The Cheaters: Legs, 50,000 Each (1962)

 John Ireland*

*The man on the right is John Ireland, and I think that this may be an image of him as insurance investigator John Hunter in The Cheaters.  This is the only image that I have been able to find (supposedly) from the series in general, much less Jocelyn's episode.

Not much information is available about The Cheaters.  It was a series that ran for 39 episodes on ABC television in the U.K. for two seasons between 1960 and 1962.  The main character was John Hunter (John Ireland), an insurance claims investigator. 

Hunter's voice-over lead-in to each episode said:

"These and hundreds of other legitimate claims are paid by insurance companies. Once in a while some joker comes along with an attempt to defraud. By any other name, they are still The Cheaters. That's where I come in. I'm John Hunter, investigator for the Eastern Insurance Company."

Here is the single comment about the series on IMDB:

"The Danziger Brothers had produced a lot of cheap half hour shows the previous 6 years before they made The Cheaters. In this series they stretched themselves to paying for a known "star" and although the sets were still as creaky, the pace of the shows and the excellent rapport between Ireland and his co-star Robert Ayres, gave the series a glow that was not surpassed by other shows of that period (Unless you include Danger Man as a crime show). However the budgets were perhaps too large for The Danzigers and although they made one more series, perhaps in the face of the growing empire of the Grades, the days of the independent ITV producer were over.

Sadly this show has not been shown on TV for 40 years, except on Channel TV in the 70's, which is a pity as it has been sadly neglected. TV producers ought to bring it back to life instead of repeating ad infinitum all those old movies."

Based on the above information, we can conclude that the show was about an investigator exposing insurance cheats.  Jocelyn appeared in an episode called Legs, 50,000 Each, which originally aired on April 28, 1962 (Season 2, Episode 19).  She played a character named Anita Faraday.  Here is a brief synopsis that I located for this episode:

"The Press goes wild when Anita's famed legs, which are heavilly insured, are reported broken. It looks as though 'Eastern Insurance' will have to pay up. John Hunter goes to investigate."

Here is a more detailed synopsis from a person that made an audio recording of the episodes back when they originally ran:

"As a showbiz publicity stunt, the shapely legs of Miss Anita Faraday are insured for 100,000 pounds. When she slips two days later, her right ankle has a hairline fracture, which means a huge payout by Eastern Insurance. However, her potential earnings compared with this are peanuts.

From the doctor that saw her after the accident John Hunter learns that although the Xray showed a simple hairline fracture, shadows can appear making it only appear to be broken. However, in Miss F's case there was swelling, suggesting a fracture.

Dr B.G. Mills was Eastern Insurance's new doctor who had seen Miss F before the policy had been approved. He says he saw no shadow. However Hunter becomes suspicious when he learns Mills unusually took the Xrays himself, and also developed them.

So Hunter is ordered to check it out and look at just 10,000 pounds worth of Miss F. "Don't limit me dad," Hunter shouts as he rushes off to see her, "I'm going to see the whole hundred thousand." Posing as a reporter he enjoys himself asking about her career. So will the accident affect her career? In true show biz style, she responds that her only concern is her dancing.

Backstage gossip from Phil is that Miss F is finished. 'You've got more of a career in Hollywood,' he tells John Ireland, surely tongue-in-cheek! Dropping of her film contract is apparently imminent.

Now we see Dr Mills. He's getting cold feet. The crooks force some sleeping powder on him. Then they escort Anita off to New York. She leaves, she says, with the happiest of memories, and her £100,000 of course. But here comes Hunter at the airport! He's got his proof that Dr Mills must have faked the Xrays. I didn't want to take part in the swindle, claims the pathetic Miss F."

Unfortunately, I have not been able to view this episode or locate any images from it.  It does not appear that the series has ever been released on home video.  Let's hope that one day this series will surface so that we can see more of Jocelyn at work.  It sounds like it would be worth a viewing.