Jun 16, 2025
Detective: Dishonoured Bones (1.6, BBC, 1964)
"My name's Cotterell."
"Such an eventful day: Charles' dead father is found, Isobel's live husband disappears - I say, it's much more interesting when you see it in that light, I was in a perfect frenzy of indifference before. My name's Rose."
#detective#dishonoured bones#john trench#david goddard#michael hayes#1964#bbc#single play#alan dobie#francis matthews#peter halliday#patricia english#judi dench#geoffrey chater#christopher banks#david garfield#ernest hare#aubrey morris#edna petrie#marian spencer#gerald lawson#the 2nd earliest surviving ep is this 6th one which alas means we're missing adaptations of The Moving Toyshop‚ Trent's Last Case and a#John Dickson Carr novel‚ all things i dearly hope will fall from an attic one day. of the source of this ep I knew nothing and was rather#disgruntled thinking of those missing gems; i perked up considerably seeing it starred Alan Dobie‚ an excellent and much under appreciated#actor whom i always enjoy. as archaeologist slash amateur detective Cotterell he's in sparkling (if somewhat crabby) form. ig the character#was once actual police‚ going by his interactions with Halliday's cop. that's actually my one real criticism here: i enjoyed this one a lot#but it's clear that the source material would have adapted well to deeper (ie. longer) programming. there's so much plot to cover in under#50 mins that a lot is breezed through in an unsatisfactory way; this really could have been a 6 part serial. at the very least it would#have given us more time with the ever wonderful Aubrey Morris in an outrageously arch turn as a bitchy interior designer#oh and of course it's worth mentioning that this is an early screen credit for one obscure minor actor who went on to nothing much‚ Judy ig