The Coach That Came In From The Cold

Episode Overview

Arthur is being chased by nasty local trader Denny Willis and his heavies, who claims Arthur owes him 20 grand for a sale that went badly wrong and left him out of pocket. Meanwhile, Arthur takes Ray to the local golf club where Arthur is desperately seeking full membership in order to improve his local contacts. In order to straighten out the Police accounts, Morley’s Superintendent decides to offer to sell Arthur an old Police transport coach and sends Morley off to the golf club to find Arthur. After viewing the bus, Arthur decides to buy it and seeing a quick earner decides to start ‘Daley Tours’ around London for unsuspecting foreign punters. 

When the bus breaks down on its maiden voyage, American tourist Mr Correlli demands a refund for both himself, his wife and the rest of the coach. In a desperate attempt to save face, Arthur tells all the tourists that the tour is not over and continues with a trip to the Winchester Club, only for Denny Willis to appear. Realising that another officer is trying stitch him up, Morley’s Superintendent decides he wants the coach back and orders Morley off to retrieve it, only to discover that Arthur has sold it to another contact called Rambo. Meanwhile, back at the golf club, the head of the kitchen staff, Lorraine suspects that club captain Simon Perkins is attempting to sell the land for development and asks Ray if he can help out. Ray is more than happy to do so as he has become very fond of Lorraine.

Cast

Glynn Edwards as Dave, Nicholas Day as DS Morley, Trevor Peacock as Previous, Geoffrey Whitehead as Superintendent Roden, Rory Edwards as Denny Willis, Lisa Jacobs as Lorraine, Simon-Cowell Parker as Simon Perkins, Patrick Godfrey as Major Beatty, Brian Greene as Mr Corelli, Margaret Robertson as Mrs Correlli, Marton Milman as Hart, Clive Kneller as Rambo

Facts

This episode is probably one of the best remembered episodes of the Ray Daley era, with an excellent script that would have fitted perfectly in previous series too. In this episode we see Arthur on the side of the police for once as he helps Morley and his Superintendent out of a very sticky situation explaining the whereabouts of the transport coach. Ray also shows complete loyalty to Arthur in this episode demonstrating he is willing to protect his Uncle Arthur at all costs against Denny Willis and his heavies, even when outnumbered six to one. Trevor Peacock who plays ‘Previous’ in this episode is probably more recognisable to most as Jim Trott from the BBC series ‘The Vicar of Dibley’.

Bloopers: Watch carefully just after 38 minutes as Arthur goes to the swimming pool to find Rambo and is asked to take his shoes off – a lot of kids are clearly watching what is going on. Although ‘Stephen Tompkinson as DC Park’ features in the opening titles of this episode, DC Park does not actually appear.