This week, we discuss the third episode of the final series of Dixon of Dock Green, entitled Vagrant. It originally aired on BBC One on 27th March 1976. All eight episodes in series 22 exist, unlike all previous seasons.
The Story…
This week the plot line picks up a man who looks like someone who might be homeless walking through the street. A bystander (Bill Treacher) is putting out his bins. He sees a car begin to accelerate towards the man and shouts to warn him. The car knocks the man down and drives away without stopping.
When Dock Green police get involved, the bystander leads them down a path of suspecting that the homeless man was deliberately run down. He is identified as Joe Conway (John Carson) and sent home from hospital to the squat which he shares with another vagrant, Percy (Paddy Joyce).
The Dock Green team struggle to understand who might want Conway dead to begin with. Then they find him in their files: he gave evidence in court which led to the imprisonment of two men, Gerald Tate (Johnny Shannon) and Bert Flower (John Hartley). Both of these offenders have just been released from prison. Both Flower and Tate suspect each other of attacking Conway. Neither of them will admit it to each other or the Police.
Meanwhile, Conway tries to deliver on his promise to his flat-mate Percy. Percy is unwell and Conway wants to get him enough money to go home to Ireland and be looked after. He goes to see a solicitor by the name of George Boscombe (Tim Barlow). He claims his real identity is that of a man he shared a flat with years ago, Dr Francis Spurling. The problem: Spurling died years earlier. Conway has seen in the newspaper that Spurling’s wealthy mother has died without an heir and means to claim her estate.
Initially Boscombe will not entertain Conway. Conway goes to visit the woman to whom he used to be married. She seems terrified by him and he runs away when she screams and faints with terror.
When he later visits her again, she is calm and hard. He just needs her help to persuade Boscombe of his real identity. He insists that he only wants a little of the money for his friend Percy and intends to gift the rest to her, to atone a little for the miserable life he gave her when they were married. She declines to help him, still angry for the rough time he gave her. We gather that he was an alcoholic who was struck off the medical register due to his addiction affecting his work.
He cleans himself up, determined to prove his identity once and for all. When he visits Boscombe again, the solicitor is much more welcoming and claims to believe him. They set off together in the car but Boscombe takes them to an abandoned riverside location. He gives Conway a bottle of alcohol, intending to do away with him. The Dock Green team manage to piece things together in time and arrive just before any harm comes to Conway.
It turns out that Boscombe had embezzled money from Mrs Spurling’s estate–among others–and needed to get rid of Conway/Spurling to keep from being exposed.
Conway has been soured on the idea of trying to do something altruistic and rather retreats back into himself. Ashamed of his conduct as a doctor, husband and man when he lived as Spurling, he decides to remain as Conway.
My Impressions…
As a Dixon of Dock Green episode, this follows the pattern of series 22. As a short play, Vagrant is very compelling. John Carson turns in a fine performance as Joe Conway. His portrayal of an alcoholic who is trying his best to make up for the wrongs he did in his past life by doing something selflessly now is great. He brings warmth and honesty to the role. It isn’t overdone at all. The moments between Joe and his former wife, when Joe is desperate to make himself understood, are so heartfelt and gripping.
As a representative of Dixon, this episode does not do much. In fact, the police scenes are lacklustre and almost superfluous. I wasn’t rooting for the police at all. I was rooting for Joe Conway. In all honesty, Vagrant felt much more like a standalone story. The plot and the characters involved were strong enough without needing the framework of an existing show. Derek Ingrey, a long-time writer for Dixon, did a great job of creating believable and sympathetic characters. It was a shame to pin it down in that rather tired world of Dock Green.
Tim Barlow as the slippery Boscombe and Bill Treacher as Fred Smethwick, the bystander at the hit-and-run, both brought integrity and subtlety to their parts. The writing was strong, however the involvement of our much-loved George Dixon (Jack Warner) and Sgt Wills (Nicholas Donnelly) really didn’t add anything to Vagrant. The two jack-the-lad detectives, Bruton (Richard Heffer) and Clayton (Ben Howard) as ever felt out of place and one-dimensional. Bruton was a little softer this week which was refreshing, but he still doesn’t fit the programme very well.
In Conclusion…
By the end of the next episode, we will be half way through the final series of Dixon of Dock Green. It is dragging a little for me, I must admit. I wish that those in charge of the show had allowed it to end with Conspiracy, that triumph of a closer to series 21. I sadly expected to feel this way and I haven’t had my mind changed yet. I miss Peter Byrne! There is still time and I approach each episode with a mind open and willing to be moved and impressed. By Vagrant I was moved. However, by the elements which belong wholly to Dixon I was not. That doesn’t say much for a show which ran with consistently high quality for twenty years prior to this series.
