Jonathan Creek. S02 E06. Mother Redcap.

deaddogsdam

First broadcast 28th February 1998.  A judge at police protection is killed by a rapier blade to the heart after a brief struggle, but only his wife was in that room at the time.  Brian Murphy - Ken Speed Leonard Kavanagh - Judge Forrest Sweetland Georgine Anderson - Gwynneth Sweetland Nicola Walker - WPC Fay Radnor Barbara Horne - Dr. Laura Climpson Caroline Quentin - Maddy Magellan Alan Davies - Jonathan Creek Marcus Gilbert - Jason Tippet Jan Linnik - Burly Man David McKail - Clifford Jennings Scarlett O'Neal - Young Bag Lady Hilary Sesta - Bag Lady Mark C. Wong - Chinese Hitman (as Mark C Wong) Bob Friend - Newsreader Mark Hampton - Triad Gangster

Transcript

00:00Guilty on 23 charges of murder

00:29and extortion, the gangland savages who redefined the word evil.

00:34Tonight, Underworld Associates promise reprisals will be swift and bloody, and the man who

00:40condemned them, Judge Forrest Sweetland, is placed under armed guard as Chinese assassins

00:45declare he'll be dead by morning.

00:50Good evening.

00:51A massive security operation has been launched at the home of the High Court Judge in the so-called

00:56Bamboo Matter.

00:59OK.

01:07They very helpfully sent one set of these, so you'll have to pass them round.

01:11This is a character they'll probably use on a major hit, sometimes known as the Invisible

01:15Man, which I don't take to mean if he's wearing bandages round his face.

01:20If you see this one, take special care.

01:22He's one of these martial art types.

01:24He'll break your spine in half with his foot as soon as look at you.

01:26However, if this merchant turns up, it's a whole different ballgame.

01:32He's a suicide bomber.

01:33One tap on the shoulder, it could be good night, Vienna.

01:36Chief Inspector?

01:37Yes, sir?

01:38My wife and I are rather hoping to have an early night.

01:41I have to be up at six on the dot tomorrow.

01:43No problem, Mr. Sweetland.

01:44The lads will do one final sweep of your room, then we won't disturb you again until morning.

02:28Come on.

02:58Come on.

03:28Come on.

03:58Come on.

04:00Come on.

04:02I don't know.

04:04A rapier or something?

04:06How about when?

04:08Well, if you were saying they heard it happen at six o'clock, any earlier, you wouldn't have seen this carpet for blood.

04:13Barred windows, solid walls, nothing that comes close to a murder weapon. What the hell are we looking at here?

04:23Hello.

04:26Well, it's been cutting their nails.

04:38If they have, it was a very blunt pair of scissors. This looks as if it's been ripped off someone's finger.

04:47You would not believe, Jonathan, how boring my life is at the moment. I've had bugger all of any interest for five weeks. Hardly the intree of a thriving crime writer.

05:00Who's Jason Tippett?

05:02God knows. I got as far as a state agent and fell into a narcoleptic trance.

05:06I wonder if you'd be interested in collaborating with me on a rather fascinating history I'm compiling of a London hostelry called the Mother Red Cat. If convenient, I should very much like to ring you Monday evening.

05:20Oh, God, it reminds me. I'll bet I put this aunt's phone on quick while they're being...

05:243810546.

05:27I'm dead. I've just been cremated.

05:29Yep. She's standing right next to me, Mr Tippett. Hang on while I pass you over.

05:42Hello, Mr Tippett. Yes, I did. I was just...

05:47That's all right.

05:50Don't be silly.

05:54Why would I think that?

05:56Well, it pays to be careful.

05:58There are some odd people about.

06:01Forgive my scrappy letter.

06:03I'm not a writer, as you'll have gathered.

06:06That's why I'd love it if you'd help me out on this project.

06:10It's actually the most macabre mystery that goes back almost 50 years.

06:14And for my money, you're the one person in the country who can do it justice.

06:19You reckon?

06:19No, nothing. I can't stay back in the freezer.

06:23What a nice idea.

06:25So, where do you think you're going?

06:27Oh.

06:29Great.

06:29Okay. See you there, then. Bye.

06:37You're not serious.

06:38What's your problem? Can't stand the competition. Excuse me, I need to run a bath.

06:43Competition? You don't know anything about him. He could be some sort of weirdo.

06:46Jonathan Creek? Yeah.

07:00Fortunately, Jonathan, not everyone in life is a weirdo.

07:02We don't all live in windmills, thinking out ways to soar women in hap...

07:05Toodaloo.

07:07I'm starting with the assumption that you know nothing of this place, the Mother Redcap, or what happened there in the late 1940s.

07:22I don't quite know where you place it. Under unsolved murders or a very weird ghost story.

07:33Amazingly, no-one has ever written a book about it, which I rather hope the two of us could put to rights.

07:38Now, I know exactly what you're thinking at this minute.

07:41I suppose a fork's out of the question.

07:45Thank you, bud.

07:47Sorry?

07:48Um, excuse me. Could you get me something with prongs?

07:54Obviously, the copyright royalties, everything would be yours. The research I could help with.

08:00I've already done quite a bit. As I said on the phone, I'll think so macabre.

08:06I don't really know where you start.

08:08At the beginning?

08:09Thanks.

08:11Ever since the man who owned and ran this place died, I think it was 1969, a man named William Ambergast,

08:21the Old Mother Redcap pub in Edmonton has been property market poison.

08:26Whether it's superstition or what, but I don't know.

08:32Would you buy a hundred-year-old building where seven men were quite literally terrified to death?

08:38The way it's told, the first one, Mr. Clifford Jennings, managing director of a big clothing firm,

08:55was staying overnight with a lady friend in a special guest room that was kept for visitors.

09:00around about midnight, he was preparing for bed.

09:07He was preparing for bed.

09:07He came for bed.

09:12Death certificate said it was his heart.

09:38Truth was, no one knew what had killed him.

09:44The girl was convinced he'd seen something outside.

09:51Something so utterly horrible it set off a fatal seizure.

09:58Between 1947 and 51, there were five other cases, deaths which have never been explained

10:04from that day to this, all in the same room, all after they'd looked out of the window

10:10in the middle of the night.

10:11Not a mark or scratch on any of the bodies.

10:16No evidence they'd been poisoned or suffocated.

10:20Four of them were found on the floor the next morning.

10:24Three were actually seen at the moment of death, collapsing in what appeared to be a fit

10:30of mortal terror.

10:35So what are you saying?

10:38Something appeared outside a window that frightened seven grown men to death?

10:42Why am I getting this image of George Formby on a ladder?

10:54Um, is there any chance at all you can tell me what this is all about?

10:59Oh, sorry.

11:00Ken Speed, Chief Inspector.

11:04How do you do?

11:06Um, sorry about the Neanderthal tactics of my two constables.

11:10They were under the impression they were bringing a suspect in.

11:12So I gather I confessed to two armed robberies before we reached the first set of traffic lines?

11:17No.

11:18I was having a beer the other week with DCI Janet Masterson.

11:21That locked room business with Doctor Strange and the House of Monkeys?

11:24Work a bloody genius, man.

11:26I thought if anyone could give us some pointers on this Sweetland thing,

11:29well, bugger it.

11:30Let's get him in.

11:31Uh, Judge, Sweetland.

11:33That's right.

11:34About six o'clock this morning, he was found stabbed.

11:37Oh, God.

11:39Was that a lump coming up under there now?

11:42Tell me, does that feel swollen to you?

11:45Yeah.

11:47Oh, right.

11:49Thank you, sweetheart.

11:50WPC Radnor.

11:51This is Mr. Creek, chap I mentioned.

11:54Do you want to pull up the chair?

11:56I'm going to take you through the grisly details, sir.

12:02You're kidding.

12:03It's been like this since the fifties.

12:04Last year we persuaded the brewery to let it go for a song at auction.

12:08Didn't even reach the reserve price.

12:10Uh, the lock's been forced again.

12:14I'm afraid it's a bit of a haven for vagrants.

12:21It's been like a bust.

12:22This is the room.

12:23Where seven men died of fright looking out of this very window.

12:43just kidding

12:52suppose it's all been redeveloped since then is it just to make our lives even more

13:03if jason jason over here

13:16what's the problem thing keeps cutting out really a connection needs resoldering

13:33then we come to the riddle of the torn off nail found by the body

13:41have you got the blow-ups there fay

13:43the question here being why would a self-respecting chinese assassin let his fingernails grow nearly

13:53half inch long how are you feeling now yes better now my heart's back inside my rib cage

14:00i suppose it's right what they're saying she was just some old bag lazy with a lung full of tar but

14:06talk about turning up on cue you're worth keeping tabs on at any rate in case it has a place in our

14:11story listen i i feel all of a sudden there's something about me you ought to know oh what

14:21are you going to tell me you've got a month to live which is my sodding luck it's more in the way of

14:27i suppose you say an alternative lifestyle myself and a few friends i share a house

14:35with oh you're never hippie on the quiet are you no nothing like that it's just

14:45if you have any kind of problem with a man who practices nudism

14:48you know now would be the time to say

14:54well absolutely i think it's wonderful

14:59seriously

15:02look it's been a fascinating evening one way or another

15:06and we must get together and talk some more only i've just seen someone i know so why don't you get

15:12off and i'll give you a buzz tomorrow

15:22good night

15:25bye

15:42yes can i help you at all the bloke in this room what's he here for what's going on look if you're

15:47from the press you'll have to go through the proper channels i'm not from the press my name's madeline

15:52creek and i'm that gentleman's wife and i'd quite like to know what this is all about

15:56so the deal as i see it is this if i come up with a solution that leads to the killer's arrest by next

16:01week i'm highest new entry on the tongs uk death list not much of an incentive really couple of hours

16:07tomorrow morning jonathan is all i ask for the benefit of your wisdom if i could pick you up about ten o'clock

16:19what are you doing here well what do you think i was worried sick about where you'd got to

16:24come on we'll grab a coffee you can tell me all about it

16:26of course technically i'm retired that's a joke after the third bypass they put me behind a desk

16:41told me if you don't watch the stress levels you could go at any moment and of course they're so

16:45short-staffed you brainless little turd

16:50i'll nick your brill cream ass do you see that came straight out i didn't even look on another

16:57planet some of these people still we're in good time what do you say no hurry and you've got my

17:02daughter says she's gay what's that all about expecting her first baby in a month courtesy at the

17:08local sperm bank what are they going to put on the birth certificate father some wanker

17:12god only knows what the world's coming to yes well in a minute or two we'll be able to ask him

17:22personally i don't know what's left to look for we turned the place inside out before and after

17:27we've had body heat detectors ultrasonics in here the lot two of your officers were posted outside

17:32that door the entire night from about half ten to six a.m precisely when they heard a disturbance

17:37came in to find the body which i think you said is what woke you up at the same time normally i'm a

17:44very heavy sleeper but i the first thing i remember with any accuracy the doors being flung open the

17:52police were in here and when i saw the blood on her hand

18:00and i'm sorry just to fix it he'd half fallen out of bed about here

18:12with a load of stuff from his table on the floor

18:17if i remember from the photo his clock a glass of water some papers and a table lamp

18:23his clock well there's another weird thing the fact that when i except that i obviously was dreaming

18:30dreaming mrs sweeten it's all the worry of that night

18:35took me a while to drop off and when i did i get waking

18:39the first time i remember quite clearly i happened to open my eyes and the clock there by his bedside

18:46said 5 10. i nodded off i must have woken up again a while later and this time you you think i'm mad

18:55it said 406

18:59at the time i swear it was real but then how could it have been

19:06oh why are we all standing around pretending there are only two explanations for my husband's death

19:12either somehow he did it himself or i'm lying because i was the only person in the room

19:19i'm the only one who could possibly have killed him

19:23if we take the evidence at face value

19:27and fall into exactly the track we're meant to fall into

19:31i don't know we're all buying the fact he was stabbed at six o'clock because that's when they heard the

19:34scuffle and the fact that he barely started bleeding despite a wound through the middle of his heart

19:39but even if he was killed earlier the question remains how did the assassin get in here to do it

19:46and then out again

19:49sorry

19:51no i think you're missing the point i mean that question remains but it's largely relevant

19:56implying what

19:59implying

20:01there's a third explanation for what happened in this room

20:05it's so ingenious we're not within a mile of seeing it yet

20:18there's a third explanation for what happened in this room

20:28morning

20:30someone say you did the pm on that old lady they brought in here last night

20:33i just wondered if you could say what she died of

20:35not to you that information's confidential

20:37of course it is

20:38shame

20:39i suppose i'll just have to put these photographs in the post then

20:42sorry about that bye

20:46just a minute

20:47what photographs

20:49photographs mrs glimpson that i think might be of considerable interest to your husband

20:54so he's not really a chelsea fan then

21:07get out

21:07what

21:08Holy moly.

21:35You're kidding.

21:37When did you find that out?

21:38My God.

21:41And we thought this case was already complicated.

22:28I read an article once that if a man breaks wind in Hounslow, it can affect a hurricane

22:33in Java.

22:34I don't think I know the man they're talking about.

22:37He travels on the circle line.

22:40Did you tell that WPC you were my wife?

22:46Certainly not.

22:50Certainly not.

22:53So come on then.

22:54How does all this fit together?

22:56Corpses with ripped off fingernails.

22:58Gonna have to put a poultice on my brain.

23:09You should never tumble dry a cotton and linen mix.

23:15She wasn't a bad lady at all.

23:18She was Sweetland's cleaning woman or someone with access to the house who the gangsters

23:23was paid to do the deed for them.

23:26And afterwards, to shut her up, they kill her and dump the body suitably disguised in

23:31this old pub where no-one will find her until she's rotted beyond recognition.

23:38Pardon?

23:39Sorry?

23:40Is that all I get?

23:41Contemptuous silence?

23:42Give me a mobile.

23:43And she got in and out of the room how?

23:44Astral projection?

23:45Oh, she was in one of the drawers under the bed.

23:46I don't know.

23:47That's your department.

23:48And if she was murdered, why does it say here she died of emphysema?

23:49And how could she have killed Sweetland two nights ago and according to this, she'd been

23:55dead for at least a week?

23:56And why would they pick a 70-year-old asthmatic?

23:57Yes, all right!

23:58You've made your point.

23:59This mother red-cap thing, how does it go again?

24:04Seven men all died of fright.

24:06Well, looking out the window, that's the story.

24:08Hi, Jason, it's Maddie.

24:09I got your mág fin, a cock, a cock.

24:11Yes.

24:12And what does it say here she died of emphysema?

24:13And how could she have killed Sweetland two nights ago and according to this she'd been

24:14dead for at least a week?

24:16And why would they pick a 70-year-old asthmatic...

24:17This mother red cap thing, how does it go again? Seven men all died of fright.

24:24While looking out the window, that's a story.

24:26Hi Jason, it's Maddy. I got your message. I'd love to come round for coffee, that'd be great.

24:32I'm sorry we keep missing each other. There have been quite a few amazing developments which I'll fill you in on tomorrow.

24:38Bye.

24:40Look, it all happened 50 years ago and it's probably apocryphal anyway.

24:49One's fact, one's folklore. I don't see the relevance.

24:52You don't, but obviously the killer did.

24:55You're losing me, Jonathan.

24:5950 years ago, mother red cap. Seven baffling deaths in a bedroom.

25:04This week, Judge Sweetland baffling death in a bedroom.

25:08What'd you say?

25:12That the people there were all murdered.

25:15Using some clever method that's now also been used to kill Sweetland.

25:21Except their deaths couldn't be explained. Your guy, we know, was stabbed through the heart.

25:26A single clean puncture through the right oracle, unaccompanied by any peripheral tearing or tissue damage.

25:33Which suggests there was no resistance.

25:36And yet, he'd brushed all that stuff off his table onto the floor.

25:41No resistance.

25:43Which means he must have been stabbed while he was asleep.

25:46Hmm.

25:47I've got a horrible feeling it doesn't mean that at all.

25:50I just wish I could get a fix on that clock she said had gone backwards.

25:55What are you on about?

25:57When you've seen your estate agent chum?

25:59Tomorrow, 11. Why?

26:01Get him to fill out the whole story.

26:03As much as he knows.

26:05About the guy around the pub, the victims, their backgrounds.

26:08The exact details of how each one died.

26:11Somewhere in this place, everything's telling me lies the truth behind Sweetland's murder.

26:26And it's got sod all to do with a fingernail.

26:29I like the likes of you.

26:32I like the things you do.

26:35I mean, I like the likes of you.

26:40Hi.

26:50Welcome to our weird and wonderful world.

26:52I've told everyone all about you.

26:54But I know they're dying to see you in the flesh.

26:57This is really, really nice.

27:10God, aren't you lucky.

27:14So long as...

27:16I suppose there's a danger, you could just shut yourself off.

27:20People call you a recluse because they love labels.

27:24You know, I go into a shop or a pub or a restaurant.

27:27And they're all pointy and going,

27:29there goes that bloody recluse again, fed up seeing him.

27:32It's deeply disturbing.

27:37What are they like?

27:39I don't know.

27:40Oh, this looks smashing.

27:50So, tell me about you.

27:52What made you become a copper?

27:53Both my brothers were already in the force.

27:56They more or less twisted my arm.

27:58Sound a right pair of bastards.

28:01They were both killed on duty by an axe murderer.

28:06There's some parmesan there if you want it.

28:12Mm!

28:13Mm!

28:14Mm!

28:15I was just saying to Gareth and Pauline, the moment we first spoke on the phone, and I don't know if you sensed it, and it may be too strong a word, but a certain, er, sympatica.

28:29Most people, I think we find this term we can be terribly judgmental about a lifestyle they simply don't understand.

28:46Hmm.

28:47Yes.

28:48Mm!

28:49Mm!

28:50Yes!

28:51Mm!

28:52Mm!

28:53Yes!

28:54Right!

28:55At the moment, you'll be held on suspicion of murder, so I think you'll be well advised if you just...

29:00You threw it!

29:01You fired it from me!

29:02Oh, good.

29:03So can we take that as a confession?

29:04You fired it!

29:05Yes, right!

29:06Well, just make yourself at home in there for a day or two and bear with us, and I'll be smashing.

29:12Oh, and no miraculously disappearing through the walls this time, if you wouldn't mind.

29:17Our job's hard enough as it is.

29:20I mean, I'm sorry, but that is a serious turn-off. You can't keep your tongue in your mouth while you're eating.

29:26Right out it came each time of this revolting scooping action like a giant iguana or something.

29:32Listen, you're lucky you only had a tongue to look at.

29:36Let's just put it down as nil-nil on the score sheet, shall we, and move on.

29:40All I have got is everything you ever wanted to know about the mother redcap and the people who died here.

29:44Plus, you said the powers should be on now, so we can see what we're looking for.

29:49What are we looking for?

30:02Victim number five. Mr Gordon James Chapman, aged 53.

30:09A merchant banker. Same as three and four. Dead on the floor the next morning.

30:15No evidence of any human intervention.

30:18Found him lying there with just a towel round his waist.

30:21See, have you come out the bath, gone over to the window and just died of shock or whatever it was?

30:27Am I talking to myself?

30:29Plenty of woodworm and a feral bit of fungus.

30:33What the hell is it?

30:36Yeah, sorry. Number six.

30:41Number six.

30:43Number six.

30:45Oh, yeah.

30:46I've got a picture of this one.

30:50Sir Michael Pritchett, QC.

30:52That was his last entry in the family album.

30:55I think the work would have got round by now, wouldn't you?

30:58Or you'd think the publican, Mr Ambergast, would put a sign up.

31:03Caution. Do not gaze out...

31:05What?

31:07What you spotted?

31:09Shoes.

31:11Over by the chest of drawers.

31:14So?

31:16The last guy you said, Chapman, had just come out the bath

31:20and all of them were getting ready for bed,

31:22so it's a fair bet that when they died, each one of them would have been...

31:25Yes.

31:28Clever. I'll give him that. It wouldn't have worked every time, but...

31:31Hang on. Who were we talking about?

31:33Ambergast?

31:35You think deliberately lured people up here to bump them off?

31:38And the amazing thing is no-one tumbled it.

31:40Because there's nothing to suggest a crime had been committed.

31:42They all swallowed that tosh about dying of fright.

31:45Bearing in mind three of them were actually seen,

31:47convulsing with horror, supposedly, as they looked out.

31:50Doesn't that point you in a very definite direction?

31:53Especially when you look at all the things it couldn't have been.

31:56What was that Sherlock Holmes said to Watson?

32:00Get your kit off and give us a kiss?

32:02Exactly.

32:03Which leaves us with only one possibility.

32:06Which is?

32:08Why do you think there's no evidence of any woodworm in this skirting ball

32:11when the floor here is riddled with it?

32:13Pass.

32:16Stay right where you are.

32:19What are you looking for now?

32:20I don't know till I've found it.

32:22Still can't get over that other, you know.

32:27If you were looking for the quickest way to destroy any sense of mystique,

32:33I think opening the door stark bollock naked would do it every time.

32:39Got you.

32:40Well, what if there'd been a wasp out there, or something?

32:43Mistaken it for a sprig of buddlier.

32:48I can tell you, he wouldn't catch me dabbing on his savlon.

32:53Put me right off.

32:55Things people get up to imp...

33:06Jonathan.

33:09What are we doing in this sodding place?

33:25I think I'm ready to go home now, Jonathan.

33:29Solution or no solution.

33:32I'm afraid I've drawn the line of eubonic plague.

33:35Don't go near the window!

33:38Don't go near the window!

33:44I'm sorry.

33:47Oh, God.

33:50I could have killed you.

34:05What the hell happened there?

34:06The same thing has happened to those seven guys.

34:20And nearly happened to you.

34:22It's been electrocuted.

34:24It's been electrocuted.

34:25That's not woodworm in those boards.

34:29They're the holes for a set of tiny metal pins.

34:34Just very slightly proud of the surface.

34:38Can you see?

34:39Step on those in your bare feet.

34:48You're kidding.

34:51For a 50-year-old booby trap, it still works surprisingly well.

34:54Come on.

34:56Come on.

35:06You've got a lever here, evidently.

35:09Which raises and lowers the pins.

35:12And a switch here.

35:14On and off.

35:15And that's how he did it.

35:37Well, beat Sweeney Todd into a cocked hat.

35:40But how do we put this together with the murder of Judge Sweetland?

36:10Well, look.

36:11Go Zeal of your퍼도.

36:12Come on.

36:14The deadunginal Connie and Wildlife

36:20Are yours next.

36:27I'll take them all right.

36:29Can you see that in the past?

36:31I will be the best.

36:32All God'sruk Rusty.

36:34Your love with your brother

36:36Saint support Knud Crist last week.

36:38BELL RINGS

37:08That's the one.

37:15He followed me up the road last Thursday

37:17and made himself scarce when he saw all the police cars outside the house.

37:22Okay.

37:24That's very useful, Mrs Sweetland.

37:29Have you got a moment to come and have a cup of tea?

37:31I think Mr Creaker's got something to tell us.

37:34Sorry to break this all over yet again,

37:37but last night, about 2 o'clock in the morning,

37:41a load of stuff suddenly came into focus

37:42and I finally got, I don't know, a sense of the whole thing in context.

37:50Are you okay?

37:52I'll just get on with it.

37:55Sometimes what looks really sinister to start with

37:57turns out to be frighteningly normal.

37:59Something like the time on a clock that appears the wrong way around

38:03with a glass of water in front of it.

38:07It's pretty safe to assume, I think,

38:09that the first time you opened your eyes that night and looked across,

38:12the time was actually 20 past 1.

38:15Only because you were seeing it through the water,

38:20the display was reversed

38:22and it read 10 past 5.

38:26Between then and the next time you looked,

38:27your husband's taken a sip of water and put the glass back,

38:30only this time not in front of the clock,

38:32so you see the correct time, 4.06.

38:38So, the clock had nothing to do with the murder at all?

38:46Alternatively, Mrs. Wheatland,

38:47it may have had everything to do with the murder.

38:51God help us.

38:52If I get through this one alive, it'll be a miracle.

38:54Well, cut into the quip, we face two questions.

39:00How was your husband stabbed by an assailant

39:02who appeared to spirit himself into the bedroom like Dracula

39:05and then out again?

39:07And what the hell had an old bag lady

39:09whose fingernail was found on the carpet

39:10got to do with the murder of a high court judge?

39:15According to the description of this report,

39:20Mr. Wheatland put up no resistance.

39:24to the blade or rapier or whatever it was

39:27when he was stabbed,

39:29suggesting the attack took place when he was asleep.

39:33But then how do we explain the apparent struggle

39:35and the way he'd knocked all that stuff off his table?

39:40So let's run for a minute with a different hypothesis,

39:45that he was stabbed through the heart

39:47after he'd been murdered.

39:49And now we're looking for a different cause of death entirely.

39:57Something a bit less obvious

39:58that would be totally overlooked

40:00next to a knife wound in the chest.

40:04Enter Mr. William Ambergast,

40:06a thoroughly unpleasant character in the 1940s

40:09who electrocuted his victims

40:12at a London pub called the Mother Redcap.

40:14Electrocuted?

40:17I'd been lying there

40:18trying to squeeze the mechanics of it out of my brain.

40:21How do you put an electric current through someone

40:23in such a way that no one would ever realise what had happened?

40:26You'd need to rig something up in his bedroom.

40:29Something you knew he was going to touch

40:31that was connected to a PowerPoint

40:33that looked entirely harmless.

40:37If I hadn't been for that thing about time going backwards,

40:46I'd probably never have latched onto it.

40:49Onto the frightening simplicity of a clock

40:52that had been carefully sabotaged

40:54so the alarm button actually becomes live.

40:59So that when he goes to hit it,

41:01I'm afraid everything that follows

41:18follows directly from that one basic premise.

41:22If Mr. Sweetland was killed by an electrified clock

41:25at 6am

41:26and less than 15 seconds later

41:29he was found with a stab wound through his heart,

41:32there was only one possible explanation

41:35and only one possible killer.

41:48Oh, God.

41:50Faye.

41:51A quick trawl through the news services

41:56filled in the gaps.

41:59The man who slaughtered both your brothers

42:01decapitating one with an axe

42:06and then himself being killed in a police shootout

42:10had previously been released on bail

42:12pending another charge for assault.

42:16Their deaths would never have happened

42:18if that man had still been in custody.

42:21It was a bum decision.

42:25Did it really give you the right

42:27to murder the judge who made it?

42:38Well, I couldn't believe it, could I?

42:43When I found I'd been rotored on the protection detail.

42:45My first thought was, to hell with it.

42:54Just produce a gun.

42:56And what they did to me.

42:58That's how much I wanted to blow

43:00his trendy, progressive brains away.

43:03And something happened

43:11about a week beforehand

43:15showed me I could be more

43:21creative than that.

43:23Oh, God.

43:40Oh, God.

43:40This guy didn't pretend to be dead.

43:42John Ross?

43:45Mom?

43:46Yeah.

43:47God日ар, to hell.

43:48Tonight, I was a asleep out of yourידhouse.

43:50Don't know what to work to do.

43:50Don't know what to happen.

43:51Don't know what to do.

43:51Okay.

43:59Okay, go.

44:01My fingers are cold.

44:03I'm sorry, Elise.

44:07I'm just cold.

44:11Just kidding.

44:13Okay.

44:15Said I'd try and get her in a hostel somewhere.

44:19But she wasn't interested.

44:21This was her home.

44:23Decided to stay with her for a few minutes.

44:25During which I got her life story.

44:27And the story of that place.

44:29Mother Redcap.

44:31Turned out as a young girl in the 40s, she'd actually worked there.

44:35And not as a barmaid.

44:39The room upstairs was basically a knock-in shop.

44:45Discreet service for professional gentlemen of the day.

44:49With the additional grisly sideline you know about.

44:55I presume several of these blokes' wives coughed up a lot of money to have their husbands conveniently disposed of.

45:03What it did.

45:07Set me thinking.

45:09If I was clever.

45:13I could do this.

45:17And get away with it.

45:19Required some special expertise.

45:23But of course I knew just who to go to for that.

45:35The deal was done.

45:37They fixed me up with a duplicate clock.

45:41Suitably modified.

45:43And to throw everyone off, I was taught how to use one of their more sophisticated devices.

45:51Earlier in the day I'd made the switch.

45:55Now I'm going to be easy enough to swap them back later.

45:59And at 6 o'clock, when we heard the noise.

46:05Let's go!

46:21A lot of water.

46:23A lot of water.

46:29Oh, my God, you're proud of what you did to him.

46:47You're murdering!

46:48Excuse me, you're trying to live all the way!

46:59Oh, my God.

47:09Someone call an ambulance.

47:17While his chief constable, Peter Gresham, paid tribute to what he called Mr. Spee's

47:21incomparable intellect and powers of deductive analysis, his widow, Marjorie, could cherish

47:26with pride the memory of a husband whose lasting memorial, he said, was the resolution of one of

47:32the most complex and apparently baffling murders in police history. And now let's take a look at the...

47:40No. I'm impressed, I must say. Because it wouldn't have mattered a toss to him who got the credit.

47:47But you, Mr. Self-effacing Softie, knew what it'd mean to her. It almost makes up for you being

47:54such an anally-retentive smartass who never gets absolutely anything wrong no matter what he does.

48:00Now, what have we here?

48:02How is it?

48:16Bliss. Utter pure bliss.

48:20I have finally found something you are crap at. Food.

48:25This is absolutely horrible.

48:26What? The worst use of salad I have tasted in my life ever, bar none.

48:33Maybe I overdid the raw egg.

48:34Raw? You're supposed to wait until the chicken's laid it.

48:38Didn't anyone ever tell you? The first rule when preparing lettuce, take off the slugs.

48:43What are you talking about slugs? They're anchovies.

48:45Look, get your coat. We'll go down the chippy.

48:47We'll go down the chippy.

49:03Mmm...

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