Down Payment on Death

Dinsdale Landen stars in this gripping vintage 1970s crime drama about a retired hitman tempted by one last job

Sick of the spying business, professional assassin Art Gordo decides to quit the Secret Service - but his old life won't leave him alone.

It's Christmas, three months after his retirement, and Gordo is visited by an old colleague with a proposition. A senior MI7 agent has been selling secrets to the opposition and needs to be eliminated - and the job can't be traced back to the Department. What's more, the task must be completed within the next five days. Clarke's offering big money - but despite the temptation, Art turns him down. Only someone won't take 'no' for an answer.

Hunted by a mysterious nemesis who'll stop at nothing - including murder - to get their way, Gordo finds himself caught in a deadly game of deception, double-cross and betrayal. To stay alive, he must find out the truth about his shadowy target, and re-enter a world he thought he'd left behind. A world with only one rule: kill or be killed...

Originally produced in the 1970s, this twisty, fast-moving suspense thriller stars Dinsdale Landen as Art Gordo and Frances Jeater as Louise.

Production credits

Adapted from his own novel by Jim Eldridge

Produced by John Fawcett Wilson

Cast
Art Gordo - Dinsdale Landen
Clarke - Manning Wilson
Louise Lenehan - Frances Jeater
Ben/Roberts/Man on phone - Jon Croft
Joe/Ferguson - Peter Craze
Charles Allweather - Glyn Owen
Paul Le Clerk - Donald Gee
Sally Le Clerk - Joanna Wake
Leon Young - Basil Henson
Francis/Forbes - Douglas Blackwell
Parsons - Terrence Hardiman
Hotel porter - Frank Coda

First broadcast on BBC World Service, 3-31 May 1976