Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) - Series Overview

Series Overview

In the pilot episode, "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner", Marty is murdered during an investigation and returns immediately as a ghost whom only Jeff (and the occasional psychic) can see, to help Jeff bring his murderer to justice. However in helping Jeff with his case, Marty stays out of his new grave for too long and is cursed to walk the Earth for 100 years. Seeing the advantages of having a ghost at the detective agency Marty stays as an invisible partner playing the key role in helping Jeff solve crime thereafter, also meaning that he can see his widow Jeannie Hopkirk who works as a secretary at the agency every day.

Marty is instrumental throughout the series in ensuring Jeff is aware of the occurrences of crimes and more often than not is responsible for saving his partner's life in each episode by using his supernatural powers. However, his powers are very limited in that he physically cannot touch anything and has no extrasensory knowledge of events that take place when he isn't present. Whilst Marty aids Jeff immensely in his investigations, his persistence at urging Jeff to follow leads when Jeff has other engagements, where there is no obvious criminal activity or where he is putting his life and reputation at risk can seriously infuriate and terrorise the short-fused Jeff. The comedic aspect of the series came to the surface in episode 2, "A Disturbing Case", which dealt with hypnotic suggestion. Written by Mike Pratt himself, the episode features Marty impersonating the thick German accent of the German psychiatrist Dr Conrad (David Bauer), allowing him to direct the glazed drugged Randall to do exactly what he wants whilst he is in his pyjamas in a nursing home. Although the second episode is undoubtedly the most comic of the series, Marty's ability to control hypnosis is an important source of comedy in subsequent episodes, notably later in episode 10, "When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?", in which he eventually manages to hypnotize a hypnotist himself to save Randall by directing him to behave like an animal (a panther) and perform like a Secret Agent in direct contrast to the behaviour a professional would usually follow.

In episode 3, "All Work and No Pay", a number of story elements important for later episodes in the series are introduced, particularly exposing the vulnerability and naivety of Jeannie Hopkirk, traits which can leave her life in danger due to her willingness to help people. Jeannie is manipulated by the Foster Brothers who, by using electronic equipment, falsely convince her that her late husband Marty is a poltergeist and that they as spiritualists will lay his spirit to rest. The brothers plan to employ Jeannie to bring other widows to them and use their supposed exorcism of Marty as a reward. Her falling into their trap nearly costs the life of another woman.

As she is invited into their manor house we see the start of a much used setting in the majority of the Randall and Hopkirk episodes, an eerie lavish country manor with a grand hallway and rooms and 1930s eccentric décor creating an element of suspense. The same set with a few alterations was used on the majority of later episodes filmed in the same studio set. The third episode also sets the scene for the themes of exorcism, paranormal spirituality, psychic mediums and placing Marty Hopkirk to rest which also feature in later episodes such as "Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?" and "But What a Sweet Little Room".

The appearance of psychic mediums develops in the next episode "Never Trust a Ghost" and also establishes Jeff Randall's trust in his ghostly partner for the series. Jeff visits a deranged medium to question Marty's reliability, beginning to doubt him. We see Jeff Randall become seriously frustrated with his deceased partner as he places his reputation in danger at following up Hopkirk's seemingly false leads, yet Marty persists on bothering him even when he is in the company of women. The medium believes that ghosts hallucinate but Marty whom the medium can see takes hours to convince him of his capabilities. Marty's correct deductions and his ability to stop enemy agents in the end solidifies Jeff's trust of him. The medium is also significant as he is the first man other than Jeff who can see and communicate with Marty the ghost, repeated later in the series as other mediums can communicate.

In episode 4 it really becomes evident that Randall has a distinct hatred of the police, which is reciprocated. In nearly every episode where the police are involved with enquiries some way or the other they always suspect Randall as the villain in a crime with Randall many a time treating them rather rudely in his frustration. In many episodes he conflicts with the suspicious Inspector Large played by Ivor Dean. In the eighth episode "Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?" and the 10th episode "When did You Start to Stop Seeing Things?" in particular Randall is suspected of not only being a criminal involved in the operation of diamond operations but is suspected as a murderer implicated to directly throw the police off guard.

The fourth episode is also the first time we really see that Jeff Randall is a womaniser, followed up in the sixth episode "Just for the Record" where he is surrounded by beautiful women at a beauty contest, offering Miss Moscow "a cup of tea" as a cover for sex. Even when Jeff does not physically make contact with attractive women it is clear there is always a mutual attraction between them for example in the 17th episode "Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave" where he flirts with the housekeeper.

However in episode 7, "Murder Ain't What it Used to Be", Randall does show that he does have morals in some areas of his life and when hired by American racketeer Paul Kirstner to look after his daughter he initially rejects at the thought of working for a criminal but eventually relents when he is given a substantial sum of money. However whilst money and earning a living means a great deal to him and is often why he initially decides to take up a case, in later episodes such as episode 12, "For the Girl who Has Everything", he turns down a send off of £250 because he feels he hasn't deserved it yet, demonstrating that he must work for his money. On the contrary in episodes such as "Money to Burn", he becomes directly implicated in a crime because of his indecisiveness over whether to accept £500,000 of old money that is to be incinerated.

A number of developments are made to Marty's character in episodes 7-10. "Murder Ain't What it Used to Be" is the first episode where another ghost appears alongside him, in the shape of Bugsy, the cackling Chicago gangster who was killed in the 1920s who returns to haunt his double-crosser Paul Kirstner. Marty immediately shows an inferiority to him and his abrasive attitude and is unwilling to confront him even when he pesters Jeannie. However towards the end he teases Bugsy by manipulating objects in his direction, objects that can be seen moving and crashing to the human eye. In the episode it also becomes clear that Marty as a ghost can travel back in time as Bugsy takes him back to the black and white 1920s to witness his murder over a prohibition scam.

In episode 8, "Whoever Heard of a Ghost Dying?", it becomes clear that Cecil, a psychic medium, can see Marty (unbeknownst to him) and is able to use him to deliberately put his living partner Jeff Randall off the track of a series of diamond robberies, who had been secretly filmed seemingly speaking to himself on a number of occasions. Despite being a ghost, the power of the psychic puts Marty's health in serious jeopardy to the point where he nearly disappears at the end of the episode, when the medium attempts to exorcise him at his graveside.

In episode 9, Marty proves that in many ways his feelings are still human and he shows as much fear of other ghosts and paranormal activity as any human would. In "The House on Haunted Hill", Marty shows a great fear of electronic equipment in a house attic pretending to producing the sounds and noises of ghosts. He is far more afraid than even Jeff, and he doesn't appear to have any sense of other paranormal phenomena when he can not physically see them.