Review: Dalgliesh (S2 E5&6/6)

At Dupayne Museum, a spooky Gothic pile in Hampstead with a room dedicated to memorialising famous murders, the curator claims that all murders are a product of the age in which they were committed. What will be able to deduce about the 1970s from the killings in The Murder Room?

Caring Doctor Neville Dupayne (James Esler) is complaining about being overworked and the lack of dementia care – some things never change, then – while his spendthrift brother Marcus (Nicholas Banks) and sister Caroline (Michele Duncan) spend family money on the Museum, a memorial to all that’s wrong with modern society, according to Neville.

Curator Miss Strickland (Anastasia Hill), administrator Miss Godby (Sylvestra le Touzel) housekeeper Miss Clutton (Sorcha Cusack) and gardener Ryan (Nathaniel Christian) are dedicated to the place though – would one of them kill to keep the Museum going?

“Inter aulas academiae quare verum”, as Horace said – “Among the halls of the Academy you seek the truth”. As the motto of Swathlings Girls Academy, (and incidentally of the National University of Colombia), this should ring true enough. But there’s something not quite right going on at Swathlings (and not just a missing apostrophe). Headteacher Caroline Dupayne clashes with horrid pupil Victoria (Rose Galbraith), but what does Victoria know about Caroline?

When Neville is found dead in his burned-out car, and Miss Clutton is knocked off her bike by a well-spoken but masked motorist who refers to a bonfire, Dalgliesh assumes this is a deliberate reference to one of the historical murders represented in the Museum.

Part one ends with the discovery of a young woman, dead in a trunk used in one of the historical murders – but no one knows who she is or how she got there.

This series has got into a pattern where the victim is always a professional, killed in their place of work, by someone who evidently had access and knowledge of the place – so the list of suspects, though long, is limited.

In the second instalment of this two-part story, the dead girl is identified as a former pupil at Swathlings, a secret flat in the museum is discovered, and Miss Clutton recognises the voice of her masked motorist as that of a government minister.   

Lord Martlesham (Richard Goulding), a bumbling Boris Johnson type – brought in implausibly promptly – immediately admits to having an affair with Celia, which is why he didn’t come forward when he heard about the murder of Neville. He met Celia at the private 98 Club, hence him wearing a mask. Caroline admits to organising the sex club and giving Martlesham a key to the flat, and Dalgiesh believes that Celia was killed because she had left the flat and seen Neville’s murderer.

All sorts of complications ensue; Dalgliesh is contacted by a spook who explains that Marcus Dupayne works for the intelligence services, Miss Strickland turns out to have been a spy during the war, and then there’s the strange relationship between gardener Ryan and his guardian Major Arkwright to explain.

While Dalgliesh doesn’t approve of Tarrant’s rough questioning of suspects, it’s only when he loses his temper with Caroline Dupayne that the truth comes out; Muriel Godby created the sex club, has been using it to blackmail members, and killed Neville and Celia to protect her interests. But she says she will never face trial, as the authorities will want to protect themselves.

Dalgliesh threatens to resign if this happens but gets reassurances, and indeed a promotion to Commander; but does this mean the end of his connection with Kate Miskin? She is also promoted, to Detective Inspector. She should be happy at the prospect, he suggests – while she will clearly not be happy at splitting with her beloved Dalgliesh, and he will never find happiness himself. Though he resists his agent’s call to give up policing and devote himself to poetry, he tells Miskin that he can’t devote himself entirely to poetry lest he disappear down dark emotional tunnels. His job, he says, holds him to the world.

The Murder Room isn’t the strongest of the three stories in this series; the whole setup of the museum is unlikely, and the idea that Muriel is trying to pin her crimes on her colleagues doesn’t really make sense if what she wants to do is to protect her blackmailing activities.

In other points:

·      What exactly is the relationship between gardener Ryan and the Major? This is never explained.

·      Would Neville, a committed Socialist, have a copy of bourgeoise favourite, Vladimir Tretchikoff’s The Chinese Girl (usually known as “The Green Lady”) hanging on his wall? Is there any significance in the fact the same painting is seen in the apartment of the killer in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy?

·      So, Tarrant studied History at Cambridge. Typical of the sort of hooligan who would drive a 1979 Toyota Celica XT. Caroline drives a sporty red MGA.

·      Neville was having an affair with his married secretary Andrea (Robinah Kirondé); Miskin, still obviously besotted with Dalgliesh, feels her pain.

·      Dalgliesh takes a meeting with an old sparring partner, Denholm (Nick Dunning), a spook – what’s the relationship there? Marcus Dupayne refers to spy fiction master John Le Carré.

·      Sylvestra le Touzel is always the murderer. Well, she looks so harmless.  

·      Unless they get fixed before transmission, the closed captions on these episodes are awful; we get ‘tents’ instead of ‘tense’, ‘mystery pain’ instead of ‘Miss Dupayne’, ‘Gerard’ instead of ‘charade’, ‘Peter’ instead of ‘pater’, and hilariously, ‘hamster teeth’ instead of ‘Hampstead Heath’.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed this series of Dalgliesh – we’re quite aware that there are some implausibilities in the plots and a certain world-weariness to the whole affair, but we appreciate Bertie Carvel’s measured, calm performance and Dalgliesh’s relationship with Kate Miskin. If she’s absent from further series, that will be a loss for which the abrasive Tarrant will not be able to compensate.

Bertie Carvel’s closing puppy-dog look to camera makes us want to stroke his head and give him a biscuit. But if the series follows the books – spoilers! – there should be a gleam of happiness ahead for Adam Dalgliesh.

Chris Jenkins

Episodes rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Series rating:

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4 out of 5.

READ MORE: OUR EPISODES ONE AND TWO REVIEW

READ MORE: OUR EPISODES THREE AND FOUR REVIEW

Dalgliesh is shown in the UK on Channel 5 and My5