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availability gets sticky after the end of this contract.’
    â€˜Ah . . . So did Sippy know she was about to be dumped?’
    â€˜Oh, no. Ben’s thinking was that if she knew, there was a danger she might think, Stuff this lot, and not turn up for the remaining studio days.’
    â€˜No professional actress would do that. She might be seething with fury, but she’d still turn up.’
    â€˜Well, that was Ben Docherty’s estimate of the situation.’
    â€˜So when was she going to be told?’
    â€˜Ah, this was to be the masterpiece of television diplomacy. At the end of the final studio day on this episode.’
    â€˜The day after tomorrow?’
    â€˜Right. At the end of the day, when Sippy fell, utterly knackered, into her dressingroom, she would be confronted by the show’s CastingDirector.’
    â€˜Ben not even doing his own dirty work?’
    â€˜Good heavens, no. Anyway, the Casting Director would then tell the poor kid that in spite of the fact that she’d been contracted for all six episodes, she was being paid off then and there.’
    â€˜Quite a substantial payoff. She’d get everything she’d been contracted for, wouldn’t she?’
    â€˜Yes, it’d be a decent lump sum. Still peanuts, though, from Ben’s point of view, compared with writing off the whole episode.’
    â€˜Yes,’ Charles mused aloud. Then a new thought struck him. ‘But lots of people round the production must’ve known. I mean, the read-through for the next episode’s on Monday. They must have cast the part of Elvira by now.’
    â€˜Oh, yes. They have.’
    â€˜So that poor kid would have been busting a gut, trying to act for three whole days, without knowing that she’d already been written off?’
    â€˜That would have been the situation, yes. Oh, indeedy, if it’s humanity you’re after, why not join the wacky world of television?’
    â€˜Shit. Well, at least she was spared the interview with the Casting Director.’
    â€˜Yes, I should think the Casting Director’s feeling pretty relieved, too.’
    â€˜Hmm. And you’re sure she didn’t have an inkling of what was going on?’
    â€˜Positive.’
    â€˜What about Rick? Did he know?’
    â€˜I’m fairly sure he didn’t, either.’
    â€˜But he must have got a copy of the new script for episode two, mustn’t he?’
    â€˜No. Different director for that one. Remember, Rick’s only directing alternate episodes so that he can catch up on post-production.’
    â€˜Yes, of course.’ Charles was silent for a moment before saying thoughtfully, ‘The one question all this does raise is how on earth Sippy was ever given the part in the first place.’
    â€˜Ah,’ said Will Parton. ‘Now that’s something I think Rick Landor
might
know.’
    Her voice was guarded when she answered the phone; even more guarded when she heard who was speaking.
    â€˜Charles, how are you?’
    â€˜Oh, well, you know, Frances, not so bad.’
    â€˜Meaning quite bad, from your tone of voice.’
    â€˜Well . . . perhaps a bit shaken.’
    â€˜And perhaps a bit drunk?’
    â€˜Perhaps a bit.’
    â€˜So what’s shaken you? Has something devastatingly unlikely happened . . . like your getting a job, for example?’
    â€˜I have got a job, actually. Surely I told you?’
    â€˜Charles, it’s over three months since you last rang me. On that occasion, too, you chose to make your call just before midnight . . . presumably on your arrival back at Hereford Road from some bar that closed at eleven.’
    â€˜I’m sorry, Frances. I didn’t realise it was that late.’
    â€˜Well, it is. And the last words you said to me at the end of our previous conversation three months ago were “I’ll call you before the weekend”.’
    â€˜Oh, were they?’
    But