A Sleeping Life: Part Two

The Rhoda Comfrey case takes Wexford somewhere unexpected in part two: the trail of a mysterious novelist, and then to France. The dead woman's quiet life keeps producing surprises, the latest being that she was a woman in her mid-forties who died a virgin, a detail that tells you a great deal about how little anyone knew her. Wexford chases the novelist while the other facts of her life refuse to line up with the picture of a nobody. The novelist trail and the virgin detail keep arriving together, and the script lets Wexford hold the two surprises side by side.

His daughter's domestic problems eventually drive him out of the country entirely. The escape takes him across the Channel, where he continues the enquiry with the help of a French colleague, Commissaire Pierre Laquin, and a decent quantity of fresh oysters. It is one of the more civilised police investigations in the history of television, a working holiday conducted over shellfish, and the episode leans into the change of scenery without losing the thread of the murder.

George Baker's Wexford is visibly happier in France, which is a small pleasure in itself. Christopher Ravenscroft's Burden stays behind with the domestic chaos, and the supporting cast keeps the two halves connected: Imelda Staunton's Polly Flinders, Dave Hill's Dep Chief Constable Freeborn, Mamta Kash's Malina Patel, Louie Ramsay's Dora, William Simons' Det Insp Michael Baker, Charon Bourke's Sylvia and Steve Bridgen's Dr Lomond. Roger Marshall and Ruth Rendell shared the writing, and Bill Hays directed. The hour went out in November 1989 as the middle part of the story.

The episode is proof that a murder enquiry does not have to be grim to be absorbing. Rhoda's secret life unfolds in restaurant conversations and ferry crossings, and Wexford, who came to the case partly to escape his own kitchen table, turns out to be exactly the right man for it. The oysters help.