The most recent episode of Dixon of Dock Green broadcast on Talking Pictures TV was Jackpot. Jackpot is the sixth episode in series 22. It was originally broadcast on 17th April 1976.
The Story…
Jackpot is Kenneth Cope’s second outing as a guest artist in Dixon of Dock Green. (The first was The Roaring Boy in 1956). In this episode, he plays Harold Tovey.
Harold is a quiet, unassuming man with a steady job who lives in a council flat with his wife Margaret (Pat Ashton). He likes reading books and we gather he seldom goes out. Her two sisters are married to career criminals, They think Harold is boring. Margaret has begun to agree with them. She sends him off on holiday alone.
The night before he goes, he overhears his brothers-in-law talking about their latest criminal escapade. They unwittingly reveal to him where they have hidden the money.
The Dock Green police suspect the brothers-in-law but there isn’t enough evidence to pursue them.
Meanwhile, Harold’s flight is cancelled. He soon calls round to one brother-in-law’s yard and removes the stolen money. They have always been disparaging of him, so he is getting revenge in a way.
Margaret is out every night in glamorous outfits with her sisters, brothers-in-law and their friend Mickey, who is also in on the caper. At the same time, Harold is living it up on the stolen money.
He takes an expensive hotel room under a false name, tips all staff very handsomely and spends his evenings out with a sweet, inexperienced escort.
Dock Green police are tipped off that some of the stolen bank notes have been spent. The brothers-in-law and Mickey begin to suspect each other of dipping into the money early. When they go round to Bert’s yard to check it, they incriminate themselves and are arrested.
When the money runs out for Harold, he leaves the hotel and returns to Margaret. She is glad to see him and has learned the benefit to being married to a law-abiding man. She tells him that her two brothers-in-law are in prison for the robbery and that she appreciates Harold. Their ending appears to be a happy one.
My Impressions…
I’m afraid my reviews of series 22 are following a pattern. Jackpot is an entertaining story. It is compelling and Kenneth Cope makes Harold a very sympathetic character. In stark contrast to his performance in The Roaring Boy, he gave Jackpot so much heart.
However, it really had no business being part of Dixon. It feels like it should be a 1950s comedy in the cinema. The focus is Harold and his adventures paid for by his selfish and hateful in-laws. We do not need to know the Police. Their function is so generic that a couple of wooden exchanges in a typical police station set would serve their purpose equally well.
In bygone years of this programme, the focus was the police. The team inside those four walls. How they related to each other, the work they did and the public they protected. In every episode of series 22, the police are merely a convenient piece of exposition and a very slight foil to the main plot.
The main character is no long George Dixon (Jack Warner), nor even the familiar characters around him. It is the leading character of the main plot. And in complete contrast to the original intent of the show, the law-breakers are written with such sympathy that we find ourselves rooting for them and against the police.
When the police focus is mainly on Bruton (Richard Heffer) and Clayton (Ben Howard), it is hardly surprising that we don’t identify with them. The actors do their best with what they are given. But the characterisations are so generic that they are not in the least compelling.
In Conclusion…
Jackpot is an entertaining and enjoyable episode. I personally loved Kenneth Cope in it. However, it is far removed from the twenty previous years of stellar storytelling and character work.
We have two episodes of series 22–and the entire show–remaining. I hope their quality will be as high as Jackpot, but I do not hold out much hope for the participation of the Dock Green police.