Near Death Experience

A masked killer breaks into a family home, savagely murders Helen Croft, a widow, and wounds her teenage daughter Lucy before fleeing — a home invasion so violent that the priest who finds them, Father David Rose, is left to explain that Helen had been excommunicated; Frost, partnered with DS "Razor" Sharpe, leads the investigation, and psychologist Dr Martine Phillips is brought in to profile the killer. Her conclusion is the worst kind: a serial killer who takes sexual pleasure from the killing itself.

A national search identifies five similar murders, all matching a specific victim profile, and the case slowly closes around Helen's life. Her autopsy reveals she had aborted a child weeks earlier, which casts suspicion on her alcoholic ex-boyfriend Steve Markham. Frost discovers her sister Sylvia is having an affair with Father Rose. And then a second victim is found, and Frost realises Helen was trying to tell him something from the start — reaching for the locket Sylvia's devout husband Bill had given her.

The breakthrough is an act of monstrous vanity. When Bill Ford quoted Matthew 5:16 during an earlier conversation, he was giving Frost a clue — secure in the belief that the detective would not grasp it; the police catch Bill in the act with his next victim. In the interrogation room, he explains himself with cold lucidity: he loathed women who failed to value his apparent goodness, and set out to show them what a man could do. he chose Helen because she picked someone like Markham over him. Mick Ford makes Bill's confession the most chilling monologue the series ever filmed — every sentence reasonable, every word insane.

Around the case, the episode pays off a long debt. Toolan is badly injured helping to prevent a suicide, and his wife confronts Frost with the truth she has held back for years: it is his unorthodox methods that keep putting Toolan in danger. Near Death Experience, written by David Gilman and directed by Paul Jackson, is the series' most quietly devastating hour — a serial killer whose clue was a Bible verse, and a partner whose loyalty has finally reached its price.

A serial-killer mystery whose clue is a Bible verse — and a confession that remains the most chilling monologue the series ever filmed. Mick Ford's Bill is unforgettable. A chilling confession that lingers for years.