you know about the master? bad, yeah. you never said where you found this. you never said where you lost it. the observatory? i was there yesterday. when? dinnertime, latest. around half twelve. what about last night? where were you then? here, studying. hathaway: you're sure? he called me from here if you must know. and you are? kate cameron. i'm reading law and my father's a judge. bully for him. so i know a little about how the police are meant to behave. and how is that? kate: you told him once where you were; his asking a second time tends towards oppressive questioning. could we have a word miss cameron? no, no, that's very useful thank you. what did you say to her? she wasn't doing you any favors with her impression of lady muck. you're not doing yourself any favors,

either. your swipe card was used at the observatory last night. 10:29, sir. which fits the estimated time of our suspicious death, jez when you and kate told us you were here. i lied. it's what you do when the busies ask you a question where i'm from. kate doesn't know. and what were you doing at the observatory? chatting with prof. crompton. i went to fetch a book. what were you talking about? the transit of venus; when you can see the planet venus crossing in front of the sun. anything more down-to-earth? did he mention something that was happening on friday afternoon? no. and it was just you and him there? just us, honest. right, that's all for now. next time we ask you a question-- which we will-- don't lie. nice t-shirt. well, that's the charity shop stuff

ready to take in the morning. can the home do that just put up ted's care fees just like that? we'll manage. he's not having second best. (car door closes) that'll be the doctor. temple: hello, doctor. how's my dad? he's not doing too well, i'm afraid. hi, doctor. temple: dad's getting worse. it's what happens, i'm afraid. look, you may find ted saying unpleasant things. don't be hurt by them, will you? oh... how do you mean? this morning he was insisting that you, mrs. temple, had a long-standing sexual relationship with the master. what on earth put that idea into his head? the wires get crossed is the best way of explaining it. oh. temple: thanks, doctor. thank you for telling us.

we... we must get on. yeah. good-bye. (laughs) oh, don't! it's horrible! no, dad's right. crompton was having a bit of naughty on the side but not with you, dear. i know it wasn't thank you. isn't she lucky dad's confused? what, the master and dr. ransome? i've seen them at it, sort of. i should tell the police. well, why do you always have to get involved with everything? duty, sense of. i'll pop that stuff along to the charity shop now, leave it on the doorstep. save time in the morning.

thy return posterity shall witness. years must roll away... but then at length... the splendid sight again shall greet our distant children's eyes. lewis: what makes someone turn to religion? imminent death? there is that. but professor crompton didn't know he'd be pushed down those stairs. did his wife know he'd started attending st. anne's?

we'll be asking her, and talking to some close friends of theirs, too the raeburns. so, he used his swipe card to enter the observatory at 9:30. jez haydock uses his round about an hour later. then no other card holders between professor crompton arriving and his body being discovered. no, but there was also an entry phone, so either one of them could have buzzed someone up. any useful dna or prints? no matches on either. there's a gwen raeburn here with a swipe card. is she one of the friends? senior lecturer on jez's course. and what do we make of jez? well, i reckon he's just a nice lad, trying his best... probably. "certainly" would be better. ma'am. kate: try to understand... please! jez: just go, yeah? who told you? can't i just explain? don't waste your breath.

go on. go. if you won't... jez! all right? morning. jez, hold on a minute. good for him. narrow escape. what? ah, it's just... her type, you know? oh, how dreadful mrs. temple. yes, i quite understand. yes, good-bye. our head porter was mugged last night. oh, we didn't hear anything about that. oh, he wasn't badly hurt so he got himself home and didn't bother to report it. have you news? just more questions, i'm afraid. fire away. did you know your husband had been attending

st. anne's church? church? andrew? i think not. he was most definitely lapsed. well, according to the priest, he'd been going there regularly for the last three months. oh. so that's where he disappeared to. oh, dear me. i'd started to think he was having an affair. but that's where he was. why, though? i was hoping you might know. it's a complete surprise. had he mentioned anything about this friday afternoon? an appointment specifically at 3:15? no. i'm going to miss him like hell. (playing "song without words" by felix mendelssohn)

(music ends) thank you for waiting. it was easy, sir. it was a favorite piece of andrew's we'll be playing at his memorial, although we're a little bit rusty performing together. i understand you and the master were very close, and mrs. crompton, too. raeburn: oh lord, we all go back a frighteningly long way. gwen: arnold and i met and married when i was a very junior lecturer. in fact, it was the master who introduced us. andrew was the most marvelous man, you know. so good with all the undergraduates. and, of course, his passion for astronomy endeared him to me. would you say it was a happy marriage? why? i understand that you're friends

but it's something we have to ask. rock solid. boringly so. like us. and just for the record, tuesday night, you were where? you mean you want our alibis? at home, together, after rehearsals. tv and takeaway. thai. he's mad for his sticky rice. (chuckles) incidentally, did you ever reunite jez and his notebook? sorry, but arnold, we're awaited by a media frenzy. oh lord, yes. local tv are doing us live, so there's no way out of it. gwenny, darling, come along. we did, yeah. gwen: did what? return jez's book to him. oh! good. lucky getting malcolm finniston for your concert. arnold nurtured his talent as a student.

malcolm's simply returning the favor. oh, nice surprise. is roger here? won't be long. coming in? ta. what is it? want some home cooking? raeburn: and isobel crompton has insisted that we go ahead with the concert in memory of her late husband. the master, you know was a very special man to all of us. indeed. now, sir arnold, both you and lady raeburn knew mr. finniston more than a quarter of a century ago. raeburn: a quarter of a century? 25 years sounds kinder. gwen: much kinder. interviewer: and you're off soon to seattle to take over the baton so to speak,

of the pacific symphonia. finniston: well, that's yet to be confirmed, so for now i'm... thieves, robbers, burglars! burglars, robbers, thieves! robbers! burglars! naughty! wicked! i know all about it! ted! ted! police! how serious do you think mrs. crompton was about the master having an affair? i'm not sure. lewis: you're wondering if gwen raeburn's tears were for more than just an old friend? uh-huh. there's definitely something in that notebook; she asked me whether we'd returned it to jez. i should have thought. don't worry, sir, i did. i ran off a copy. you're not so green as you're cabbage-looking, are you? what? tell me if you think this is a really, really bad idea. hobson: what do you take me for? undercover clarinet?

i'm too busy getting the notes in the right order to spy for you. not spy, laura. just keep your eyes open. hathaway: and your ears. oh, ears too now is it? have you got your tickets yet? for the performance? (orchestra warming up in background) it's in a good cause. so that's, um, two each? top price? done. quite. stolen, mrs. leeming? what does he think is missing? can i get back to you? all in order? yup. that eye looks tasty. i heard you got in a spot of bother last night. oh, it was a couple of kids. they wanted my phone so i told them to p off, and one of them threw a lucky punch.

but they didn't take it? eh? your phone. oh, they sort of melted off into the dark after they walloped me. do you not want to report it? no, it was something and nothing. up to you. bye, gentlemen. (cell phone beeping) raeburn: malcolm? do you have a second? um... yeah, yeah. roger's ever so grateful to the master for nudging us up the waiting list for the flat. andrew was very fond of your husband. and every penny counts now with ted. poor old ted. it must be difficult. it's not him anymore.

he looks the same, but it's not him. has the police come up with anything? only questions no answers. dr. ransome's coming over. well, you need friends at a time like this. yes, and the thing with ella is, selfishly, she's my friend, not andrew's and mine. they scarcely knew each other, which means her grief is for me, not him. (orchestra playing "jupiter" theme from the planets)

now, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop! will you play it. don't scratch it. it all sounded splendid to me, malcolm. well, with respect, arnold you're there and i'm here. finniston: right. the anacrusis, please, eight bars after andante maestoso and this is "jupiter the bringer of jollity," so jolly yourselves up, please for god's sake, all of you. (orchestra resumes playing) apologies, arnold.

apology accepted. gwen? gwen? are you okay, kate? no. gwen (whispering): what is it? well, look. it's a bluff, isn't it? well, how do i know? do something. well, i can't... hi. hi, gwen. (conversing quietly) (door closes) raeburn: i'm back! darling? darling?

(gunshot) (second gunshot) (gasping) it's all right. it's all right it's all right. ambulance! call an ambulance!

according to my watch, life was extinct at 3:48. but you didn't see anyone? no, only the master's wife. whoever did it must have run back through and left the other way as i went in. there was a door open. the room's unoccupied. we think they must have hid there and waited. look, i'll get you a lift home. no, i'm fine. i'm not arguing. can you take dr. hobson home, john? any sign of a weapon? well, we know what it was. two spent cartridges .22 caliber. small bore? there's a gun club in the basement. a what? hathaway: it's not exactly fort knox. sir. hathaway: everything's still in place. so it was one of those fired the shots and then the killer put it back? so it would seem. i've alerted ballistics.

mm. okay, lads. what about access to the gun store? this lock's not been forced. well, officially keys are kept by designated gun club officers and then signed out to members who want to use the range. and unofficially? membership's short-term thing. students come and go, keys are lost, forgotten and replaced. so there could be several of them floating about from over the years. is there an official spare set? porters' lodge. if getting hold of the weapon was easy, the killer still had to come down a corridor or across a quad, past windows in broad daylight, carrying a rifle without being noticed. i mean, how the hell would you do that? here comes our little helper. temple: inspector? mr. temple? i... i could have some information for you, sir. (door opens) temple: terence, would you give us a few moments, please? course. thank you.

(door closes) dr. ransome had a secret and so did the master. their secret was each other. what, they were having an affair? i found out by accident. three months back, the master asked me to call him a taxi for the station. this was in front of mrs. crompton. but i knew the driver, and he told me that actually the master went to dr. ransome's flat. hardly proof of an affair, mr. temple. she picked him up in her car once when he told mrs. crompton he'd be lecturing. and tuesday afternoon i saw them coming out of his boat together. tuesday? that night, dead. and now so's dr. ransome. (door opens) i got you a cheese and pickle, rog, what with all this going on. thanks, dear.

my wife, babs. she scouts here. did you see or hear anything when dr. ransome was shot? well, i heard the kerfuffle. i was cleaning my nephew's room. (clicking his tongue) oh, sorry, it just slipped out. your nephew? babs: jeremy haydock. jez's mum's babs' sister but we don't say. why not? i don't think it matters but rog... you know what they're like... well, some of them. he'd never hear the end of it if they knew his auntie and uncle were college servants. we liked dr. ransome. she was very good with ted. my dear old dad. he was head porter here before me. dr. ransome was the gp at his care home. is there anything else? lewis: no. thanks. you must sign that tenancy today. i will. panic ye not. we're moving into a college flat next week

going up in the world. the master fixed it for us. about the spare set of keys for the rifle range... i thought you'd ask that. i keep them locked up. spare key to the door and of the gun store. innocent: are the two killings linked, or is this head porter letting his imagination run away with him? in my experience head porters don't need imagination. they've got a nose for unfortunate secrets. oh? what did they catch you at, then? hathaway: nothing. you must have been a very well-behaved student, james. or very lucky. just careful. rifle club membership list. anyone of interest? kate cameron... that's jez haydock's girlfriend? yeah. isobel crompton... ah? so if temple's right that puts her in the frame for both murders as the betrayed and vengeful wife. i suppose it's possible that she could have fired off the shots and then rushed back to make it look

like she'd just come out of her house but the timing'd be tight. plus she'd have to return the rifle. that's what i don't get. no one noticed. could mrs. crompton have been at the observatory on tuesday night? she doesn't have an alibi, but the only person we can definitely place at the scene is jez, and he did lie to us. people obstruct the police for all sorts of reasons. like your priest, for example. my priest? yeah, if he'd tell us what was going on in crompton's mind, we might be getting somewhere. now, boys... i never knew dr. ransome. she was a college doctor. yeah, and i'm dead healthy. look, you can see where we're coming from, can't you, jez? you lied to us about being at the observatory. i explained that. you didn't tell us you were related to mr. and mrs. temple. you didn't ask. you still kept it a secret. only because rog wanted me to. is there anything else you're not telling us? where were you when dr. ransome was killed?

just walking... thinking. well, that's hardly an alibi. why do i need an alibi when i haven't even got a motive? (sighs) what really happened to the master, jez? maybe he just fell. how long had you known dr. ransome? ten years, since she became my gp and then my friend. and your husband? well, he'd met her a few times through me but she wasn't his doctor. why? when i said he'd been visiting st. anne's church you said you wondered whether he'd been having an affair. i wasn't being serious. in any case, he hardly knew ella ransome. and she wasn't the sort. now, if you'd said gwen raeburn

it might have been a different matter. might it? she had quite a reputation in the old days. but andrew wasn't having an affair, was he... unless you count mother church as the other woman? um, since you're here, perhaps i should report something. i'm sure someone's been in. may i? of course. andrew's books have been disturbed. isobel: nothing's missing as far as i can tell. so that writing in jez's notebook is from a poem. "thy return posterity shall witness. "years must roll away, but then at length the splendid sight again shall greet our distant children's eyes." "jeremiah horrocks and the transit of venus." can we borrow this? bedtime reading.

and full of astronomical snippets. lewis: what is it you're performing again? the planets? that's right. one of them's not venus, by any chance, is it? second movement. "venus, the bringer of peace." why? wish i knew. thanks. kate cameron apparently was very angry just before the shooting. angry or desperate. when i asked her what was wrong, she just walked out. she'd just had a bust-up with jez-- we saw that. and what about lady raeburn? you mean gwen? well, she left rehearsal in a bit of a state, too just before kate. but i sort of know what that was about-- text that finniston received. it seemed to upset both of them. well, finniston goes way back with the cromptons and the raeburns. i don't suppose you... how on earth would i know what the text was about unless i managed to snaffle finniston's phone for a second when he left it lying around scrolled through to the message

made a note of it and the number it came from? genius. seconded. "revenge is sweet." 077 900 458. (dialing) (cell phone ringing) oh, it's yours, temple. night, mrs. crompton. roger temple, hello? hello? (phone beeps off) all ready for tonight? just one final rehearsal to iron out any remaining nasties, don't you think, darling? yes. server: finished, sir?

not quite, i hope. do i detect an atmosphere? morning, sir. good read? instructive. the transit of venus was first predicted and observed by this jeremiah horrocks in 1639, which is a tiny coincidence, if nothing else. is it? the names-- jeremiah horrocks, jeremy haydock. well... stretching a point. well, and horrocks was a chippy, working-class, student astronomer from liverpool. was he? studied at cambridge though, not oxford. nobody's perfect. what did crompton say in the church? "friday at 3:15 i shall have an excess of joy." look at this that he's marked. it's horrocks's description of a friend of his watching venus cross the sun. lewis: "he stood for some time motionless scarcely trusting his own senses through excess of joy."

(knock at door) with the head porter looming large on your radar, i wondered if this might be of interest. it's a call logged yesterday about a theft at branksfield sheltered accommodation. the complainant's a ted temple. ah, that's roger temple's dear old dad. have we attended, ma'am? on two priority points out of ten? what do you think? i think we should top up the points. thanks, ma'am. you remember some photos? no, doctor. no, i'm... i'm not a doctor. i said before. dr. ransome's not here. no, dr. ransome... she can't come today. should i tell the master's wife? tell her what, ted? about marilyn monroe?

look... yeah. bye, ted. thanks. because ted said the photos were stolen, they had to call us. then they found out it was just roger temple having a clear-out of a cupboard. (cell phone rings) family snaps or what? it's hobson. hello? well, did he say why? okay, thanks. arnold raeburn's just given malcolm finniston the heave-ho from the podium. bad feeling all round. you said head porters have a nose for unfortunate secrets. like father, like son? there you are, sir. who's your date for tonight? my date?

chief super. yours? no takers. we know how to live, don't we? hathaway: mr. finniston? isn't it a bit late in the day to be changing conductors? well, that's showbiz as i've been explaining to mrs. crompton although i think she's secretly rather pleased that arnold's taken over. do you remember the head porter here when you were an undergraduate? ted temple? his son's the head porter now. yes. i never went to university but my sergeant here tells me that head porters pick up all sorts of tittle-tattle. i had a one-night thing with a newly married lecturer. gwen raeburn? and we took some rather explicit souvenir photos that went missing from my room. did ted temple steal them, by any chance? that's what i suspected, but it was the last day of finals

too late to do anything about, too soon to be worth ted's while to blackmail me. until his son got his hands on them. yes. the night before last i gave him a black eye instead of the money he wanted and took the photos back. unfortunately he'd held on to a couple d passed them to arnold in revenge. and that's why he's conducting tonight. mm, and won't be endorsing my appointment as music director of the pacific symphonia. it was 30 years ago. lewis: hold on, please, mr. temple. perks of the job? temple: do you know how much college servants get paid? babs is near enough on the minimum wage. yeah, you're on a better whack. just. in dad's time, there wasn't even such a thing as a minimum wage. you had to come to a beneficial arrangement with the undergrads and turn a blind eye to their naughties or you'd never make a decent living. that depends on your definition of "decent." why did the master fix it for you to get a college flat? they're like gold dust those tenancies. he valued my loyal service.

and did he value your beneficial arrangement, keeping quiet about seeing him with ella ransome? it's too late to prove that now. what happened at that observatory? did you ask him for money as well as the flat? did he get angry with you? no! i didn't kill him. i was on duty all evening. you can check. we know we can. is finniston pressing charges? probably not. it's a pity, though. can i go? (knock at door) do we wait for him? no. we find him. friday, 3:15. whatever crompton expected to happen in...

half an hour's time, i'll take an educated guess it was happening at the observatory. (buzzer sounds) hello?