Widows II: Episode 2

It all comes apart over dinner, or rather after it. Linda and Bella argue, Bella's fiancé overhears the whole story of her past, and that is the end of the engagement and the end of Rio for them. Everyone is suddenly on a plane to London: Bella, Linda, Shirley, and Harry, who has his own reasons for going back and a new team already assembling for another heist.

Dolly is the only one who doesn't know the flight schedule. She is still hunting for Harry, and the letter that tells her where he is also sends her rushing to move the money to a new hiding place. Harry lands and puts Mickey on Linda and Bella's trail, then sends someone round to find out where Dolly is. The man misses Linda, beats up the woman staying at Bella's place instead, and the message lands anyway: Harry is back, and he is done being patient.

The widows' answer is a deal. They will give Harry sixty thousand pounds to leave them alone for good. That is the offer they put to him. And underneath it is the part they keep to themselves: the moment the money changes hands, they call the police. It is the closest the group has come to agreeing on anything in a long while, and it is a lie.

Ann Mitchell, Maureen O'Farrell, Fiona Hendley and Debby Bishop carry it, with Maurice O'Connell's Harry, Stephen Yardley's Vic Morgan, Kate Williams's Audrey Withey, Damien Thomas, Peter Jonfield and Nuno Homem de Sá in support. Lynda La Plante wrote it, Paul Annett directed.

Two things are working here. One is the pleasure of watching everyone land in the same city at last, all of them pretending it's coincidence. The other is the quiet comedy of a sixty-thousand-pound handshake that everyone in the room knows is a trap. Someone is going to get hurt when it closes, and the episode leaves you betting on who.