When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?
| "When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?" | |
|---|---|
| Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode | |
 | |
| Episode no. |
Season 1 Episode 10 |
| Directed by | Jeremy Summers |
| Written by | Tony Williamson |
| Production code | 10 |
| Original air date | 23 November 1969 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
| Episode chronology | |
When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things? is the tenth episode of the popular 1969 ITC British television series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode, directed by Jeremy Summers, was first broadcast on 23 November 1969 on the ITV.
Synopsis
Jeff is hired by a company based in Metropolis House to find out who is leaking information for use on the stock market. Unfortunately matters are complicated when a financial adviser named Charles Tully is murdered in a car park late at night and Randall is implicated. Jeff then goes on to arrange traps for the personnel director Holly and managing director Hepple, executing them both.
Meanwhile, Marty is very concerned that Jeff can no longer see or hear him and is acting out of character, so ventures to Harley Street to seek the advice of psychiatrist and hypnotist Sir Oliver Norenton. He speaks to a patient under hypnosis, getting them to tell Norenton to visit Randall and give him treatment.
As Jeff continues to act brutally killing several of the financial personnel and sexually assaulting Jeannie, Marty eventually realises that the real Jeff has actually been kidnapped and a masked double named Hinch has been put in his place. Using more hypnotised patients to contact Jeannie, he uncovers the address of where the villains are hiding - The Manor House, Milton Vale - put there by the company's general manager, Mr. Laker, the inside perpetrator. Marty discovers Jeff imprisoned in the cellar of the house and rigs an escape for Jeff by distracting the professional killer who is guarding the house by smashing a vase in the hallway. Jeff overpowers the man but is then knocked unconscious by Jeannie with a mace, who believed him to have murdered the men that the fake Randall killed. They are about to be killed, in one of their most impossible situations yet, Marty returns to the psychiatrist Norenton, who is in the process of putting himself in a trance after hearing all his patients talk about Randall to attempt to understand why it had happened.
Marty speeds up the process by psychically switching on Norenton's hypnosis wheel, then convinces a hypnotised Norenton to invade the Manor House as an animal and a secret agent. Laker is knocked unconscious by the surprisingly powerful Norenton, while Jeff saves himself by convincing Laker's professional killer that his armed double is really him, causing the double to be shot dead as a result. Laker and his henchman are then rounded up by Inspector Large, who demands explanations as he sees the disfigured masked face on the body of Jeff's double on the floor, and Norenton is amusingly left pleading for psychiatric help at the sight of two Jeff Randalls.
Cast
- Mike Pratt as Jeff Randall
- Kenneth Cope as Marty Hopkirk
- Annette Andre as Jeannie Hopkirk
- Keith Barron as Jarvis
- Basil Dignam as Hepple
- Rosemary Donnelly as Diana
- David Downer as Hinch
- Clifford Evans as Sir Oliver Norenton
- John Garvin as Tully
- Philip James as Holly
- Bessie Love as Mrs. Trotter
- Reginald Marsh as James Laker
- Peter Stephens as Sir Timothy Grange
- David Stoll as Tilvers
Video and DVD release
The episode was released on VHS and several times on DVD with differing special features. A Blu-ray edition of this episode has been released by Network along with several significant episodes of several TV series of the 1970 era under the title Retro-Action 1 - The cool age of TV in High Definition.