The Main Chance: With All My Worldly Goods (ITV 23 Jul 1969)

In With All My Worldly Goods, the final episode of the first season of The Main Chance, David has two tricky cases to deal with, one is definitely double trouble and could spell the end of David’s career. Client Tim Cowley needs a contract pushing through. He needs it quickly too. It’s worth a cool £2,000,000 and could ruin him if it doesn’t go through. He’s also in the throes of divorcing his wife but David insists that Peter Findon act for him in that regard.

Secondly is a murder case that Henry and Margaret are mostly handling. The accused, an old friend of the Castleton family, has murdered his wife but is claiming provocation all the evidence though points to him being criminally insane.

There is a stand out moment when Cowley is in court and has to answer a question about adultery (of which he has previously claimed innocence) and all is revealed. The woman he has been involved with just happens to be Julia Main! Because of the fact that Findon and Cowley covered up the adultery and the way it came out in court the judge recommends that Castleton and Main be reported to the Law Society on a charge of professional misconduct. Thankfully the pair just get a reprimand. Judy Huxtable takes it easy.

There is short appearance from sixties starlet Judy Huxtable as a friend of Sarah’s. Huxtable is probably best known these days for being married to comedy legend Peter Cook. Here she is handily around for a drunken David to sleep with after he has dicovered his wife’s infidelities.

David Lodge makes another of his occasional appearances in the series as Bulmer’s ex-colleague Detective Chief Inspector Guthrie. Anna talks lack of secretarial skills.

The TV Times focused on the lovely Anna Palk for this episode rather than Kate O’Mara. There was a short article, a very sexy pic (above) and two smaller ones (one from the show and one of Anna at home in the garden (below). The article talked about her love of acting, her marriage to Derek Brierley and the fact that she was brought up by three relatives in Hull and had only just recently made contact with her father after a gap of 20 years. She also made it plain that she didn’t have a secretary type mind in real life. The magazine did manage to continue its O’Mara crush though featuring a picture her to tie-in with her appearance in The Avengers episode Stray Tuned which aired on the same night as The Main Chance.

classic quote
“Are they your own legs or did you hire them for the occasion?”
“What occasion?”
“To impress tired businessmen like me.” – A conversation between David and Olivia Marret-Browne, leggy girlfriend of Sarah’s. Gardening Anna.

production details
UK / ITV – Yorkshire / 1×50 minute episode / Broadcast Wednesday 23 July 1969 at 9.00pm

Writer: Edmund Ward / Director: John Frankau

Series: The Main Chance Season 1 Episode 6

cast
John Stride as David Main
Kate O’Mara as Julia Main
Anna Palk as Sarah Courtenay
John Arnatt as Sidney Bulmer
Philip Bond as Peter Findon
Margaret Ashcroft as Margaret Castleton
John Wentworth as Henry Castleton
Liz Bamber as Priscilla Graves
Richard Wyler as Tim Cowley
Elizabeth Shepherd as Fiona Cowley
Judy Huxtable as Olivia Marret-Browne
David Lodge as Detective Chief Inspector Guthrie
Brian Oulton as George Carter
Jack May as Derrick Asher
Norman Mitchell as Charles Willard
Hamilton Dyce as Judge
Neil Wilson as Prison doctor
William Wilde as Elwyn Richards