Rose blooms when it’s dark outside!
The Odd Man returns in a new series


IT was a moment that few but the brave would have relished. I was face to face with that impregnable fortress of the law, Chief Inspector Rose, in his own den.
“Why,” I began boldly, “are you such a swine to your subordinates?”
Expecting something like the lash of a kid glove across my cheek, I stepped back a pace. I needn’t have bothered.
The Rose mirage faded quickly and I was left with the actor. Jolly, home loving, family man William Mervyn.

Only similarity between William and the iceberg-cool Rose he portrays so majestically in Friday’s new series of the twilight thriller, It’s Dark Outside, is his careful attention to dress.
“Don’t be too hard on Rose,” he said. “He’s really quite an amiable fellow when you get to know him.
“People are always telling me to take it easy on those poor old sergeants of mine, but Rose niggles with a purpose — to draw people out.
“You have to needle some folk to find out what they’re really like. With policemen, you’ve got to see if they can take it.
“Rose is a pompous old thing, but he’s not a fool. He’s impeccably honest and on top of his job. His verbal duels are really for sharpening the wits.”
Well, Rose may not be the ogre we suspected, but he’s parted company with Sgt. Swift.
In the new series we find him searching for a new assistant and he has earmarked Det. Sgt. James McKenzie Hunter, played by 29 year old Anthony Ainley, a newcomer to television.
Will he get his man? Well, he doesn’t get off to the best of starts, because Hunter, a sort of wild colonial boy from Kenya, detests Rose and his pomposity.
New female lead in the series is Veronica Strong, a bubbling, vivacious redhead, who plays Claire Martin, a 24-year-old fabric designer.
Claire is engaged to Sgt. Hunter, but has a weakness for lame dogs like Fred Blanc (played by John Stratton), a hard-drinking, wild-living newspaper reporter.
Veronica, who started in rep 10 years ago at the age of 16, sees Claire Martin as a very “with it” bachelor girl, rather like her own life, I gathered.
She comes from Brighton, has a flat in London, drives a mini, but would love a big Bentley. Veronica has a passion for classical music and spends most of her money on records and going to concerts.