The Not So Lone Ranger

Humphrey Pickles, representing a Trivial Pursuit society, hires the Plaza Suite for a Trivial Pursuit competition. Tempers flair amongst the contestants after they accuse one another of cheating. One of them, “Tiny” Richards, is a burly rugby player who is also skilled at judo [see below].

Ken and Margaret are called in by Johnson, a council officer, to investigate who is painting murals (or “muriels”, as Johnson calls them) on the sides of houses in the neighbourhood. All that is known is that each painting has the signature “H Angel”. Because there seems to be a Hells Angel link, Rocky makes some enquiries of the local bikers and arranges to meet the mysterious H Angel. He is gobsmacked to learn that she is a long-haired, streetwise young woman with a retinue of apprentices “who mix the paint and hold the ladders”. He is supposed to get her started on painting a wall at the Texas Rangers office and then tip off Ken and Margaret. However he fancies her, so he chickens out and tells her how he was supposed to entrap her. She agrees to restrict her painting to places where she has been commissioned... with Rocky acting as her agent to drum up business.

Jo, Margaret’s precocious teenage daughter, is working during her school holiday at a racing stable. She notices that Gerry Hannigan, one of the jockeys, seems to be under a lot of pressure. Gerry’s wife, Charlie, tells Ken and Margaret that Sellaby, the owner of the horse that she is training and that Gerry will ride, wants Gerry to lose the race. When Gerry won’t agree, Charlie is kidnapped. Gerry relents but Ken traces Charlie to one of Sellaby’s stables. With the help of “Tiny” Richards, one of the Trivial Pursuit contestants [see above], he frees Charlie and takes her to the racecourse. Gerry sees her just as the race is about to start and, now that he knows she is safe, rides to win. Sellaby is arrested by the police.

Ken and Margaret are planning to move to America to start a new life and to start up a detective agency there. Ken is certain that an accumulator bet that he has placed on Hannigan’s horse will pay out. However after a Stewards’ Enquiry the bet fails to pay out and Ken abandons his plans.

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1999

Page last modified: 17 December 2008, 23:48