Widows: Episode 2

The rumour is Dolly's first real piece of misdirection, and a good one. Harry didn't die in that explosion, she lets it be known. He was the fourth man, the one who got away. It drives the Fisher brothers mad trying to find him, which is the point, though it also puts everyone in the gang's circle on edge. And Dolly, who knows she is being watched, is happy to let that paranoia spread.

The day itself is small-scale trouble. Dolly comes home to find Boxer Davis in her house, working for the Fishers, and gets rid of him without letting on anything. Shirley and Linda meanwhile try to sort out cars, and both vehicles are hopeless, which sends Linda to a local garage and into the arms of its owner, Carlos. Their relationship moves fast and Dolly disapproves loudly. It is the first sign that the widows do not all agree on how this operation should be run, and it won't be the last.

Linda's old friend Bella O'Reilly is a bigger fracture. Linda bumps into her, tells her everything, and brings her to the headquarters before Dolly has agreed to anything. The persuasion that follows takes phone calls and patience, and Dolly's eventual yes is given through gritted teeth.

Eva Mottley's Bella is the episode's new arrival, joining Ann Mitchell's Dolly, Maureen O'Farrell's Linda and Fiona Hendley's Shirley, with David Calder as D.I. Resnick, Paul Jesson and Peter Machin as his men, Dudley Sutton's Boxer Davis, Kate Williams as Audrey Withey and Jeffrey Chiswick as Arnie Fisher. Lynda La Plante wrote it, Ian Toynton directed.

This is a setting-up episode, and it knows it. Nothing explodes and nobody gets caught; the point is the widening of the circle. Whether Bella can be trusted is the question the episode leaves hanging, and Dolly seems to be the only one asking it properly.