As I was going out of the door, a fellow detective came hurriedly in. Nabbed them, cried he.

For would she of her gentlenesse, Withouten more, me ones kesse, It were to me a great guerdoon. Release of all my passion […]

This politician is always played by Edward Arnold, whose image is one of corpulent, cigar-chomping corrupt brutality.

He has also provided some of the show's funniest moments - when enjoying a bath with Three Degrees star Sheila Ferguson he told her: 'I'm comfortable with anything, love, but you don't want to see my 'Jacobs' hanging out.'