I am not a fan of the condensed one off P. D. James adaptations, not least because it cuts out so much of the depth in character and build up of the situation that involved you in the mystery. With this adaptation it matter not one jot because the writers seem to of disregarded the novel altogether to write their own mystery and just keep the title of the book A Mind To Murder. That novel was an early one from the pen of P. D. James, but quite an enjoyable one, where Dalgliesh stumbles upon a body at a clinic after hearing a scream when at a party. Here the only similarity is the actual body in the basement, as all else has inexplicably been changed - including that of the murderer! You won't find out who did it in this adaptation - trouble is, you won't find much of anything from the book in this!
In this version, it begins with Dalgliesh at a stakeout by a warehouse awaiting backup by Special Branch as he looks to rescue a kidnap victim. When it comes through that backup will be delayed, his eager female sidekick DS Sarah Hillier decides to charge in herself. When Dalgliesh eventually goes in after her, he discovers the kidnap victim trussed up, a dead man lying in a sleeping bag and when he looks over the rail he sees his sidekick lying dead on the floor with a balaclava wearing gunman standing over her looking up at Dalgliesh. As one reviewer pointed out, why not just shoot him instead of letting him run away? As it is, the higher brass would like the case closed, but Dalgliesh is on a mission to find her killer and know what is going on (wouldn't we all?). As it is, they have a urgent job for him to investigate that needs hush hush treatment - a murder of one of the doctors at a clinic for assorted oddballs (or the Steen Clinic for psychiatric patients, as they phrase it). I can imagine the rebranding going on there. "No, you can't call it that. You have to set the patients' mind at rest. It's no longer the Funny Farm, it's called the Lunatic Asylum." And would you believe it, when Dalgliesh gets there he believes he has spotted the mysterious balaclava wearing assassin that killed his sidekick among the patients. What are the chances of that, eh?
And boy, it's some madhouse! The clinic treats a variety of patients of different conditions and neurosis, such as the mentally fragile Estelle, a former budding singer, split personality Philip Tippett, who stabbed his mother (but not badly, you understand) and alcoholic depressive Neil Casey, who Dalgliesh is convinced is his sidekick's mysterious assassin. But dominating the lot is George Costigan's Mr Cheeseman as the snide, pernickety tattletale, who is a former treasurer to the government who has suffered a mental breakdown - after watching this, it's understandable! I usually like George Costigan as he can enliven many a show even when it is bad (the depressingly dreary Master of The Moor comes to mind). But here his character is so irritating that he just grates and you yearn for him to meet a nasty fate. While he does indeed receive a nasty shock (so to speak) during the mystery, the fact that he survives to the end is a big mark against this mystery for me. They are the only four psychiatric patients believed to have a motive for killing Diane Boland, the doctor found stabbed with a chisel in the basement with a wooden effigy resting on top of her. However, her character apparently was a stickler for the rules and a busybody, and as such the staff are just as much in the frame, with Doctors Bageley and Saxon having an affair, while her cousin and one of the nurses at the clinic Sister Ambrose was desperate for money to look after her ailing mother. There is even a suggestion of lesbianism in Boland's deep affection towards young receptionist Jennifer Priddy suggested by one suspect, but that is later regarded as more maternal than sexual. Finally, there is clinic boss Professor Etheredge, who is cool but amiable to Dalgliesh, but because he is played by Frank Finlay with his piercing eyes you doubt just a little bit whether you can trust him - especially when he gets somewhat cagey about showing Dalgliesh private files of his patients (or rather, one of his patients).
It's really hard to know what to make of this (basically new) mystery adaptation. It's never really explains why top brass asked Dalgliesh to take on the case, especially as they deny knowing that the suspect in the death of Dalgliesh's sidekick would be at the clinic. David Hemmings makes a pointless and somewhat brief appearance as a government official who asks Dalgliesh to close the case after another death of one of the clinic members, while the suspected assassin Neil Casey is also somewhat of an enigma. That he is connected to Special Branch or high office is apparent, but that is all is really given away. In one scene when Dalgliesh first questions him, he mentions that he is at the clinic for his nerves and depression, and asks if Dalgliesh has ever been frightened. He also denies killing Dalgliesh's sidekick Sarah Hillyard, but that only makes things more baffling. Did he go in on Special Branch orders unbeknownst to Dalgliesh and kill the man in the sleeping bag because he killed Hillyard when she raced in? Or did he kill Hillyard out of fear because she surprised him? Even so, that doesn't make sense because of the dead man in the sleeping bag. If he killed the kidnapper, what has he to fear from Hillyard? Or is he, like Dalgliesh suspects, the actual kidnapper now apparently wracked by guilt? It's a mess of a problem that is never satisfactorily explained.
The actual murder of Diane Boland is a bit more easier to follow, but the general insanity of the place and lack of engaging personalities among many of the suspects make this hard to warm to. Dalgliesh does at least get two assistants to help him out in proceedings in DCI John Martin (Robert Pugh) and the unfortunately named DS Kim Horrocks (played by Susannah Corbett, daughter of Harry H, who holds herself well here). Christopher Ravenscroft (Insepctor Wexford's old sidekick) appears as the cynical alcoholic Dr Bageley, playing a slightly more 'cheery' - and bearded - version of Mike Burden, while Jerome Flynn pops up as a handyman to the clinic who also likes to keep his hands on receptionist Jennifer Priddy (Biddy Hodson). But the most notable performance comes from Cal MacAninch (from The Riff Raff Element) as Philip Tippett, who suffers from split personalities with someone he nicknames Frank and who he supplants that personality to the effigy which has been found on the dead woman. He is a more sympathetic character than many on display here, as his character becomes increasingly disturbed and worried that his "other" personality may take complete control over him one day. Another of note is Suzanne Burden in a less showy role as Sister Ambrose, making her character believable as a woman secretly troubled by her financial worries and her mother, as well as knowing that as the dead woman's cousin she is likely to be chief suspect in the murder case.
If you can bear the general oddness of the clinic this might make a passable mystery to the uninitiated. But I actually read the novel of this a few years AFTER first watching this, so I saw this without any concept of what the book was like and didn't think much of the TV adaptation even back then. The fact that it changes nearly everything of the novel makes it even more inexplicable, especially when considering how poor a job they make of writing a new mystery. There is yet another dramatic climax that seems to be the thing in P. D. James adaptations now (possibly to pander to audiences who expect a chase rather than a intelligent denoument), this time over mudflats and the treacherous prospects that entails. But it cannot disguise the fact that there are too many odd or unengaging characters and that it leaves so many questions unanswered. Indeed, there seems to be little point of the opening scene and of having Dalgliesh as some maudlin avenging angel - and he is particularly maudlin in this - if you are not going to explain just what on earth is going on with the balaclava assassin. They might as well of cut that plotline altogether, but I suspect they added that element in as just a plot filler to make up time because the story itself has little to sustain itself for it's reasonably brief running time. Overall, if they weren't going to do justice to P. D. James' original novel, then you just wonder why they bothered at all. Sadly, after watching this I wondered much the same.
