A country manor mystery that's actually a deliciously wicked comedy of manners, The Hippopotamus is a rollicking adaptation of the best-selling novel by Stephen Fry. It centers on a lapsed poet, failed drama critic, redundant husband and hard-working drunk, Ted Wallace (the mellifluously voiced Roger Allam in a rare starring role). Fired from his newspaper job, Ted leaps at the chance to drown his sorrows at his old friend's country estate, Swafford Hall. A series of spiritual healings have recently put the household in a tizzy. The purported miracle worker is his hosts' teenage son, Ted's godson, David (Tommy Knight). Lord and Lady Logan are set on sharing their boy's "gift" with the world, blissfully unaware that his "laying on of hands" trick involves, well, an emphasis on "laying." At odds with a colorful party of fellow guests only too ready to swallow anything they're told, Ted sets out to prove the miracles are a hoax and save the young man from a lifetime of embarrassment.

An overprotective mother tries to stop her son's budding relationship with a flirtatious young divorcée.

1945 - Castle Kronberg, outside Frankfurt, is turned into a 'country club' for victorious American officers. The cynical Colonel Jack Durant and the dazzling beautiful Lieutenant Kathleen Nash uncover the crown jewels of Germany - more diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and pearls than are gathered in any one place outside the Tower of London. Nash and Durant manage to get the gems to New York, where they must deal with gangsters to fence the loot. To make matters worse for the two renegade officers, Princess Sophie discovers the theft of her jewels and complains to American army headquarters. It now turns out that her brother fought for the Allies and is about to marry the future Queen of England. With double-crossing gangland figures trying to control the gems and the army closing in on them, will Kathy Nash and Jack Durant stay true to one other and their plan? Or will one sell the other out?