Charters and Caldicott
                                                                                                 
Director: NA
Year: 1985
Rating: 7.0
Hitchcock fans may recall with affection the two cricket obsessed Englishmen in The Lady Vanishes from 1938. Charters and Caldicott. In that film they are witnesses to the existence of an elderly lady before she is kidnapped, but keep their mouths shut because saying so will delay their arrival in England to see a cricket match. Priorities. Though only side characters in the film, they became so popular as a duo that the two actors - Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne - were to appear as the same characters in three other films; Night Train to Munich, Crooks Tour and Millions Like Us. And also appeared as Charters and Caldicott like characters in another seven films along with stage and radio appearances. Most of these were leading up to the War or during it and their characterizations of proper English cricket obsessed gentlemen struck a chord with the public. This is England.



All these decades later, BBC brings them back in this six-part Mystery series. They are now being portrayed by character actors Robin Bailey and Michael Aldridge. They are a good thirty years older than the ones in The Lady Vanishes and very much set in their privileged ways and still obsessed by cricket. Their interplay and chemistry with one another is a delight. Two friends since public school and years in the service to the government, they love to bicker, disagree and talk cricket. Their lives revolve around the men's club, their public-school friends, teatime and lunches together. A good life that they have comfortably settled into as life-long bachelors.



Then a dead body is found in Caldicott's apartment, and it is connected to an old school friend who recently died in Hong Kong, but before doing so, he sent them a letter with documents. The letter is a puzzle that sends them on a rather fine journey of murder, money and treachery. To some degree the plot doesn't really matter - it is these two at times comical, at times crotchety, at times courageous pair that is so enjoyable. I wish that they had made another series with them, but this was it. In the videos that I have, each episode is introduced and concluded by the wonderful Vincent Price, who enlightens us about cricket, public schools, language and men's clubs.