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Wexford and Me

ITV3 2008 • George Baker reveals his favourite Wexford titles in ten short films produced by Daisybeck Productions.

  1. Shake Hands for Ever: How It All Began
  2. From Doon with Death: Most Difficult Subject
  3. The Mouse in the Corner: Most Original Storyline
  4. Simisola: Most Dramatic Episode
  5. A Sleeping Life: Finest Story Telling
  6. Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter: Best Location
  7. Some Lie and Some Die: Most Intriguing Crime
  8. The Best Man to Die: A Teasing Storyline
  9. Achilles Heel: Favourite Episode
  10. A Guilty Thing Surprised: Most Controversial Plot

The interesting thing about the Wexfords is that Ruth Rendell wrote a fantastic character and wonderful books. And, what you had to do—the character was there—I mean, she put him there, and you found him. And then, in each book, even before we started making the films, she challenged Wexford herself, in a political way, in a spiritual way, in a moral way, or in a family way. Because, of course, the family was so strong. What I had to find was how to put the cloak on really.

George Baker

How It All Began

Listen to Shake Hands for Ever: How It All Began
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My first choice is Shake Hands for Ever. It really fascinated me the way Ruth uses her clues where you can’t get the ending. It’s almost impossible. And yet, she doesn’t suddenly put in a new thing. You know that she has given you that clue three or four times before, but you’ve missed it, which is, of course, the power of a great crime writer.

George Baker
Wexford:
Lay off him? But I’ve got to talk to him. I’ve got no other line of inquiry.
Griswold:
I said, Lay off him. That is an order.

The books are set really in Midhurst. That’s really where they’re set. But TVS did them in Romsey, and it’s a sort of Hampshire accent that would be the one that would be best fitting if the man was born in Romsey, which Wexford was. He was a local man. So he just moved up through the school, and so on, and went into the police force, and moved up the police force. It was the local boy.

George Baker
Wexford:
Ah, There it is. Angela Hathall, 36, was last night found dead in her home in Wool Lane, Kingsmarkham. She had been strangled. The police are treating the case as murder. I don’t know, Mike, if Dora had been murdered, the last thing I’d want to do is to read about it in the papers. Yet I found Hathall scanning it very intently.

We all met, and then I opened my mouth and started. And that was the first time that anybody had ever heard it. Ruth Rendell was there. She was absolutely delighted with it. And John (Davies) was delighted, but said, you know, you have to tone it down. It’s too strong. So he kept a very wary eye on me going too far.

George Baker
Mrs Lake:
Are you important?
Wexford:
Well, I daresay I’ll do.
Mrs Lake:
Yes, I really think you might.

if you put on an accent and it’s too strong people will listen to the accent and not to what you’re saying. So he was absolutely right about that.

George Baker
Wexford:
Do you know Berry cottage?
Dora:
Berry cottage, where’s that?
Wexford:
Wool Lane. Do you think I’ve lost weight?
Dora:
Weigh yourself and see.
Wexford:
I don’t trust those scales. A man called Hathall lives there. His wife was murdered this afternoon.
Dora:
Oh dear. Is it going to be straightforward?
Wexford:
I don’t know yet. I wondered if you’d come across them.
Dora:
The only person I’ve ever come across from Wool Lane is that Mrs Lake.

Lovely thing about acting is that it develops because you are speaking to somebody. And of course, the amusing thing about all that is that Louie Ramsay, who played Dora, said to her agent, Oh, I can’t. There are only three lines. I can’t take this. And her agent said, Well, do take them because you never know what it may lead to. So we’re about to have our 13th wedding anniversary on September 25th.

George Baker
Dora:
You’re a snob, Reg Wexford and about your own nephew too.
Wexford:
What do you mean, a snob?
Dora:
just because he’s a higher rank than you are.
Wexford:
It’s nothing to do with it.
Dora:
And they live in a fashionable part of London.
Wexford:
Trendy.
Dora:
You see.

Most Difficult Subject

Listen to From Doon with Death: Most Difficult Subject
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We trace through the lesbianism. We have all sorts of red herrings. But finally, through poetry, Wexford gets the clue of what the story is about and who may have perpetrated the crime.

George Baker
Fabia:
I gazed, I touched your hair. Your eyes were closed. I knew it was too late.

And he very cleverly finds the murderer. And in the last scene, which is enormously touching, Liz Bennett really bares her soul to Wexford, telling him the emotional background to the whole story.

George Baker

Most Original Storyline

Listen to The Mouse in the Corner: Most Original Storyline
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Quite interestingly, I was asked by the Southampton police to go to a dinner night, which was an experience in itself, I can tell you, but it was a very good experience. The inspector sitting next to me told me this story about a case he had had where he had become very concerned for one of the protagonists who was a young woman.

George Baker
Wexford:
Are you playing semantics with me?
Arlene Peterlee:
Or I could be dead stupid.
Wexford:
Or dead clever
Arlene Peterlee:
Or dead clever.
Wexford:
I wonder just how clever you are being.

Now you give somebody like Ruth a story, and she kept about an infinitesimal part of it. All the rest was Ruth Rendell. In this, Ruth took one of her pet stories, which was wife beating. And we find that that had quite a lot to do with the murder.

George Baker
Joe Peterlee:
I always turn the light out.
Monica Peterlee:
Don’t put the light out, Joe. Please don’t put the light out. [MONICA SCREAMS]

It was directed by Rob Walker who’s an absolutely wonderful director. Tremendous with actors, loved actors. So you could really go out and get things. And he knew the technique of the camera backwards. And what he was able to do was just throw it away and do whatever he liked. And some of the shots in Mouse in the Corner are absolutely fabulous. Great big wide shots going into close-ups. And it was a tremendous atmosphere to work in.

George Baker

[A ram-raid scene]

With an author like Ruth, who is so rich in character, you have so many really, really good little cameos that she puts in for herself and her readers. But of course, you obviously can’t have them in there. One for financial reasons. Also, they get in the way of the story when the story is being told on the screen. And that is one of the saddest things in the world when you have to really cut away some things that might bring terrific laughs or add enormous colour.

George Baker
Eva Peterlee:
She’s too young for you.
Wexford:
Too young for what?
Eva Peterlee:
Oh hark at him. That’s a nice question to ask a senior citizen. Mind I don’t cast a spell on you.

Yes, it was nice that I found the story, although it didn’t end up being anything like the story I found. I still found the story.

George Baker

Most Dramatic Episode

Listen to Simisola: Most Dramatic Episode
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And in this quiet town of Kingsmarkham, Wexford’s GP retires and is replaced by Dr Akande, a black man. And Wexford who’s always thought of himself as the most liberal of men is unfazed by this and joins his panel. And that’s that. But the Akandes’ daughter goes missing, and Wexford sets out to look for her.

George Baker
Wexford:
I’m making inquiries about a claimant. Melanie Akande.
Leyton:
Come again?
Wexford:
Akande. A-K-A-N-D-E. It’s a Nigerian name. She had an appointment with this office at two-thirty on Tuesday. Mr Leyton, she hasn’t been seen since. Time is of the essence.
Leyton:
Should be in the system by now.
Wexford:
Good.

When he finds a black girl, a black body in the shallow grave on the hills, he assumes that this is the Akande daughter. And he has the Akande family come down to the mortuary to identify her. And there she is, lying there when they come. And Ellen Thomas, playing the mother, has a scene with Wexford which completely shatters him.

George Baker
Laurette Akande:
Is she like Melanie?
Dr Akande:
No.
Laurette Akande:
How dare you do that to us.
Wexford:
I deeply regret that this has happened.
Laurette Akande:
You deeply regret it. You deeply regret being caught out because you find a dead black girl. It’s got to be our girl because we’re black and we all look alike, don’t we?

This wakes Wexford up to himself, and this is what Ruth does all the time, which keeps the character so enormously fresh. Because he’s always having to think did I really do that? Do I really think this? Am I a racist? And if so, how did this happen? Because I would have sworn that I was not a racist. And Simisola is probably certainly one of the most powerful of the titles that we made and beautifully acted. Beautifully acted by both the Akande family.

George Baker
Dr Akande:
Two days now, total silence.
Laurette Akande:
We think it’s time to do this officially. Report her missing. Is there a procedure?
Wexford:
Well, forms to fill in, inevitably. One of you will have to come down to the station.

They found us a little house, the Akande house, where the room was tiny. And the three of us were in there, and of course, all the camera equipment. And it was unbelievably hot outside. And you really didn’t think that filming was a picnic.

George Baker
Laurette Akande:
You may not know this, Inspector Wexford, but black Africans are the most highly educated members of British society. We have high expectations of our children.

She’s tackled animal rights. She’s tackled road rage when they just come in and take the countryside over and start building roads over it. Nearly every single thing that she writes has another edge to it. She tackled pensions, benefits, nurses working hard and battered wives. Yeah, she really tackles it quite head-on.

George Baker

Finest Story Telling

Listen to A Sleeping Life: Finest Story Telling
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So nobody seems to know this woman. The next-door neighbour, played by my old friend Sylvia Syms, turned very blowsy for it and chain smoking and hard-drinking, said that she didn’t always live there, this woman. She seemed to live in London most of the time. She only visited her father in the hospital about once every three or four months, so she can’t understand why she’s been murdered.

George Baker
Mrs Crown:
So RIP Rhoda hey. That’s a turn-up.
Wexford:
Was it?
Mrs Crown:
It was to me. I’ll tell you something. You won’t get me down that footpath again in a hurry. It was a sex crime I take it?
Wexford:
I wouldn’t have thought so.
Mrs Crown:
Nor would I. The only thing she had in her draws was cobwebs.

Wexford goes deeper into it and has to go to London. And, of course, we use the railway, the old-fashioned steam railway at Alresford. And I almost missed the train. Have to rush in through the ticket office, run alongside the train, open the door and in. So I do it. And Bill Hayes, the director, said, Oh, George, could you make it a little bit more spectacular? And so, I had to give it a go. And I thought, right, you’ve asked for it. So I waited until the train got quite a lot of steam up. Ran after it. Opened the door and threw myself in. And there is poor Christopher Ravenscroft. Ashen. Absolutely ashen. Got hold of me. I said, It’s alright, we’re fine. We’re fine. He said, I’m not fine at all. I’m having a heart attack!

George Baker
Wexford:
Miss Flinders?
Polly Flinders:
Yes
Wexford:
Inspector Wexford, Kingsmarkham C.I.D. This is Mr Burden. May we ask you some questions?
Polly:
Yes.

It’s a marvellous story. And in it, we also had Imelda Staunton, who has got to be one of the finest actresses working in the country at the moment. And not only that, she’s a wonderful singer. She sang at the National and she sang Sondheim. She’s really an extraordinary talent. Quite extraordinary. We got on terribly well. We enjoyed working together. And we finally see the story through. And what we find is that Imelda Staunton’s character has fallen in love with her boss, a very well-known novelist in London.

George Baker
Wexford:
You are Mr West’s secretary?
Polly:
Part-time, yes.
Burden:
How long have you been doing it?
Polly:
two years.
Wexford:
When you were working for him … in his flat? Perhaps you presumably answer the phone?
Polly:
Sometimes.
Wexford:
let in his visitors? Amongst his friends, acquaintances, business associates, could there be anybody who could be conceivably this woman? Think carefully.

I leave you to guess if that novelist was the body they found on the towpath. A cross-dresser. And a love that Imelda Staunton couldn’t take. Maybe it was she that killed her. We find out in the police cell—which was shot in Winchester jail—and I have to say that jails are a little bit frightening. I’m awfully glad—touch wood—I haven’t had to be in one.

George Baker

Best Location

Listen to Kissing the Gunner's Daughter: Best Location
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My next story features the best and the worst location. It’s a lovely country house, Redlynch, outside Southampton. 15th Century Manor House. And it has all the atmosphere of generations and generations there in the big staircase, and the creaking, and absolutely made for drama. And outside, the outbuildings, stabling and all that. Mary McMurray, our director, said, Let’s use them. So the whole police set-up was put into it, and Sergeant Barry Vine, played by Sean Pertwee, set up all the computers and everything in there, and Burden really got into the computing and took it all on board … websites, god knows what else. And as Wexford said as he was passing through, it’s a pity you don’t use your brains. But that was a sort of tension between the forces there.

George Baker
Vine:
… Was five rounds being fired from a 44. From a black powder revolver sir.
Burden:
Martin was killed with a 44. calibre. I’m pretty sure that ballistics mentioned black powder then too.
Wexford:
Do they match?
Vine:
No.
Wexford:
That’s a shame.
Vine:
And the probability of it being the same weapon. So it works out to be 535 to 1, Sir.
Wexford:
How you’ve worked that out?
Vine:
Well, what it does is it looks up all the previous crimes and where they were committed.
Wexford:
Don’t tell me, don’t tell me.

We had three wonderful actors as the suspects. We had a gardener, and an American, and they kept attention going terribly well. Fast-speed cars, and you couldn’t tell quite what was going on. You didn’t know what the title meant until the very end … Kissing the Gunner’s Daughter. But the locations, the house provided this wonderful atmosphere, and because it was so big, all sorts of parts of the story could be shot in the same house, actually pretending to be other parts of another house. And so it was very compact.

George Baker
Pathologist:
I’ve heard it said that all women when they get old turn into either goats or monkeys. She was a monkey. I’d say, wouldn’t you? Not a sagging muscle to be seen.

While the house was in a splendid location. The woods were where we had a lot of night shooting. I think it was September-October time and the rains came. And, of course, the lane that we were shooting on was covered in leaves. And so not only did the actors and the crew slip everywhere, quite a lot of the cars skidded away as well. And in the middle of the night, you know it’s no fun if you are really wet and the car suddenly slides off the bank and comes straight at you when it’s not supposed to do so, and you’re not a stuntman. It’s quite unnerving. So, yes, that was the worst part of the location.

But the best part of the location was the house, and the best part of all is the story. The story is a very, very gripping story and quite frightening. And one or two of our cast swore they saw the ghost that the hostess told us was there. I personally didn’t see it, but there were one or two people who are much more sensitive than I am who swore that they saw this ghost going up the stairs. So that was what made quite a little feature of the shooting.

George Baker

Most Intriguing Crime

Listen to Some Lie and Some Die: Most Intriguing Crime
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My next choice is Some Lie and Some Die. A very intriguing story. It all happens around the periphery of a music festival, where we find a body. [THUNDERSTORM] In Kingsmarkham, is living, or has come down to live, a great star, played by Peter Capaldi, a very fine actor. But he’s also a good singer, because he actually stood up and sang in front of the audience of a real music festival crowd, and was very well received.

George Baker
Peter Capaldi [sings]:
Remember me in my life-without-life. Come once more to be my wife. Come today before I grieve. Enter the web of let-me-believe.

Again, our marvellous director Sandy Johnson was with us. He wasn’t satisfied that there were limits on where he could shoot, so he got our cameraman to go in handheld. He also got Christopher Ravenscroft and me walking in and out of the crowd, playing a scene, and seeing what it was all about. And you can imagine, I don’t know how many there were 20,000, I don’t know, people milling around, and here we were trying to act. And they were saying, Oh, fancy seeing you here. What are you doing here? Oi! Wexford! You know … what was going on. But Sandy wouldn’t relent. No, we had to do it that way.

George Baker
Wexford:
I liked the seventies. I never went to a music festival, but perhaps I should’ve. [DRUM BEATS] Want a hot dog?
Burden:
I’d rather have a pair of earplugs.

There was no tannoy announcement. And I think the Peter Capaldi song was right at the beginning of everybody coming in. They weren’t the whole crowd, so that was a bit easier. But there was no tannoy announcement, and they did not know we were filming. Except, of course, quite a lot of them had seen the Ruth Rendells, who had seen the Wexfords. And that’s why they recognised Christopher and me. And that’s why they made our lives so difficult. We said, please look away. Please don’t look at us. You know? Oh, no. Gawp, gawp.

George Baker
Wexford:
A girl has been murdered. [CROWD QUIETENS] Thank you. We do not know who she is. Nobody is to leave the Sundays estate until I give permission. [CROWD BECOMES ANGRY]
We shall be making further announcements shortly. Thank you.

if they know there is going to be quality at the end. I think actors want to work for quality, not just the money. They like to have something they’re proud of at the end of it. And I think the scripts were good. They knew they were working with top-flight directors and that the audience, you know, it was enormous. To recap on Achilles Heel, it was shown on Christmas Eve, and we burst the electrical grid. We’ve got 18 million viewers. That’s for a drama. Very, very seldom happens. And when they got up to make their tea, you see, they all switched on, and boom! … the grid went up.

George Baker

A Teasing Storyline

Listen to The Best Man to Die: A Teasing Storyline
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The next choice is The Best Man to Die. It’s a very teasing episode. Ruth has written it absolutely beautifully. There are some wonderful characters in it. Particularly the man who dies, the best man, Charlie Hatton. He’s a hail-fellow-well-met. He’s rich. He seems to have more money than he knows what to do with. He’s always buying people drinks. He’s a little bit of a wide boy. Nobody quite knows what he does. He’s supposed to drive Lorries. So it’s a bit worrying
when the next morning after they have their stag party. He is found, by Wexford, who was walking his daughter’s dog, dead in the river.

George Baker
Wexford:
[RUNNING WATER AND BARKING DOGS] Get that dog of yours on a lead.
Maurice Cullam:
Oh, he must’ve fallen in.
Wexford:
Maybe. Get that dog under control.

It’s a wonderful story because there are so many twists, and you can’t see them coming. There is another death. The death on the road … it seems of somebody who has been pushed out of a car … Or, there’s been a car crash, and Mrs Fanshawe is the survivor. She’s in hospital, but they say her daughter was in the car. She says, No.

George Baker
Mrs Fanshawe:
She wasn’t in the car. Nora wasn’t there.

To complicate matters, Ruth gives Dora a slight feeling that she might have some cancer. And so she’s gone in for a biopsy and a few other things. And the scene that is extremely memorable to me, is that my Sally … We had come back from Spain just before we started and she was losing the use of her limbs totally. And she had gone up to London, and she’d had an MR scan, and they found that she had a very big tumour on her spine. And while I was playing the scene with Dora, she was having her operation discussed with a wonderful surgeon.

George Baker
Wexford:
Has the doctor said anything?
Dora:
Well, I don’t think there’s been much change in my condition since yesterday, Reg.
Wexford:
Well, I’m not silly. I realised that.
Dora:
Are you all right?

I went down, and this marvellous man said, I just have to warn you. It’s a very dangerous operation. It’s on the spine. And she could either come through it or she could be a cabbage for the rest of her life. So I then had to go and see Sally, and Sal said, shall we go for it? And I said Yes. And we did. And we went back, finished the day’s work, and everybody was wonderful because it wasn’t the easiest thing to play those scenes. And Louie was marvellous.

George Baker
Dora:
She fancies you
Wexford:
Nonsense, old man like me.
Dora:
Well, I fancy you. Is that nonsense?
Wexford:
It’s different.
Dora:
Don’t be so stuffy.

At the end of the day, they called me to the intensive care, and there she was, moving all her faculties and saying, Will you ring my daughter? Will you ring our daughter and tell her? Because my daughter was in Spain and that’s when I came out, went to the car park. And this is what is meant by a family because the lovely Rita Angel, our wardrobe mistress, whom I had known for years and years and years, stood there and just gathered me in her arms. And I had a very nice cry on her shoulder. Thank you very much indeed.

George Baker

Favourite Episode

Listen to Achilles Heel: Favourite Episode
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My next choice, Achilles Heel, is probably my first choice. In a way, I think it’s one of the very, very best stories. It’s a slight story. It all hinges on how a woman’s ankle goes into her calf, which couldn’t be slighter. But it’s beautifully adapted by Guy Hibbert. I think it’s one of the best adaptations we’ve had. He’s in Corsica on holiday. But of course, he can’t take a holiday. He even lies on the beach in his blazer, and his white flannels, in case he sees or spots a case to be solved, which indeed there is.

George Baker
Wexford:
I’m gonna go for a walk and see what’s happening.
Dora:
Nothing is happening. That’s the point. Nothing is supposed to happen.
Wexford:
Well, I’m going to stretch my legs. Doing me no good this flopping around.
Dora:
We are here to relax.
Wexford:
I’ll see you later.

Corsica has suicidal roads. You can’t really drive along them because if you’re driving along them in a coach, half the coach, the front goes out over the edge before it comes back in again to go around the corner. [SOUNDS OF DANGEROUS DRIVING] And we had a stunt driver who had to come very fast around the corner, and he hit the stones on the side of the wall. His car literally just hung on balance.

George Baker
Philip Blackstock:
Sorry about that.
Burden:
What was the hurry?
Philip Blackstock:
Dying for a swim.
Burden:
Oh, I see.
Jenny Burden:
So am I.
Burden:
Well, I’m sure we all are. I prefer a more conventional route to the beach than being plunged over a cliff.

A very good young actor called Stephen Dillane, who I thought was marvellous in the part. In fact, all the young people were extremely good. And I looked at the tape the other day, and I thought, no, this is a very finely made piece of work. This could actually go on the big screen.

George Baker
Dora:
In the 13th century, the Genoese arrived. And instead of settling like all the others around the bay, they came up here.
Wexford:
Fascinating.

In the story, we are out overlooking the sea, and Dora suddenly realises that the girl who is wearing the swimsuit is not the same girl we’re looking for.

George Baker
Wexford:
That small craft, over there.
Dora:
Oh, that’s who it is.

Thereby, she gives Wexford the clue to the solution to the murder. So Dora comes into her own.

George Baker
Iris Blackstock:
We’re co-directors.
Wexford:
Husband and wife on the same board. Well, that’s unusual. Isn’t it?
Philip Blackstock:
Iris’s father owned the company. I just joined as promotions officer. When we got married, he promoted me.
Wexford:
Where are you based?
Philip Blackstock:
London. We have offices in London and a factory in Downhampton.
Wexford:
Oh, that’s in my area.

There was a great deal of involvement with the Corsicans, particularly at the very end on the very last day, when we shot in a bar, and I had quite a lot to say and quite a lot to do. Our lovely director decided that he was going to do it with the original noise of people talking. Normally all the sound would be put on later by the soundman or by the editor. But I don’t think it looks as good as when it is done the other way, silently, because it puts such a strain on the poor actors who had to speak through it and try to make sure that they were in the right place, at the same place, at the same time. So the Continuity Girl knew what she was doing. A bit of a nightmare, actually a bit of a nightmare. But it works. It works, and it was fun.

George Baker

Most Controversial Plot

Listen to A Guilty thing Surprised: Most Controversial Plot
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A Guilty Thing Surprised. And again. Ruth here really tackles a big moral problem because it is about incest. And you don’t know it. She keeps it quite dark. But that is the Guilty Thing Surprised and the way it goes. And the whole story deals with what incest is. How it comes about, and how it is accepted, or not accepted, by public opinion and public morals. And gives the opportunity to very, very fine actors like Nigel Terry, who played the lead in Caravaggio, to give a wonderful performance.

George Baker
Wexford:
I realise this must’ve been a shock for you.
Denys Villiers:
Well, tell you the truth, it makes very little difference. My sister and I weren’t particularly attached to each other.
Wexford: Oh?
May I know why not?
Denys Villiers:
We had nothing in common. She was an empty-headed, frivolous woman. And, well, I’m not a frivolous man.

We also had Michael Jayston, a very, very funny man. At our read through when we were all sitting around our long table, Louie, playing Dora had one line.

George Baker
Dora:
What time Is it?
Wexford:
Sorry love, Go to sleep.

She said her one line, and suddenly Michael Jayston leapt up onto his feet and said, Oh my God, it’s too much. It’s so moving! And he’d entered into the spirit of our team. Just like that.

George Baker
Wexford:
There’s a torch missing from the garden room.
Quentin Quentin Nightingale:
I beg your pardon?
Wexford:
A torch. A big one. 10, 12 inches long. Brass coloured. You’ve seen it lately?
Quentin Nightingale:
It was there on Sunday. I went in to get my golf clubs. I saw it then.
Wexford:
But isn’t there now. That torch killed your wife, Mr Nighingale.
Quentin Nightingale:
I don’t honestly think I could take anymore. Yesterday was the worst day of my life.
Wexford:
Well, I can’t promise you that today or tomorrow will be any improvement.

Mary McMurray, our director, who I’d known from Bertram’s Hotel, which sort of got me the job, has a wonderful sense of humour and likes to keep things very light. We had been talking about how many red herrings there are in the show. And I’ve gone around to Kenny Props(Kenny Palmer) and asked him whether he would be very kind and make me a red herring. So he got his fish out of balsa with a little tail, painted it red, you see, and I put it under my [HIDES IN JACKET]… Play the scene. And then was it this red herring you were looking for? Brought a great deal of lightness. And we joked … we had wonderful jokes all the time.

George Baker
Lionel Lionel Marriot:
Well, well, well. The assembled might of the Kingsmarkham Law Enforcement Agency.
Burden:
I’m just leaving, Mr Marriot.
Lionel Marriot:
Not on my account, dear boy, I trust.
Burden:
No, no. Goodnight, sir.
Wexford:
Goodnight Mike.
Burden:
Goodnight, Mr Marriot.
Lionel Marriot:
Goodnight.
Wexford:
Sit down a minute, Lionel.
Lionel Marriot:
Oh dear. Is he happy in his work do you think? He always looks so miserable, poor dear.

If you can get a laugh. If there is a lot of tension, break the tension for a moment. Because if you keep it up all the time, you can’t in something as serious as incest. Particularly when you have the Michael Jayston character, who played the husband, who you find out through it all, has actually known the whole story all the way through. So he’s playing at a very tense level of trying to suppress the knowledge to the police. And the more you can get the humour, the more you can get the suppression, the drama, and the tragedy that is hitting this whole story.

George Baker
George Baker as Wexford