Veteran comedian Bunny Hopper (Roy Hudd) drops dead on stage, after taking a gulp of red wine, and Dangerous Davies is suspicious he may have been murdered.

Stage manager Kevin Bennett (Toby Jones) calls the police when two women, Denise Templeton (Teresa Churcher) and Marguerite Jewel (Barbara Thorn) accuse each other of murdering the man they both claim to love.

As Dangerous Davies begins to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death he discovers that Bunny was a Casanova comedian, with a harem of female fans. He trawls through Bunny’s little black book to talk to the women and try to discover why he died.

Marguerite tells Dangerous she was the real love of Bunny’s life; Denise says she had bombarded him with fan letters since she was a child until he agreed to meet her. Another woman, Patricia Barnes (Susan Aderin), says she met him when she was in a punk band, and having an affair with her gave Bunny street cred.

Aspinall thinks Dangerous is wasting his time on the investigation, and should bring it to a close. There’s a much more important mission for them from Special Branch: a bunch of Chinese immigrants are about to be dumped in Willesden, and his officers have been summoned to round them up.

Dangerous has niggling doubts about Bunny’s death, and his intuition is right, when the post mortem reveals that Bunny didn’t die of a heart attack. He’d drunk red wine laced with rat poison.

Bunny had gulped red wine on stage, making a gag about how it was really medicine for his piles. But he’d collapsed moments later.

Jules Rendell (Russ Abbott) admits to Dangerous he thought his partner was playing tricks. Although they didn’t always see eye to eye, he was devastated by his death. He says he had carried the act, while Bunny was busy flirting with all the women. Jules say he warned Bunny that women would be the death of him.

Bunny’s wife Sheila (Meg Wynn-Owen) ands step son Eric (Adrian Hood) travel from Oldham to identify his body. Dangerous become suspicious of Eric when it appears he was lying about where he was on the night Bunny died. Eric says he was at a club in Oldham, but in fact he was clocked for speeding on the M25.

Dangerous recruits Mod for some undercover work when he decides to follow Eric. They find themselves in a gay country and western club, where everybody else is dressed as cowboys. Eric tells Dangerous he had come to visit his boyfriend on the night Bunny was murdered.

Barmaid Cheryl (Carli Norris) tells Dangerous how she had prepared the bottle of wine for Bunny and Jules’ stage act. Nobody else would have had access to the bottle, other than Jules and Kevin Bennett.

As Dangerous watches a video of one of Bunny and Jules’ television shows, he realises that the poisoned wine was not meant for Bunny at all. The television act was the same as the one they performed on stage that night, with one crucial exception: the wine gag was done by Jules. Who would want to kill Jules?

Dangerous’ investigations lead to a reunion with his old landlady, Mrs Fulljames (Elizabeth Bennett). She starred with Bunny and Jules at a seaside summer show, and is distressed by the news of Bunny’s death. Jules decides the show must go on, and promises to do a one man show for the remaining three nights the duo were booked for. Dangerous takes Mrs James to see Jules’ debut as a solo act. But it is a disaster.

Stage manager Kevin Bennett seizes the opportunity to step into the spotlight. He has been waiting for this chance for years. Bunny had helped him to work on his gags, and had encouraged him to perform.

Once again Dangerous is in the audience as Bennett takes to the stage. Bennett is nervous, and when he spots Dangerous waiting in the wings he winds up his act.

When he comes off stage he confesses to Dangerous that he put the poison in the wine, but that he had not meant to kill anybody. The contaminated wine was meant for Jules; to teach him a lesson for being so scathing about his attempts to become a comedian. He says he was devastated when Bunny drank the wine.

Pimlott and Barratt’s mission for Special Branch is less successful. Dressed in black, and looking like they are delivering boxes of chocolates, they apprehend a lorry they suspect of carrying Chinese immigrants. But when they throw open the doors they find it is full of mannequins.

Mod’s undercover work with Dangerous has fuelled an ambition to perform on the stage. He steps onto the stage at the social club at a showcase night for new comedians. But nerves get the better of him, and he freezes. Dangerous has never seen anything so funny.

Thursday 17 May 2007 9:00pm - 10:30pm on ITV1.