Master of the Moor: Part Three

The conclusion of the moor mystery finds Det. Insp. Manciple investigating the third murder, and the central question is finally asked plainly: who is the killer? Stephen Whalby, the lonely man who loves the moor too much? The mysterious man seen out on the desolate moor? Or both, working in some terrible partnership? The episode keeps the answer deliberately ambiguous almost to the end.

The breakthrough comes from Stephen's own past. A secret hideaway from his childhood, a place he has carried in his memory for years, leads him directly to the identity of the Master of the Moor. The title, it turns out, was earned, and the resolution ties the deaths to the moor in a way that makes the whole story snap into focus. The moor was never just a backdrop; it was the entire point.

Colin Firth's Stephen completes his journey from suspect to guide, and George Costigan's Manciple follows the trail to its end. Emma Croft's Lyn, Robert Urquhart's Dadda Whalby, John Michie's Nick, Stephanie Buttle's Joanne, Rachel Fielding's painter and Richard Graham's Peter Naulls fill out the final act, with B.J. McLagan and Hugh Downer as the young Stephen and young Peter Naulls, reminding everyone that this story started in childhood. It is one of the series' standalone stories, told far from Wexford's Kingsmarkham, and the moor fills the role the town usually plays. Trevor Preston and Ruth Rendell wrote it, and Marc Evans directed, for the 16 September 1994 broadcast.

The ending lands with the moor's secrets finally catalogued and the Master unmasked, and it is a satisfying close to a story that has been about possession as much as murder. Stephen loved the moor, and the moor was never his to love. The final revelation reorders everything the viewer thought they knew, and leaves the moor looking exactly as it should: beautiful, indifferent, and full of places where the truth can hide.