No More Dying Then: Part Three

The long-lost body of young Stella Rivers has been found, and suddenly the old case that has haunted Wexford for years is no longer theoretical. The discovery points the investigation toward a dying man, and the hour builds to a dramatic confrontation between Wexford and Mike Burden that neither of them will forget in a hurry. There is a surprising conclusion to be had here, and the episode reaches it the hard way, through grief, suspicion and the wreckage of two families.

But the central question remains unanswered. Five-year-old John Lawrence is still missing. Wexford has one eye on the dying man's revelations and the other on the anonymous harasser who has been tormenting the enquiry, and the episode does not pretend that any of it adds up neatly yet. The pieces shift around considerably, and the discomfort of an unresolved disappearance sits at the centre of the hour, exactly where it should. The identity of the anonymous harasser is one of the threads the episode finally draws tight, and the revelation lands with the same cold surprise as the recovered body.

George Baker's Wexford is at his most driven, and Christopher Ravenscroft's Burden is at his most wounded, which makes their confrontation land harder than most. Celia Gregory's Gemma Lawrence, Simon Shepherd's Ivor Fairfax Swan, Marion Bailey's Ros Swan, Dave Hill's Dep Chief Constable Freeborn, Ken Kitson's D.S. Martin, Marian McLoughlin's Grace, Noah Huntley and Emma Smith as the Burden children: the ensemble does its usual steady work. Ruth Rendell wrote it, and Jan Sargent directed. The hour went out in November 1989, two weeks after the story began.

The final part of the story knows that a satisfying clue is not the same as a happy ending. Stella's body gives the old case a resolution, and John's case gains a new direction, and neither quite cancels the other out. The hour leaves the boy's fate hanging, which is the honest way to tell this particular story.