The Relief Of Matty King

At the Magistrates Court, the renewal of a gaming licence for the Carrington Club run by Dick Vaughan, is postponed pending further enquiries after a punter in the public gallery alleges that he was cheated by Vaughan. Vaughan does not realise that the “punter” is really Rupert Cole, who runs a rival gambling club. Vaughan gets Ken to investigate – if any of his croupiers are cheating, he wants to know before the Gaming Board investigators call on him. Ken spends the evening at the Carrington but sees nothing unusual so he asks Helen to come with him the following night. She soon notices that Jackie, one of the blackjack croupiers, is cheating. Ken pretends to be a writer, researching a university psychology textbook on gambling, in order to gain Jackie’s confidence. He challenges her and she admits that she has been persuaded by Cole to cheat and to make sure that she is caught, so that the Carrington will be blamed and will lose its gaming licence. Ken has one of his famous conflicts of loyalty: should he tell Vaughan (who is after all his client) about Jackie or should he help her? He takes pity on her after learning that she is a single mother and that Cole has a hold over her: she has a criminal record for shoplifting many years ago and would lose her job if he revealed this to Vaughan. He suggests that she should set up Cole. With Ken secretly recording the conversation, she confronts Cole in his casino and demands more money for doing the dirty deed on the Carrington. Having got the evidence of Cole’s corrupt dealings, it is a foregone conclusion that he, not Vaughan, will lose his licence.

Matty King, a has-been comedian, is staying at Woodcote Park while appearing in Nottingham and gives Harry, Helen, Ken and Laura tickets to his show. Susan, one of the waitresses at the club where Matty is performing, seems to hate him and as he is about to go on stage she passes on a note which terrifies him. His act goes down very badly: he is simply not funny and the audience doesn’t laugh. He collapses and is rushed to hospital suffering from nervous exhaustion. He eventually confesses to Harry that he is deeply in debt to Rupert Cole [see above] because he is a lousy card player, a compulsive gambler and a boozer. Many years ago, he used to be part of a double-act with Jimmy Jester, but he is very reluctant to say what became of Jester. However when Susan confronts him again, it becomes clear that she is Jester’s daughter. She puts up “cancelled due to illness” banners on his advertising posters and then accuses him of deserting her father after he became terminally ill. However Matty reveals to her that far from not caring, he actually paid for Jester’s hospital treatment on the condition that Jester must never tell his family where the money came from.

Matty King describes himself as a native of Nottingham, so why does he have a strong Geordie accent?

Notes and episode list © Martin Underwood, 1997

Page last modified: 17 December 2008, 23:48