ITV's critically acclaimed crime drama returns, starring multi-award winning actress Brenda Blethyn as DCI Vera Stanhope. Based on the bestselling Inspector Stanhope books by renowned writer Ann Cleeves, Vera and her team are faced with a series of daunting challenges. From delving into the unsettling private life of an old colleague, attempting to break through the code of secrecy in the army, to coping with the emotional impact on a family torn apart by addiction, each enthralling story is enhanced by captivating performances of this shambolic yet brilliant detective in action. Combined with beautifully shot landscapes and atmospheric production, each film creates a haunting backdrop for Vera's inner turmoil as she discovers hidden truths about her own past, which threaten to change her life forever.
When old family friend Louisa Oxley visits Miss Marple one stormy night seeking help, Miss Marple decides to send her and her son, Archie, to safety at the labyrinthine estate of Greenshaw's Folly, owned by Miss Marple's good friend Katherine Greenshaw, an eccentric botanist and the last surviving Greenshaw. Louisa becomes Miss Greenshaw's secretary, and quickly attracts the attention of the gardener Alfred Pollock and actor Nat Fletcher. Things turn sinister when the Folly's faithful butler, Walter Cracken, is killed in what appears to be a tragic accident. Then a guest at the house, Horace Bindler, disappears without a trace. Miss Marple is convinced all is unwell, and her suspicions are confirmed when Miss Greenshaw herself is brutally murdered. Suspects are everywhere, but none can imagine the secrets, both past and present, which Miss Marple uncovers.
Chandler and Miles attend the launch of Buchan's book on murders in Whitechapel where they are baffled by cryptic remarks made by an eccentric old lady Louise Iver. At the same time elderly vagrant Alexander Zukanov is lured to a house with strange markings on the wall where he is pressed to death, giving the name Dorothy Cade to his killer before he dies. Miles and Chandler visit Zukanov's doss-house and learn that the other occupants were frightened of him and regarded him as a warlock. Buchan confirms that he was a member of the Bulgarian secret service and Stella Knight from MI6 names him as having been an interrogator of former British spy Crispin Wingfield. Wingfield is questioned but released though he tells the police that the manner of Zukanov's death was a punishment for witches in the sixteenth century. Meanwhile Dorothy Cade, living with her sister Cecilia, is also murdered, burnt at the stake like a medieval witch.
