Arthur Is Dead, Long Live Arthur

Episode Overview

When Arthur is ordered to pay £20,000 to the Inland Revenue and when his creditors Second Hand Sid and Freddy The Fly ask him to pay up what he owes them, Arthur decides the only way out of his predicament is to commit suicide, eventually deciding to jump from a bridge. Although no body is found, a suicide note is discovered by newspaper reporter John Beadle. Believing the story is in the public interest, Beadle decides the story of Arthur’s demise should be published in the local newspaper. However, with a lack of a body, Chisholm soon becomes suspicious of the whole situation. Meanwhile, Justin has started a memorial fund for Arthur.

Fooling everyone, Arthur soon contacts Terry under the guise of author Mr. Black, who has checked in, incognito, to a local B&B. Through Terry, Arthur attempts to continue some business activity but soon discovers ‘er indoors has decided to sell the car lot. Things get worse for Arthur as ‘er indoors makes plans to sell the lockup and the Daley home and at the same time B&B owner Mrs. Mount discovers the real identity of Mr. Black. When Arthur’s creditors don’t believe he is really dead they decide to reclaim what is owed to them by turning over his lockup, soon discovering through a mistake Terry has made, that he is still alive and his whereabouts as Mr. Black. With the odds stacked against him Terry convinces Arthur the only way out of the situation is to claim amnesia and to bribe Mrs. Mount into saying he simply walked in off the street with no identity and she was duty bound to look after him.

Cast

Glynn Edwards as Dave, Patrick Malahide as DS Chisholm, Penny Morrell as Daphne Mount, Mark Farmer as Justin James, Royce Mills as Andrew, Michael Povey as DC Jones, John Alkin as John Beadle, Jonathan Elsom as Mr. Muir, Timothy Kightley as Undertaker, Jon Laurimore as Newspaper Editor, Ben Howard as Second Hand Sid, Robert Austin as Freddy The Fly, Johnny Wade as Albert, Paul Cooper as Ron, Barry Ewart as 1st Reporter, John Livesey as 2nd Reporter

Facts

At the start of this episode we catch a brief glimpse of where Arthur lives, although he seems to be in a different location to the usual places seen in other episodes both earlier and later series. This episode features George Cole’s wife Penny Morrell as B&B owner Daphne Mount. When this episode was aired TV TIMES did a small feature on the couple appearing together

Double Take

This is the second time that Mark Farmer appears as Justin James, the only time that Justin appears in series six. He would return for three further episodes in series seven. This is the third and last episode to feature Winchester regular Ron, played by Paul Cooper who had appeared in the previous episode in this series #6.3 The Return Of The Invincible Man and #6.1 Give Us This Day Arthur Daley’s Bread. John Alkin, who played newspaper reporter John Beadle, previously starred alongside Dennis Waterman as the semi-regular character Tom Daniels in ‘The Sweeney’.

Bloopers: There is a very minor continuation blooper in this one, watch carefully when Arthur and Terry meet for the second time and sit together in the white Ford Granada. The first time we see them the front wheels are completely straight, the second time we see them the wheels have moved despite the car being in exactly the same location.

Title: A reference to the phrase “The King is dead, long live The King!” – more information about this on Wikipedia here.