Naked Lady, The – Nostalgia Central

1 9 5 9 (UK)
4 x 30 minute episodes

This four-part television play from Duncan Ross aired on the BBC in July and August 1959.

The story begins when two off-duty soldiers arrive at a small seaside hotel in the fishing village of Torpoint on the South Coast for a well-earned rest.

Miss Le Roy (Janette Rowsell) is subsequently found murdered (and naked) in her room at the hotel.

Detective Inspector Bill Burroughs (Andrew Osborn) is called in, and a clue leads him to a small London night-club called The Spiny Lobster, where he meets Sylvia Craig (Lana Morris), with whom the murdered girl once shared a room.

He suggests she accompany him down to Torpoint to help in his investigations.

It appears Miss Le Roy had attracted some attention during her brief stay. She had hired a boat and gone out with Bob Dyson (Patrick Troughton) for four hours one night, and – according to rumour – she was more friendly with taxi-driver Charlie Morris (Thomas Heathcote) than he was prepared to admit.

And what exactly was supposed birdwatcher Professor Dodds (Harold Scott) really doing prowling the coastline with those powerful binoculars of his?

And what was the story behind Miss Le Roy’s brother being found recently, drowned in the Thames?

Piece by piece, Burroughs and Craig reconstruct the final hours of Miss Le Roy’s life, eventually uncovering a crucial link between her and the last man to see her alive.

Like many BBC serials of its era, The Naked Lady was wiped from the archives during the 1960s and 70s.

Detective Inspector Bill Burroughs
Andrew Osborn
Sylvia Craig
Lana Morris
Kitty Cusack
Daphne Anderson
Bob Dyson
Patrick Troughton
Dr Gordon
Robert Urquhart
Chief Constable Gower
Ewan MacDuff
Professor Dodds
Harold Scott
Commander Yates
Charles Morgan
Captain Digby
Bryan Coleman
Laurence Odell
Peter Copley
Jim Larkins
Richard Pearson
Detective Sergeant Lovell
Douglas Blackwell
Constable Wareham
Brian Willett
Detective Sergeant Cole
David Garth
Harry Putman
Beckett Bould
Major Fulford
Martin Boddey
Charlie Morris
Thomas Heathcote
Major Fulford
Edward Jewesbury
Superintendent Brown
Edward Evans
Mrs Housman
Joan Haythorne
Wallenberg
Colin Douglas
Miss Le Roy
Janette Rowsell
Ted
Edwin Brown