The Point of Vanishing

A man is found murdered in his bathtub, and the victim turns out to be Stephen Mullan: a Christian fundamentalist and a former heroin addict, which is an unusual combination of histories. The case does not stay in the bathroom for long. Mullan, it emerges, once tried to kill an outspoken atheist in a car crash, and the attempt went badly wrong. He only managed to disable the man's daughter.

That botched act of violence sits at the heart of the episode, and it gives the investigation a bitter, personal flavour. The Rattenbury family circle the case: Jessica, Tom, Cecile, Daniel, along with Hope Ransome and Madeleine Cotton. Old resentments and unfinished arguments surface in every interview. Lewis has to sort out which of these grievances curdled into murder and which are just the ordinary damage of a small community.

But the murder in the tub is where all the damage finally comes due. The episode's real subject is damage: what a failed act of violence does to the man who planned it and to the family it missed, and how the community has to live alongside both.

Colin Dexter and Paul Rutman wrote the script, and Maurice Phillips directed. Ophelia Lovibond plays Jessica Rattenbury, Julian Wadham is Tom Rattenbury, Jenny Seagrove plays Cecile, Ben Aldridge takes Daniel, Zoe Boyle plays Hope Ransome, Danny Midwinter is Steven Mullan, Kellie Shirley plays Madeleine Cotton and Dougal Irvine takes Alex Hadley. Clare Holman's Dr Hobson is on hand, and Kevin Whately leads the investigation.

The episode is a study in how fanaticism, addiction and family loyalty can tangle together over years. The body in the tub is the last link in a chain that started long before the murder, and Lewis has to walk the whole length of it. It makes for grim, absorbing viewing, the kind this show does without flinching.