Porterhouse – Private Eye (ITV Comedy, Peter Butterworth)

In one off comedy Porterhouse – Private Eye, inept private detective Edwin Porterhouse (Peter Butterworth) is hired to look after a priceless snuff box. Porterhouse was helped and hindered in equal measure by his daughter Daffodil (June Whitfield – only ten years younger than Butterworth). June told the TV Times (28 Aug 1965) that she didn’t enjoy learning judo saying “I’m sure I nearly broke my neck a dozen times for this programme, Judo is something I have never done before. And am not likely ever to do again.”

Marjorie Norris reviewing the episode in The Stage (9 Sep 1965) was not impressed with script, performances or direction saying the denouement “had five people standing about with nothing to do and too far away for their facial reactions to add punch to their lines.” She also said of the performances “all of the actors were doggedly performing in different styles and at times seemed unsure of their words.”

Dudley Foster who played Otto Mulchrone and was out to steal the snuff box was a TV regular throughout the 1960’s and early 1970’s. He committed suicide by hanging himself at the family home on 8 January 1973.

The comedy was broadcast under the Six of the Best banner, a series of single comedies designed as pilots for possible series in the style of the BBC’s Comedy Playhouse.

Cast: Peter Butterworth as Edwin Porterhouse; June Whitfield as Daffodil; Dudley Foster as Otto Mulchrone; John Glyn Jones as Sir Gregory Bowles; Cicely Hullett as Lady Bowles; Bryan Mosley as Hargreaves; Elizabeth Counsell as Irma; Frank Sieman as Inspector

Writer: Maurice Wiltshire / Production Design: Ray White / Producer: Alan Tarrant / Director: Albert Locke

UK / ITV – ATV / 1×30 minutes / Wednesday 1 September 1965 at 9.10pm