Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en arrives in Hartley with a threat instead of a treat. A young woman reports that she has been told she is marked for death on the night itself, and the episode, broadcast in the last week of October, makes the most of the season: autumn darkness and a village on edge, with a prophecy the police have to treat seriously even though it sounds like mischief. A death threat is a death threat, whatever the date on the calendar. The date gives the story its charge, and the episode never forgets it.

Inspector Kate Longton and Sergeant Joseph Beck take the girl's account at face value, and the investigation spreads through the usual ranks: Sergeant George Parrish, PC Brian Kelleher and PC Danny Sparks. Around them the community gathers: Debbie Farrington's Deborah Manley, Thelma Whiteley's Mrs. Manley, Tony Anholt's Martin Lee, Peter Laird's vicar and a young scout played by Jason Threlfall. Even the vicar and the scout have their part in the evening's story. The town keeps its own counsel about the girl and the young man who frightened her, which is its way.

Ewart Alexander wrote it, Marc Miller directed. Anna Carteret is Kate Longton, with David Ellison as Beck, Noel Collins as Parrish, C.J. Allen as Kelleher and Mark Botham as Sparks. Tony Anholt plays Martin Lee, Debbie Farrington is Deborah Manley, Thelma Whiteley is Mrs. Manley, Peter Laird is the vicar and Jason Threlfall is the scout.

The pleasure here is the mismatch between the threat and the setting: a supernatural-sounding warning landing in the middle of village policing. And in Hartley nobody believes in curses, but everybody believes in trouble. The episode uses the spookiness for suspense rather than cheap scares, and it lands the right side of silly. It helps that the cast plays it straight, without a wink to camera. The autumn setting does the rest. Solid seasonal viewing, and the only episode in the run you could happily watch with the lights off.