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  • 2 days ago
First broadcast 24th December 1998.

A retired female illusionist dies in mysterious circumstances. Maddy and Jonathan are called upon to investigate.

Hannah Gordon - Marella Carney
Suzanna Hamilton - Hannah
Francis Matthews - Jerry Bellinitus
Murray Melvin - Lionel Prekopp
Kate Isitt - Charlotte
Vincent Wong - Pan Duc Lao
Alan Davies - Jonathan Creek
Stuart Milligan - Adam Klaus
Simone Huber - Elsa
Caroline Quentin - Maddy Magellan
Tomas Lukes - Vagrant
Simon Roberts - Paramedic
Rik Mayall - D.I. Gideon Pryke
Dave Haskell - Sgt. Richie
John Hales - Burger Man
Corinne Laidlaw - Young Charlotte
Sanjeev Bhaskar - Doctor
Nikki Jhutti - Nurse

Category

📺
TV
Transcript
00:00:00Satsang with Mooji
00:00:30I don't know.
00:01:00I don't know.
00:01:30I don't know.
00:02:00I don't know.
00:02:30I don't know.
00:03:00I don't know.
00:03:29I don't know.
00:03:59I don't know.
00:04:29I don't know.
00:04:59I don't know.
00:05:29I don't know.
00:05:59I don't know.
00:06:29I don't know.
00:06:30I don't know.
00:06:31I don't know.
00:06:33I don't know.
00:06:34I don't know.
00:06:35I don't know.
00:06:37I don't know.
00:06:38Okay, Elsa, my angel.
00:06:41I don't know.
00:06:42I don't know.
00:06:44I don't know.
00:06:45I don't know.
00:06:47I don't know.
00:06:48I don't know.
00:06:50I don't know.
00:06:51I don't know.
00:06:53I don't know.
00:06:54I don't know.
00:06:55I don't know.
00:06:56I don't know.
00:06:57I don't know.
00:06:59I don't know.
00:07:01I don't know.
00:07:02I don't know.
00:07:04I don't know.
00:07:05I don't know.
00:07:06I don't know.
00:07:07I don't know.
00:07:08I don't know.
00:07:10I don't know.
00:07:11I don't know.
00:07:12I don't know.
00:07:13But she's still physically intact, Jonathan, in every sense of the word.
00:07:16Can you believe a creature like that has never felt a man's tongue on her epiglottis?
00:07:20You know that for a fact, I suppose.
00:07:22I've done my research.
00:07:23Born in a somewhat conservative region of Austria.
00:07:26Known locally, I believe, as the Chastity Belt.
00:07:29A delicate alpine flower for whom sex and alcohol are strictly off limits.
00:07:34Maybe if I got her into the bar tonight and switched drinks.
00:07:37Yes.
00:07:38That's the closest you'll get to an exchange of fluids.
00:07:40Come on.
00:07:41We've got a lot to get through today.
00:08:11Come out.
00:08:12Come on.
00:08:13Come on.
00:08:14Come on.
00:08:15Come on.
00:08:16Come on.
00:08:17Let me walk.
00:08:18Come on.
00:08:21Okay.
00:08:22We have a chairediza Wilming.
00:08:23We have an Vietnamese cat who is a chapter at the Gemini.
00:08:25Here we go.
00:08:27Have a good feeling.
00:08:28Say everything.
00:08:29Yes?
00:08:30You have a good feeling today.
00:08:31You got to get through here.
00:08:32Come on.
00:08:33Let's talk to the��ats.
00:08:34Are we together?
00:08:35We have two microphones.
00:08:36Did you see exactly what the packaging is?
00:09:38Stab the pen down and wherever it lands...
00:09:40Twirl it, Adam.
00:09:42If they don't twirl, we can't mix in the pre-record.
00:09:44Right, right.
00:09:45Hold the pen up in the air, spin it round and around, and...
00:09:51Coming to playback now, Adam.
00:09:52Hit it.
00:09:55Strategy.
00:09:56Which, in a triumph of extrasensory acuity, I think you'll find...
00:09:59Hello?
00:10:14Oh, hi.
00:10:14Is Jonathan around at all for a quick word?
00:10:16I'll see if I can find him.
00:10:17Who's calling?
00:10:19Okay, you mind hang on for a second?
00:10:20I'll see if I can find...
00:10:21These gallstones of yours are going to drag us all right down the Swanee if we're not careful.
00:10:32I don't know why you can't get them seen to.
00:10:33Because I have a small problem with hospitals, Jonathan.
00:10:36Swifty and satire begins to parl after a while.
00:10:39Can't you make him disappear by magic, Mr. Klaus?
00:10:41Ooh, careful with that proctoscope.
00:10:43I think he's got a rabbit up there.
00:10:45Every other asinine quip known to man.
00:10:50Listen, I didn't tell you who I nearly bumped into this morning.
00:10:54You remember Mirella Carney, the Black Canary, retired from the business about 15 years ago?
00:10:59Mm.
00:11:00I was in the front row at her final performance.
00:11:03I always had a fantasy that when that guillotine came down, her head would fall into my lap.
00:11:07Yeah, well, it wasn't her I saw her.
00:11:09It was her daughter, Charlotte.
00:11:11Who, if you remember?
00:11:13Oh, that's right.
00:11:15It was the great lust of your life at one time.
00:11:18You were walking around like some kind of zombie for weeks.
00:11:21Till it all came to grief.
00:11:22After I finally got around to asking her out, we went for a meal.
00:11:27All very lovely.
00:11:28Taxi back to her place in Kensington.
00:11:30She asked me in for a coffee.
00:11:31I said, no, thanks.
00:11:33That was the last I ever saw of her.
00:11:36Sorry, you lost me just towards the end on that one.
00:11:40Charlotte Carney.
00:11:41Who I desired more than oxygen.
00:11:44Asked me into her flat at one o'clock in the morning.
00:11:47I'm sorry.
00:11:48It's got to be some sort of catch.
00:11:49Oh, I don't think you've met my fiancé, Crispin.
00:11:51He's got two penises in his own airline.
00:11:54Or the other one, I whisper I love you in her ear.
00:11:57She attacks me with a fire extinguisher.
00:11:59No thank you.
00:11:59I can do without that kind of humiliation.
00:12:01I've often felt your love life would make a fine play by Samuel Beckett.
00:12:05A certain nihilistic quality it has.
00:12:09Yes, well, I noticed she never called me again afterwards.
00:12:19She only goes to prove my...
00:12:20Yeah, hello?
00:12:24Jonathan, I just wondered if you wanted to pop over at all this evening.
00:12:28And I'll cook us something.
00:12:30No?
00:12:31Why should there be any special reason?
00:12:33I'm just...
00:12:34Look.
00:12:35All right.
00:12:37I need you tonight.
00:12:39Here in my bedroom.
00:12:40Look, I'm sorry, but there are certain things I don't like stirring up at in bed.
00:13:09Anything less than two inches long with and...
00:13:12Just, just, don't bring it near me, you sadist!
00:13:14Get rid of it!
00:13:15It's a cockroach.
00:13:16It's not going to have your arm off.
00:13:17Look, it's very friendly.
00:13:18Oh, yeah, why don't you just have sex with it, you thoroughly revolting person?
00:13:23Oh, dispose of it, will you, please?
00:13:25Not down the toilet!
00:13:27Take it to the bottom of the garden and kill it with a spade!
00:13:30Kill it with a spade?
00:13:32What am I, Jack the Hat McVitie?
00:13:34Just do it!
00:13:36Good almighty, and don't be such a doily!
00:13:39That's the third one appeared this week!
00:13:42I don't know where they've all started coming from suddenly!
00:13:45Yeah, hello?
00:14:01Hello?
00:14:02Is it...
00:14:03I'm sorry, I'm trying to reach Jonathan Creek.
00:14:06Oh, yeah, he's just popped out for a second.
00:14:09Who's calling?
00:14:09My name's Charlotte Carney.
00:14:12Okay, just a sec...
00:14:14Just one second, Charlotte?
00:14:17You realise I'll probably go to hell for that now, snuffing out a living thing inside a crisp packet.
00:14:22Call for you.
00:14:23Someone called Charlotte Carney?
00:14:28Hello?
00:14:29Jonathan?
00:14:29It was you I passed this morning, coming out of the tube.
00:14:36Sorry?
00:14:37Um...
00:14:37Oh, you wouldn't have noticed me three years ago.
00:14:40Changed me under recognition, probably.
00:14:45I'm sorry.
00:14:46This is just the worst day of my life.
00:14:52What happened?
00:14:54Do you remember something you said to me once?
00:14:58There's no such thing as magic.
00:15:01Real magic.
00:15:03You didn't believe in anything you couldn't touch or see.
00:15:10This afternoon,
00:15:12at four o'clock,
00:15:13my mother killed herself.
00:15:21How she did I defy anyone to explain?
00:15:24It's like a kind of madness has taken over
00:15:26and there are no rules anymore
00:15:28about life
00:15:29or death.
00:15:31Charlotte?
00:15:44Charlotte?
00:15:46I can't believe we're doing this.
00:15:57on the basis of one hysterical phone call
00:16:00from some floozy you met at a party once.
00:16:02Especially as there was never anything
00:16:03between the two of you in the first place.
00:16:06Look, can I ask,
00:16:07do you ever get this thing serviced?
00:16:09How anyone could drive a car at this time of year
00:16:10without a proper windscreen washer?
00:16:12It's got a windscreen washer.
00:16:14Yeah, but it's not much use
00:16:15on the back seat, is it?
00:16:18The guy who was going to fit it did a runner.
00:16:20It's not my fault.
00:16:21A bit of fresh air won't harm you.
00:16:24So,
00:16:25what's the story on this mother of hers,
00:16:27Mirella Carney,
00:16:28the Black Canary?
00:16:29She was big business in her day,
00:16:31wasn't she?
00:16:32The problem with Mirella Carney
00:16:33is most of her tricks
00:16:33relied upon the fact
00:16:34she had a twin sister.
00:16:35Don't be ridiculous.
00:16:37Who, from what you hear,
00:16:37did all the difficult bits?
00:16:39Mirella suffered from claustrophobia,
00:16:41so it was her sister
00:16:42had to go into all the cabinets
00:16:43and coffins.
00:16:44There's plenty of amazing stuff
00:16:45you can work with a double,
00:16:47but it's not exactly
00:16:47a test of ingenuity.
00:16:48You're telling me there were two of them?
00:16:49They kept that quiet, didn't they?
00:16:51Well, I think they put it
00:16:51in the programme notes,
00:16:52aren't they?
00:16:54NB, whilst miraculously
00:16:55escaping from a locked trunk tonight,
00:16:56Miss Carney will be assisted
00:16:57by her twin sister, Beryl.
00:17:00Anyway, that was all
00:17:01before the accident, of course.
00:17:02What accident?
00:17:03That's a bit on the grizzly side.
00:17:04Probably best not discussed.
00:17:05What accident?
00:17:07I don't know
00:17:07if you've got the stomach for it.
00:17:08I've got the stomach?
00:17:09Don't give me
00:17:10that macho protective number.
00:17:13Rehearsal one day,
00:17:14one of their big routines.
00:17:16Sister Beryl's tied up
00:17:17to a bench.
00:17:19With an electric buzzsaw
00:17:20coming at her.
00:17:21Mechanism jam,
00:17:22everything just kept coming.
00:17:23She was literally
00:17:23sawn in half.
00:17:24Oh, my God!
00:17:26Lengthways.
00:17:27Lengthways!
00:17:28Oh!
00:17:29No!
00:17:30What are you doing?
00:17:31You'll have us up the road!
00:17:37Sawn in half.
00:17:39What the hell
00:17:40did you have to tell me that for?
00:17:42Oh!
00:17:43Oh!
00:17:44With an electric buzzsaw!
00:17:46That's done it for me now.
00:17:49I'm going to have to sleep
00:17:50with the saucepan
00:17:51between my legs.
00:17:53How far up do you think
00:17:54it went before she...
00:17:55Oh!
00:17:55Far enough.
00:17:57Somehow they made
00:17:58she keep it out of the papers.
00:17:59They just said
00:17:59Morella was retiring
00:18:00for personal reasons.
00:18:02That is
00:18:03the most unutterably
00:18:05horrible story
00:18:06I have ever heard.
00:18:08Accidents can happen
00:18:09even in our game.
00:18:10People don't realise...
00:18:10What?
00:18:15What?
00:18:16I suppose I'd never really...
00:18:19Assuming it was an accident.
00:18:24Can we move it, please?
00:18:25We'll have to chip us out
00:18:26of here with ice picks.
00:18:27I'm sorry if I put the wind
00:18:37up you last night.
00:18:38It's just...
00:18:40I think we're all in need
00:18:42of a cold, hard, cynical mind
00:18:44right now.
00:18:47You want to take us through it?
00:18:50Fifteen years ago
00:18:51my mother and her sister Beryl
00:18:53were running through
00:18:55the mechanics of this new trick
00:18:56with an electric saw.
00:19:05The blade that was meant
00:19:06to drop away
00:19:07jammed for some reason.
00:19:12Yes!
00:19:12We've got a general
00:19:14picture of what happened.
00:19:15Thanks.
00:19:17So, you'd only been
00:19:18about, what,
00:19:19twelve at the time?
00:19:23Fortunately
00:19:23or not depending
00:19:25how you look at it
00:19:26Aunty Beryl
00:19:27had no one very close.
00:19:29She'd parted
00:19:30from her husband Gary
00:19:31about ten years before.
00:19:33He'd disappeared
00:19:33from the picture entirely.
00:19:36And her only daughter
00:19:37my cousin Hannah
00:19:38had run away from home
00:19:39in her late teens
00:19:40the way you did
00:19:42in the seventies
00:19:42to shack up
00:19:44with some keyboard player
00:19:45in Australia
00:19:46and find God
00:19:47in a sugar cube.
00:19:49I remember
00:19:49she sent back
00:19:50a poem in Aborigine.
00:19:51the vicar read it out
00:19:53at the funeral
00:19:54sounded like
00:19:54he was having a seizure.
00:19:58After that
00:19:58no one expected
00:19:59to see her
00:19:59this side of the equator
00:20:00ever again.
00:20:02Until a couple of weeks ago
00:20:04quite out of the blue
00:20:06this letter arrived.
00:20:08from Hannah
00:20:21she's
00:20:22coming to England.
00:20:24As in
00:20:24long lost niece
00:20:25Hannah.
00:20:28She said when?
00:20:29well you could understand
00:20:48her being nervous
00:20:49there was every chance
00:20:50my cousin would come back
00:20:51with some sort of grudge
00:20:52against the aunt
00:20:54who was involved
00:20:54in her mother's death
00:20:55but I don't know
00:20:58there was
00:21:00something else
00:21:01some kind of
00:21:04deeper unease
00:21:05which just
00:21:05took root
00:21:06and festered
00:21:07and then
00:21:09when she turned up
00:21:09with this
00:21:10Vietnamese character
00:21:11Pan Duc Lau
00:21:12Most of it seems
00:21:20pretty unreal now
00:21:21but
00:21:22that's what's so
00:21:23wonderful about
00:21:24that thought
00:21:24She was older now
00:21:27and wiser
00:21:28this was the story
00:21:29During her many travels
00:21:32she'd been converted
00:21:33to the wonders
00:21:34of Easter mysticism
00:21:35which until now
00:21:36had been largely
00:21:37ignored by the West
00:21:38La was what they call
00:21:41a psychic surgeon
00:21:42with powers that
00:21:44went beyond
00:21:44the compass
00:21:45of known medical science
00:21:47well of course
00:21:49my father was up
00:21:50for all of that
00:21:50anything that would
00:21:52help with his
00:21:52angina or crumbling
00:21:53bones
00:21:54you have to believe
00:21:56this Jonathan
00:21:57the night before last
00:21:59I watched it happen
00:22:01there in front of me
00:22:02he put his fingers
00:22:04inside my father's chest
00:22:05pulled out
00:22:06some kind of tissue
00:22:07and afterwards
00:22:09it was like
00:22:10he hadn't touched him
00:22:11not a mark
00:22:12on the skin
00:22:12anything
00:22:13I don't think
00:22:18any of us
00:22:18got much sleep
00:22:19that night
00:22:19least of all
00:22:22my mother
00:22:23the next morning
00:22:32I came downstairs
00:22:33they were just
00:22:33leaving
00:22:34she said how
00:22:37pleased she was
00:22:38to have seen us
00:22:38again
00:22:39to have helped
00:22:40my father
00:22:40but now they had
00:22:41other important work
00:22:42to do so
00:22:43I dared to hope
00:22:48that that would be
00:22:49an end to the horror
00:22:49but it was only
00:22:53the beginning
00:22:53you work in the
00:22:56magic business too
00:22:57then Mr. Creek
00:22:58yes with Adam
00:23:00what's that
00:23:00with Adam Klaus
00:23:02yes
00:23:03Jerry Belenitis
00:23:04I'm afraid my hearing
00:23:07is not very good
00:23:08these days
00:23:08I have to lip read
00:23:09we were both very
00:23:10sorry to hear
00:23:11what's that
00:23:11we were sorry
00:23:12to hear about
00:23:13your wife
00:23:13Mr. Belenitis
00:23:14I gather
00:23:16you were the one
00:23:17who actually
00:23:17saw it happen
00:23:18nothing wrong
00:23:20with my eyes
00:23:21they're the one
00:23:23bit of me
00:23:24that still works
00:23:24father and I
00:23:29both left the house
00:23:30about half past
00:23:31ten yesterday
00:23:31morning
00:23:32I got a lecture
00:23:33at twelve
00:23:33and you were
00:23:34meeting someone
00:23:35for lunch
00:23:35in town
00:23:36when I got back
00:23:40about two thirty
00:23:41the weather
00:23:44seemed to be
00:23:44easing up
00:23:45finally
00:23:45although by that
00:23:48time
00:23:48we'd had a good
00:23:50four or five
00:23:51inches of snow
00:23:52how was Mr. Deluth
00:23:54and his dancing
00:23:55hairpiece
00:23:55oh yes
00:23:56on good form
00:23:57it's when he
00:23:59falls asleep
00:23:59it slips over
00:24:00his eyes
00:24:01you really feel
00:24:01the games
00:24:02how has things
00:24:04been here
00:24:05any sign of
00:24:07improvement
00:24:07she's been holed
00:24:09up in her room
00:24:09most of the day
00:24:10with a migraine
00:24:11couldn't tempt her
00:24:12with any lunch
00:24:13some hormone
00:24:14thing I expect
00:24:15oh there'd be
00:24:16an ovary
00:24:17at the back
00:24:17of it somewhere
00:24:18white pill
00:24:22and pink capsule
00:24:23for four o'clock
00:24:24glass of water
00:24:26alarm all set
00:24:27should you nod off
00:24:29okay
00:24:29I'm off to the
00:24:31woodshed now
00:24:31to do some whittling
00:24:32you're a diamond
00:24:34Arnold
00:24:34sweet dreams
00:24:35Jerry
00:24:35well an hour
00:24:49must have gone by
00:24:50when I opened
00:24:51my eyes
00:24:52outside in the
00:24:53garden
00:24:54my wife
00:24:54was having
00:24:55what appeared
00:24:55to be
00:24:56some sort
00:24:57of an argument
00:24:57that was enough
00:25:06for this character
00:25:07whoever he was
00:25:07he just
00:25:08turned and left
00:25:09as fast as his legs
00:25:10and a very nasty
00:25:12limp would carry him
00:25:13what
00:25:17happened next
00:25:19nothing in the world
00:25:20could have prepared me for
00:25:22throw him
00:25:35Marotta
00:25:36Marotta
00:25:37Marotta
00:25:38Marotta
00:25:39oh no
00:25:40oh no
00:25:41please
00:25:41please
00:25:44oh god
00:25:46Oh, God!
00:25:57Gerry!
00:26:00Dear God in heaven, what happened?
00:26:04Just put the barrel in her mouth.
00:26:07They were arguing. Some man, he ran off.
00:26:09Man? What man?
00:26:11A man! He was right there just a couple of minutes ago.
00:26:16And, of course, that's when I saw it.
00:26:19The insanity of it.
00:26:21Staring me in the face.
00:26:23The man, whoever he was, whatever he was,
00:26:26had left no footprints in the snow.
00:26:30Charlotte!
00:26:32I'm sorry!
00:26:33Oh, God!
00:26:34Mr. Bolonitis.
00:26:35Sorry.
00:26:36I'm a little confused.
00:26:37What's that?
00:26:38What you said about what happened here doesn't seem to make any sense.
00:26:41Look, he was out there.
00:26:43I saw him as plainly...
00:26:44Oh, no.
00:26:45Your wife, sir.
00:26:46You said turn the gun on herself in the garden of...
00:26:49What?
00:26:50Four o'clock?
00:26:51Yes.
00:26:52Why?
00:26:53Excuse me.
00:26:54Why, why it?
00:26:56But, I don't think that's possible.
00:26:57What you said about what happened here doesn't seem to make any sense.
00:27:02Look, he was out there. I saw him as plainly...
00:27:07No, no, your wife, sir. You said turn the gun on herself in the garden at 4 o'clock?
00:27:14Yes. Why?
00:27:16Forgive me. But I don't think that's possible. The extent of rigour in the eyelids, the face muscles and jaw.
00:27:23I'm afraid there's no way that lady took her life only 40 minutes ago.
00:27:28It'll have to be confirmed, sir, obviously, but...
00:27:31at the time you say your wife pulled that trigger...
00:27:35I'd say she'd already been dead at least... five hours.
00:27:43I mean, we all saw what that man could do the other night.
00:27:48Was this another example of his powers?
00:27:52I don't know about this time of death thing, but I'm afraid all that miracle healing's just a very clever confidence trick.
00:27:58Those guys are ten a penny back home.
00:28:01Some of them actually have a couple of fingers removed and then false ends put on that can squash up and look as if they're penetrating your flesh.
00:28:07They just palm a few bits of animal tissue and a blood capsule and the rest of it's all in the performance.
00:28:13I assume a small fee was involved.
00:28:16Oh, well...
00:28:19A donation to their hospital, obviously.
00:28:22But you can't write off the rest of it.
00:28:25What kind of a man is it who leaves no footprints in the snow?
00:28:29Hmm.
00:28:30So, before all this business with your cousin, your mother was as right as rain, would you say?
00:28:38Which I suppose does make her death look a bit dodgy.
00:28:41Well, except then you've got the suicide note.
00:28:47Presuming that's what it is.
00:28:50We found it last night in her room.
00:28:54You want to take the lift?
00:28:56Be a bit of a squeeze.
00:28:58May as well.
00:29:06Your father, Charlotte.
00:29:08Where do I know him from?
00:29:10Jerry Bellinitis.
00:29:11Oh, wasn't he that wrestler with the long floppy hair?
00:29:14I beg your pardon?
00:29:15I think that was Jackie Palo.
00:29:23My father was a singer-songwriter, quite popular in the late 1960s.
00:29:27Darling, be tender.
00:29:29Surrender your arms to mine.
00:29:30That's right.
00:29:31I did that funny act with an owl.
00:29:32An owl?
00:29:33Who am I thinking of, then?
00:29:42Forgive her?
00:29:43For what?
00:29:53They got on a ride together, did they, professionally?
00:29:55Yes.
00:29:57Doesn't quite fit the script, I'm afraid.
00:29:59Exploited assistant resents the success of her famous sister.
00:30:02Threatens to reveal all and has to be conveniently disposed of.
00:30:08Truth is, they loved each other very much.
00:30:10Everything they earned, they shared 50-50.
00:30:13So as far as Aunty Beryl and the money were concerned...
00:30:16Split straight down the middle.
00:30:18Noticed she signed this with a kiss?
00:30:20Yes.
00:30:21Hmm.
00:30:24Yes.
00:30:28Hmm.
00:30:51Bit of a poser, wouldn't you say?
00:30:52One way and another.
00:30:56Adds a bit of spice to the otherwise humdrum routine of the Criminal Investigation Department.
00:31:01Detective Inspector Gideon Pryock, we haven't met.
00:31:03Oh, Jonathan Creek. I'm a...
00:31:05Friend of the family.
00:31:07And no mean theorist in your own right, they tell me.
00:31:10No worries, Mr Creek.
00:31:12I'm not so proud or proficient at this game, I can't indulge the amateur from time to time.
00:31:16It's what keeps us on our toes.
00:31:19How are you faring with this little puzzle?
00:31:21Damn sight better than me, I hope.
00:31:22Well, I did notice in the lift...
00:31:23Sergeant Ritchie, get Bob to run a spectrographic on this one, ASAP, though I know what the answer will be.
00:31:28It's all of a piece with that suicide note in there that's been signed with a kiss.
00:31:31Put the two together and the results are rather suggestive. Wouldn't you agree?
00:31:35More importantly, I'm keen to hear what you made of the curious matter of the shortened lampflex in the conservatory.
00:31:41Lampflex?
00:31:42I mean, it always reached before. I failed to see the rationale.
00:31:53Why would anyone want to cut the lead of a table lamp down by six inches?
00:31:57To...
00:31:58Stop someone putting the light on, in case they saw something they shouldn't.
00:32:02You just take the fuse out of the plug.
00:32:09Tiny detail, Mr Preckop.
00:32:11You said you knocked on Miss Carney's bedroom door at half past one to ask her if she wanted any lunch.
00:32:15And her response was, thanks, Lionel, but I can't face anything just at this moment.
00:32:19Correct.
00:32:20Those were her exact words to you, through the door.
00:32:23That is what she said.
00:32:24Hmm.
00:32:26Then a couple of hours later, she's outside, having a Barney with some phantom character who appears to be able to walk on air.
00:32:34Mr Illusionist.
00:32:36How do we explain that one?
00:32:40If I weren't a rational man, I'd say there was devilry at work in this house.
00:32:44You've got an Eastern mystic who removes people's organs without leaving a mark on their body.
00:32:48What do you reckon? Sleight of hand with a blood pellet and some pig's liver?
00:32:52No.
00:32:53No, I don't think he's the one who's been leading us all to merry dance here.
00:32:56Is he, Mr Preckop?
00:33:01I beg your pardon?
00:33:03Back to pace with him, Sergeant. Let's see what he can tell us.
00:33:05Back to pace? You're joking, surely to heaven.
00:33:08I mean, what sort of lame-brained logic is this?
00:33:10Have you all gone, stop bragging mad?
00:33:14I could smell guilt on a man like dung on a donkey.
00:33:16How he did, it'll take a bit of ferreting.
00:33:20But you notice the slip back there?
00:33:21A dead woman could hardly call out from behind a door.
00:33:24A dead woman? So it was right what that ambience did?
00:33:26Oh, yes. No sleep for the lab boys last night.
00:33:29How's your forensic pathology?
00:33:31Never mind, just read the last paragraph.
00:33:32The victim may have had a bullet in the brain.
00:33:35She also had a bloodstream full of barbiturates.
00:33:38And the way they've metabolised makes it a biochemical certainty.
00:33:41Morella Carney had already departed this world by 12 noon yesterday.
00:33:45A good four hours before she shot herself.
00:33:48And if you can come up with a better trick than that, Mr Creek,
00:33:50I'd like to see it sometime.
00:33:52A good four hours before she shot herself.
00:34:22Mr Lionel Lemuel Precop.
00:34:25You work for this pair now coming up to 33 years?
00:34:28Yes.
00:34:30Originally as a dresser and wardrobe assistant to Miss Carney?
00:34:33Yes.
00:34:34And Atali as a general person assistant to them both?
00:34:37Yes.
00:34:38Did you kill her?
00:34:41Morella Carney was the finest individual I was ever blessed to know.
00:34:45She illuminated the lives of millions with her grace and beauty.
00:34:52I loved, admired and respected her for what she was.
00:34:57What she ever more will be.
00:35:00You haven't answered my question.
00:35:01No.
00:35:13This is roughly where it would have come out, the other side of those trees.
00:35:18A mysterious, limping man.
00:35:21What do you think?
00:35:23Hmm?
00:35:24A bit of a wander around?
00:35:26And look for what?
00:35:27It's nearly 24 hours later.
00:35:28There's been another fall of snow.
00:35:31Oh, no.
00:35:33I want to know where to start on this one.
00:35:35Mind you, he was a bit of a starter, wasn't he?
00:35:39The old detective inspector.
00:35:42I don't know.
00:35:44Perhaps he'd rather step aside this time.
00:35:47Just let him get on with it.
00:35:49He did seem more than capable.
00:35:51So what's the betting on our manservant friend, Lionel?
00:36:06You have to say he looked pretty gobsmacked when she carted him off.
00:36:09But, I mean, what are we supposed to think?
00:36:10He's some sort of an accomplice to a deliberately baffling suicide.
00:36:14Hmm, he, you mean?
00:36:18Sorry?
00:36:19When he carted him off, you said she.
00:36:22Yeah, the woman.
00:36:23Detective Sergeant.
00:36:24Are you being funny?
00:36:26What?
00:36:27That was a man.
00:36:29Bugger off!
00:36:30Of course it was!
00:36:30Not in a month of Sundays!
00:36:32All right.
00:36:35How much?
00:36:37Ten quid.
00:36:39You're on?
00:36:39So come on, now that the obligatory two hours of pointless suspense have elapsed,
00:36:45you can tell me what that business is all about upstairs.
00:36:48Sorry?
00:36:49That little dot of blood on the wallpaper could have come from anywhere, couldn't it?
00:36:53Absolutely, but not everything that's red and sticky has to be blood.
00:36:56Come again?
00:36:58How many people in that house wore red nail varnish?
00:37:01You saw the bottles on the dressing table.
00:37:04Shortlist of one, OK, so?
00:37:06So, you've got Mirella Carney, a lifelong claustrophobic,
00:37:09you remember I told you, you became a running joke in the trade,
00:37:12that's why her sister always had to go in the trunks and boxes,
00:37:14has been travelling in a lift the size of a pencil case.
00:37:17OK, maybe she had hypnotherapy or something since then,
00:37:20but you stuck it all up with that suicide note to her husband and daughter.
00:37:23But she just put a kiss.
00:37:24Why didn't she sign it?
00:37:26Why didn't she put Mirella or Mother or something at the bottom?
00:37:30Maybe because,
00:37:32at the end of her life,
00:37:33a moment of final accountability,
00:37:37she couldn't bring herself to lie.
00:37:39about who she really was.
00:37:45Oh, you top man, Jonathan.
00:37:49It wasn't Beryl at the end of that buzzsaw,
00:37:52it was her sister.
00:37:54All these years, Mirella Carney
00:37:56wasn't Mirella Carney at all.
00:37:59Well, that explains everything.
00:38:03No, it explains nothing.
00:38:06It doesn't explain how a human being can be seen shooting herself,
00:38:10when by every piece of evidence she was already dead.
00:38:12or how a man can run away through four inches of snow
00:38:16and seconds later not left a single footprint behind.
00:38:26Come on, this isn't getting us anywhere,
00:38:27freezing our bollocks off out here.
00:38:28Oh, hell's teeth, will you?
00:38:44Look at this!
00:38:45Oh, hell's teeth, will you? Look at this!
00:38:58Not only bastards, but weird ones at that!
00:39:03What is it?
00:39:04Left the radio in stereo
00:39:05and just taken the morning papers.
00:39:07Good morning, Tim.
00:39:08How's Jack the Ripper looking?
00:39:09Don't ask.
00:39:15Jonathan, good morning.
00:39:16How are the trains today?
00:39:18Still one or two frozen points
00:39:18in that west of England line they were saying.
00:39:20Frozen f...
00:39:21What in the name of hell are you talking about?
00:39:24And then you're talking about to go to the bus.
00:39:25You're talking about to go to the bus,
00:39:26and you're talking about to go to the bus.
00:39:27You're talking about to go to the bus.
00:39:29Oh, my God.
00:39:30You're talking about to go to the bus.
00:39:31I'm talking about to go,
00:39:32the bus and to go to the bus.
00:39:33I'm talking about to go to the bus.
00:39:34It's a bus.
00:39:35It's a bus.
00:39:36What in the name of hell is this? Am I in the right theatre?
00:39:40Hard to believe, isn't it? What a gifted designer can pull together in 48 hours.
00:39:44I think you'll agree Elsa has surpassed herself.
00:39:47Well, I try not to give you just any old frog coat.
00:39:50Always for Adam, something a bit special, yes?
00:39:53Frog coat?
00:39:55You're sure the flippers are not too restricting? Show me again.
00:40:01Hey, listen. Almost like a floating sensation.
00:40:06Maybe a little tuck in the throat still. Let me get my pins.
00:40:14Now, Jonathan, before you say a word...
00:40:16This is it now, is it?
00:40:17Through the swirling fog of Victorian London, a young girl is slashed to ribbons by Toad of Toad Hall.
00:40:23What kind of cretins have you got on the payroll here?
00:40:27We'll work around it, OK?
00:40:29And if you value your position on my team, Jonathan, you'd be advised to moderate your language from now on when referring to the future Mrs Klaus.
00:40:36Work around it? Are you mad? I just...
00:40:40What did you just say?
00:40:42Just run and come round from over there.
00:40:45No, he just slammed the door open.
00:40:47And just like, rawr!
00:40:49Right, how does it go?
00:40:50Kids arrived to play in their den and found him inside, gnawing on a bone.
00:41:01He took one look at them and made a bolt for it, disappearing down the lane.
00:41:06With a pronounced limp.
00:41:08Morning.
00:41:11Where is...
00:41:12See?
00:41:14When is...
00:41:15...
00:41:19It's good.
00:41:24Yeah.
00:41:27Woodpecker, if I'm not mistaken.
00:41:53Oh, no.
00:41:55Here's one that Tooth Fairy missed.
00:41:57A premolar crown with a Maryland bridge, as individual as any fingerprint.
00:42:06Someone somewhere made this, and I'll have a record of who they made it for.
00:42:10Their name, please, Sergeant, and don't spare the horses.
00:42:15What can I say?
00:42:16There comes a point in your life when just leaping into bed with every gorgeous girl
00:42:20that comes along seems suddenly, well, rather tawdry.
00:42:24You realise you're looking for a sense of permanence.
00:42:27Commitment.
00:42:28Commitment?
00:42:29Only you could marry a woman just to get your leg over and call it a learning curve.
00:42:33Well, view it how you will, Jonathan.
00:42:36Her moral probity and purity of spirit have won my heart.
00:42:39Hmm.
00:42:40Which prompts me to ask how your little reunion with Miss Connie went yesterday.
00:42:45Well, obviously she was in a bit of a state, not with everything that had happened.
00:42:50And highly vulnerable, so I hope you were there for her when she needed it most.
00:42:55Well, I...
00:42:58Afternoon.
00:42:59Everyone decent?
00:43:00Oh, what a shame.
00:43:01You all right?
00:43:02Have the gallstones these days.
00:43:03Looking up, thanks for asking.
00:43:04I found a terrific new specialist who's promised to keep me away from hospitals and the cost
00:43:08of carry-on matron at all costs.
00:43:10Are you two off to the Canaries again this afternoon?
00:43:12Yeah, but no rush if the pair of you have still got things to discuss.
00:43:16That's no sweat.
00:43:17I'll, um, grab myself a coffee and wait for you in the car.
00:43:29Yes.
00:43:30Sorry about Charlotte, you were saying.
00:43:31Hang on a sec.
00:43:33Yeah, well, I can't exactly make a move, can you, under those circumstances, even if
00:43:52you wanted to.
00:43:54Meaning what?
00:43:58Because you haven't resolved this thing between you and, um...
00:44:00Oh, I don't know.
00:44:03I suppose Maddy's more like...
00:44:07You know when you get a comfy old sweatshirt that you're happy to just keep putting on day
00:44:11after day?
00:44:12Hmm?
00:44:13It's like it's not something you even bother to think about.
00:44:30So, I guess we say nothing to Charlotte for the time being, about your switcheroo theory.
00:44:43Could just do her head in.
00:44:45I suppose I'm going to be picking tons of glass out of here now forevermore.
00:44:50A hundred and fifty quid for a new window, they're like rubbery.
00:44:55Got a Coke with that, by the way?
00:44:56I could murder a black coffee.
00:44:57Coke.
00:44:58Coke.
00:44:59Oh, she's making a Aussie.
00:45:01That's a good one.
00:45:02You're smashing that box.
00:45:03Oh, she's taking a break, I can't believe.
00:45:04Oh, here we go.
00:45:05The blue one, I can do it.
00:45:06Take, your girl.
00:45:07I'm going to be looking for a new one.
00:45:08You're doing everything.
00:45:09I'm very, very careful.
00:45:10I'm going to be taking a break.
00:45:11You're going to be taking a break and a break.
00:45:12I'm going to be taking a break.
00:45:13Okay.
00:45:14I'm going to take care of your outfit.
00:45:15What's going to be?
00:45:16I'm going to be taking a break.
00:45:17Good.
00:45:18So, that's when I'm dropping it.
00:45:19I'm out of the way.
00:45:20I'm going to walk away.
00:45:22I didn't know you.
00:45:23Why'd you just do that?
00:45:34Sorry?
00:45:36Lock your door when you saw me.
00:45:39Um...
00:45:39He's an ugly-looking pile of shit.
00:45:41I'd better lock my door because he tries anything.
00:45:44Right?
00:45:45Well, I don't like the look of you, either.
00:45:49As it happens.
00:45:50I said, do you want to get out and discuss it?
00:45:54Hmm?
00:45:55I said, do you want to get out and discuss it?
00:45:59I said, do you want to get out and discuss it?
00:46:04What?
00:46:04Cheering!
00:46:06Come on!
00:46:07Get out of there!
00:46:08Hold on!
00:46:19That's it.
00:46:20And very gently...
00:46:23Out you come.
00:46:31What's your game?
00:46:32This.
00:46:33What's yours?
00:46:33Tiddlywinks?
00:46:34Now piss off before I nick the pair of you.
00:46:36Oh, you've got a bitch.
00:46:48Not again!
00:46:50So then, Mr. Creek.
00:46:52Claustrophobic woman in a lift?
00:46:54No signature on the suicide note?
00:46:56What do we think?
00:46:57Morella was really Beryl.
00:46:59Which may affect the motives, if not the mechanics of this crime.
00:47:03You think it was a crime?
00:47:05Well, these are very murky waters.
00:47:08And if I know anything about anything, I'll retain a friend, Mr. Precops, at the source of it all.
00:47:12Of course, we've had to release him again for now.
00:47:15But he'll give himself away sooner or later.
00:47:18Oh, yes.
00:47:19And a possible lead on the riddle of the limping man.
00:47:22Been squatting in some kiddie's homemade den, apparently, out in the woods.
00:47:25A little bit of detective work.
00:47:28We should have a name for him within a day or two.
00:47:29Heh.
00:47:53What?
00:47:54I'm telling you.
00:47:55Look at you.
00:48:00You've got half a windscreen down here.
00:48:03So where is it you are now?
00:48:04I've lost track.
00:48:04City University?
00:48:06Doing a postgraduate degree course in cytology.
00:48:09Staring down a lot of microscopes, basically.
00:48:12Until I find a teaching job, son.
00:48:14Oh, hold still.
00:48:15Got another couple of bits down your waist, though.
00:48:17I know.
00:48:18It's amazing where they all get to.
00:48:19Careful, Jonathan.
00:48:20Just tip them upside down over the sink.
00:48:22What I do in my electric toaster.
00:48:23What in hell's name?
00:48:29It's okay.
00:48:29It's just father firing off a few rounds.
00:48:32Thought he'd have had enough of guns for this week.
00:48:35Find something to do.
00:48:37Displacement activity, I suppose.
00:48:38I'm going to go mad.
00:48:39So, I think you said something about scrapbooks, Jonathan?
00:48:57Jonathan?
00:48:59Jonathan?
00:49:01Oh, yeah.
00:49:02Those press cuttings of your mother's upstairs.
00:49:07That's a bit of a fly, but sometimes these things can spark a thought.
00:49:11Oh, of course.
00:49:12You know you're around.
00:49:13You've known him quite a few years now.
00:49:22There was a time once I thought, definitely, it's going to happen.
00:49:30We'd had this really fantastic evening together.
00:49:35You know when you just get a feeling about someone.
00:49:39I virtually offered myself to him on a plate that night.
00:49:44But then, for whatever reason, he just made a polite excuse.
00:49:49There you go.
00:49:52At the end of the day, I suppose I wasn't his type.
00:49:55I suppose.
00:49:56Now, Charlotte, a couple more tiny points I'd like to catch up on.
00:49:59Would you mind?
00:50:00Oh, my God.
00:50:30Darling, be tender
00:50:39Tender to this poor guy
00:50:47A love that will never end
00:50:51A love that can never die
00:50:58This was at number 23 in the hip parade
00:51:01The day we first met
00:51:04You know, people, whenever they hear it
00:51:08Say it makes them want to weep
00:51:10Yes, take it off, would you please?
00:51:13It's upsetting me
00:51:15A love enshrined in everything we do
00:51:20Um, Charlotte, that pot of Earl Grey you mentioned earlier on
00:51:23Oh, sorry
00:51:25Yes, I'll get the kettle on
00:51:26Mr. Belenitis, I wonder if...
00:51:31What, sir?
00:51:32Sorry
00:51:34This has nothing to do with your wife's death
00:51:37But I wonder if you'd do me a quick favour
00:51:40I wonder if you see how?
00:51:42What if you'd like to do?
00:51:42You run?
00:51:43Yes, look at it
00:51:56What if you'd like to do with your wife's death?
00:51:59I suppose Maddy's more like, looks like, a comfy old sweatshirt.
00:52:18Go on.
00:52:19That you're happy to just keep putting on day after day.
00:52:24Thanks. That's been educational.
00:52:29Ah, hello. He's got that look we all know and love. What you found?
00:52:36Enough to suggest that someone's done something amazingly clever here.
00:52:40And at the same time, unutterably stupid.
00:52:44Mr. Bellonitis, the man you saw with your wife in the garden, when he ran away, can you remember which leg he was limping on?
00:52:50Well, I think...
00:52:52Yes, he was dragging the left leg as he went. With the weight on the right.
00:52:57And? That tells us what?
00:52:59Nothing, for the moment. But it could tell us everything.
00:53:05Huh.
00:53:07Tear.
00:53:07I wonder sometimes whether we're going too deep here.
00:53:25This whole thing isn't just a pack of lies dreamed up by our friend, Mr. Bellonitis.
00:53:34Can you really take the word of a man named after an inflammation of the foreskin?
00:53:39But then, why invent a story that's so patently ridiculous no one's ever going to believe it?
00:53:45Oh, but the lamp.
00:53:57Oh, but the lamp.
00:54:01You know, sometimes, Sergeant, I could be such a ninny.
00:54:10OK, well, thanks for all your help. Again. I imagine we'll be back in touch before the week...
00:54:16What was that? A bat?
00:54:18That's the second one I've seen today. What are they doing, flying around in January?
00:54:23Hey, listen, I've had a thought. If you've got to get back to London, why don't I run Jonathan home?
00:54:29We can cut across country, only take 40 minutes.
00:54:30You reckon?
00:54:31Save you going to Timbuktu and back.
00:54:33Right. Thanks. I'll just get my coat.
00:55:03No!
00:55:33Two hours thirty-seven.
00:55:37Take off one fifty-six for dinner at the pub.
00:55:43It's exactly forty-one minutes.
00:55:46You'll slip in.
00:55:48Oh yes, this is all very Jonathan.
00:55:55Décor, I'm guessing.
00:55:58Victoriana?
00:55:59With posters of Maskelyne and Cook round the walls.
00:56:04Yeah, well...
00:56:09Maybe some other time.
00:56:11Beg your pardon?
00:56:20Sorry Jonathan, I couldn't scrounge a bed for the night.
00:56:29Look, alright.
00:56:36It's bad enough I get home to the seven plagues of Egypt without you giving me a hard time.
00:56:40I just thought maybe I could be useful here tonight, that's all.
00:56:44What as? A contraceptive?
00:56:46As a sounding board.
00:56:48In case you want to discuss stuff.
00:56:50I suppose you'd have just got into the bed and spent the entire night being eaten alive.
00:56:54Chance would be a fine thing.
00:56:56Talk about a winning line on your lottery ticket.
00:56:58There's skid marks out there now.
00:56:59We should go and get home quick enough.
00:57:01God, what are you like?
00:57:02I don't know, Jonathan.
00:57:03What am I like?
00:57:04A comfy old sweatshirt?
00:57:06You're happy to keep putting on day after day?
00:57:09Or a pair of underpants?
00:57:11You can't be bothered to change for a month.
00:57:16How did you...?
00:57:17Baffling, isn't it?
00:57:22And now I've got your undivided attention,
00:57:24you can tell me what it was you found in that scrapbook this afternoon
00:57:27that suddenly put a spring in your step.
00:57:32It may be nothing. I don't know.
00:57:38A magazine piece about 16 years ago.
00:57:40A guy went round to her house to do an interview
00:57:44and was treated to an impromptu illusion
00:57:47in which Miss Carney turned a Rolls Royce into a Porsche before his very eyes.
00:57:51So?
00:57:55There's the shape of something here that's breathtakingly impressive,
00:57:59but I really need to sit down with it for a while.
00:58:03So, our current thinking is what?
00:58:05The whole shebang was premeditated?
00:58:08A murder that was made to look like a suicide?
00:58:11Or a suicide that was made to look like a suicide?
00:58:14What?
00:58:16Look, if you stop and think about the footprints,
00:58:20there was only one set going up to the body.
00:58:23But what's to stop someone very carefully walking back the same way,
00:58:28retracing their steps?
00:58:30Ordinarily nothing, but that's not what he said.
00:58:31He said the guy ran off into the woods.
00:58:33There was no time for all that, anyway.
00:58:36Remember, he never took his eyes off her from the moment she shut herself.
00:58:39All right. How do we confirm her real identity?
00:58:42It would be a help if we knew where that Hannah
00:58:43and her friend with her magic fingers are buggered off to.
00:58:46Presumably found some other gullible character by now
00:58:48who's looking for a miracle cure and got more money than sense.
00:58:56Terrific news specialist who's promised to keep him away from hospitals.
00:58:59Oh, no, even he will.
00:59:02What?
00:59:04Who are we talking about now?
00:59:06That's Sunday night.
00:59:08There's no show.
00:59:10I wonder if they do house calls.
00:59:11It's a private function.
00:59:12Can anyone join in?
00:59:13What in the hell's name?
00:59:14For God's sake, Adam, you of all people.
00:59:15Mr Lau, we've heard so much about you, we just had to come and see for ourselves.
00:59:16It's a private function. Can anyone join in?
00:59:17What in the hell's name?
00:59:18For God's sake, Adam, you of all people.
00:59:19Mr Lau, we've heard so much about you, we just had to come and see for ourselves.
00:59:20Wow.
00:59:21It's a private function. Can anyone join in?
00:59:23What in the hell's name?
00:59:25For God's sake, Adam, you of all people.
00:59:26Mr Lau, we've heard so much about you, we just had to come and see for ourselves.
00:59:42ourselves. Wow. Clock that, Adam. Whipped out your gallstones before he's even touched
00:59:53you. How do you do that? Sorry, Hannah. We were rather anxious to catch up with you
01:00:01for a word about the death of Mirella Carney. My God. He hadn't heard.
01:00:10They, uh, read about my condition, gave me a call. I just... Look, there are many facets
01:00:16to science, spirituality, which we don't fully comprehend. I'm just trying to keep an open
01:00:20mind. Does it make me stupid? I'll be in my room. So, setting aside your little scheme
01:00:31of taking shallow show business types to the cleaners, what we're really interested in
01:00:35is what happened that night between you and your mother. We are talking about your mother.
01:00:40Aren't we? You see it as taking them to the cleaners, but there's a very positive, life-affirming
01:00:47role to our work. Often, if a patient believes himself to be cured...
01:00:51Yes, I think we can skip the sales talk. Let's just say there was a profit motive to your visit,
01:00:56starting with your first port of call when you went to see Aunty Mirella and Uncle Jerry.
01:01:01Only when you got there, it wasn't Aunty Mirella that you saw.
01:01:05She fooled the rest of the world for 15 years.
01:01:14I guess she knew it wouldn't take me 15 seconds.
01:01:17You can't describe what goes through your head at a moment like that.
01:01:32Joy.
01:01:35My mother had just come back from the dead.
01:01:38Joy would have been good.
01:01:39But I didn't feel joy.
01:01:43Anna.
01:01:44I felt...
01:01:45Maybe this is weird.
01:01:47I'm sorry.
01:01:48Maybe it isn't.
01:01:49Why?
01:01:50Cheated.
01:01:51In the name of God.
01:01:53How dare she put me through the wringer.
01:01:55Stand.
01:01:56Deny me her own existence.
01:01:58All those years.
01:02:00Oh, if you'd been there.
01:02:02Oh, he'd been there.
01:02:06What else was I going to do?
01:02:09That's when she took me back to that morning in September.
01:02:13The saw was real enough.
01:02:15Trick relied upon a second false blade taking over when it hit the harness.
01:02:19But for whatever reason, that's not the way it happened.
01:02:32Dkm, If...
01:02:33of COURSE
01:02:46Ч reaches Whichever
01:02:49Are you still alive?
01:02:51Cantersen.
01:02:52Saint Lavenz
01:02:53plays
01:02:555
01:02:57sequences
01:02:583
01:02:59f
01:03:02For a minute I couldn't speak, hear, feel, and then, through that explosion of horror,
01:03:29I saw the horror that was still to come.
01:03:32I had maybe half a minute to make a decision that would last a lifetime.
01:03:46I had the power to make her mother survive.
01:03:52Was that so wrong?
01:04:08To restore that life to them.
01:04:12And you didn't think of me.
01:04:14You gave me no reason to think of you.
01:04:15The life that I would lose.
01:04:17Where were you, anyway? Floating down a river somewhere with a needle in your arm.
01:04:21And you didn't think that I might grow up?
01:04:23I didn't know if I still had a daughter.
01:04:25I might suddenly need you and you wouldn't be there.
01:04:28No, all you can do is hate me.
01:04:30For what you did, you can rot in hell.
01:04:36Hannah!
01:04:39Please.
01:04:44Next day I had to put some distance between us.
01:04:48Try and get my head round it all.
01:04:51Now you're saying she's dead?
01:04:54I'm sorry if I can't.
01:05:01You see, to me, she was never alive.
01:05:05I don't know.
01:05:24I feel like I'm getting snow blindness on this now.
01:05:27Where do we go from here?
01:05:29That's a very good question.
01:05:32Which I suspect can only be answered by someone from the local wildlife trust.
01:05:36Give me that again.
01:05:38Why do you think there were bats flying in winter?
01:05:42When this is all over, I'm going to open a sweet shop.
01:05:46I've decided.
01:05:47With those big jars of humbugs and barley sugars.
01:05:51It's got to be an easier life.
01:05:53What is a hibernaculum, anyway?
01:05:56The place where animals hibernate.
01:05:59In this case, a disused water reservoir.
01:06:02Which, if the directions that guy on the phone gave us, are correct.
01:06:08Yep.
01:06:16Something or someone disturbed those bats, woke them up and drove them out of their hidey hole.
01:06:23Someone who was driven out of his own hidey hole earlier in the day.
01:06:28I just asked for a few hours on the floor.
01:06:30When it was a kid in the day.
01:06:31I had a meal at the front.
01:06:32This place was facing the sky.
01:06:33It was so nice that I was able to take the door.
01:06:35The floor is very comfortable and to makeいく the emptiness.
01:06:38It was crowded.
01:06:40I was very moved in.
01:06:43You are very good.
01:06:45I've got a chicken.
01:06:48You are very hungry.
01:06:50I've got a chicken.
01:06:51I've got a chicken.
01:06:52I've got a chicken.
01:06:54You're very hungry.
01:06:55You're very hungry.
01:06:57I don't know.
01:07:27I don't know.
01:07:57I don't know.
01:08:07Point me to the sherbet lemons.
01:08:11Thank you, Jonathan, for letting me share that experience which has not advanced our cause.
01:08:16One iota!
01:08:17Quite the reverse, in fact.
01:08:22We've just found out how the entire illusion was worked.
01:08:25Didn't you see which leg he was limping on?
01:08:35...
01:08:36...
01:08:41...
01:08:44BIRDS CHIRP
01:09:14E-mail to be from Kelford, sir. Looks hopeful.
01:09:18Where? Where, where, where, where, where, where, where? Yes!
01:09:23ID trace on Toothcrown. Here we go.
01:09:27Shows what can be achieved with a concentration of resources and good old-fashioned legwork.
01:09:32Re above inquiry, have successfully managed to identify, got him,
01:09:36the most elusive and no doubt significant figure in this entire cockeyed affair.
01:09:42And his name is...
01:09:44Whatever I was expecting, it's fair to say I wasn't expecting that.
01:09:55Sorry, Inspector. I know you probably snowed under with...
01:09:57No, no, no. Come in. Come in. This could hardly be more fortuitous.
01:10:00Only we think we've made a bit of a breakthrough.
01:10:03And isn't it a great feeling when that happens?
01:10:05I think I mentioned our little lead on the limping man.
01:10:08Well, it appears to have paid off.
01:10:09We've just this very second learned his name and address.
01:10:11Are you kidding?
01:10:21Is this a joke?
01:10:27No. I can't hear anyone laughing.
01:10:30You can only assume that I'm deadly serious.
01:10:31Please.
01:10:40The results of our inquiry suggest that you are the owner of this pre-molar crown
01:10:44found on the floor of that kiddy's den out in the woods.
01:10:46Yeah. Well, they would do.
01:10:54You know when you gave me that toffee in the car?
01:10:56Well, one bite lifted the thing clean out.
01:11:00I remember sticking it in a matchbox from your glove compartment
01:11:02and I thought I'd put it in my pocket.
01:11:06Guess when the guy broke in for his papers to light a fire,
01:11:08he must have taken that as well and then found there were no matches in it.
01:11:13Sorry about that.
01:11:16Could have saved your guys a lot of time and trouble.
01:11:19Probably.
01:11:21Probably.
01:11:22All right.
01:11:26It looks as if we're going to have to open up a second front on this gentleman now, then.
01:11:30Actually, I don't think that would be necessary, Inspector.
01:11:34You're on the level about this.
01:11:37I'm just going to pop to the loo for a sec.
01:11:41Okay. What you got? Let's hear it.
01:11:50Hello?
01:11:50Hello?
01:11:52You're lying.
01:12:20You spend your life lying to people.
01:12:24You lied to us before.
01:12:25You lied to my father.
01:12:26You're lying to me now.
01:12:28You can't bury the truth forever.
01:12:30I'm sorry if it hurts.
01:12:31Hurts!
01:12:32You're asking me to believe that half my life never existed.
01:12:35None of that was real ever since I was 12.
01:12:41No.
01:12:41You can't take her away from me like that.
01:12:46I'm sorry now.
01:12:47In death, at least, I think I have a right to reclaim my own mother.
01:12:52If you would all just like to come through and wait, I think he's upstairs.
01:13:21Jerry, pro-am detective time.
01:13:24Charlotte, I'm not sure about her.
01:13:26You haven't seen her on your travels.
01:13:29She's in the back garden, collecting her thoughts.
01:13:33We were just leaving, actually.
01:13:37I've said all I came to say.
01:13:38But you might be interested to hear what we've got to say.
01:13:41If we could just hang on to you for a few more minutes.
01:13:42Something's wrong.
01:13:51Sorry?
01:13:52Just got a feeling.
01:13:52Come on.
01:13:53Come on.
01:14:23Somebody do something!
01:14:46I suppose it's part of the ritual.
01:14:56We all have to sit through this.
01:14:58My daughter should be in hospital.
01:15:01I just...
01:15:03It was like, what's the point anymore after that?
01:15:13I can see there's a lot for people to come to terms with here.
01:15:25A woman who, for 15 years, took on her sister's role as a wife and mother.
01:15:31A woman who became that wife and mother for all practical purposes, did it matter at the end of the day what name she was born with?
01:15:38Evidently, to one person in this room, it mattered enough to murder.
01:15:45The problem, though, how do you kill someone so it looks as if they'd done it themselves?
01:15:54Not once, but twice.
01:15:56First in the morning with an overdose, then again at four o'clock with a rifle.
01:16:01And more bafflingly, why?
01:16:04And what do we make of this mystery figure in the snow, this limping man?
01:16:09The last person, apparently, to speak to her before she died.
01:16:14As it turns out, not a lot.
01:16:19He was just some bloke, basically, living rough in the woods of a slightly nervous disposition with a dodgy leg.
01:16:25A man who had nothing to do with anything, and yet without whom we'd never have been able to lock this case up.
01:16:30Yes, of all the details, the dodgy leg was the clincher, just slightly ahead of that lamp in the conservatory.
01:16:42Of course, the flex hadn't been shortened at all.
01:16:46It was the table that had been moved further away.
01:16:49That much I'd fathomed, though why was still beyond me.
01:16:54No such thing as magic.
01:17:01It's hard to hang on to that thought, kind of stuff we've been seeing.
01:17:05Even when you know it's a lie.
01:17:08No one can perform invisible surgery with their hands.
01:17:12No one can walk out of a house when they're already dead and put a gun in their mouth.
01:17:15And no human being alive can run through four inches of snow without leaving any marks.
01:17:19The more you look at it, the more you realise we've been coming at it from the wrong angle.
01:17:26And the question is not, why weren't there any footprints?
01:17:30But why couldn't you see them?
01:17:33Answer, because you weren't looking in the right place.
01:17:45That trick with the car.
01:17:47Performed for the benefit of a journalist and his readers.
01:17:53Had an echo of something.
01:17:55The way he described it, she sat him in the conservatory.
01:17:59Rolled her outside the window.
01:18:02Flips and blinds about.
01:18:04Suddenly it's turned into a Porsche.
01:18:10Now there's two or three ways she could have worked that.
01:18:12But for speed and simplicity, only one that made any sense.
01:18:16Once you've got the key to it, that you're not looking through a pane of glass anymore.
01:18:22But that's a mirror, reflecting a different part of the garden entirely.
01:18:28All things are possible.
01:18:30You look at the almost perfect symmetry of the grounds.
01:18:33It must have worked a treat.
01:18:34Of course, the observer has to be carefully placed for the eyeline.
01:18:39Hence the hastily repositioned chair and table and the lamp lead that no longer reach the socket.
01:18:45A bit more time, that could have been sorted out.
01:18:46But then the killer had only dreamed the whole thing up the night before.
01:18:49I had the power to make her mother survive.
01:18:54But you didn't think of me.
01:18:56You gave me no reason to the life that I would lose.
01:18:59Where were you, anyway?
01:19:01Floating down a river somewhere with a beautiful...
01:19:03You can trash me from here to eternity, but you can't nail me for her death.
01:19:27Not now.
01:19:29Not ever.
01:19:29But I don't think we'd have a hard time pinning a motive on you, would we, Mr Preckop?
01:19:34When you learned the truth that night, what she'd done, you went down like a cup of cold sick.
01:19:39The truth?
01:19:40Well, yes, of course.
01:19:42One had always suspected, many times over the years.
01:19:47But still, the shock of hearing it confirmed.
01:19:55Hearing the tears and the histrionics.
01:19:58How the decision had been forced on her.
01:20:00All in the space of a few seconds.
01:20:02If you believe that, you'll believe anything.
01:20:10Look at what she had to gain.
01:20:12And tell me that was an accident.
01:20:15Her own life was a mess.
01:20:17Her marriage was a Greek tragedy.
01:20:19She'd lost her only daughter.
01:20:20But you can't seriously suggest...
01:20:23What you're saying is just...
01:20:27Pure evil.
01:20:29Because you were blinded by her love.
01:20:32For you, for Charlotte.
01:20:34Don't you see?
01:20:35That was the secret to it.
01:20:38That was the whole reason for it.
01:20:40Whatever the truth, you made up your mind.
01:20:45Mirella was murdered and it was time for justice.
01:20:48And when you remembered that old trip with a mirror, it all fell into place.
01:20:52Well, of course, the notion of using one of her own props against her seemed...
01:20:57deliciously apt.
01:21:00So, what happens?
01:21:06You dig the thing out and install it.
01:21:13A little adjustment with the chair.
01:21:14Everything's in place.
01:21:23Using one of Jerry's guns, you perform the deed.
01:21:30It's all had a couple of coats that are a pretty close match.
01:21:35One for her.
01:21:36One for you.
01:21:57Alarm all set.
01:21:58Should you nod off, okay?
01:22:00I'm off to the woodshed now to do some woodking.
01:22:04So now the body's safely masked behind the mirror.
01:22:11So at four o'clock, when Jerry wakes up,
01:22:14what he'll see is a distant hooded figure, yourself,
01:22:19clearly taking her own life with a rifle.
01:22:22He'll dash off to get help, ring the police, whatever,
01:22:25during which you'll back into the house around the other side to remove the evidence.
01:22:28What do you do with me?
01:22:29Only now came the first of several unforeseen screw-ups.
01:22:36A couple of minutes to four, local hobo appears.
01:22:39What are you doing here?
01:22:41I don't know, trying to catch a couple of quid or a loaf of bread or something,
01:22:44and has to be scared off, sharpish.
01:22:48Get out!
01:22:49Go!
01:22:51And you can't take it.
01:22:53Keep going.
01:22:54But with a bit of luck, you didn't see him.
01:22:58Your alarm hasn't gone off yet.
01:23:00And the act proceeds as planned.
01:23:06No!
01:23:06Of course, instead of disappearing back into the house, he goes outside.
01:23:16Guy can hardly walk.
01:23:18That wasn't meant to happen either.
01:23:20Still not too much of a problem.
01:23:22He doesn't think to look behind him, even if he did.
01:23:25What's he going to make of another load of footprints on the other side of the garden?
01:23:28You've managed to get round in time just the same.
01:23:42The mirror's removed.
01:23:44And rather helpfully, it's already starting to snow again.
01:23:48Jerry!
01:23:50At this point, you think you've pulled it off.
01:23:53She's been seen committing suicide.
01:23:55You've literally got away with murder.
01:23:56And then that one little detail you could have done without.
01:24:02When you found out that your victim had already killed herself.
01:24:07Not the first thought to cross your mind, probably.
01:24:10When you went in there as she was taking a midday nap.
01:24:14That the woman lying there was already dead.
01:24:26What kind of guilt was it, do you suppose, in the end?
01:24:32That drove her to it?
01:24:36The shame of what she'd done to her daughter.
01:24:41Or what she'd done to her sister.
01:24:44What did she really want us to forgive her for?
01:24:49So anytime you want to, pop in for a cuppa.
01:24:59I suppose I'll be haunted forever now by limping men.
01:25:02Is the only thing I could think of that would seal it?
01:25:05If he was limping on the right leg when we saw him and the left leg the other day, it had to be a reflection.
01:25:10If a credit where credit's due, you'd sniffed him out from the off.
01:25:13Well done.
01:25:14With that lie about her calling through the door when she was obviously dead.
01:25:17As I said, like dung on a donkey.
01:25:21What are you going to charge him with?
01:25:24Possession of an offensive haircut?
01:25:26Oh, we'll think of something.
01:25:31Look after yourselves.
01:25:31All right.
01:25:43Go on, then.
01:25:44What?
01:25:45Adam's apple?
01:25:46What are you talking... That's just the way she was swallowing.
01:25:48Oh, don't be so ridiculous!
01:25:50I can see it now. It's as plain as day.
01:25:53Twenty quid says you're wrong.
01:25:55All right.
01:25:58Jonathan Creek.
01:26:01Oh, you are joking.
01:26:06You've got to be...
01:26:07What?
01:26:10Adam. He's been rushed to hospital.
01:26:13Gaulestones?
01:26:13His bride-to-be tried to beat him to death with a poker.
01:26:19Well, I never learned, Jonathan, to read those signs.
01:26:22What happened?
01:26:24Our first prenuptial adventure.
01:26:26She steps out of the shower, naked before me for the very first time.
01:26:30And suddenly...
01:26:32Do you know what I'm staring at?
01:26:34I think we've got a shrewd idea.
01:26:36To find threaded through an intimate area of your fiancé's body a ring...
01:26:40It's challenging enough.
01:26:43To find threaded upon that ring...
01:26:46A small, nickel-plated swastika...
01:26:49...takes me somewhere I don't want to go.
01:26:52You're not serious.
01:26:54It appears the blonde, blue-eyed Elsa was of more conservative stock than I imagined.
01:27:00A Nazi.
01:27:03And suddenly, all those black shirts were making sense.
01:27:08At that point, things got kind of ugly.
01:27:11Anti-fascist polemic does not make for great foreplay.
01:27:13And she began sadistically beating me with fireside equipment.
01:27:18Well, I suppose we'd better make a move.
01:27:19Okey-dokey, Mr. Clouse.
01:27:21What's this?
01:27:21A conjuring trick that went wrong?
01:27:24You keep sticking swords into young ladies, they're bound to turn nasty.
01:27:28I wonder if we ought to strap him down, nurse.
01:27:30You never know with these magicians.
01:27:32They might start flying around the room or something.
01:27:34Now then.
01:27:36I've got some gallstones as well, I see.
01:27:39Looks like you'll be with us for a day or two.
01:27:40Listen, Jonathan, there's something she said to me yesterday, Charlotte,
01:27:46when she was talking about you, that...
01:27:49Well, if I don't pass it on, it's going to be on my conscience forever, so...
01:27:56She's never actually said this to you herself, in so many words, but...
01:28:04You're really not her type.
01:28:07Sorry.
01:28:10Probably as well.
01:28:15Who needs all that latent hysteria, anyway?
01:28:19First sign of trouble, string yourself up from an oak tree.
01:28:21Well, you couldn't be dealing with it.
01:28:25Exactly.
01:28:28So, I suppose you've still got nowhere to sleep at night.
01:28:30Do you mind?
01:28:30How long do they reckon it's going to take, then, these exterminators?
01:28:35Days?
01:28:36Weeks?
01:28:36We could be talking millennium here.
01:28:38They're right.
01:28:39Would I lie to you?
01:28:40And here's Preston!
01:28:42Oh, dear.
01:28:43What went wrong?
01:28:44He's still here.
01:28:45I think his powers have failed him.
01:28:46We'll have to use the lift.
01:28:48Oh, God!
01:28:50God!
01:29:12Oh, God!
01:29:17Oh, God!
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