Corpse in a Gilded Cage

What would you do if you suddenly became an earl? That's what happens to Perce and Elsie Spender, an average working-class couple from Clapham, who wake up one day to find themselves the 12th Earl and Countess of Ellesmere, owners of a huge estate named Chetton Hall. It's more of a palace than a house really, with enough antiques and artwork to fill a museum. Perce never hoped to become an earl, and he's none too grateful to the distant cousin who died inconveniently and made it happen.Perce and Elsie have now spent six weeks at Chetton Hall, which is six weeks too many. It's cold, the silk chairs are uncomfortable, and you have to walk a mile to get to the kitchens.Perce wants to sell the whole estate to the highest bidder-even a nasty foreigner, if that's where the money is-and retire to Clapham. Countess Elsie agrees. The sooner she can put all this countess business behind her, the better. But Perce and Elsie forget that their children may like Chetton Hall. Their eldest son, Phil, a nice young man who just happens to be in prison, discovers being the heir to an earl carries certain privileges, even behind bars, while his wife. Dixie, thrills to the title of Lady Portsea. Perce and Elsie's younger son, the Honourable Trevor, finds that his X-rated film-star girl friend, Michele, shows sudden interest in more than his talent under the sheets. And daughter Lady Joan and her insurance-man husband Digby seem inordinately fascinated by the pictures and the silver.