The Lake of Darkness Part 2

The second half of The Lake of Darkness picks up where part one left off, with Martin Urban's lottery win still working its way through his life like a slow poison. The quiet accountant (Jerome Flynn) thought the money would change everything for the better. It has changed everything, just not in the direction he hoped. Francesca, who is not what she seems, remains at the centre of the trouble, and Martin's assumptions about the people around him are coming apart one by one.

The story keeps its two-part shape. Peter Hammond and Ruth Rendell wrote the script, with Bruce MacDonald directing, and the cast carries straight over from part one. Cal MacAninch is back as Finn, with Liz Smith as Lena Finn, Martha Cope as Caroline, Nick Reding as Tim Sage and Susie Fairfax as Anne Blake. Omid Djalili's Mr Kaiafas drifts through the margins, and the family circle is rounded out by Eric Flynn and Gillian Barge as Mr and Mrs Urban, with Jean Challis as Mrs Gogarty. Splitting the story across two episodes was a sound choice, because it lets the deception develop slowly instead of collapsing in a hurry.

Where part one set the trap, part two springs it. But the deceptions that looked manageable in the first part close in, and Martin's comfortable life gets dismantled piece by piece. There is no tidy way out, and the story doesn't pretend there is.

The fantasy of winning big money always looks clean from the outside. This story's point is that a fortune brings its own troubles, and Martin's arrive faster than he can keep up with them. By the end, the win that was supposed to answer everything has become the source of the mess. Anyone who ever daydreamed about the jackpot should watch this pair of episodes before buying a ticket.