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British author Sam Luke (Simon Cadell) has tremendous success with his
woman-hating book, & to emphasize on his misogyny, he behaves like the
perfect macho in tv-talkshows & the like, & also towards his New York
agent Clodagh (Kate Harper) & her assistant Joannie (Susannah Fellows), who
is strangely drawn to him despite his obvious alcoholism.
But when Sam starts to get threatening phonecalls - wishing him a
"nice death", hence the title - everything changes, as he starts
fearing for his life, especially after receiving a letterbomb that accidently
exploded in the bellhop's (Ian Tyler) face but was intended for him. He wants
to leave the US altogether, but Clodagh peruades him to stay & use the
publicity - since it looks as if he's threatened because of the content of his
book. & when Sam is really about to leave all the same, Clodagh calls his
wife Zara (Sue Wanner), the only woman who can calm him down, to come over to
NY.
However, before she cn arrive, Sam is confronted by his life-threatening
mystery caller, & it turns out to be ... Clodagh, who pushes him off the
balcony to his death. Zara, when she comes, only has to accept what everybody
thinks to be a suicide. Only when she's alone with Clodagh do we learn she was
in on the plot all along to get rid of her husband and live a fabulous life off
his royalties all in one go ...
Though this episode of Tales of the Unexpected is not all bad,
it's rather disappointiong as on one hand the character of the woman-hating
author is painted with to broad a stroke to really work - that he will/has to
die becomes clear already in his first scene, when he behaves badly in a
talkshow -, on the other hand the identity of his killers also becomes pretty
obvious pretty soon in the story (even though we don't see Zara until after his
death), making it a rather obvious mystery-story.
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