Deleted Scenes
The rehearsal script opens with a sequence that was not retained in the final production. The sequence precedes the episode title caption and establishes Anne Johnson’s affair with Paul Garston (here named Greco) at a much earlier point in the story.
A small gathering is taking place at Greco’s penthouse. The script tells us that “Greco is a flashy man, and so are his possessions.” It goes on to describe a huge stone fireplace, a large settee, a white piano, a drinks bar and a nude plaster statue of the absent Mrs Greco. The bar and soft furnishings would be retained in the broadcast version, but the fireplace, piano and statue would not. It’s late at night, and two couples – the Harts and the Wilders – are dancing to smoochy music issuing from a record player.
One of the guests, Anne Johnson, “moneywise out of her depth”, is unaccustomed to such luxury. She wanders around, clinking the ice cubes in her glass, examining the pictures and photographs on the walls. In the script, the photos are either of Mrs Greco or of her husband “with his arm round celebrities or businessmen in various forms of dress, ranging from Cossack hats and furs to swimsuits.” In the finished episode, the images appear to be mostly landscapes (in Act Two, Marker refers to Garston still having his wife’s pictures around the place, though it’s unclear whether he means photographs of Mrs Garston or pictures that she had chosen).
Enviously, Anne examines one of the fur capes that has been tossed casually across a chair. Eric Hart, still dancing, tells her to try it on. She does so, then pushes back the sliding glass door and goes out on to the terrace.
In the script, the terrace overlooks the Thames, and occasional ships’ hooters and other river sounds can be heard. Anne wanders to the edge of the terrace, hugging the cape around her, and takes in the view. Behind her, a telephone cable is plugged into the wall. The camera pans along the cable and up to where Paul Greco, in evening dress, lies stretched out on a chaise longue, white telephone in hand. After a moment, the phone rings. This makes Anne spin around in surprise. Greco smiles as he answers the call. “Yes,” he says, into the instrument. “I see. Does he know about Ericson’s?” He pauses as he listens to the reply. “Good. Tell him to be in my office tomorrow. At one-thirty… That’s right.” He hangs up, then addresses Anne, asking her if she likes the view. She says it’s nice – an answer that disappoints Greco. “Can you spare it?” he scoffs.
“What’s wrong?” asks Anne.
“You,” replies Greco, getting to his feet. “When you’re asked about a £60,000 view, you don’t say it’s nice. You say it’s fabulous. Which it is.” He pauses. “Or you say it’s cruddy. Which it isn’t. But it’s an intriguing answer,” he admits. Anne asks him why. “It makes me wonder what you’re used to seeing out of your own back window.”
“A garden,” is Anne’s simple answer.
“What’s that mean? An avenue of French poplars with poodles stretching their legs? Or a tool shed and crusts off yesterday’s bread?”
“That’s more like it,” admits Anne. “And three rows of King Edwards.”
“God save King Edward,” declares Greco. He asks her to turn around for him. Anne does an embarrassed twirl. Greco nods his approval. “I’ve got a party this weekend –”
“I’d love to, Mr Greco,” says Anne, before he has a chance to say any more.
He tells her to call him Paul. “And I haven’t asked you yet.”
“Just wanted to show that I was keen.”
“Tell my chauffeur where you live. He’ll pick you up or meet you, whichever you prefer.” Greco asks how she got here, as he’s not seen her before.
“Eric Hart brought me,” she reveals.
“Good for him,” says Greco. “You can leave that off next time.” He holds up her hand, indicating her wedding ring. “Read me?”
Anne smiles. “Loud and clear, captain.”
At this point, the scene ends, mixing to the episode’s title caption: “NOBODY KILLS SANTA CLAUS”.
* * *
The next scene in the script is essentially the first scene of the recorded episode, a conversation between Greco and his secretary, Pauline – though its location is different. In the script, their discussion takes place at Pauline’s desk, just outside Greco’s office. She is typing as Greco enters. She automatically hands him a message pad, which he automatically accepts. This is a familiar, well-practised routine for them. On screen, this static exchange is replaced by a walk and talk, with both Garston and Pauline moving through the offices of Garston Industrials Ltd until they reach the door to Garston’s office.
Pauline’s characterisation was subtly altered prior to recording. In the rehearsal script, when Greco asks for coffee for three in ten minutes, the secretary “nods ‘graciously’” – the writer’s use of scare quotes suggesting insincerity. There is no sign of this in the final production, in which Pauline smiles warmly. In her next scene, with Eric Hart, the scripted version of Pauline appears complicit in Greco’s underhanded ways. When Hart remarks that Tympson (the managing director of the business Greco wants to buy out) probably doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going, Pauline asks, “Will he fall for it?” This was changed to a more innocent question, “What do you mean?”
* * *
In his first office scene, in addition to telling Hart to concentrate on materials the company is short on, hold back on everything else and slow down on payments, Greco was to have suggested a further cost-cutting measure: “Tell sales to chase up overdue accounts.”
The business with Garston grabbing hold of Hart’s necktie when he warns him not to “let the old school tie fool you” is not in the script and was added during rehearsals, as was their subsequent chummy banter about whether Hart’s tie is “Old Harrovian or old scrubbers” and discussion of the valuable life lessons that the two men have taught each other. This addition highlights the closeness of their long-standing friendship, which adds to the poignancy of their eventual separation.
When Hart asks his colleague whether he is going to tell merchant banker Lionel Wheeler about the planned acquisition of Tympson’s, Greco was to have replied, “That’s the bait for the trap.” This was changed to the less enigmatic, “Uh-uh. Let him think he found out for himself.”
A short section of dialogue was removed from Garston’s conversation with Wheeler. Following their discussion of a rights issue, which Greco feels would depress share prices even further, Wheeler was to have replied, “They’re quoted in this morning’s paper at a pound.” “Three weeks ago they were twenty-five bob,” Greco points out, “So now we’d have to make the issue at seventeen-six, instead of a pound.” He then performs a quick mental calculation, providing a level of numerical detail that the production team evidently felt was not necessary in the finished episode: “At two for five, that’d be twelve hundred thousand half-crowns.” He pauses as he works it out. “One hundred and fifty thousand pounds down. Bad business.” “I take your point,” concedes Wheeler.
Later in the scripted scene, Wheeler refers to Doyle and Ferman as his company’s auditors rather than its accountants.
* * *
A few lines of dialogue were lost from the start of the next scene, which takes place in the kitchen of Anne Johnson and her husband, Ray. “Sure you couldn’t eat some cake?” he asks, referring to the barely touched anniversary cake sitting on the table. “No, thanks,” replies Anne. “I’d forgotten about your diet,” admits Ray. Anne tells him it doesn’t matter.
A little later, when Anne states that she’d like to go somewhere where there’s no washing up, no rubber gloves and no special offers, Ray was originally to have joked, “As long as we can get there for three pound ten.”
At the end of the scene, Anne picks up her wedding ring, which she had removed while washing up. Remembering Greco’s directive at the beginning of the script, she was to have left the ring off. Since that opening sequence had been cut from the final production, this was changed to Anne putting the ring on but not looking happy about it.
* * *
The end of the next scene, at Pauline’s desk, and the beginning of the scene after that, in Garston’s/Greco’s office, were both trimmed prior to recording. After commenting to Pauline that people like Tympson always come out of that office the same way, “bent and battered”, Hart was originally to have asked Pauline to “Call me when he’s through, please.” On screen, the scene ends more snappily, with Hart simply walking out of shot.
* * *
As scripted, the discussion between Greco and Tympson begins with the former offering the latter a glass of whisky, which Tympson politely declines. Sitting down opposite his guest, Greco says, “Well, now, I expect you’re keen to know my terms.” “I’m interested, Mr Greco,” admits Tympson, “Enthusiasm may come later.” The scene then continues as recorded, with Greco offering Tympson two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for his business.
Garston’s habit of toying with a ruler while he speaks (a characteristic that is copied by Hart in the next scene) was added during rehearsals.
In the script, Greco shows Tympson out of the office following their meeting, a courtesy that Garston does not afford him on screen. The business with Garston summoning Hart by lobbing a matchbox at the adjoining office door was worked out during rehearsals – as scripted, Hart simply comes in a moment after Tympson has gone, presumably having been telephoned by Pauline.
When receiving the threatening phone call, Greco was scripted to tell the caller to “Get off this line and don’t call me again.” The phone was then to have started ringing again, much sooner than it does on screen, before Greco has a chance to say anything to the quizzical Hart. Greco lifts the receiver, ‘kills’ the call by depressing the two buttons, and then leaves the receiver off the hook. In the script, Greco has received slightly more of these calls by this point – three or four, as opposed to the two or three claimed by Garston in the recorded episode.
The closing dialogue of this scene was slightly rejigged, to provide a better link to Marker’s introduction into the story in the next scene. In the script, Greco asks his colleague, “Remember a fellow called Marker? He did some work for us with Tillotson’s garages.” “I remember him,” Hart confirms. “Dig him out,” instructs Greco. In the finished episode, it is Hart who introduces Marker’s name, at the very end of the scene. Garston asks him, “Remember a fellow did some work for us with Tillotson’s garages?” Hart confirms that he does. “What was his name?” asks Garston. Hart has to think about this for a moment before it comes to him. “Erm… Ha! Marker.”
* * *
The scene in Marker’s office originally contained a bit more dialogue prior to Marker asking Hart to sit down. The scripted version begins with Hart entering and looking around the place, contemptuously. He runs a finger along the top of a filing cabinet, looking for dust, and then picks up one of a pair of Toby Jugs from the window sill. He is startled by the voice of Marker, who has just come through from his washroom/kitchen: “Looking for something?” Hart spins around and eyes Marker from head to toe. “You,” says Hart, “Remember me?” “Of course,” replies Marker, who then asks Hart to sit down. In the completed episode, a single Toby Jug is visible on Marker’s desk. The other one can be briefly glimpsed on one of Marker’s window ledges as Hart sits down 11 minutes and 25 seconds into the episode, before it is obscured by Marker’s head. Both Toby Jugs would be seen more clearly on the window ledges in subsequent episodes, including ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ and The Morning Wasn’t So Hot.
After Hart tells Marker that he makes one big mistake and Marker replies, “Only one?”, the script calls for a train to rattle by outside so loudly that the conversation has to stop. When it’s quiet enough to talk again, Marker says, “You were saying.” Another train was to crash past at the end of the scene. This is not the case in the recorded version, where only faint street sounds can be heard. The notion of invasively loud public transport was transferred instead to the scenes in the Johnsons’ kitchen, during which aircraft can be heard roaring overhead.
The business with Marker going outside to feed breadcrumbs to the pigeons was added during rehearsals, as was Hart sneaking one of Marker’s biscuits while he does so.
* * *
The next scene, on Garston’s/Greco’s terrace, was to have begun with him and Anne sprawled out in their swimsuits, sunbathing. Anne, “of whom there is a fair amount showing”, is dozing. As in the completed episode, Greco is reading a set of company accounts. His hand plays with the telephone receiver referred to in the earlier deleted sequence, “which is – as ever – right at hand”. A speaker pipes music through from the penthouse. Suddenly it stops. This prompts Anne to get up and ask, “What do you want?” She is presumably asking about drinks rather than music, as Greco replies, “I’m easy. If you want one, help yourself.” It is at this point that Anne asks Greco what he’s reading. The opening of this scene is different on screen, with the swimsuited Anne walking into frame to join Garston, kissing him, and then Garston noticing and angrily removing her wedding ring. Garston telling Anne that “I don’t want to see this again” before dropping the ring down her cleavage was not in the rehearsal script. Its addition here effectively removed the need for the script’s entire pre-title sequence.
A few lines of dialogue were cut later in the scene. After telling Anne that she smells good, Greco was to have asked her what the view is like. “Cruddy!” she replies in the script, recalling their conversation in the deleted opening sequence and making Greco laugh.
When Greco tells Anne that he doesn’t know who’s been making the threatening phone calls, the script has him adding that it “Could be somebody I’ve done business with.” “Done out of business, more likely,” jokes Anne. “It’s possible,” Greco admits.
At the end of the scene, after Greco has told Anne to give him five minutes, “then I’ll play with you”, the script reveals what they are about to play. “Table tennis?” asks Anne. “Of course,” replies Greco. This was changed to a close-up of Anne’s hands massaging Garston’s shoulders, which mixes into Mrs Johnson’s hands kneading dough on Ray’s kitchen table (in the script, she’s rolling pastry).
* * *
In the final scene of Act One, the business with Marker trying his hand (unsuccessfully) at indoor golf before joining his client was worked out during rehearsals. In the script, Greco tells Marker that he began receiving threatening calls “A week or two ago.” This was revised to three weeks in the finished episode.
Marker’s dialogue was also altered, playing down references to the threat of violence and making Marker appear more accepting of it. After Greco indicates that he’s more interested in staying alive than in finding out who’s been making the calls, Marker was scripted to say, “All you want from me, then, is a guarantee that my head gets coshed before yours?” “That’s it,” agrees Greco. After Greco adds that he doesn’t want it publicly known that the inquiry agent is bodyguarding him, because it wouldn’t be good for business, Marker was to have replied, “Fair enough. I’ll die anonymously.” Marker’s response was changed to: “I’m sure it wouldn’t.”
A small gathering is taking place at Greco’s penthouse. The script tells us that “Greco is a flashy man, and so are his possessions.” It goes on to describe a huge stone fireplace, a large settee, a white piano, a drinks bar and a nude plaster statue of the absent Mrs Greco. The bar and soft furnishings would be retained in the broadcast version, but the fireplace, piano and statue would not. It’s late at night, and two couples – the Harts and the Wilders – are dancing to smoochy music issuing from a record player.
One of the guests, Anne Johnson, “moneywise out of her depth”, is unaccustomed to such luxury. She wanders around, clinking the ice cubes in her glass, examining the pictures and photographs on the walls. In the script, the photos are either of Mrs Greco or of her husband “with his arm round celebrities or businessmen in various forms of dress, ranging from Cossack hats and furs to swimsuits.” In the finished episode, the images appear to be mostly landscapes (in Act Two, Marker refers to Garston still having his wife’s pictures around the place, though it’s unclear whether he means photographs of Mrs Garston or pictures that she had chosen).
Enviously, Anne examines one of the fur capes that has been tossed casually across a chair. Eric Hart, still dancing, tells her to try it on. She does so, then pushes back the sliding glass door and goes out on to the terrace.
In the script, the terrace overlooks the Thames, and occasional ships’ hooters and other river sounds can be heard. Anne wanders to the edge of the terrace, hugging the cape around her, and takes in the view. Behind her, a telephone cable is plugged into the wall. The camera pans along the cable and up to where Paul Greco, in evening dress, lies stretched out on a chaise longue, white telephone in hand. After a moment, the phone rings. This makes Anne spin around in surprise. Greco smiles as he answers the call. “Yes,” he says, into the instrument. “I see. Does he know about Ericson’s?” He pauses as he listens to the reply. “Good. Tell him to be in my office tomorrow. At one-thirty… That’s right.” He hangs up, then addresses Anne, asking her if she likes the view. She says it’s nice – an answer that disappoints Greco. “Can you spare it?” he scoffs.
“What’s wrong?” asks Anne.
“You,” replies Greco, getting to his feet. “When you’re asked about a £60,000 view, you don’t say it’s nice. You say it’s fabulous. Which it is.” He pauses. “Or you say it’s cruddy. Which it isn’t. But it’s an intriguing answer,” he admits. Anne asks him why. “It makes me wonder what you’re used to seeing out of your own back window.”
“A garden,” is Anne’s simple answer.
“What’s that mean? An avenue of French poplars with poodles stretching their legs? Or a tool shed and crusts off yesterday’s bread?”
“That’s more like it,” admits Anne. “And three rows of King Edwards.”
“God save King Edward,” declares Greco. He asks her to turn around for him. Anne does an embarrassed twirl. Greco nods his approval. “I’ve got a party this weekend –”
“I’d love to, Mr Greco,” says Anne, before he has a chance to say any more.
He tells her to call him Paul. “And I haven’t asked you yet.”
“Just wanted to show that I was keen.”
“Tell my chauffeur where you live. He’ll pick you up or meet you, whichever you prefer.” Greco asks how she got here, as he’s not seen her before.
“Eric Hart brought me,” she reveals.
“Good for him,” says Greco. “You can leave that off next time.” He holds up her hand, indicating her wedding ring. “Read me?”
Anne smiles. “Loud and clear, captain.”
At this point, the scene ends, mixing to the episode’s title caption: “NOBODY KILLS SANTA CLAUS”.
* * *
The next scene in the script is essentially the first scene of the recorded episode, a conversation between Greco and his secretary, Pauline – though its location is different. In the script, their discussion takes place at Pauline’s desk, just outside Greco’s office. She is typing as Greco enters. She automatically hands him a message pad, which he automatically accepts. This is a familiar, well-practised routine for them. On screen, this static exchange is replaced by a walk and talk, with both Garston and Pauline moving through the offices of Garston Industrials Ltd until they reach the door to Garston’s office.
Pauline’s characterisation was subtly altered prior to recording. In the rehearsal script, when Greco asks for coffee for three in ten minutes, the secretary “nods ‘graciously’” – the writer’s use of scare quotes suggesting insincerity. There is no sign of this in the final production, in which Pauline smiles warmly. In her next scene, with Eric Hart, the scripted version of Pauline appears complicit in Greco’s underhanded ways. When Hart remarks that Tympson (the managing director of the business Greco wants to buy out) probably doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going, Pauline asks, “Will he fall for it?” This was changed to a more innocent question, “What do you mean?”
* * *
In his first office scene, in addition to telling Hart to concentrate on materials the company is short on, hold back on everything else and slow down on payments, Greco was to have suggested a further cost-cutting measure: “Tell sales to chase up overdue accounts.”
The business with Garston grabbing hold of Hart’s necktie when he warns him not to “let the old school tie fool you” is not in the script and was added during rehearsals, as was their subsequent chummy banter about whether Hart’s tie is “Old Harrovian or old scrubbers” and discussion of the valuable life lessons that the two men have taught each other. This addition highlights the closeness of their long-standing friendship, which adds to the poignancy of their eventual separation.
When Hart asks his colleague whether he is going to tell merchant banker Lionel Wheeler about the planned acquisition of Tympson’s, Greco was to have replied, “That’s the bait for the trap.” This was changed to the less enigmatic, “Uh-uh. Let him think he found out for himself.”
A short section of dialogue was removed from Garston’s conversation with Wheeler. Following their discussion of a rights issue, which Greco feels would depress share prices even further, Wheeler was to have replied, “They’re quoted in this morning’s paper at a pound.” “Three weeks ago they were twenty-five bob,” Greco points out, “So now we’d have to make the issue at seventeen-six, instead of a pound.” He then performs a quick mental calculation, providing a level of numerical detail that the production team evidently felt was not necessary in the finished episode: “At two for five, that’d be twelve hundred thousand half-crowns.” He pauses as he works it out. “One hundred and fifty thousand pounds down. Bad business.” “I take your point,” concedes Wheeler.
Later in the scripted scene, Wheeler refers to Doyle and Ferman as his company’s auditors rather than its accountants.
* * *
A few lines of dialogue were lost from the start of the next scene, which takes place in the kitchen of Anne Johnson and her husband, Ray. “Sure you couldn’t eat some cake?” he asks, referring to the barely touched anniversary cake sitting on the table. “No, thanks,” replies Anne. “I’d forgotten about your diet,” admits Ray. Anne tells him it doesn’t matter.
A little later, when Anne states that she’d like to go somewhere where there’s no washing up, no rubber gloves and no special offers, Ray was originally to have joked, “As long as we can get there for three pound ten.”
At the end of the scene, Anne picks up her wedding ring, which she had removed while washing up. Remembering Greco’s directive at the beginning of the script, she was to have left the ring off. Since that opening sequence had been cut from the final production, this was changed to Anne putting the ring on but not looking happy about it.
* * *
The end of the next scene, at Pauline’s desk, and the beginning of the scene after that, in Garston’s/Greco’s office, were both trimmed prior to recording. After commenting to Pauline that people like Tympson always come out of that office the same way, “bent and battered”, Hart was originally to have asked Pauline to “Call me when he’s through, please.” On screen, the scene ends more snappily, with Hart simply walking out of shot.
* * *
As scripted, the discussion between Greco and Tympson begins with the former offering the latter a glass of whisky, which Tympson politely declines. Sitting down opposite his guest, Greco says, “Well, now, I expect you’re keen to know my terms.” “I’m interested, Mr Greco,” admits Tympson, “Enthusiasm may come later.” The scene then continues as recorded, with Greco offering Tympson two hundred and fifty thousand pounds for his business.
Garston’s habit of toying with a ruler while he speaks (a characteristic that is copied by Hart in the next scene) was added during rehearsals.
In the script, Greco shows Tympson out of the office following their meeting, a courtesy that Garston does not afford him on screen. The business with Garston summoning Hart by lobbing a matchbox at the adjoining office door was worked out during rehearsals – as scripted, Hart simply comes in a moment after Tympson has gone, presumably having been telephoned by Pauline.
When receiving the threatening phone call, Greco was scripted to tell the caller to “Get off this line and don’t call me again.” The phone was then to have started ringing again, much sooner than it does on screen, before Greco has a chance to say anything to the quizzical Hart. Greco lifts the receiver, ‘kills’ the call by depressing the two buttons, and then leaves the receiver off the hook. In the script, Greco has received slightly more of these calls by this point – three or four, as opposed to the two or three claimed by Garston in the recorded episode.
The closing dialogue of this scene was slightly rejigged, to provide a better link to Marker’s introduction into the story in the next scene. In the script, Greco asks his colleague, “Remember a fellow called Marker? He did some work for us with Tillotson’s garages.” “I remember him,” Hart confirms. “Dig him out,” instructs Greco. In the finished episode, it is Hart who introduces Marker’s name, at the very end of the scene. Garston asks him, “Remember a fellow did some work for us with Tillotson’s garages?” Hart confirms that he does. “What was his name?” asks Garston. Hart has to think about this for a moment before it comes to him. “Erm… Ha! Marker.”
* * *
The scene in Marker’s office originally contained a bit more dialogue prior to Marker asking Hart to sit down. The scripted version begins with Hart entering and looking around the place, contemptuously. He runs a finger along the top of a filing cabinet, looking for dust, and then picks up one of a pair of Toby Jugs from the window sill. He is startled by the voice of Marker, who has just come through from his washroom/kitchen: “Looking for something?” Hart spins around and eyes Marker from head to toe. “You,” says Hart, “Remember me?” “Of course,” replies Marker, who then asks Hart to sit down. In the completed episode, a single Toby Jug is visible on Marker’s desk. The other one can be briefly glimpsed on one of Marker’s window ledges as Hart sits down 11 minutes and 25 seconds into the episode, before it is obscured by Marker’s head. Both Toby Jugs would be seen more clearly on the window ledges in subsequent episodes, including ‘And a Very Fine Fiddle Has He’ and The Morning Wasn’t So Hot.
After Hart tells Marker that he makes one big mistake and Marker replies, “Only one?”, the script calls for a train to rattle by outside so loudly that the conversation has to stop. When it’s quiet enough to talk again, Marker says, “You were saying.” Another train was to crash past at the end of the scene. This is not the case in the recorded version, where only faint street sounds can be heard. The notion of invasively loud public transport was transferred instead to the scenes in the Johnsons’ kitchen, during which aircraft can be heard roaring overhead.
The business with Marker going outside to feed breadcrumbs to the pigeons was added during rehearsals, as was Hart sneaking one of Marker’s biscuits while he does so.
* * *
The next scene, on Garston’s/Greco’s terrace, was to have begun with him and Anne sprawled out in their swimsuits, sunbathing. Anne, “of whom there is a fair amount showing”, is dozing. As in the completed episode, Greco is reading a set of company accounts. His hand plays with the telephone receiver referred to in the earlier deleted sequence, “which is – as ever – right at hand”. A speaker pipes music through from the penthouse. Suddenly it stops. This prompts Anne to get up and ask, “What do you want?” She is presumably asking about drinks rather than music, as Greco replies, “I’m easy. If you want one, help yourself.” It is at this point that Anne asks Greco what he’s reading. The opening of this scene is different on screen, with the swimsuited Anne walking into frame to join Garston, kissing him, and then Garston noticing and angrily removing her wedding ring. Garston telling Anne that “I don’t want to see this again” before dropping the ring down her cleavage was not in the rehearsal script. Its addition here effectively removed the need for the script’s entire pre-title sequence.
A few lines of dialogue were cut later in the scene. After telling Anne that she smells good, Greco was to have asked her what the view is like. “Cruddy!” she replies in the script, recalling their conversation in the deleted opening sequence and making Greco laugh.
When Greco tells Anne that he doesn’t know who’s been making the threatening phone calls, the script has him adding that it “Could be somebody I’ve done business with.” “Done out of business, more likely,” jokes Anne. “It’s possible,” Greco admits.
At the end of the scene, after Greco has told Anne to give him five minutes, “then I’ll play with you”, the script reveals what they are about to play. “Table tennis?” asks Anne. “Of course,” replies Greco. This was changed to a close-up of Anne’s hands massaging Garston’s shoulders, which mixes into Mrs Johnson’s hands kneading dough on Ray’s kitchen table (in the script, she’s rolling pastry).
* * *
In the final scene of Act One, the business with Marker trying his hand (unsuccessfully) at indoor golf before joining his client was worked out during rehearsals. In the script, Greco tells Marker that he began receiving threatening calls “A week or two ago.” This was revised to three weeks in the finished episode.
Marker’s dialogue was also altered, playing down references to the threat of violence and making Marker appear more accepting of it. After Greco indicates that he’s more interested in staying alive than in finding out who’s been making the calls, Marker was scripted to say, “All you want from me, then, is a guarantee that my head gets coshed before yours?” “That’s it,” agrees Greco. After Greco adds that he doesn’t want it publicly known that the inquiry agent is bodyguarding him, because it wouldn’t be good for business, Marker was to have replied, “Fair enough. I’ll die anonymously.” Marker’s response was changed to: “I’m sure it wouldn’t.”
The second act of the rehearsal script begins by describing a couple of servants manning the barbecue on Greco’s terrace, with guests standing around eating. Greco picks up a plate of steak and starts offering it around. On screen, it appears to be Garston who has done the cooking. A single servant walks around with the platter and the guests are seated at a table. When offered another helping, in the script Mrs Hart declines by covering her plate with her hand, while her husband asks for “Just a knuckle.” Greco then proceeds to load Hart’s plate. On screen, the roles are reversed: Hart doesn’t want any more, but his wife does, prompting Hart to say, “Oh, steady, Edith!” In the script, Anne describes her own satiation with the colourful phrase, “I’m as full as a poisoned pup.”
The script calls for music to play throughout the terrace scene, but in the finished production the record player is silent until Garston goes indoors to collect some Champagne and puts on Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
When Marker interviews Anne, the script has her coming in from the terrace eating a bowl of ice cream. In the recorded version, she carries an empty liqueur glass, which she refills from the bar.
After Anne has stated her opinion that the phone calls are probably coming from a business rival, Marker was originally scripted to ask, “Why do you say that?”
“Nothing’s happened, has it?” argues Anne. “And you don’t expect businessmen to shoot one another.”
“True,” agrees Marker.
“Do you think anything will happen?”
Marker shrugs, before asking, as he does on screen, how long Anne has known her lover.
More dialogue was cut later in the scene, when Marker converses with Hart. After Marker deliberately misunderstands Hart’s question, “How’s it going?”, and refers to the jigsaw he’s putting together, Hart was to have responded, “I meant the ‘other thing’.”
Marker continues to wilfully misconstrue Hart’s meaning. “I didn’t think that was part of the brief.”
“Don’t get tricksy, Marker.”
“Tricksy?” asks Marker, innocently.
“Champagne’s better than nosh bar tea.”
“Not for me.”
“Why not?”
“Makes me belch. People might think it was an opinion, rather than an affliction.”
Most of the above material is absent from the completed episode, with only Hart’s line about not getting tricksy retained.
In the script, Hart tells Marker that Eva’s ceramics shop is situated off Baker Street – which would place it in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. In the finished programme, this was changed to Hampstead, about three miles further north.
* * *
The scene with Eva and Marker in the ceramics shop was considerably rejigged. In the script, it begins with Eva laying out a pottery display (in the recorded episode, she’s carrying out maintenance and cleaning). Marker comes in, looking around the place as he does so. Assuming he’s a customer, Eva approaches and bids him good morning.
“Mrs Greco?” asks Marker. This immediately puts her on the defensive. “Expecting bad news?” asks Marker.
“I wasn’t,” says Eva.
“Now you’re not so sure.”
“What do you want?”
“I’m working for your husband,” says Marker. He looks around. “Can we talk?”
“Briefly – I hope.”
There then follows a discussion about Marker’s Toby Jugs. Marker asks Eva if she’d like to buy a pair of them, but Eva says they’re not her province. Marker says he can’t get shot of them, and Eva says she can’t get shot of Greco. “So let’s talk business, shall we?” she adds.
“The fact is, I’ve been hired to protect him,” explains Marker.
“Does he need it?”
“He’s received some threats.”
The above exchange – with the exception of the banter about Marker’s Toby Jugs, which was moved to the end of the scene – was truncated to just two lines of dialogue. The scene as recorded has the conversation already underway, with Eva asking Marker, “What’s it got to do with you?” Marker replies, “I’ve been hired to protect your husband. Somebody’s threatening him.”
After referring to herself sardonically as “The estranged and embittered wife” (and therefore a suspect), Eva was to have continued, “Two and two. By any reckoning that makes at least four.” In the script, Marker agrees: “That’s the way I counted it.”
When bemoaning her husband’s “Tycoonery” and “Incurable acquisitiveness”, Eva also has her own word for these qualities in the script: “Grecoism.” On a similar note, when she accuses Marker of behaving like her estranged spouse, in the script she reveals that “I nearly liked you. Then you started to do a Greco.”
The business with Marker picking up a fragment of pottery and trying to fit it into a similarly shaped hole in a pot, echoing the jigsaw puzzle he worked on during the previous scene, was added during rehearsals. In the script, he merely “has a prowl round: preparing to deliver his ‘blockbuster’” – the ‘blockbuster’ being the fact that he has noticed Eva’s engagement ring.
The scene was to have ended with Marker referring back to their earlier discussion by asking Eva, “You’re sure about the mugs?” “Certain,” she replies. “I can always throw them at somebody,” decides Marker, before leaving. Eva watches him go, looking puzzled. In the completed episode, this was replaced by the aforementioned repartee about Toby Jugs and Eva not being able to get shot of Garston.
* * *
The next scene, in the Johnsons’ kitchen, was almost completely rewritten. The scripted version includes Ray’s mother, who, at the beginning of the scene, is giving the sink “a good, old-fashioned scrubbing.” Anne, meanwhile, is sitting at the table, reading a glossy magazine and daydreaming. Mrs Johnson finishes her work, dries her hands and goes out into the back garden. A shouted conversation filters through as Mrs Johnson says goodbye to her son and Ray says he’ll see her on Friday. Mrs Johnson comes back in, picks up her handbag and starts out for the hallway. She gives Anne a long, contemptuous look and goes out. Anne shrugs and continues reading.
After a moment, Ray comes in from the garden. As usual, he’s in his stockinged feet, but this time he’s tensed up for an argument.
“Your mum’s gone,” reports Anne.
Ray snaps back at her. “She told me. Didn’t you hear?”
“What’s got into you?” replies Anne. “You’re ticking like a clock.”
“Time we had a talk.”
“Suddenly become the big conversationalist,” remarks Anne, sardonically. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You and Greco.”
Anne looks at him, aghast. “How did you know?”
“You went up the Cricklewood factory with him last Saturday,” Ray tells her. “Wally Marriott saw you.” This is the point at which the recorded version of the scene begins, though on screen Ray merely suspects, rather than knows for certain, that his wife is having an affair. The day of the week and the name of Ray’s colleague (possibly a nod to the programme’s co-creator Anthony Marriott or a member of his family) were retained in the finished episode, though the venue was changed to “the Sidcup depot”.
Anne reacts calmly to this revelation: “That’s form!” This is a slang phrase that means basically the same thing as her line on screen: “He would!”
“Nice way to find out,” says Ray, hotly. “‘Hello, Ray. Didn’t know your missus was Greco’s latest piece –’” Anne cuts him off, telling him not to talk like that, but Ray goes on, his fury building. “No pride, have you?” On screen, he tries reasoning with his wife before giving in to anger. Ray pauses, and then the scripted dialogue briefly resembles its televised counterpart: “I work for that Greco, sod him!” The line as broadcast is: “I work for that bastard, damn him!”
“He doesn’t know,” says Anne. This line was retained on screen.
“Doesn’t he?” replies Ray, sarcastically. “I should’ve thought you’d have told him. Give him a bang, that would! Like picking up your scrubbers off the shop floor!” This line was also kept in, but with Ray referring to the office floor.
Anne gets up, calling him a bastard. Ray tells her it’s going to stop. “Is it?” she asks. “Who says so?”
“I do.”
Anne isn’t impressed. “You go whistle, little boy.”
Suddenly and quietly, Ray pushes Anne against the wall, holding her roughly by the chin. “You won’t see him again,” he states. This act of physical intimidation was removed from the final version, possibly because the production team realised it would turn the audience’s sympathies away from Ray. On screen, he is violent only with objects, not with his wife, knocking Anne’s compact out of her hand, smashing it, and later throwing his garden trowel across the table, shattering some crockery off screen.
“I’m spending the weekend with him,” declares Anne, defiantly.
“You’ll tell him it’s off,” Ray insists, but Anne refuses. “I’ll rough you up, Anne,” he threatens. “So help me –”
Anne doesn’t believe him. “Get on with it – if you’ve the guts.” She lifts her face towards him, challenging him. After a moment, Ray relaxes. She brushes past him, contemptuously.
“I’ll kill him,” swears Ray.
“You’ll do nothing. You can live with it.”
“I’ll kill him,” repeats Ray.
“The day you lift a finger against him, I walk out that door. For good.” She goes out.
As in the completed episode, the scene ends with Ray in tears.
* * *
When Ray meets Ellis in Cray’s Nosh Bar, to arrange a beating up, the comical business with Ellis helping himself to Ray’s sandwich, only to complain about the lack of chutney in it, was worked out during rehearsals. So, too, was Ellis subsequently trying to steal some of a nearby heavy’s lunch. In the script, Ellis does not call Ray “cocky”.
A couple of Ellis’s lines were dropped prior to recording. When asked what his thugs will do to their victim, Ellis’s reply was originally more explicit. After sarcastically saying, “What do you think?”, in the script he specifies, “Beat the living daylights out of him.” A little later, when assuring Ray that they won’t be connected with the crime, he was to have explained, “The word goes through too many channels.”
* * *
During the final sequence of Act Two, set in and around Garston’s/Greco’s penthouse, in addition to shaking the game dice so vigorously that Garston/Greco fears she’ll knock the spots off them, Anne was scripted to whisper to the dice and blow on them for good luck.
The climax of the act, in which Marker is attacked and Garston/Greco witnesses but ignores this event, played out a little differently in the original script. On screen, Marker leans on the roof of the car while being punched, but as scripted the camera was supposed to show his facial reactions through the car’s side window.
As Greco continues his game with Anne, the script emphasises the fact that the sounds of the attack are now in his head (which is why Anne cannot hear them). “As the dice are shaken and roll across the table, the sound of the fight downstairs comes up loud. We play the scene as it is in Greco’s mind: on one level a simple game of dice, on the other the punch-up.”
In the script, Marker has a can of water, which he splashes into the face of the man he’s knocked out before dragging the man into the garage. Once inside, he pulls on a pair of gloves and then “ominously” closes the garage door. Act Two of the rehearsal script ends with an aural flourish that was not retained in the finished production, harking back to the game of chance being played upstairs: “Up loud, the sound of the jingling dice being shaken.”
The script calls for music to play throughout the terrace scene, but in the finished production the record player is silent until Garston goes indoors to collect some Champagne and puts on Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik.
When Marker interviews Anne, the script has her coming in from the terrace eating a bowl of ice cream. In the recorded version, she carries an empty liqueur glass, which she refills from the bar.
After Anne has stated her opinion that the phone calls are probably coming from a business rival, Marker was originally scripted to ask, “Why do you say that?”
“Nothing’s happened, has it?” argues Anne. “And you don’t expect businessmen to shoot one another.”
“True,” agrees Marker.
“Do you think anything will happen?”
Marker shrugs, before asking, as he does on screen, how long Anne has known her lover.
More dialogue was cut later in the scene, when Marker converses with Hart. After Marker deliberately misunderstands Hart’s question, “How’s it going?”, and refers to the jigsaw he’s putting together, Hart was to have responded, “I meant the ‘other thing’.”
Marker continues to wilfully misconstrue Hart’s meaning. “I didn’t think that was part of the brief.”
“Don’t get tricksy, Marker.”
“Tricksy?” asks Marker, innocently.
“Champagne’s better than nosh bar tea.”
“Not for me.”
“Why not?”
“Makes me belch. People might think it was an opinion, rather than an affliction.”
Most of the above material is absent from the completed episode, with only Hart’s line about not getting tricksy retained.
In the script, Hart tells Marker that Eva’s ceramics shop is situated off Baker Street – which would place it in the Marylebone district of the City of Westminster in London. In the finished programme, this was changed to Hampstead, about three miles further north.
* * *
The scene with Eva and Marker in the ceramics shop was considerably rejigged. In the script, it begins with Eva laying out a pottery display (in the recorded episode, she’s carrying out maintenance and cleaning). Marker comes in, looking around the place as he does so. Assuming he’s a customer, Eva approaches and bids him good morning.
“Mrs Greco?” asks Marker. This immediately puts her on the defensive. “Expecting bad news?” asks Marker.
“I wasn’t,” says Eva.
“Now you’re not so sure.”
“What do you want?”
“I’m working for your husband,” says Marker. He looks around. “Can we talk?”
“Briefly – I hope.”
There then follows a discussion about Marker’s Toby Jugs. Marker asks Eva if she’d like to buy a pair of them, but Eva says they’re not her province. Marker says he can’t get shot of them, and Eva says she can’t get shot of Greco. “So let’s talk business, shall we?” she adds.
“The fact is, I’ve been hired to protect him,” explains Marker.
“Does he need it?”
“He’s received some threats.”
The above exchange – with the exception of the banter about Marker’s Toby Jugs, which was moved to the end of the scene – was truncated to just two lines of dialogue. The scene as recorded has the conversation already underway, with Eva asking Marker, “What’s it got to do with you?” Marker replies, “I’ve been hired to protect your husband. Somebody’s threatening him.”
After referring to herself sardonically as “The estranged and embittered wife” (and therefore a suspect), Eva was to have continued, “Two and two. By any reckoning that makes at least four.” In the script, Marker agrees: “That’s the way I counted it.”
When bemoaning her husband’s “Tycoonery” and “Incurable acquisitiveness”, Eva also has her own word for these qualities in the script: “Grecoism.” On a similar note, when she accuses Marker of behaving like her estranged spouse, in the script she reveals that “I nearly liked you. Then you started to do a Greco.”
The business with Marker picking up a fragment of pottery and trying to fit it into a similarly shaped hole in a pot, echoing the jigsaw puzzle he worked on during the previous scene, was added during rehearsals. In the script, he merely “has a prowl round: preparing to deliver his ‘blockbuster’” – the ‘blockbuster’ being the fact that he has noticed Eva’s engagement ring.
The scene was to have ended with Marker referring back to their earlier discussion by asking Eva, “You’re sure about the mugs?” “Certain,” she replies. “I can always throw them at somebody,” decides Marker, before leaving. Eva watches him go, looking puzzled. In the completed episode, this was replaced by the aforementioned repartee about Toby Jugs and Eva not being able to get shot of Garston.
* * *
The next scene, in the Johnsons’ kitchen, was almost completely rewritten. The scripted version includes Ray’s mother, who, at the beginning of the scene, is giving the sink “a good, old-fashioned scrubbing.” Anne, meanwhile, is sitting at the table, reading a glossy magazine and daydreaming. Mrs Johnson finishes her work, dries her hands and goes out into the back garden. A shouted conversation filters through as Mrs Johnson says goodbye to her son and Ray says he’ll see her on Friday. Mrs Johnson comes back in, picks up her handbag and starts out for the hallway. She gives Anne a long, contemptuous look and goes out. Anne shrugs and continues reading.
After a moment, Ray comes in from the garden. As usual, he’s in his stockinged feet, but this time he’s tensed up for an argument.
“Your mum’s gone,” reports Anne.
Ray snaps back at her. “She told me. Didn’t you hear?”
“What’s got into you?” replies Anne. “You’re ticking like a clock.”
“Time we had a talk.”
“Suddenly become the big conversationalist,” remarks Anne, sardonically. “What do you want to talk about?”
“You and Greco.”
Anne looks at him, aghast. “How did you know?”
“You went up the Cricklewood factory with him last Saturday,” Ray tells her. “Wally Marriott saw you.” This is the point at which the recorded version of the scene begins, though on screen Ray merely suspects, rather than knows for certain, that his wife is having an affair. The day of the week and the name of Ray’s colleague (possibly a nod to the programme’s co-creator Anthony Marriott or a member of his family) were retained in the finished episode, though the venue was changed to “the Sidcup depot”.
Anne reacts calmly to this revelation: “That’s form!” This is a slang phrase that means basically the same thing as her line on screen: “He would!”
“Nice way to find out,” says Ray, hotly. “‘Hello, Ray. Didn’t know your missus was Greco’s latest piece –’” Anne cuts him off, telling him not to talk like that, but Ray goes on, his fury building. “No pride, have you?” On screen, he tries reasoning with his wife before giving in to anger. Ray pauses, and then the scripted dialogue briefly resembles its televised counterpart: “I work for that Greco, sod him!” The line as broadcast is: “I work for that bastard, damn him!”
“He doesn’t know,” says Anne. This line was retained on screen.
“Doesn’t he?” replies Ray, sarcastically. “I should’ve thought you’d have told him. Give him a bang, that would! Like picking up your scrubbers off the shop floor!” This line was also kept in, but with Ray referring to the office floor.
Anne gets up, calling him a bastard. Ray tells her it’s going to stop. “Is it?” she asks. “Who says so?”
“I do.”
Anne isn’t impressed. “You go whistle, little boy.”
Suddenly and quietly, Ray pushes Anne against the wall, holding her roughly by the chin. “You won’t see him again,” he states. This act of physical intimidation was removed from the final version, possibly because the production team realised it would turn the audience’s sympathies away from Ray. On screen, he is violent only with objects, not with his wife, knocking Anne’s compact out of her hand, smashing it, and later throwing his garden trowel across the table, shattering some crockery off screen.
“I’m spending the weekend with him,” declares Anne, defiantly.
“You’ll tell him it’s off,” Ray insists, but Anne refuses. “I’ll rough you up, Anne,” he threatens. “So help me –”
Anne doesn’t believe him. “Get on with it – if you’ve the guts.” She lifts her face towards him, challenging him. After a moment, Ray relaxes. She brushes past him, contemptuously.
“I’ll kill him,” swears Ray.
“You’ll do nothing. You can live with it.”
“I’ll kill him,” repeats Ray.
“The day you lift a finger against him, I walk out that door. For good.” She goes out.
As in the completed episode, the scene ends with Ray in tears.
* * *
When Ray meets Ellis in Cray’s Nosh Bar, to arrange a beating up, the comical business with Ellis helping himself to Ray’s sandwich, only to complain about the lack of chutney in it, was worked out during rehearsals. So, too, was Ellis subsequently trying to steal some of a nearby heavy’s lunch. In the script, Ellis does not call Ray “cocky”.
A couple of Ellis’s lines were dropped prior to recording. When asked what his thugs will do to their victim, Ellis’s reply was originally more explicit. After sarcastically saying, “What do you think?”, in the script he specifies, “Beat the living daylights out of him.” A little later, when assuring Ray that they won’t be connected with the crime, he was to have explained, “The word goes through too many channels.”
* * *
During the final sequence of Act Two, set in and around Garston’s/Greco’s penthouse, in addition to shaking the game dice so vigorously that Garston/Greco fears she’ll knock the spots off them, Anne was scripted to whisper to the dice and blow on them for good luck.
The climax of the act, in which Marker is attacked and Garston/Greco witnesses but ignores this event, played out a little differently in the original script. On screen, Marker leans on the roof of the car while being punched, but as scripted the camera was supposed to show his facial reactions through the car’s side window.
As Greco continues his game with Anne, the script emphasises the fact that the sounds of the attack are now in his head (which is why Anne cannot hear them). “As the dice are shaken and roll across the table, the sound of the fight downstairs comes up loud. We play the scene as it is in Greco’s mind: on one level a simple game of dice, on the other the punch-up.”
In the script, Marker has a can of water, which he splashes into the face of the man he’s knocked out before dragging the man into the garage. Once inside, he pulls on a pair of gloves and then “ominously” closes the garage door. Act Two of the rehearsal script ends with an aural flourish that was not retained in the finished production, harking back to the game of chance being played upstairs: “Up loud, the sound of the jingling dice being shaken.”
Ray and Marker’s conversation at the beginning of Act Three was tightened up during rehearsals. In the original script, after Ray tells Marker that he had to teach Greco a lesson, Marker was to have replied, “Quite the little schoolmaster.”
When denying that he’s the one behind the threats to Greco, Ray is not cut off quite so soon by the surprised Marker. “What good would it do?” argues Ray in the script, before continuing, “He’d laugh his –” The ensuing explanation for why he didn’t threaten his former employer is more detailed in the script. “How could I?” asks Ray, “I did the only thing possible. Two hundred pounds to have him beaten up. Thought I’d feel good about it.” He pauses, sadly. “I didn’t.” “Spare me the sob stuff,” says Marker.
In the script, after Marker asks, “Your wife called Anne?”, Ray nods and shows him a photograph of her. Evidently, the photograph is not a very recent one, as Ray notes, “She’s changed a bit.” In the final production, instead of the photograph, Anne’s identity is established by Marker asking, “Small, blonde?”
Marker’s final line in this scene, “And you try and forget about Garston,” was added during rehearsals. In the script, the scene’s ending is less snappy and lacks the linking reference to Garston (who appears in the next scene). After telling Ray to forget about the beating up and forget they ever met, Ray asks, “That’s it?” Marker nods. “Okay,” says Ray. Somewhat puzzled, he offers his hand. Marker accepts it.
* * *
Hart’s defence of Anne in the next scene, after Garston has accused her of being in on the scheme to blackmail him, is not in the rehearsal script. Dialogue elsewhere in this scene was cut or redistributed. When Greco offers twenty thousand pounds instead of fifty thousand, Anne was originally scripted to reply, “I’ll tell him. I don’t know what he’ll say.” As she leaves, she was to have added, “Where will you meet him?” This became Hart’s line in the recorded episode, after Anne has left the room. Greco’s reply, “My place – eight o’clock,” became the final line of the scene, providing a link to the subsequent penthouse scene, whereas the scripted version ends with Greco telling Anne, “And don’t let me ever see you again.”
* * *
The penthouse scene begins the same way in the script as it does on screen, by establishing Marker, sitting uncomfortably, with the briefcase chained to his wrist. Greco then enters from the balcony, having seen Anne and Peters (the phoney Ray) arriving by car. This may have been intended to allow for continuous recording, since Greco/Garston was also in the previous scene. In the transmitted version, however, Garston is already with Marker at the start of the scene, and has undergone a slight costume change (he is now wearing a knitted roll neck jumper), so there must have been a recording break. Garston has armed himself with a golf club (which was introduced when Marker used it at the end of Act One) and is alerted to the imminent arrival of Anne and Peters by the approach of the lift.
A few lines were cut from this scene. On screen, Peters merely repeats Marker’s greeting of “How do you do,” but in the script he notices Marker’s interest in his appearance. “Marker,” he replies, before asking, “Why are you looking at me like that?” “Memorising the face,” explains Marker, cryptically. “Help yourself,” says the bemused Peters.
A little later, Peters compliments Greco on his home. “Nice place, Mr Greco. Real little love nest.” After sarcastically asking Anne if they should stick around to count the money, Peters was to have added, “Thought you might like to stay a while – for old times’ sake, of course.” At this point, Marker asks, “This your first job?” and Peters replies that it is.
After Peters and Anne have gone, Greco remarks that “Draughtsmen are three a penny.” Garston places an even lower value on them in the completed episode, at “ten a penny.” Marker observes that Peters “Got the blackmail routine off all right.” In the final production, this was changed to a comment on the fact that Garston doesn’t recognise Anne’s supposed husband: “Well, it’s the price you pay for not knowing the people who work for you.”
* * *
Hart’s final scene changed very little, though his exit is not quite as abrupt in the script as it is in the recorded episode. After beginning to tell his boss, “The trouble with you –”, he adds, bitterly, “Ah! What’s the point?” before heading to the door.
* * *
Towards the end of the episode, when Marker hands Garston/Greco receipts for twenty thousand pounds – including ten thousand for Ray Johnson, “in lieu of one wife” – and remarks that it’s an expensive business, Marker was to have added, “I figured you owed him that.” In the script, Greco tartly replies, “Did you!” In the completed episode, Marker’s punishment of Garston is less blatant, and he offers a more persuasive reason for the financial penalty: “That’ll keep him off your back.” Garston’s surly response is changed to: “Yeah, it had better.”
* * *
The final scene was completely rewritten. Whereas on screen Pauline is called into Garston’s office to take a letter about Hart’s departure from the company, in the script Marker leaves the office to find Eva leaning against Pauline’s desk, waiting to go in. “Did you sell those jugs?” she asks him.
“Ah, I knew you’d reconsider,” jokes Marker, “How much are you going to offer for them?” At this point, Greco opens his office door, and sees them standing together. Marker advises Eva, “Any trouble with that divorce – let me know.” She thanks him, and Marker moves to the lift. Greco watches him go, then ushers Eva into his office.
Instead of Garston taking a call from Lionel Wheeler, as in the broadcast version, the rehearsal script ends with the phone on Pauline’s desk ringing. She answers it. “Mr Greco’s office… No, Sir Ian, I’m sorry. He’s in conference at the moment.” She lifts her pencil. “Can I take a message?”
When denying that he’s the one behind the threats to Greco, Ray is not cut off quite so soon by the surprised Marker. “What good would it do?” argues Ray in the script, before continuing, “He’d laugh his –” The ensuing explanation for why he didn’t threaten his former employer is more detailed in the script. “How could I?” asks Ray, “I did the only thing possible. Two hundred pounds to have him beaten up. Thought I’d feel good about it.” He pauses, sadly. “I didn’t.” “Spare me the sob stuff,” says Marker.
In the script, after Marker asks, “Your wife called Anne?”, Ray nods and shows him a photograph of her. Evidently, the photograph is not a very recent one, as Ray notes, “She’s changed a bit.” In the final production, instead of the photograph, Anne’s identity is established by Marker asking, “Small, blonde?”
Marker’s final line in this scene, “And you try and forget about Garston,” was added during rehearsals. In the script, the scene’s ending is less snappy and lacks the linking reference to Garston (who appears in the next scene). After telling Ray to forget about the beating up and forget they ever met, Ray asks, “That’s it?” Marker nods. “Okay,” says Ray. Somewhat puzzled, he offers his hand. Marker accepts it.
* * *
Hart’s defence of Anne in the next scene, after Garston has accused her of being in on the scheme to blackmail him, is not in the rehearsal script. Dialogue elsewhere in this scene was cut or redistributed. When Greco offers twenty thousand pounds instead of fifty thousand, Anne was originally scripted to reply, “I’ll tell him. I don’t know what he’ll say.” As she leaves, she was to have added, “Where will you meet him?” This became Hart’s line in the recorded episode, after Anne has left the room. Greco’s reply, “My place – eight o’clock,” became the final line of the scene, providing a link to the subsequent penthouse scene, whereas the scripted version ends with Greco telling Anne, “And don’t let me ever see you again.”
* * *
The penthouse scene begins the same way in the script as it does on screen, by establishing Marker, sitting uncomfortably, with the briefcase chained to his wrist. Greco then enters from the balcony, having seen Anne and Peters (the phoney Ray) arriving by car. This may have been intended to allow for continuous recording, since Greco/Garston was also in the previous scene. In the transmitted version, however, Garston is already with Marker at the start of the scene, and has undergone a slight costume change (he is now wearing a knitted roll neck jumper), so there must have been a recording break. Garston has armed himself with a golf club (which was introduced when Marker used it at the end of Act One) and is alerted to the imminent arrival of Anne and Peters by the approach of the lift.
A few lines were cut from this scene. On screen, Peters merely repeats Marker’s greeting of “How do you do,” but in the script he notices Marker’s interest in his appearance. “Marker,” he replies, before asking, “Why are you looking at me like that?” “Memorising the face,” explains Marker, cryptically. “Help yourself,” says the bemused Peters.
A little later, Peters compliments Greco on his home. “Nice place, Mr Greco. Real little love nest.” After sarcastically asking Anne if they should stick around to count the money, Peters was to have added, “Thought you might like to stay a while – for old times’ sake, of course.” At this point, Marker asks, “This your first job?” and Peters replies that it is.
After Peters and Anne have gone, Greco remarks that “Draughtsmen are three a penny.” Garston places an even lower value on them in the completed episode, at “ten a penny.” Marker observes that Peters “Got the blackmail routine off all right.” In the final production, this was changed to a comment on the fact that Garston doesn’t recognise Anne’s supposed husband: “Well, it’s the price you pay for not knowing the people who work for you.”
* * *
Hart’s final scene changed very little, though his exit is not quite as abrupt in the script as it is in the recorded episode. After beginning to tell his boss, “The trouble with you –”, he adds, bitterly, “Ah! What’s the point?” before heading to the door.
* * *
Towards the end of the episode, when Marker hands Garston/Greco receipts for twenty thousand pounds – including ten thousand for Ray Johnson, “in lieu of one wife” – and remarks that it’s an expensive business, Marker was to have added, “I figured you owed him that.” In the script, Greco tartly replies, “Did you!” In the completed episode, Marker’s punishment of Garston is less blatant, and he offers a more persuasive reason for the financial penalty: “That’ll keep him off your back.” Garston’s surly response is changed to: “Yeah, it had better.”
* * *
The final scene was completely rewritten. Whereas on screen Pauline is called into Garston’s office to take a letter about Hart’s departure from the company, in the script Marker leaves the office to find Eva leaning against Pauline’s desk, waiting to go in. “Did you sell those jugs?” she asks him.
“Ah, I knew you’d reconsider,” jokes Marker, “How much are you going to offer for them?” At this point, Greco opens his office door, and sees them standing together. Marker advises Eva, “Any trouble with that divorce – let me know.” She thanks him, and Marker moves to the lift. Greco watches him go, then ushers Eva into his office.
Instead of Garston taking a call from Lionel Wheeler, as in the broadcast version, the rehearsal script ends with the phone on Pauline’s desk ringing. She answers it. “Mr Greco’s office… No, Sir Ian, I’m sorry. He’s in conference at the moment.” She lifts her pencil. “Can I take a message?”