At first glance you might be confused into thinking this is an Adventurer episode centred around contaminated fish products or lethal top shelf magazines…but this isn’t The Case of the Poisoned Prawns, or The Case of the Poisoned Porn…rather it’s The Case of the Poisoned P-A-W-N. Yes, incredible as it may sound there really is an Adventurer episode that’s all about Gene learning to play chess.
What Rocky did for boxing and Over the Top did for arm wrestling, The Case of the Poisoned Pawn tries to do for chess, as Gene enters into the hi-octane, tough talking world of chess playing. The amount of sporting trophies on display at Gene’s gaff would have you convinced that there isn’t a sport Gene has yet to conquer. Chess though is something of an Achilles heel of his. In fact Gene hasn’t picked up a chess piece since he was 15, and feels he may have disappointed his local priest Father Bartony, by never fulfilling his true potential as a chess player, despite having excelled in other walks of life, such as movie star, multimillionaire, spy, fencer, ladies’ man, sports car driver, cricket player, businessman etc etc. A game of poker offers up the chance to do right by Father Bartony when one of his opponents Brian Hamilton (Stuart Wilson) has a hissy fit after losing to Gene at poker. After throwing poker chips around and storming off from the table this Clubber Lang of the chess world challenges Gene to a game of chess. Poker after all just being a game for wimps, whereas chess is a real man’s game.
It seems there is nothing that gets alpha males locking horns quite like a game of chess, as Gene not only accepts the challenge but bets twenty five thousand pounds that he can kick Hamilton’s ass all over the chess board…the winner takes it all…the loser takes the fall…fight till the beginning of the end!!! With the stakes raised high the chess match attracts all manner of onlookers, including Greek tycoon Nicky Asteri (Martin Benson), the titled Lady Ann Benson (Dawn Addams) and Julia Franklin (Jenny Hanley) an antiques expert and daughter of a Lord.
Mr Parminter has a vested interest in Hamilton too, and wants Gene to cripple him financially in order to discover the mysterious source of all of Hamilton’s wealth. For once Gene is completely out of his depth and in need of a crash course in chess playing. Fortunately he finds a mentor in Brandon the Butler (Dennis Price) who admits to being “rather strong on the Queen’s side”…and as luck would have it Brandon knows how the play chess as well.
Chess playing isn’t usually the type of subject matter that top lists of ideas for TV action series. Sadly with almost everyone involved in The Adventurer on a creative level no longer being with us, it is unlikely we’ll ever know how such an episode came to be green lit. The amount of chess lingo in this episode suggests the work of someone with more than a passing interest in the subject, and Gene’s feelings of regret over never pursuing a chess career come across as genuine. Maybe someone involved in this episode felt that they missed their calling in life, and should have become a world chess champion rather than having ended up making episodes of The Adventurer instead. We can’t overlook though the more likely explanation that by this point Adventurer episodes were being especially written to accommodate Gene’s ‘height thing’. The chess theme conveniently serving as a way for Gene to act alongside various actors without their height becoming an issue. All parties concerned remaining seated around a chess board at all times.
The Case of the Poisoned Pawn’s biggest obstacle is its own premise. Chess- generally played out in total silence and in-between long, meditative pauses by the players- isn’t the most visually exciting of sports. All the good sense in the world would suggest that it doesn’t translate well into either a big or small screen spectacle. Fortunately this Adventurer episode isn’t quite the disaster area that it first sounds. The fact that they were fighting against a premise that had deathly dull written all over it, looks to have caused the makers of this episode to up their game. All manner of plot diversions keep the excitement levels topped up. Gene is sent threatening letters warning him about the ‘poisoned pawn’ and ordering him to call off the game. When that fails Gene is lured to a flat where thugs try to put him out of action. Who knew that the world of chess was this dangerous? Even the usually placid and reserved Parminter is full of fighting talk here “I want you to break him Gene, simply break him”. Whilst Gene musters up an almost Charles Bronson level of onscreen fury, threatening one of the thugs at the flat with “listen you, I was playing that game when you were playing with your teddy bear”.
The Adventurer character who truly comes into his own here though is Brandon the Butler. Usually housebound and blotto, Brandon becomes one of Gene’s biggest assets in this episode. Effectively playing Burgess Meredith to Gene’s Rocky, Brandon makes a rare excursion outside of Gene’s gaff to buy a chess board from Harrods, as well as several ‘Chess for Dummies’ type books, before putting himself and Gene through some physically gruelling chess training sessions.
“Trying hard now
It's so hard now
Trying hard now
Getting strong now
Won't be long now
Getting strong now
Gonna fly now
Flying high now
Gonna fly, fly, fly...”
Director Cyril Frankel gives it all he has got, working into this episode the obligatory appearance by Gene’s silver Chevrolet and an abundance of funky instrumental music onto the soundtrack. Frankel even throws in a montage of Londoners going about their daily business whose leery emphasis on young ladies in miniskirts makes this feel more like a Val Guest directed episode than a Cyril Frankel one. The Case of the Poisoned Pawn also boasts a memorably arrogant and obnoxious villain in Hamilton, who displays a proto-punk type contempt for the older generation. Hamilton agitates Gene by guffawing while Gene reminisces about his tough childhood. The hatred between Gene and Hamilton makes Hamilton one of the few standout Adventurer villains, despite him having to adhere by the series’ rules of not being able to ‘stand up’ very much.
The Case of the Poisoned Pawn is thoroughly guilty of pitting the generations against each other, with the older, self -made Gene from the school of hard knocks butting heads with the cocky, privileged, Oxford educated Hamilton. For all its hip veneer of flash cars, sexy women and funky music, The Adventurer’s target audience increasingly appears to be grumpy old men with a chip on their shoulder about young people. Well, let me correct that slightly…a chip on their shoulder about young men. In comparison young women, especially attractive and not very tall ones, are welcomed with open arms into this world. Gene’s libido in this episode being aimed in the direction of Jenny Hanley, who I suppose qualifies as this week’s love interest, although her screen time is so limited that she and Gene barely get beyond the flirting stage. Nicky Asteri, the Onassis like Greek millionaire, has similar designs on his secretary (Christine Donna) who appears willing...if not exactly eager to become a rich man’s bit on the side.
For those keeping score, Jenny Hanley’s appearance brings the number of cast members The Adventurer shares with Pete Walker’s The Flesh and Blood Show up to three. Narrowly in the lead however is Au Pair Girls, Christine Donna’s presence in this episode meaning that The Adventurer now shares four cast members with Au Pair Girls.
As The Adventurer shuffles into its twilight years it does begin to display a wandering eye for the older ladies as well, and with that a willingness to acknowledge that women over the age of thirty can be sexy too. Widows with ties to nobility being a type that particularly gets this series’ pulse racing. Barbara Murray was last week’s ‘older woman’ figure, while here it’s the turn of Dawn Addams to play the type of character referred to in the Kinks’ song ‘Don’t Forget to Dance’ as “a nice bit of old”.
A degree of sexual double standards is still at play here though, The Adventurer has no beef with Gene and Nicky Asteri making moves on younger women, but has issues with Addams’ character doing likewise with younger men. Addams’ character Lady Benson being depicted as rather pathetic for having a toy boy around, who of course is secretly exploiting her. The big revelation of The Case of the Poisoned Pawn being that Hamilton had been Lady Benson’s gigolo, and saw the twenty five thousand prize money as a way out of Lady Benson’s orbit. Desperate to avoid this scenario Lady Benson sent Gene the threatening letters in the hope that Gene would call the chess game off. When that failed she turned to her friend Nicky, who sent the thugs after Gene as a more effective deterrent to playing chess.
All of which leaves you to ponder, who is the actual good guy in this episode? While Nicky Asteri is a sleazy and sexually predatory character he also seems to be acting out of loyalty to his friend Lady Benson, attempting to put the kibosh on the chess game so that she can keep her younger lover around. On the other hand Gene’s determination to win the chess game results in Hamilton being jailed (after losing the game he resorts to stealing jewellery from Lady Benson and is immediately arrested by Parminter) as well as Lady Benson having on fork out twenty five thousand as a result of Hamilton losing the chess game. So Lady Benson is now seriously out of pocket, deprived of a younger lover, and is likely to end her days as a lonely, sex starved spinster, cheers Gene.
Sadly with The Case of the Poisoned Pawn the series sheds yet another regular cast member as we wave goodbye to Dennis Price aka Brandon the Butler. The double-act of Gene and Dennis Price and their unlikely bromance, had been one of the more entertaining aspects to these episodes, making it doubly sad to see him go. Still The Case of the Poisoned Pawn did at least give his character something to do for once, and saw Brandon supplant Mr Parminter as both Gene’s sidekick and the object of Gene’s ‘humour’. This episode might end with Gene playing a joke at Brandon’s expense, with Gene proposing a toast to his ‘mentor’ only to then raise a glass to Father Bartony rather than Brandon. However the last laugh truly goes to Brandon who manages to sneak in one last dirty look in Gene’s direction before we fade to black. Few facial expressions scream ‘why you ungrateful old bitch’ quite like the last look we get of Dennis Price in The Adventurer.
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