TV Gold

We now look towards the fourth episode and finding ourselves in 1889 straight away it certainly feels different from what has gone before. ?Requiem for a Crown Prince? strangely opens without Michael Horden?s narration although I remain eagerly on the lookout for further familiar faces in the cast. Instead we begin this episode with a man wearing more modern attire sitting at a desk occasionally talking into camera briefly relating the events of the episode prior to a fade into the action with the first of many occasional typed time and date references to further indicate the episodes ?passage of time?. We then switch to what appears to be an Austria hunting lodge (decked out with various deer heads and guns attached to the surrounding walls) whilst a man bangs frantically at a locked door. Turning slightly to camera his face can be seen as none other than Michael Sheard (again someone I?ve seen making numerous appearances in Doctor Who over the years) appearing here as Prince Rudolf of Austria?s loyal servant Losehek. Another man, playing Count Josl Hoyos appears, the actor portraying him, James Cossins I recall from his appearing in an episode of Fawlty Towers, as what else but a disgruntled and quite vocal guest. Without detracting from the previous episodes which I have enjoyed enormously, this stand alone tale certainly has one very intriguing focused plot thread. When Losehek and Count Hoyos manage to break down the door they find inside the Prince dead, shot through the head lying on his bed with an unknown female alongside him. We then have basically a murder mystery to be dealt with coupled with the need to suppress the actual possible scandalous facts of the incident. The most memorable scene, for me, in this episode, occurs when the wife of the Prince meets with Empress Elisabeth (Rachel Gurney) and initially expresses her frustrated rage at not being told immediately as to what has befallen her husband before remembering to whom she is speaking to. It is certainly all credit to actress Susan Tracy who gives an outstanding gutsy performance in convincingly portraying this widows emotions. A few scenes during the episode do feature Police President Baron Krauss and it took me a few minutes to recognise actor Olaf Pooley from his previous Doctor Who appearance in the 1970 Jon Pertwee story ?Inferno? (one of my favourites as it happens!). Lastly worth mentioning is another actor more familiar to viewers from his involvement in the James Bond films here appearing as Police Commissar Gorup who has the unpleasant duty of arranging the moving of the woman?s body. The actor in question, Frank Wylie, can be seen as Egyptian nightclub owner Max Kalba in 1977?s ?The Spy Who Loved Me?.