Dancing on the Edge

With Wesley gone Louis is disappointed at the band's lack of progress,then Mr Donaldson arranges for them to play at a funeral organized by reclusive Lady Cremone,a dedicated jazz fan and former globe-trotter whom Stanley interviews for his magazine. Back in London Pamela is attracted to Stanley's socialist views and Sarah and Louis begin an affair whilst Masterson asks Louis to tell Julian 'not to worry'. Thanks to Lady Cremone the band get a radio spot and a prospective record deal as well as playing a Christmas command performance for the Prince of Wales though star vocalist Jessie is unwell and Carla takes her place. Julian is about to leave for Paris on business for Masterson but Pamela shows concern about his mental state. Soon afterwards Louis sees Julian running down a corridor away from a room in which a badly injured Jessie lies.

Interviewed by the police about the attack on Jessie Louis tells them that he saw Julian fleeing the scene but Pamela is insistent he was in Paris and asks Stanley to contact him with the news as he was especially fond of Jessie. The band plays at the Imperial's Christmas dinner party but racist Germans walk out in disgust. However Jessie recovers from her coma after a visit from a kindly Donaldson,who has virtually talked her out of it. Lady Cremone throws a New Year party for her village and invites the band to play. Julian returns,claiming to have been in France when Jessie was attacked but Louis passes on his suspicions to Sarah whilst Pamela and Stanley start to date. Interested in learning more about the new electronic music pioneered by a German Stanley arranges a gig at the German embassy and,to get revenge for what happened on Christmas day,smuggles in a reluctant Louis to play for them. They are forced to leave without Stanley gaining his information and encounter Lady Cremone,who tells them that Jessie has had a relapse and died.

London,1933:-Panic-stricken jazz band leader Louis Lester asks his friend, music journalist Stanley Mitchell, to help him flee the country. Eighteen months previously Louis and his band are playing in a jazz cellar, but Stanley sees their potential and persuades Nathan Schlesinger to book them at his Imperial Hotel. Whilst older patrons are shocked and walk out the band impresses bright young siblings Pamela and Julian Luscombe, their photographer friend Sarah and music agent Mr Donaldson, the latter negotiating a residency at the hotel and on whose advice Louis engages vocalists Carla and Jessie. He also arranges for the band to play at a garden party for the king's son Prince George where they meet an American millionaire, Mr Masterson, Julian's employer. Some nights later Julian calls Louis in to help him smuggle a young woman out of Masterson's hotel room after something--of which Louis is not told--has gone wrong. Wesley Holt, the band's manager, is deported back to Chicago on possibly trumped up charges but the band itself is in the ascendancy as the Prince of Wales comes to see them at the hotel and expresses his approval.