Intelligent Design (1)

Richard Seager, a former biochemist, is found dead under a Jaguar Mark 2. The day before, his wife Martha had collected him from prison, where he had served a year for causing death by dangerous driving while intoxicated. He was out of custody for roughly twenty-four hours. Before he died, Seager managed to scratch the number 500 into the car's paintwork, a message left for whoever would find him.

The detail is the kind Lewis cannot let go, a dying man's last act that has to mean something. The investigation spreads out from the car and the scratch mark into the lives of everyone who knew Seager: Stella and Carl Drew, Rachel Cliff, the staff and pupils of the world he moved through. His wife Martha, now a reverend, holds the family story together while the police pull it apart. The case keeps returning to that single number.

But the 500 scratched into the paintwork is the kind of detail the show treasures, a clue that is also a cry for help. Seager had a day of freedom and used it badly, and the episode is quietly sympathetic to a man who made one terrible mistake and paid for it forever.

Colin Dexter, Helen Jenkins and Stephen Churchett wrote it, and Tim Fywell directed. Stephen Churchett himself plays Richard Seager, Alison Steadman is Rev Martha Seager, Miranda Raison plays Stella Drew, Ariyon Bakare takes Carl Drew, Crystal Leaity plays Rachel Cliff, Josh Bolt is Adam Tibbit and Isabella Parriss appears as Pupil One. Kevin Whately, Laurence Fox and Clare Holman lead the regular side.

There is a particular sadness in the setup, a man released to begin again and dead within a day, leaving a cryptic message instead of an explanation. The episode uses the scratch mark as its anchor, and the investigation that follows is patient and grim. Seager's last gesture, it turns out, was aimed at something very specific.