Michael Marler, a successful business man in London, is about to make his way to the top. The death of his father brings him – after 37 years – back to his hometown Liverpool, where he is confronted with his lost Irish roots. He finds out that his father died because of a fight with some anglo-saxon teddy boys. It becomes "a matter of honour" for him, to take his revenge without involving the British police

Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous girls. What he does get is people who are in trouble—the sort of trouble you can't go to the police about, even if you are innocent."

Ken's Loach's first production for The Wednesday Play is a story of a group of criminals planning a robbery, with the unwitting aid of a wealthy, well-connected society acquaintance. But who is the greater villain?