Generation of Vipers

Professor Miranda Thornton is a best-selling feminist author and lecturer, and when her participation in an internet dating site becomes public, her life is turned inside out. A video from the site leaks onto a vicious website, the online abuse follows, and her death is initially written off as suicide. Lewis and Hathaway are not convinced, and the deeper they dig, the clearer it becomes that the tragedy was staged to look like despair.

The case pulls them into the world of virtual bullying, where reputations are destroyed for sport and the cruelty has a body count. The old enemy behind it all has been waiting years for this revenge, and the episode makes the point quietly: the web gives old grievances new weapons. The detectives have to separate the digital theatre from the physical evidence, and the trail leads through a generation of people who knew Miranda in very different ways.

But the site that published the video is never given a glamorous platform; it is just a machine for hurting people, and the show treats it accordingly. The episode is of its moment in the best way, looking at online cruelty with the gravity it deserves.

Colin Dexter and Patrick Harbinson wrote it, and David O'Neill directed. Julie Cox plays Miranda Thornton, Jason Durr is DI Alan Peterson, Royce Pierreson plays Oliver Bowcock, Freddie Fox takes Sebastian Dromgoole, Roxanne McKee plays Briony Keagan, Jack Holden is Ben Newbound, Josh O'Connor plays Charlie Stephenson and Toby Stephens takes David Connelly. Kevin Whately and Laurence Fox lead.

The episode is sharp about the gap between online performance and real damage. Miranda's curated life becomes her undoing, and the show treats the bullying as the serious crime it is rather than background noise. The revenge plot gives it a cold, patient shape. Some grudges, it seems, are worth a lifetime of waiting.