BillontheCorner

It's not unusual for a mystery to produce three different suspects - it gives the detective a chance to find flaws in alibis and rehabilitate the reputations of the innocent suspects. The problem with this episode is that two of the suspects remain at large because they were innocent of this crime, but we now know enough about them to wonder how long it will be before they do commit murder.

Another implausible plot with entertaining byplay between the main characters, marred by a particularly unpleasant murder method.

Impossible to imagine James Murray as Chief Superintendent for this episode, but that just shows the writers and producers are more concerned to avoid racial stereotyping than gender stereotyping.

Very confusing to have DC Craig (the dozy Bristolian in Series 2) and DC Malik (his sharp-suited replacement for Series 3) appearing in consecutive scenes, not to mention other walk-ons in the "team" briefings! Perhaps Lily Sacofsky's other filming commitments explain why she wasn't given such clever observations to make in "true" Series 3, and thus didn't need a dim-sounding colleague to highlight her ability, but it's a shame that we have lost the only genuine West Country accent. Implausible story, but the exchanges about the two-hour gas boiler repair were entertaining.