In 1970, while on a location shoot in Shropshire for the downmarket BBC sitcom Floggit and Leggit, ageing actor Edward Lowe – a short, stocky northerner with a receding hairline and bad eyesight, who plays the pompous and officious lead, a role based on himself – stumbles across the body of a young woman, apparently the victim of a tragic drowning accident. But theres something about her death that rings the faintest of bells in his head and, convinced the woman has been murdered, he enlists the help of his laid-back, upper-class co-star John Le Breton, a man for whom raising a wry eyebrow is a bit too much of an effort, to investigate further. Crossing the country and back again during gaps in filming, the two elderly thespians make use of their wildly contrasting personalities and skillsets to uncover both a series of murders in the modern day and links to another unfortunate death during World War II.
