is embarrassed at the unwanted attention and terrified of hurting the letter-writer’s feelings. He gets Ken to investigate. Reasoning that she is probably one of the dancers, Ken partners each woman in turn. Before long he discovers that it is Lambert’s wife, Marigold, who is writing the letters. She is a compulsive writer and an aspiring novelist, and just wants a bit of excitement in her life.

• “Nevertheless”
• “Stormy Weather”
• “Red Sails in the Sunset”
• “I’ll Be Seeing You”
• “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Him Now”
• “After You’ve Gone”
• “Jealousy”

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1997

Page last modified: 17 December 2008, 23:48