The second series of the DOCTOR BLAKE MYSTERIES rounds off with a family-centered murder mystery in which Blake's (Craig McLachlan's) housekeeper Jean Beazley (Nadine Garner) finds herself directly involved. This is a good move; for too many of the episodes in the series she has played second fiddle to the main character, being shown making various meals and offering tea whenever the Doctor requires it. In this episode her son Jack (Aaron Jakubenko) is one of the chief suspects in a particularly grisly murder of an entire family.
The plotting - as with many episodes in this series - is intricate yet satisfying, involving a telescoping of time, the replacement of human with animal blood, and a deliberate attempt to falsify the evidence. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this episode is that we are encouraged not to believe the evidence of our eyes - people's motives might be more clandestine that might first be assumed.
Fans of Australian police thrillers might be pleased to see the presence of John Stanton in the cast, taking over from Joel Tobeck as Doctor Blake's superior. The series BELLAMY (1981) was aired late at night on ITV during the Eighties, in which Stanton played the eponymous hero as a tough, no-nonsense cop in the Jack Regan (THE SWEENEY) mold. Although gray-haired now, he plays Doug Ashby in similar mode - Blake will have his work cut out to try and maintain his maverick status, should Ashby appear in future series.