Who Is This Arthur When He’s At Home?

    Who is Arthur? Dutton mentions Arthur and the Colonel in an opening scene of ‘Dance of the Dead,’ when the doctor No.40 is attempting to gain information from No.6 and using No.42-Roland Walter Dutton in the process, who is speaking to No.6 on the telephone about it being a bore. There having been a suspected security leak. Apparently its not Dutton asking, its the Committee, who want a breakdown  on everything they know, No.6, me {Dutton} Arthur, the Colonel. All the files he's seen, the projects he knows about, just headings, not details.

   So I suppose Arthur is an assistant to the Colonel, in the same way as both Fortheringay during ‘The Chimes of Big Ben,’ Thorpe in ‘Many Happy Returns,’ and Potter of ‘The Girl Who Was Death.’ He was  possibly the most ineffective of the three, seeing as he was present at the untimely murder of the Colonel, but somehow unable to prevent it!

   Of course Arthur mentioned by Dutton could always have been “Dear Arthur,” Mrs Butterworth's deceased husband. After all he was in the Navy, and British Intelligence recruited from the Navy.  

 Be seeing you.