Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)
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40 free Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) took a standard 1960s private-eye format and gave it a twist nobody else had tried: one of the two detectives dies in the opening episode and keeps working anyway. Only his old friend Jeff can see or hear him, which is handy on a stakeout and awkward almost everywhere else. This quiz covers the 1969 original and the BBC remake that followed three decades later: the characters, the cases, the famous faces who passed through as guest stars, the theme music and the low-budget tricks that put a dead man on screen. It suits anyone who grew up with British adventure television, fans of cult repeats, and newcomers who met Marty and Jeff through the remake. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the stories behind the series as you play.
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Q 01In the first episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), how is private detective Marty Hopkirk murdered?
Run down by a car
Run down by a car travelling at high speed, Marty dies instantly. He returns as a ghost to help Jeff Randall bring to justice the client's husband who ordered the killing.
Q 02Which Hollywood star later drove the red Mini from Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) in another British adventure series?
Tony Curtis
Tony Curtis drove it as Danny Wilde in an episode of The Persuaders!, and the same little car, Jeannie Hopkirk's runabout, also turned up in The Saint.
Q 03Which comedy double act starred as the detectives in the BBC's 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Reeves and Mortimer
Reeves and Mortimer nearly played it the other way round. Bob was first lined up as the ghost, until the writer decided that Vic's manic energy suited the dead detective better.
Q 04Which former Doctor Who star played Wyvern, the ghostly mentor in the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Tom Baker
Tom Baker played Wyvern as a spirit guide who teaches Marty to hone his powers, introduces him to other ghosts and turns out to be terrible at poetry.
Q 05Marty Hopkirk's ghost in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) always appears in a suit of which colour?
White
White became the ghost's trademark, along with a wig. An early script outline had instead dressed the dead detective from head to toe in pale green.
Q 06Which future Only Fools and Horses star played Abel in a 1969 episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
David Jason
David Jason turned up in That's How Murder Snowballs, a backstage mystery about a theatre performer killed by a loaded prop gun. He was not cast as Del Boy until 1981.
Q 07Which actress, Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films, played Kim Wentworth in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Lois Maxwell
Lois Maxwell played a rich, much-married woman who uses a fake haunting as cover for killing her seventh husband, in the episode For the Girl Who Has Everything.
Q 08After missing his dawn return to the grave, how long must Marty stay on earth in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
A hundred years
A hundred years is the price Marty pays for staying to see his own murder solved. A ghost who is not back in the grave before sunrise is trapped among the living.
Q 09Annette Andre, Jeannie in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), once turned down a marriage proposal from which comedian?
Benny Hill
Benny Hill proposed in the early 1960s, around the time the Sydney-raised actress moved to Britain. She said no, and by the end of the decade she was playing the widowed Jeannie.
Q 10Under what new title was Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) syndicated to television stations in the United States?
My Partner the Ghost
My Partner the Ghost was the American name. Stations there ran the series in syndication from 1974 to 1983, years after its British run had ended.
Q 11In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), what job does Marty's widow Jeannie do at the detective agency?
Secretary
Secretary is Jeannie's job at the agency, working for Jeff Randall. The character was a late addition: Marty's wife did not feature in the first concept for the series at all.
Q 12In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which casino game does Marty's ghost rig so that his Aunt Clara loses in Monte Carlo?
Roulette
Roulette is the game Aunt Clara plans to beat with her own system, hoping to win £100,000. Marty makes her lose the final spin so that the gangs trailing her give up.
Q 13Which actor, Jed Stone in Coronation Street, played the ghost Marty in the 1969 series Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Kenneth Cope
Q 21Which keyboard instrument, chosen for its distinctive sound, carries the theme tune of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Harpsichord
Harpsichord notes give the theme its eerie edge. The composer also set the tune in C minor, a key he picked for its association with death.
Q 22In the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jeannie is no longer Marty's widow but his what?
Fiancée
Fiancée rather than wife was a deliberate change. It left room for a love triangle between Jeannie, the ghost and the surviving detective.
Q 23In the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), what is the name of the place where Marty meets other ghosts?
Limbo
Limbo was an invention of the remake, which paid far more attention than the 1969 series to where Marty goes when he is not on Earth. It even has its own barman.
Kenneth Cope won the part by chance. A creative consultant on the series spotted him at the next table in a new Italian restaurant in Soho and arranged a screen test.
Q 14Which actor and songwriter, who co-wrote hits for Tommy Steele, played Jeff in the 1969 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Mike Pratt
Mike Pratt won a top British songwriting award for a Tommy Steele song before he turned detective. His son Guy later played bass on stage with Pink Floyd.
Q 15Which future Silent Witness star played Jeannie in the BBC's 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Emilia Fox
Emilia Fox played Jeannie Hurst, a far more important character than in the 1969 version. She joined Silent Witness in 2004, three years after the remake ended.
Q 16Which future Doctor Who lead guest-starred in Drop Dead, first episode of the 2000 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
David Tennant
David Tennant shared the remake's first episode with Charles Dance, Mark Gatiss and Steve Pemberton. Marty is killed in it while working for a troubled artist.
Q 17In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Bugsy, the ghost of a 1920s gangster, came from which American city?
Chicago
Chicago was Bugsy's old patch. He haunts the American crime boss Paul Kirstner, who comes to London on business and hires Jeff Randall to look after his daughter.
Q 18Which future Fawlty Towers actor has a small role as a football commentator in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Andrew Sachs
Andrew Sachs, later the waiter Manuel, commentates on an international match that Marty goes to watch in the episode Somebody Just Walked Over My Grave.
Q 19The 1969 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) actor who played Marty later starred in two films from which comedy series?
Carry On
Carry On at Your Convenience cast him as a troublemaking shop steward. Carry On Matron then had him pose as a female nurse to help his father rob a maternity hospital.
Q 20The composer of the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) theme was the father-in-law of which rock guitarist?
Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend of The Who married the composer's eldest daughter, Karen. The two men also worked together on a 1977 song that needed an orchestral score.
Q 24In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), a crooked doctor at the Lambert Clinic robs his patients using which technique?
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is how Dr Conrad masterminds a string of robberies of his own patients. When Jeff falls under his control too, Marty must free him before Jeff can no longer see his ghostly partner.
Q 25After a prop-gun murder in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jeff goes undercover at a theatre as what kind of act?
Mind reader
Mind reader is Jeff's cover in That's How Murder Snowballs. It is a bruising job: he is coshed over the head, shot at four times and knocked out by a falling shelf.
Q 26In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), which ritual does a criminal gang perform to weaken Marty's ghost?
An exorcism
An exorcism leaves Marty feeling ill for the whole episode. The gang tricks Jeannie into handing over his watch and cufflinks, and the rite has to be completed at his grave.
Q 27Which Fast Show writer and performer produced the 2000 remake of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) and wrote most episodes?
Charlie Higson
Charlie Higson was suggested for the job by the two stars themselves. He also directed some episodes and gave himself a cameo in every one.
Q 28In Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), a Marty impostor takes Jeannie to which region, where the couple had honeymooned?
The Cotswolds
The Cotswolds trip has a hidden purpose. The impostor is a runaway gang member who has learned alarming details of Marty's life in order to win Jeannie's trust.
Q 29Which cheap film trick made Marty vanish and reappear on screen in the 1969 Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Jump cut
Jump cut editing kept costs down whenever Marty popped in or out of a scene. Walking through walls needed a slower and more expensive effect using a sheet of glass.
Q 30Which writer, whose credits include Thunderbirds and early Doctor Who, created Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)?
Dennis Spooner
Dennis Spooner was fascinated by the paranormal and wanted to put a ghost on television. He decided that a detective series would give the stories the most scope.