Magpie Murders, Episode 2

The new fictional murder brings Pünd and Fraser to Saxby-on-Avon. Sir Magnus Pye has been killed with a sword from the hall's armour. Mary Blakiston's earlier fatal fall, a burglary and this unmistakable murder now form a sequence that Pünd wants to understand. Inspector Chubb provides access to the house and the circumstances of the deaths.

Pünd considers Sir Magnus's position when he was attacked and the possibility that he knew his visitor. In the study, the safe has been opened and a fire lit despite the mild weather. A partly burned scrap bears a suspicious stain. The Roman silver taken during the burglary might suggest ordinary theft, but the detective resists treating the three incidents as unrelated.

Lady Pye offers an unhappy view of her marriage and directs attention to her sister-in-law. Clarissa strongly opposes Sir Magnus's plan to build on Dingle Dell, a cherished patch of village countryside. An anonymous threat adds another written document to the case. The Pye family's wealth has created expectations as well as resentment, leaving several people with reasons to dislike the dead man.

Meanwhile, Susan drives into Suffolk and stays with Katie. At Sajid Khan's office she learns that Alan intended to change his will. That immediately changes the significance of his recent separation from James Taylor. Susan visits James at Abbey Grange, where he explains that the existing will leaves him the property. He plans to sell and return to London.

The search of Alan's writing space is discouraging. His computer offers no useful manuscript, and the handwritten material is missing too. James directs Susan towards Claire. Susan sees how Alan has used real acquaintances for fictional portraits, including his young partner's resemblance to Fraser. At Claire's house, the sister denies having read the new manuscript and describes Alan's discontent with his success. Susan's meeting with Locke adds friction rather than help.

The audience also sees Andreas visit Sajid, a meeting Susan does not know about. Her investigation is now running alongside concealed activity among people she trusts. At Katie's, the possibility of visiting their ill father unsettles her further. Pünd becomes a conversational presence in Susan's imagination, helping her reconsider Alan's death. A fall, a suicide and a murder would demand different explanations. By the end, Susan believes the missing chapter and the real death belong to the same puzzle.

The two searches now share a practical difficulty: somebody has removed the material that would explain what happened. Susan lacks a chapter; Pünd confronts the remains of a burned document.

• The television Locke has a larger investigative role.
• Dual casting makes Alan’s real-life models immediately recognisable.
• The novel does not stage Susan’s conversations with Pünd.

Television can let a face carry the connection that prose develops through description. It can also separate an actor’s mannerisms, clothes and authority between roles, so the doubling is not simply a label saying that two people are alike. Pünd’s conversations with Susan provide a second way of dramatising thought: an editorial question becomes a disagreement she can have out loud.