The episode:  '50,000 Hands' was the 16th episode of the series, and was first broadcast on 13 December 1958. The story
involves the hunt for two armed robbers who hold up a factory. Jeff Richards (William Hartnell) is shot during the robbery, and
his partner Jack Bingham (Bill Fraser) calls an ambulance when it becomes clear that Richards cannot be moved without
assistance. Bingham steals the ambulance and the two criminals hole up in a small country town called Lexford. Richards
urgently needs medical attention, but Bingham refuses to take him to hospital. However, he agrees to get some morphine for
the pain, and raids the drug cupboard at the local hospital. He strangles a nurse who catches him in the act, but leaves his
fingerprints at the scene of the crime. The police know the robbers are holed up in Lexford, and have one of the perpetrators'
fingerprints. DI Maguire proposes to take the fingerprints of all 25,000 residents of Lexford (hence the episode title). Bingham
gets his wife to pretend that Richards is her husband, so the police will take his fingerprints rather than Bingham's. However,
Bingham had forgotten that he took his gloves off at the hospital, and the police soon close in on their man.

Who connections:  Patrick Troughton had a brief and uncredited role as a tramp in '50,000 Hands', and had previously been
in the fifth episode of the series, 'Thames Division'. This episode also featured Paul Whitsun-Jones, who went on to play the
Marshal in 'The Mutants'). Meanwhile, Robert Beatty appeared with Hartnell in one of the all-time classic Doctor Who stories,
as General Cutler in 'The Tenth Planet'. William Hartnell was also in the pilot episode of 'Dial 999', entitled 'The Killing Job'.