Series Three - Episode Seven: Trapped
C.A.B Episodes | Episode Details | Cast & Crew | Images | Episode Synopsis | Episode Guide
C.A.B Episodes
Episode Details
UK Air Date: Tuesday 25th July 1989, 16.20pm
Copyright Year: MCMLXXXVIII (1988)
Consecutive Episode Number: 30
Fremantle Archive Ref: 37968
IMDB Link: Episode page
Cast & Crew
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Images
Episode Synopsis
Eleanor Plantagenet, the woman who thinks she is really the rightful Queen of England, sets a trap to catch Jace, Colin and Tracey. Hellman tries to get her to let him deal with them, and so does the evil Robert. When the three investigators get into the shop unobserved, they are discovered by Vine, the mysterious plumber. Will he tell Eleanor of their whereabouts? Are they in danger, or what?
Episode Guide
‘Secret Agent C.A.B, Help! Someone has grabbed us were all in trouble and so is everybody else especially Hellman, and Eleanor wants the seal back’
Vine is reading a newspaper article to Jace, Colin and Tracey about Buckingham palace have said that an ancient orb and sceptre have been stolen from the palace and police believe it may be linked to the theft of the Queen’s Beast from Hampton Court.
Vine, Colin and Tracey leave as Jace updates his dictaphone of the latest situation saying that Vine is going to help them get into the shop to find out if Eleanor has the magical beast or not, then Jace runs to catch up with them.
Upstairs in the control room Robert switches on the CCTV monitors, and then he looks at the model and clicks his fingers.
Downstairs Hellman is alone and he opens the red briefcase and uses the Pepsi phone to ring the international press agency, but before he can speak to anyone Eleanor catches him and warns him that he’s not to use the phone. When Eleanor asks who it was Hellman says it was a ‘wrong number’
Back outside the shop Vine walks up to the front door and waves the children towards the shop.
Inside the shop Eleanor is sitting underneath some plastic covering which the drips of water from the pipes are gathering in. She is playing with the phone as Hellman is heard crying, then Robert walks in saying he knows how to get the seal back. Eleanor then tells him that Hellman is being punished after using the telephone. Hellman then tries to defend himself by saying he was just answering it and not using it as it was a wrong number. Hellman continues by saying it is his shop and his phone and just thought he could use it. Eleanor warns him that he can only use it to call anyone she tells him to. Eleanor then insists that the children should be here by now, Robert suggests that they may need one of Hellman’s SOS signs, but as we see Hellman cutting some onions he tells Robert to make one himself as he is not helping to trap them. Robert walks closer and tells Hellman that he will do as he is told. Eleanor calls Robert back towards her and says that when they do appear they are to be charming as she wants them in the back room of the shop with all doors locked and then they can talk to them properly as they must have the Henry seal back at all costs.
Outside Colin and Tracey walk round to the back of the shop.
Hellman suggests to Eleanor that they leave the children up to him as he knows how to sort them out. Eleanor refuses and tells Hellman to keep out of the way. As the pipework is still dripping she wonders where Vine has got to and that she does not like him ‘coming and going as he pleases’. She says that she doesn’t want Hellman and Vine ‘putting their heads together’.
Back outside Vine crouches down at the left side of the door and Jace to the right. Jace pulls out a small pencil from his bag as he records another message on his Dictaphone ‘On emergency standby outside the Wooden Kamel, a.k.a W.K, waiting to hear the lock click’.
Inside the shop Eleanor, Robert and Hellman hear Vine knocking on the door walk though to the front shop, Eleanor tells Robert to let him in as he appears not to have his key today. Eleanor whispers ‘Come into my parlour Mr Vine’ and Robert moves the hands on the clock to unlock the doors. Vine enters the front door as Colin and Tracey sneak in through the back door. Tracey lodges a French textbook to stop the back door closing fully. Eleanor asks Vine if he has seen any sign of the recalcitrant children in the street. Vine insists he has not seen them, asking them if he was supposed to have picked them up and he blames his memory, he feigns a sneeze as Colin and Tracey open the cupboard in the back room to get into the lift to go upstairs. Vine blames his hay fever for sneezing so much, but Robert queries this saying that it is not the time of year for hay fever but Vine says his kind is – it never stops, the doctors can not do anything for him only telling him to keep taking pills. Eleanor tells him they are not interested in his hay fever and tells him to get on with his ‘miserable plumbing’. He walks past them into the back room as he sneezes once more. They follow him into the back room. Eleanor tells Hellman to get upstairs as Robert pushes him into the lift. Eleanor moans at Vine saying she is not satisfied but Vine retorts that he can not get the parts. Vine goes to sink and Eleanor and Robert follow him. Eleanor tells him that she has noticed that he takes too much of an interest in what is going on and warns him that she prefers to keep her private life private. Vine agrees but Eleanor says she believes that he is not really an incompetent plumber and insists that it is time he told them who he really is. Coming out from underneath the sink he passes his business card to Robert who reads his name out ‘Engelbert Vine’. Vine explains that his mum was a member of the Engelbert Humperdink fan club and he asks if they want the plumbing finished or not. They leave him as he goes under the sink again.
Upstairs Colin and Tracey enter the control room in the attic. Tracey starts to put the model into her bag as Colin checks the video recorder. Hellman then enters and asks what they are doing here. Colin says they need his help, Tracey continues by saying they need the model. Hellman asks why he should help as they have not been very helpful to him. Colin disagrees and Tracey points out they came when they saw his S.O.S sign. Hellman insists he is not helping the steal anything. Colin asks where everyone is and asks Hellman to get them all into the front shop and they can sneak out the back. Hellman asks why they want the model. Colin explains they need it to figure out which beast Eleanor has got. Tracey further explains that they need to know which number it is. Colin continues by saying that they need to figure out which one is the magical one. Hellman explains that it can not be the one in the shop as Eleanor has spent hours speaking to it trying to get the crown off it but nothing happens. Colin points out that it may be the right beast but Eleanor is not really the Queen. Hellman says he has suspected this saying she has not got any power at all. Hellman goes downstairs to try to get them al into the front shop but they are to give him a few minutes first, he warns them to be careful. Tracey then puts the model into her bag.
Hellman goes down the ladder and into the lift downstairs. In the attic Colin picks up the parchment and reads the end of the riddle again ‘Shall know our spiritual beast four what it is’, he spots that the four is the number four so that there must be four clues and there is still one more to come.
Downstairs Vine is explaining that someone must have found him in the yellow pages or somewhere like that as he is not actually in the yellow pages! Robert asks if he was in Kings Lynn at the time but Vine confuses this with the pub saying that he does not drink. Hellman exits the lift with a smile on his face. Eleanor shouts at him asking what he is doing as she told him to stay upstairs. He retorts that he can do as he wishes in his own shop and anyway they are not up there. Eleanor quizzes him ‘who is not where’, Hellman says that the children are not upstairs. Robert calls him an idiot saying they sent him upstairs to keep him away from them. Hellman says ‘they're down here then’ and rushes into the front shop. Robert and Eleanor chase after him pushing Vine off his ladder and hanging onto one of the leaking pipes.
Hellman is underneath the beast’s cover as Robert walks in asking him what he is doing near the beast. Robert asks again as he pulls the cover up. Hellman says he is admiring the most magical thing he has ever seen, asking ‘it is magical isn’t it?’ Eleanor asks ‘meaning what?’ Hellman points out that he has not seen it do any magic.
Jace enters the shop through the back door and speaks to Vine who tells him that Colin and Tracey are still upstairs and that he better go and tell them to hurry as he fears that Robert is getting suspicious. Jace confirms that he has put the pencil in the lock and Vine tells him he will keep everyone busy while they make their escape. Jace goes upstairs and Vine goes into the front.
Vine talks to Eleanor, Robert and Hellman about the stone beast ‘it’s only a bit of stone’. Robert points out that it was carved out of the same stone that Excalibur came from. Eleanor says that it could be priceless, a part of England’s ancient glory. Vine says he has a garden gnome that looks better. Vine jokes that people would buy any rubbish but Eleanor snaps that it is not rubbish and it was not bought, it is hers by right. Eleanor warns Hellman that he is to stay down there with them so they can keep an eye on him. Eleanor instructs Vine to get on with his work. Robert starts to shove Vine towards the back room but to get them stop Hellman calls out that the beast’s head has just moved. As Eleanor starts to get excited thinking the hour is upon them Hellman says that it might have been a trick of the light.
Upstairs Colin thinks they need to see the beast again, but Jace warns them that they have to go quickly. Tracey hears someone approaching; Jace thinks it may be Hellman or Robert. They hide behind the trapdoor ready to drop it on whoever it is and get ready to make a run for it.
Downstairs Robert asks Eleanor if they still need ‘him’ as they are going to have to tell him the whole plan. Eleanor walks closer to Hellman and they join elbows. She tells him they want to confide in him, saying that they know the government is very scared. She continues by telling him that if the beast in there is the correct one and they find the orb and sceptre according to ancient rights all she has to do is sit on the coronation stone at Kingston and declare herself as ‘Eleanor of England’. Hellman asks ‘wearing the crown?’ Eleanor says yes but Hellman says ‘if you can get it off’. Robert scorns ‘What are you suggesting’ and tells him to listen and obey. Eleanor tells him that the reason she has not got the crown off the beast is because the time is not right.
As Vine climbs the ladder into the attic the children drop the trapdoor on his head, he plummets to the floor screaming. The children start to run.
Downstairs Robert finds the pencil on the floor near the front door. He calls Eleanor in to look at it. Eleanor enters followed by Hellman. Robert calls it a ‘school pencil’ but Hellman tries to say it could be any kind of pencil but Robert explains that it must be a school pencil as it stubby and has been chewed and anything else instead of using it for writing for instance jamming them in doors to stop them locking. Robert dashes into the back room with Eleanor and they find the French textbook by the back door, bother Robert and Eleanor go upstairs in the lift to get them.
Outside the children have escaped in time and run round to the front of the shop. Colin enters as Hellman peers from the backroom to see who it is. Colin looks at the beast.
Robert and Eleanor find Vine collapsed upstairs, Vine peers into the attic but they children are not there. They leave and Vine starts to move.
Colin is looking at the beast as it moves and flashes in front of him; he sees the shade on the sundial pointing. Jace and Tracey enters the shop to get him as Colin says ‘I knew there was something; it’s not nine upside down’. Eleanor and Robert step out of the lift.
Tracey says she has left her textbook by the back door and she needs it as it is important. Robert grabs Hellman and covers his mouth with his hand to stop him shouting. Eleanor pushes a painting by the fireplace and presses a button. She grabs the candlestick and staff and goes through a secret door downstairs to the ground floor.
In the front shop Colin is explaining that it is not number six, it is one like Vine said, he tells them to think of a sundial which is in roman numerals, so it is not nine it is IX, which upside down is XI which is eleven but there are only ten beasts so it is not the ninth beast but the first beast. Meanwhile Eleanor is slowly creeping up on them. Jace finishes by saying that one upside down is still one. They turn around and Eleanor is there, she says ‘got you, traitors’, they run into the back room and get cornered by Robert.
The episode finishes with an update from Jace: ‘Secret Agent C.A.B. Help!’
