Debuting on 3 June 1967 and running for six weeks, this BBC-2 thriller – written by Victor Canning – began with Jim Raikes (Terence Longdon) being released from prison.
He is approached by tough CID Inspector Frant (Peter Vaughan), who offers him £50 a week to infiltrate “the Syndicate” – a highly sophisticated crime organisation using property development firm Tintoc Ltd as cover.
Raikes makes contact with the Syndicate, and to prove himself to Hendrix (Noel Johnson), he has to pull off several diamond robberies. When he takes the loot to a photographer named Worth (Peter Arne) for disposal, he meets Sandra Montgomery (Isobel Black), a money-hungry model who is baffled by Raikes’s indifference to her overtures but impressed by his enterprise.
They both – along with artist Walter Dunn (Blake Butler) – are assigned a job for the Sydnciate, accomplish it and are summoned for interviews. Hendrix conducts the interviews with Marcus (Brian McDermott), and although the tests are rigorous, they all pass.
It is revealed, though, that the Syndicate know that one of them is an agent attempting to infiltrate the organisation and has been given a poisoned glass of sherry. All three wait silently for the poison to take effect, giving nothing away, and it is Dunn who dies.
It transpires that Dunn was also an agent, as indeed is Sandra, who reports to the mysterious Pyramid organisation.
While Raikes and Sandra continue to infiltrate the organisation, Inspector Franks discovers that his CID boss, Assistant Commissioner Rider, is, in fact, the head of the Syndicate.
Jim Raikes
Terence Longdon Sandra Montgomery
Isobel Black Worth
Peter Arne Hendrix
Noel Johnson Inspector Frant
Peter Vaughan Chairman
Hugh Cross Pharaoh Two
Robert Jennings Rawlings
Hamilton Dyce Pomeroy
Darryl Kavann Charlie Masters
Harry Littlewood Lady Bovery
Sheila Brownrigg Barnton
John Phillips Walter Dunn
Blake Butler Marcus
Brian McDermott
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