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May 1968, and Hollywood glamour has come to Oxford: the stars of a glossy new sequel to the vintage horror film The Pharaoh's Curse are in town, and the city is beside itself. The excitement curdles quickly when an ex-policeman turned museum security guard, Ronald Beavis, is found dead after attending a screening at the Roxy cinema. Nobody on the staff remembers him except the organist, Leslie Garnier, who overheard Beavis talking to someone on the building's fire escape.

Morse, meanwhile, has a very good evening with a blonde named Carol, and then a very bad morning when he discovers she is the daughter of Thursday's flash brother Charlie. He takes her to the Roxy for an event previewing the sequel, where an Egyptian archaeologist, Dr Shoukry, denounces the film for cheapening his culture and warns that those responsible "will answer for it".

Shortly afterwards Garnier collapses and dies. The poison was a cyanide-laced martini intended for the film's star, Emil Valdemar, and the gift that carried it contained an Egyptian scarab stolen from the museum. Morse and Thursday race to the cinema, where the killer is confronting Valdemar while the manager sets a fire to hasten the sale of the building. Around it all run racist attacks on properties owned by a local racketeer with links to the Roxy and its staff.

Russell Lewis wrote it, Andy Wilson directed. Abby Wilson is Betty Persky, Iain Stuart Robertson is Ronald Beavis, Christopher Sciueref is Dr Moharram Shoukry, Ray Polhill is Inspector Atwill, Shaun Evans is DS Morse, Alan David is Lambert Kegworth, John McAndrew is Leslie Garnier, Simon Dutton is Armand De Vere, Luke Hornsby is Kenneth Bullings, and Sophia Capasso is Guilia Gallo.

There is a lot of movie lore in the episode, from the scarab to the arson, and it wears its B-movie influences proudly. Carol, Thursday's niece, complicates Morse's life in the way only a family connection can, and the Roxy itself is the best supporting actor.

Cinematic excess and gritty Oxford murder, tangled together, and it is a satisfying ride.