Something Old, Something New

A classic marriage perhaps in the Victorian era, where a 64 year old man in comfortable circumstance is about to marry a woman of 27, who is not so situated. The bride along with and her mother and sister have been forced to take on piece-work and the charity of a crazy uncle in order to avoid the Workhouse. However, that is only on the surface, the actual circumstances of their situation is far more intriguing.

Time and time again I read reviews on imdb where it is patently obvious that the reviewer has either not seen the whole (or any) of the film/TV episode or has viewed it sometime previous to writing the review and has forgotten or confused various plot points. When there is only one review for a particular piece then this becomes the.'Storyline' and that is a shame.

The plot of this episode of 'Cribb' is interesting in that Scotland Yard is not called in to investigate a crime but begins with the happenstance of Constable Thackeray standing in as a replacement Bestman for his aged father. This and the fact that Sergeant Cribb decides to accompany him lead on to the detection of a crime.

This episode blends the macabre sense of Victorian humour when dealing with death with an examination of how difficult it was at that time to establish an 'iron-clad' case in certain circumstances. Finally, Cribb gets to make a P. I. type decision, where he acts as judge and jury and takes it upon himself to make the punishment fit the crime.