Black Orchid

The Great Sabina is back in town. Tony Sabina's hypnotism act relies on volunteers, and on this particular night they include a young man called Stuart Fraser and a girl called Frances Shaw. Frances is hypnotised into believing she can swim the Channel. She is found drowned shortly after the show.

The publicity leaves Sabina's career in tatters, and he decides to get even with everyone he blames for his downfall. But the real business is the series of killings that may have been carried out to order, and the drowning looks increasingly like part of the same pattern. DC Stuart Fraser joins the team, which gives Colin McCredie a proper foothold in the series.

James Laurenson plays Sabina as a showman publicly humiliated, which is a dangerous combination in a man with time on his hands. The investigation moves through the city at a good clip, and the hypnotism angle never quite becomes the whole story. It is the sort of episode where the trick is the least interesting thing in it, and that is a compliment. The show's usual grimness is still in place, but the material lets it have a little fun on the way down.

Glenn Chandler wrote it, Richard Holthouse directed. James MacPherson and Blythe Duff lead, with Colin McCredie as Fraser, James Laurenson as Sabina, Amanda Redman as Julie Carson, Andrew Tiernan as John Campbell, Julian Glover as Supt Drummond, Robert Robertson as Dr Andrews, Harriet Buchan as Jean Taggart and Trevor Byfield as Bob Rosen.

What looked like an open-and-shut drowning becomes murkier the longer anyone looks at it, and the murders-to-order thread keeps the whole thing moving. The team ends up with a queue of suspects, each with a reason to lie and a way to look innocent. It's a solid, grim episode, and the hypnotism gimmick earns its keep without ever being the point.