There's just one day to go until the variety show in the village hall - and the act's simply aren't ready. Things couldn't get any worse, until the vicar discovers the body of Mr Longhammer, dead behind the curtain. There's only one solution...call in master detective, Lord Peter Flimsey.

This is one of three episodes (The Case of the Screaming Winkles and the Case of the Coughing Parrot) that are based on the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries of the 1920's. Freeman uses every detective gem possible, from Sherlock Holmes mists to Agatha Christie tea parties, and it works quite well. Barbara Windsor has a supporting role as a landlady who giggles and bounces her way through the piece. Kenneth Connor's butler to Jack Douglas's Lord Peter works some very nice comic routines, bouncing jokes of each other and play on words.

Robert Ross