A New Lease of Death: Part Three

The final part of the story finds Wexford shaken. The discoveries in the old case have landed uncomfortably close to home, but he holds his line: he still believes he got the right man thirty years ago. The episode then does what the best final parts do, it lets the evidence finish the argument Wexford has been having with himself, and the solution exposes a secret kept for decades by the convicted murderer's widow.

That widow, Mrs Crilling, has been carrying the story's weight in silence through two parts, and Dorothy Tutin makes the revelation worth the wait. The secret, when it comes out, reorders everything: the axe murder, the hanging, the daughter's refusal to marry, the widow's stillness. Wexford's conviction survives the shaking, and the episode earns the moment by having built the case patiently enough that the truth feels inevitable rather than convenient. The hour first went out on the 13th of October 1991, closing the story exactly a week after part two had posed its questions. Kristy Bruce's brief appearances as the young Elizabeth give the old crime a face, and the contrast with Suzanna Hamilton's guarded older woman does the episode's work for it.

The cast gathers for the resolution. Kristy Bruce plays Elizabeth Crilling as a young woman while Suzanna Hamilton takes the older Elizabeth, Peter Egan's Rev Henry Archery presses his advantage, Sharon Maughan's Imogen Ide, Denis Lill's Roger Primero and John Horsley's Colonel Plashet complete the circle, with Louie Ramsay's Dora and Christopher Ravenscroft's Burden in support. Peter Berry, John Davies and Ruth Rendell shared the writing, and Herbert Wise directed.

The story ends the way Rendell liked her darker tales to end, with justice done and a family's silence finally broken. Wexford was right, and being right costs him less than being wrong would have. But the episode leaves a shadow: thirty years of a widow's secrecy, and a daughter who had to wait for the truth to be dragged into the light.