Wise Child

A rich middle-aged widow, Lady Morell, has acquired a well-dressed admirer, and she is not sure what to make of him. Maggie Forbes is sure. She doubts the smooth gentleman is up to much good, and her suspicion sits there quietly while the rest of the team makes up its mind. But Jack Slater, in particular, is ready to give the man the benefit of the doubt.

That disagreement over the con man is the engine of the episode. Slater reads charm and harmless gallantry where Maggie reads a professional at work, and she sets about planting doubt in his mind with the patience of someone who has seen this trick before. Roland Devis and Mr Devis hover around the widow's social circle, and Russell and the rest of the squad keep the official wheels turning while Maggie works on her certainty that appearances are for sale. The widow is given her dignity throughout, and the script is gentle with her.

The pleasure of the piece is watching a hunch win the argument. What Maggie has to begin with is a feeling about a stranger, and the episode takes her side of it. She reads people better than the reports do, and in this case that is enough. Watching a detective trust her gut on screen is rare enough to be worth savouring.

Guy James and Terence Feely wrote it, Gerald Blake directed. Jill Gascoine plays Maggie, William Marlowe is Russell, Paul Moriarty plays Jake Barratt, Kevin O'Shea is Peter Phillips and Michael Graham Cox plays Jack Slater, the one whose doubt has to move. Bernard Holley's Mike Turnbull is on hand, with Diana Fairfax as Lady Morell, Rupert Frazer as Roland Devis, Derek Benfield as Mr Devis and Stella Tanner as Mrs Hardisty.

It's a small, neat episode about the oldest skill in the detective's kit: trusting your own reading of a room. The con man is polished, but polish is exactly what Maggie notices.