8/10
An ingenious vintage mini-series from Francis Durbridge
10 December 2023
This 1966 mini-series for the BBC has been restored and its five episodes last two hours. Francis Durbridge (1912-1998) was one of the cleverest thriller writers. He is most famous for his character Paul Temple, Detective. Durbridge always comes up with more twists and turns and surprises than other writers. Here he does not disappoint. Dudley Foster brilliantly plays the dour police inspector who is trying to solve an impossible crime. The two plotters are Sylvia Sims and John Thaw, both very good. It is strange to see Thaw as a young man, so utterly different from the famous Inspector Morse which he later became. In this series, we have a dead man who comes to life, a dead man who then becomes dead, a schemer behind a schemer behind a schemer. And there is the mystery of what does 'Bat out of Hell' mean? It is inscribed on a woman's bracelet. Hard to figure. And then a woman who owns a sweet shop is murdered. Now why was that? Were her wine gums too strong? Or was her fudge not sweet enough? I doubt that anyone will figure this one out in advance, it is worse than a Rubik Cube.
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