Fraud Squad: The Great Blanket Factory Swindle (ITV 21 Nov 1970, with Fay Compton)

In the farcical The Great Blanket Factory Swindle, the Cosy Lamb Blanket Factory is in danger of going out of business. The board is very much under the control of elderly Lady Flanders but Mr Bender is in charge of the Order Department. A recent board meeting descends into name calling amidst talk of how money could be raised to save the company. The next day Mr Bender is discovered trying to leave the company with £40,000 in his briefcase, he claims to know nothing about it but the Squad are called in.

Bender is sacked as the investigation begins but it’s complicated business as no one seems to know where the money has come from. Sgt Hicks then goes undercover (as Miss Jones) as Bender’s replacement.

Quite the surreal episode, a large chunk of it is given over to the eccentric mostly elderly male members of the ordering department. It’s all very entertaining and once Gamble finds out what is going on he is actually quite sympathetic.

The end theme tune was a slightly longer version with a slghtly mellower intro,

production details
UK / ITV – ATV / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast Saturday 21 November 1970

Writer: Stuart Douglass / Production Design: Stanley Mills / Director: John Sichel

Series: Fraud Squad Season 2 Episode 10

cast
Patrick O’Connell as Gamble
Joanna Van Gyseghem as Vicky Hicks
Ralph Nossek as Proud
John Moore as Bender
Donald Eccles as Herbert Pitt
Bruce Myles as Smith
Cyril Luckham as Jim Ford
Carl Paulsen as Williams
Robert Milton as Grant
Roger Minnis as Jenkinson
Bert Rogers as Corney
Fay Compton as Lady Flanders
William Fox as Sir William Turk
Anthony Nash as Albertson
Michael Rose as Furness
Mark Elwes as Friend
Roy Barraclough as George
Harry Hutchinson as Stoneleigh
Bartlett Mullins as Markham
William Jenner as Detective