Colin Firth was a rising star and this was filmed a year before his global breakout role in the BBC drama Pride and Prejudice.
Firth plays Stephen Whalby, a strange young man who was deserted by his mother when he was a child.
He works as a furniture restorer with his father who is a bitter angry man. Stephen is obsessed with the moors, always going there and writing about it in the local newspaper.
Stephen's wife Lyn hates the moors and never goes there. There also seems to be issues with their marriage. It has never been consummated and Lyn finds romance with Nick who works in a pet shop.
However when Stephen finds the body of a blonde female painter he had met the day before. Stephen becomes a suspect with the volatile DI Manciple (George Costigan.)
This Ruth Rendell Mystery is a psychological thriller that presents both Stephen and his father as unhinged. There is even a hint that Stephen is a closet homosexual.
Being the first of a three part drama, it already shows signs of being too flabby as a three parter with lots of moody shots. The best scenes are the interaction between Stephen and Manciple who also seems rather strange himself.