Blackmail in Newtown

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32678, 6 August 1971, Page 4

Blackmail in Newtown

The present “Z Cars” series has been a good one, and Saturday night’s “In Need of Care” promises to maintain the standard; the story vas written by Allan Prior, one of the best and most prolific of television writers.

There is an outbreak of ' blackmail in Newtown; petty : stuff, and no-one has come 1 forward with a complaint. ' Goss, who has heard about l it from an informer, is > worried: “This sort of thing ' causes more misery than ' anything else. It plays on i jealousies and hurt feelings It’s evil.” Working on another case Woman Police Constable Parkin comes across Jan Martin—l 9, and known to the police. The girl is Slone, has no steady job, «nd has had a series of affairs with various men. Parkin, though worried, can do nothing. Jan will either drift further and further down, or pull herself together of her own accord. All the same, Parkin keeps an eye on Jan and discovers that the girl’s latest boy friend is a Londoner, Mickey Markland. He is trying to persuade her. to go to London with him—to the bright lights and the big time. Parkin tries to give Jan a friendly warning about what is likely to happen if she listens to Markland, but it

seems that the policewoman is wasting her time. Goss has a visit from Smalley, a local business man, very upset and wanting to consult the police on a point of some delicacy. He is being blackmailed and now he cannot pay any more. The extortioners are threatening to tell his wife. Smalley, faced with inevitable exposure, decides that his tormentors should be punished as well, and so at last Goss has his chance.

Smalley receives another message summoning him tq a meeting place where a ca» will be waiting. The police are there as well. The decoy girl is Jan; the blackmailer i Markland. •