Original subtitles

(suspenseful music)

- [Ernest] Do you come here seeking knowledge?

- I do.

- [Ernest] Do you come seeking truth?

- I do.

- I summon Asgaroth, demon of earth.

I summon Kelmaret, demon of air.

I summon Belas, demon of water.

I summon Thame, demon of fire.

Take power from the weapons of power.

The knife, the arrow, the axe and the sword.

And whosoever betrays the secrets of the Temple

will be forever cast down into eternal darkness.

Now embrace the darkness of Thoth!

- [Altogether] Asgaroth!

Kelmaret!

Belas!

Thame!

(fire roaring)

(lighthearted music)

- Well, I set out to write a serious book

debunking magic and superstition.

Then I rapidly realised that anything

so profoundly stupid should also make people laugh.

(laughs)

- I loved the Temple of Thoth ritual,

which you say you invented after two bottles of Scotch.

Do people really believe that that was handed down

by an Egyptian god?

- Absolutely.

Listen, let me give you a perfect example.

Take some half-baked magical mythology,

dress it up as some unpleasant racial conspiracy theories

and set it to one of Wagner's overblown operas.

Believe it and you get Hitler and the SS, which is, you know

is a great deal less entertaining.

(car revving)

See, mostly it's gullible fools being manipulated

by more gullible fools.

It's like a former friend of mine who runs a very lucrative

internet business that peddles

all the paraphernalia of magic.

- Does it matter? - Yes, because there

are all these idiots out there

who are gonna take it too seriously and wherever we--

- Ernest, darling, I'm back.

Oh, there is no point watching

that interview over and over again!

We have to forget it.

- When Aloysius Wilmington is dead

that's the day I'll forget it.

(lighthearted music)

(footsteps pattering)

- See you at the show!

- O'Lord our heavenly Father,

Almighty and everlasting God

who hast safely brought us to the beginning of this day,

defend us in the same with thy mighty power

and grant that this day we fall into no sin,

neither run into any kind of danger.

(bell ringing)

(church bell ringing)

- Getting the books out is your problem, Simon.

Not getting them out could be an even bigger one.

- You don't have to take any risks.

- Wipe out the whole of your debt for one book.

You know what it is!

- I'll call you later.

- That looked fraught.

So anything promising today?

- All I can do is examine everything

as I catalogue it, Isolde.

- We know it's in here.

Open your spirit to other ways of seeing.

You fear its power too, Simon.

Believe and the book will find us.

(lighthearted music)

(car revving)

- Where are the cornflakes?

Joyce!

Joyce, are we out of cereal?

- [Joyce] Oh, I forgot.

- You forgot?

What's with all these sweets and chocolates, then?

- Well, if we're having a Halloween party,

we should do it properly.

- What Halloween party?

(doorbell ringing) - It was your idea, Tom.

That's Ben. - I know that's Ben.

What was my idea?

- Trick or treat? - Two minutes.

(car revving)

(tyres screeching)

- Wilmington, Wilmington!

I'm not gonna sit back and take any more of this.

- Do what thou will, Ernest.

Isn't that the whole of your law?

- The book was one thing, but television!

Everyone in the village knows that you meant me.

The SS!

- The SS was an extremely specific exemplar.

I think, gullible fools,

was the more generic classification.

(car revving)

- Hi!

How is she?

- A happy day.

- Oh, great!

Well, there will be more happy days.

Oh, you look chirpy this morning.

- Don't open the window.

- It's just some light.

- They can't get in, can they?

- Of course not, Rosemary.

But who, who is it?

Who can't get in?

- Yes, much better today, thank you.

- Nice, 19th century binding, but a 17th-century text.

I can sell these

but they won't make much inroad into your debt.

- The more I take the harder it gets.

- What about the big one?

- The Thoth book's a myth, Hugo.

You saw him on the telly.

He made it all up.

- If I don't get that book from you,

I'll have words with Aloysius myself.

He may be fool enough to give you the run of his library,

but when he knows you've stolen books worth 13,000 quid

to pay back money you, well, stole from me

to feed a little cocaine habit.

(lighthearted music) (bell ringing)

- We are missing some stock, Pa.

Ritual knives, an axe, arrows.

- Stock-taking isn't the first thing on my mind, Isolde.

You would do better finding out what Simon Wilmington

is doing in his uncle's library.

The book is in there, find it!

Push him, Isolde.

- I can't push much harder.

- Of course you can.

You're a witch.

- I want you to look very closely.

A perfectly empty tube.

Let me place it there and we say the magic word Abracadabra!

- [Kids] Abracadabra!

- And then again we have a cup how is this possible?

Look, there is nothing inside.

There is nothing here.

Oscar, not you again!

We don't want any rabbits here!

- [Kids] Oh, yes, we do!

- Oh, no, we don't!

- Oh, yes, we do! - No!

- I was expecting more than nine months.

- Well, you can never second-guess.

What a judge will do?

You shouldn't even try.

- If his solicitor hadn't got the evidence

for the other burglaries thrown out.

How was that hearsay?

The man was boasting in the pub!

- It was always a possibility.

I mean, his counsel was very good.

- Was it the way I gave evidence?

- No, it was not, oh, Jones, come on.

Coffee, now!

- Then slowly we open the very magical very.

(kids laughing)

Oscar, not you again!

You have to go home, now!

- Right, then, let's go.

- I'd ask if my bum looks big in this,

but I can't get it in. (laughs)

- Come on!

(audience cheering) (audience applauding)

Excuse me.

- Usual chaos.

- I know what Simon's doing.

- You've got a long nose, old girl.

Just keep it out of my business.

- Oh, no, Oscar! (laughing)

Oscar, not you again!

You are interfering with my work.

What shall we do with him?

Send him back?

- No! - Oh, yes, we will!

We don't want rabbit here!

- [Kids] Oh, yes, we do!

- Do we have to congratulate him?

- Yes, we do, come on.

Mr. Balliol, congratulations.

May we join you?

- That depends on what you want, Chief Inspector.

- Detective Sergeant Jones here, is very upset

because he thinks your client got off very lightly.

Which, of course, he did.

- We've only met across a crowded courtroom.

Tristan Balliol.

We were lucky.

No thanks to you, Sergeant.

You blocked all my attempts to dent your evidence.

That hearsay was really a last gambit.

- He'll be out in six months.

- Well, justice has to be just.

It's not always fair, it's not always right.

And even if we do talk about it as if it's just a game,

none of us actually believes that.

- I want a writ against Wilmington and I want it today.

- Pa-- - I intend go to court

and get an injunction against his slander!

- Pa, there is no case. - Oh?

Aren't we supposed to live in a country

where a man's beliefs can't be mocked?

- Chief Inspector Barnaby and Sergeant Jones,

this is my father, Ernest Balliol.

- Well, I think there is one thing

you might need to know, Tristan.

I drove into Wilmington's car this morning.

I didn't hit him, but, I think I took his door off.

(kids chattering)

- Ssh, quiet!

Now, first prize, Elizabeth Shepherd.

I don't know what she's meant to be,

but she certainly frightened me.

- I'm meant to be a good witch!

- Ah, but we cannot let the bad witches know.

Now everybody off the stage, everybody off the stage!

Off the stage!

And now for the most dangerous,

the most death-defying feat ever performed

on the stage of--

- Hope your tights don't split!

- This ancient village hall.

The Cabinet Of Death!

(gasping)

Drums, Simon, if you please!

(upbeat drum music)

Now, my lovely assistant.

(laughing)

No!

I don't think so.

My lovely assistant.

(kids applauding) (kids cheering)

She will now enter the Cabinet Of Death

where she will be pierced by blades of burnished steel

and live to tell the tale, without a mark on her.

Look upon this work of terror, ye children, and tremble!

(kids laughing)

Oscar!

Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, Oscar, pack your lettuce, you're fired!

- [Kids] Aw!

- Lovely assistant, are you ready to enter the Cabinet

Of Death with only my magical power to protect you?

- I am, oh great magician!

- Enter!

(upbeat music) (applauding)

The blades are now piercing her body.

Speak to me, lovely assistant!

(gasps)

Speak to me.

I fear the worst.

Anton, Anton

Get the curtains, the curtains, now!

(lighthearted music)

(kids chattering)

- Black mashed potatoes for the bodies

sliced carrots for the eyes.

And for the legs

Cully thought sausages.

To make spiders, Tom.

- Oh.

Well, if black is the theme,

your sausages are usually the right colour.

- Last year you were worried about Halloween.

Young children wandering the streets,

older ones throwing fireworks,

people opening their doors to hulking teenagers,

long past trick-or-treating.

- Was I? - You wanted Halloween

to be safer and friendlier.

A party in every neighbourhood to provide focus

and a jolly end to the evening,

not to mention a drink for parents desperately in need.

- Did I really say all that?

- Tom! - It's a great idea, Joyce.

Well, yes, it is, it is!

I talked about it to the WI.

- Oh, well.

- And as I'd started the ball rolling

it seemed like we should have the party in this area.

Cully's coming down to help with the decorations.

- Barnaby.

- Mr. Bullard's already inside, sir.

Is he?

Thank you.

- Evidence of cardiac arrhythmia.

That doesn't mean naturally occurring heart attack.

Now, there are several scratches, skin punctures

discoloration round the wounds.

Not deep, but they've drawn blood.

They were inflicted just before death.

It was an amateur magic show, Tom.

She was in the cabinet.

It's full of sharp blades which were designed to retract.

Some didn't.

When they opened the cabinet she was unconscious.

- They call themselves the Midsomer Magic Circle.

And they meet up once every year.

You know, put on a show for the kids.

- [Male Voice] Who does the box belong to?

- The box belongs to one Aloysius Wilmington.

He's the chief magic man.

The rest just help him out.

Go on, open up, have a look-see.

- What's that?

- We'll have a closer look at that.

(lighthearted music) (birds singing)

- Isolde, you have to keep a check on Simon every day.

- I don't know what these rumours about Jean Wildacre mean,

but I think it's best that Isolde stays away.

Or at least Aloysius is gonna be shocked by what happened.

- I don't care about that.

The timing is perfect.

The aura surrounding a death is like a bridge,

the spirits pass in both directions.

- Especially if she was killed.

- Oh, Isolde, please!

- We might as well be practical.

- Isolde is right.

A violent death fractures the astral plane.

It could lead her to the book.

- It's so close to Halloween.

The boundaries of the spirit world are peeling away.

Can't you feel it?

- Make sure she's not roaming round

the village saying that to Derek Wildacre,

or any odd policeman she might run into.

- My daughter's in America working.

She's on her own now.

Jean and I have been looking after the kids.

They don't know yet.

They think it's magic.

- Mr. Wildacre, we believe that your wife

did not die from natural causes.

(suspenseful music)

(footsteps pattering)

Anything from the labs?

- Not yet, but the cabinet's thrown up something.

We just don't know what it is yet.

They went through this Cabinet Of Death routine

three times in rehearsal.

Aloysius is a bit of a stickler, apparently.

These blades retract when the door is closed.

- Oh, yeah!

- So whoever's inside can get out through the back

and reappear somewhere else.

Some of the blades have been jammed.

- What, deliberately?

- Little slivers of wood were pushed inside.

- But it worked in rehearsal.

Three times it worked in rehearsal.

- Yeah.

But a few of the blades had a tiny residue on them

and they're with forensics now.

(suspenseful music)

(bell ringing)

So the night of rehearsals, you left the village hall

before Mrs Wildacre?

- Yes.

- And you walked home?

- Well, I did stop at the pub, for a drink with everyone.

- Everyone being? - Aloysius, Simon,

Hugo, of course.

Hugo's always in the pub. (laughs)

- Anybody else?

What about Mrs Wildacre?

- Oh, no, no.

Mrs Brand, yes, that's right, she did drop by briefly.

- Well, thank you.

I know where to find you.

(bell ringing)

- [Male Voice] Were you close to Mrs Wildacre?

- Not in any intimate sense.

I mean, we knew each other when we were young, that's all.

I think the older you get the more that tends to matter.

- Yeah, this trick she was involved in,

the Cabinet Of--

- Ah, the Cabinet Of Death.

Yeah, well, I rather think we won't be using that again.

(kids chattering)

- The idea that someone killed her.

Everyone loved her.

- Did she go straight home after rehearsals, Mrs Brand?

- Yes, she must have done.

- [Male Voice] And what about everyone else?

- We usually call at the pub.

- So who was there?

Aloysius and Simon Wilmington, yourself

Hugo Cartwright, and Mr. Thorneycroft?

- Yes, that's right.

Come on in children, come on in.

It's wet out there.

You're being very slow.

Take your coats off.

That's it, no pushing.

- Now I remember quite clearly,

I bought the cabinet at auction.

Property of one Waldo The Wonderful, end-of-pier magician.

- [Male Voice] Did you test it before the show?

- Always.

- And did all the blades retract?

- It was in perfect working order.

- When did you last touch the interior of that cabinet,

in particular the sharp ends of the blades?

- Maybe at the rehearsal.

But even if it wasn't working properly,

the worst you'd get would be a few scratches.

- Mr Wilmington, could you help us?

Tell me, what is that?

- This is not magic for children.

This is real mumbo-jumbo.

- How do you mean?

Practitioners of the dark arts.

You're gonna initiate someone into your magical order,

you need to have the right gear.

Ah!

This is what it should look like.

- Oh, yes!

Can I hang on to this?

Thank you.

Mr. Wilmington, I'll need to talk

to your nephew, Simon Wilmington.

He does live here, doesn't he?

- He's not in right now.

I don't think that you'll find Simon

has anything to hide.

- I legged it to the pub.

Oscar had made us late.

- That would be Oscar--

- Oscar Oryctolagus Cuniculus.

Oscar the rabbit.

The top hat extrication purposes, Sergeant.

- [Sergeant] Did anyone go with you?

- Aloysius and Simon had a pint.

- Mr. Thorneycroft and Mrs Brand?

- They didn't come.

- On the day of the show, did you see

or hear anything unusual?

- Jean was the last person anyone would kill.

She and Derek were a happily-married couple.

- Do you know anyone with a grudge?

Anyone she'd argued with lately?

- Only me.

I'd had enough of the Magic Circle.

I was ready to resign.

Jean thought I'd be letting the side down, that was Jean.

Team player to the last.

- Well, I appreciate your honesty.

They're an odd lot, sir.

- What, people in general?

- Wilmington's Magic Circle.

I couldn't get a straight answer out of any of them.

Good book?

- Yeah, yeah it is, very good.

In his younger day, Aloysius Wilmington

apparently presided over magical rituals

that involved nude dancing, singing, drugs and sex.

Have a look.

Don't look at the photographs, you're too young.

- Orgies we thought, sir.

We used to speculate about what they got up to--

- And what did you think they got up to?

- We were kids.

- Speculate no further, my children.

But it seems some people are not

too happy to have their past lives re-heated and served up

in Wilmington's book.

Ernest Balliol being one of them.

So for starters, first thing tomorrow morning,

we are gonna have a chat with him.

Good night to you two.

- [Both] Good night, sir.

- Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O'Lord,

and by thy great mercy defend us from all perils

and dangers of this night.

(suspenseful music) (door banging)

- No little Izzy tonight?

Well not much of a bibliophile, is she?

More bedroom than book room.

- You must be out of your mind.

The police are all over the place.

They think someone killed Jean.

It's crazy.

- [Hugo] She sussed you were selling to me.

- So I'd kill for a few books?

- How many millions would you lose if Aloysius cut you off?

Bear that in mind.

Oh, and I still want that book.

Find it!

(bird singing)

(bell ringing)

(lighthearted music)

- Oh, look at that.

Don't tell Mrs Barnaby about this.

It might give us some expensive ideas for Halloween.

- Good morning.

- Mr. Balliol.

- Welcome to Magicmaister, gentlemen.

Are you here on a spiritual journey?

- No, we're not.

Remember us?

I'm Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby

and this is Detective Sergeant Jones from Causton CID.

Could you tell me about this?

- You'll have to decide if you want

books in this state rebound, Uncle.

- Oh, no, no, no.

Sooner or later everything in here will be yours.

Your job, you have to decide.

If you think a book has something

to contribute to the sum of human knowledge,

then I'm sure it will deserve a new coat.

- That's not easy to decide,

especially with the earlier stuff.

But if my Latin was as good as yours.

- Lust and congenital laziness

might run in this family, Simon.

But modesty doesn't.

Your Latin is excellent.

- We do sell these ritual knives, yes.

- But did you sell this one?

- I couldn't possibly say.

- You knew Jean Wildacre, didn't you?

- "Knew," would be overstating it.

- Was she a customer of yours?

- I hardly think so.

- Mr. Balliol, Jean Wildacre was your neighbour.

Jean Wildacre has just died.

This is a murder investigation.

- We are as shocked as anyone.

- This knife may mean nothing, but I need to know that

if it didn't belong to Jean Wildacre, whose was it?

I don't imagine that you sell many of these things.

- We guarantee confidentiality.

- Are you refusing to cooperate?

- You wouldn't expect a priest to break the secrets

of the confessional.

The goods here possess a sanctity

that is far from any commercial considerations.

- Oh, for crying out loud!

This is a shop!

- If you want to continue any further with this,

I suggest you speak to our solicitor.

- I will come back for your

customer list and if I don't get it,

you will be the one having to speak to your solicitor.

(footsteps pattering)

(suspenseful music)

- It's a book no one knows about.

A book of power.

I can use that power to banish the demons.

They'll obey me then.

You will know peace again.

- Yes, it's lovely, dear.

- Medication isn't the way, I've told Tristan.

The drugs confuse her.

- Well, the psychiatrist said the periods

of calm are shorter now, it's true.

- Psychiatrists can't do anything!

- They've done a great deal, Isolde.

Tristan will tell you how much.

- Tristan!

Come on, Christine,

no one can help Ma, who doesn't see the demons

that are tormenting her.

You know that now.

You're one of us.

- No, I needed to understand why Rosemary...

What happened?

How she got where she is?

That would be a start.

- You don't have the knowledge to understand

or the power to help.

I do.

It's really not your business.

He will find out.

Tristan's got a nose for it.

If he guesses you've joined the Temple

you won't even keep your job,

and as for any more dilly-dallying.

I've seen the way he looks at you.

Can't you just pour a bottle of plonk down his neck

and rip his clothes off and drag him to bed?

I mean, you both need it.

(lighthearted music)

(car revving)

♪ My name is John Wellington Wells ♪

♪ I'm a dealer in magic and spells ♪

♪ In blessings and curses and ever-filled purses ♪

♪ In prophecies, witches, and knells ♪

♪ If you want a proud foe to make tracks ♪

♪ If you'd melt a rich uncle in wax ♪

♪ You've but to look in on our resident Djinn ♪

♪ Number 70 Timothy's axe ♪

(door banging)

- If you didn't go to the King's Arms, Mr Thorneycroft,

why did you tell Sergeant Jones that you did?

- I couldn't say where I really was, not to my wife.

I was here.

- So you walked here right

after the meeting at the village hall?

- I did.

- I came through the churchyard and over the back wall.

- Over the back wall?

Did anyone see you?

- My neighbour saw me come in.

Anton ensures that no one sees him, of course.

- Alice wouldn't.

It's not what you think!

- It's Gilbert and Sullivan!

- Prejudice denies me recognition as a priest,

but that's what I am.

- Don't waste my time with this crap.

- Don't speak to your father like that!

He has served the Temple.

- The law has no interest at all in your ridiculous beliefs.

- If you don't answer Barnaby's questions,

you'll be in serious trouble!

- Dendrobatidae!

Frogs.

Poison dart, poisoned arrow frogs

from Central and South America.

Their skins secretes some

of the most powerful toxins we know.

Even the smallest amount entering the bloodstream

through a cut or a graze, lethal.

And there's a match with Mrs Wildacre and the cabinet.

- Do you know much about these, sir?

- No, I don't.

I think I know a man who does.

- Pa can handle other people laughing at him.

When it's you, it hurts.

- It was worth coming, then.

- He's just trying to find his path.

- Please, don't make me start on you.

- Witches aren't so easy to hurt.

I went to see Ma today.

- Well, I hope you didn't upset her.

Actually she was quite serene.

- She isn't often like that, I can assure you.

I'd like to keep her at home a bit longer.

I can't always handle her, even with Christine.

- She's gonna be all right.

There's a power that bound her

and a power that will release her.

Very soon I will wield that power myself.

- Don't you ever, leave it alone.

- Yes!

(doorbell ringing)

- Mr. Wilmington, Mr. Simon Wilmington?

- That's right.

- I'm Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby from Causton CID.

Is your uncle at home, please?

- I think he's in the church.

- Is he?

Well, I'll find him there.

In the meantime, Sergeant Jones here

has a few questions for you.

- I don't know anything.

- Oh, well, in that case I won't take

up very much of you time.

Thank you.

- Not much that would interest you.

- Not much that would interest anybody, really.

What's that?

- No, no, no.

- You know Simon's cataloguing his uncle's library?

Must be valuable stuff there.

You'd be up for that.

But there is one book that will burn your fingers.

One that has the power to bring the fires of hell

to consume you right here.

Don't even touch it, Hugo.

Lest the power of Thoth consume you utterly.

(lighthearted music)

- Ah, Mr. Barnaby!

Our Common Prayers are falling to pieces

and I have just bought 50 new ones

that the Rector doesn't want.

- I'm sorry, sir, I'm not with you.

- Well, as chairman of the Fabric Committee,

I'm responsible for maintaining the church.

However, I'm also the biggest contributor

to the Fabric Fund.

So the Rector has to keep up services

from The Book Of Common Prayer,

or I let the building fall down.

Blackmail. (laughs)

Did you know that the Authorised Version

and The Book Of Common Prayer both have their foundations

in the work of one William Tyndale?

- For he--

- He invented modern English prose.

You know, without him the poetry of Shakespeare

would never have existed as we now know it.

And for his pains he was burned at the stake.

A heretic.

- I'm here to ask you some very

specific questions, Mr. Wilmington,

and I hope that the answers will help.

(laughs)

- I doubt it.

(footstep pattering)

(car revving)

I spent years in South America.

- Yes, you write very entertainingly about, you know,

your life in Ecuador with the Indians.

And you learned, did you not,

how to gather the poison they use to hunt.

- We're talking about cabinet blades here

and Jean, aren't we?

Little poison dart frogs.

Well, I can see this would make me a prime suspect,

but there is, how shall I put it?

An absence of frogs.

- Well, I am gonna have to ask you, sir,

not to leave the village without first telling me.

We're gonna have to talk again.

(suspenseful music)

- Hugo was here last night.

I saw him.

You didn't tell him anything?

- Isolde, I've just found something interesting.

But it's not your book.

- Don't let Hugo Cartwright in here again, right?

- But Hugo--

- I know you nick books for him.

They're books that don't matter.

But he knows what we're looking for.

We're very close to it now.

No one can be allowed to get in the way.

- Magicmaister.com has sold six ritual knives in two years

with the same stock numbers as the ones you have.

All on the internet.

Most of the business is done that way.

You'll notice none of the addresses is local

and only one of them is in the UK.

- Ah, thank you for this.

Yes, well I was rather surprised at his reaction

to Jean Wildacre's death.

- It's the Magic Circle.

- But, he has no part in that, does he?

- No, no.

They're a bunch of people who enjoy a drink

down the King's Arms

and then put on a children's show with Aloysius.

They all grew up in the 60s and 70s.

Sex and drugs and rock and roll, you know.

Or maybe not.

I'll make sure my father understands.

He will be available for questioning.

- Thank you for coming in.

Much appreciated.

And what do you two know of drugs, sex and rock and roll?

- Nothing. - Not a lot, sir.

- "Nothing", "Not a lot, sir".

That's a good job that my experience

is that much more extensive, isn't it?

- Yes, sir. - Yes, sir.

- The writer was a monk,

working for the Inquisition in the 16th century.

He was in charge of books

that the Catholic church had prohibited.

- Books about magic? - He lists some

well-known mediaeval texts.

Then the page is torn.

The next page is missing.

He saw a man burned at the stake, along with a book,

before he wrote this.

A book considered too dangerous to keep.

- Or too powerful.

This is it!

- Whatever the book was, the monk only had part of it.

But the pages were with this manuscript.

- He said it was here.

All those years ago, Aloysius said it.

And it is.

I can feel the power.

So near!

(lighthearted music)

- Sorry I'm late, as ever.

- Are you hungry?

- No.

No, you get off.

- A glass of wine, then?

- I've been with the police.

Pa's got right up Barnaby's nose,

refusing to answer questions,

banging on about religious persecution.

He doesn't do himself any favours.

Barnaby has got every right to be angry.

- But he's not involved, surely?

- Some bits of his magical junk

were discovered where Mrs Wildacre died.

It's all gobbledegook to you.

You wouldn't know a ceremonial knife

if it fell from the sky.

- [Ernest] You've got to keep control of Simon.

You know he's weak.

- Simon's no problem.

- What about Hugo Cartwright?

- He's looking for the book.

He was a member of the Temple.

He heard Aloysius talk about it.

But it's only the money he cares about.

- What if Aloysius found out about the books

that Hugo's been selling?

He'd put a stop to it fast enough.

- Right, Pa, just the time to get Simon kicked out

of the house!

It's very easy.

I can stop him.

(dramatic music)

- Asgaroth, Kelmaret, Belas, Thame

by the power of the secret name.

(moans)

(crying)

(police siren whirling)

- Who found him? - Postman.

Shop door was open.

(doorbell ringing)

He could have been in a fight.

He has cuts on his hands as well.

- Well, it looks like he's just walked in

taken off his coat and dropped dead.

What's that?

Glass.

(suspenseful music)

- [Male Voice] He was in the pub until closing.

- [Man Voice] He came this way?

- [Male Voice] It was his routine, it never varied.

Here, here.

(suspenseful music)

- Instinct not science, this,

but, like Jean Wildacre, he's covered in cuts.

- Broken glass, George.

- That's perfect entry for the toxin.

- Well, I doubt Mr. Cartwright fell over by chance.

And I doubt that this got here by chance.

- Message from Derek Wildacre, sir.

He wants a word with you.

- Derek Wildacre?

- I suppose I'd better go and chase up Simon.

Come on!

You should be so excited!

- Are you going to say something to her?

- Isolde

- Yes, Pa.

- Don't you think we ought to talk about this?

Did you--

- Pa, I didn't mean to kill Hugo.

(car revving)

- Mr. Wildacre.

- Is it true about Hugo?

- Yes, sir, it is.

Can we go inside, please?

- People are saying it's the same, the same as Jean?

- Thank you.

- Jean was very close to Lucy,

that's Simon's mother, Aloysius's sister.

I was going through Jean's things

and I found these letters.

They're very old.

They're from Lucy to Jean, from a long time ago.

I wouldn't want to waste your time, or anything

but you did say that if I found anything odd.

(lighthearted music)

- Simon!

Simon!

- She's gone.

So even sex has finally palled

where dearest Izzy is concerned.

- I, well, to be honest, there's something I didn't want

to show her before I showed you.

- Sounds intriguing.

(doorbell ringing)

- Hey

Ah, results from the lab, sir.

There's no doubt about it.

It's frogs.

- It's frogs.

There is a recklessness about these killings,

isn't there, Jones?

But this one's a bit more focused than the first.

What have you got?

- The contents of Hugo's safe.

This is a list of all the books

from Mr. Wilmington's library

sold in the last six months.

These are solicitors' letters.

Hugo was selling books Simon nicked from his uncle

and using the money to pay off Simon's debt.

- How much? - A lot.

Also why keep a piece from the local rag

about the death of Simon's mother?

- Do you know what it is?

- No.

This is from a printing of Tyndale's New Testament.

Oh, this is,

this is quite a find.

Do you have a date for the edition?

- Uncle, these aren't any pages from any edition.

They are unique.

Part of something nobody thought existed.

- Oh, my God.

Is this what I think it is?

- [Jones] I don't buy the weapons.

- Do you not, why?

- Whoever's doing the killing wants us

to think it's about the past, and all that mumbo-jumbo.

Simon Wilmington was stealing valuable books

and giving them to Hugo Cartwright to sell.

Jean Wildacre twigged.

She was going to tell Aloysius.

Simon had to stop her.

Hugo Cartwright was alive, he had to stop him.

Think about it!

- I am thinking about it, but--

- If he was disinherited, he stands to lose millions.

- Aloysius must have known about

that Cartwright business, though?

- And said nothing?

- Well, it is possible.

- Well, then, Simon didn't know he knew.

- Oh, that's too complicated for me, Jones.

Right, you can get off.

I am gonna have a look at the material in Cartwright's safe.

You're right about that.

It is a very peculiar set of documents.

- Well, I'll see you tomorrow, sir.

- Indeed you will, good night to you.

(cellphone ringing)

♪ Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace ♪

♪ According to thy word ♪

♪ For mine eyes have seen thy salvation ♪

♪ Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people ♪

(lighthearted music)

(crying)

- You're safe, Ma, you're safe.

- You can't see them.

So you can't help.

Christine can.

She understands!

- I haven't spoken to her about the Temple.

I would never do that.

- I can't get my head around that you're involved with this,

with my father, with Isolde.

I mean you actually went out, got dressed up--

- I wanted to know what happened to Rosemary.

It's the ceremony that keeps coming back to terrify her.

- Do you think there's anything I don't understand

about the Temple of Thoth?

Ma's beyond counselling.

She's sick.

Very, very sick.

- I know that.

But sometimes she just wants someone to listen to her.

And I don't know if you can always do that.

If you ever can.

I'm sorry.

- No, you're right.

Maybe I can't.

(lighthearted music)

(footsteps pattering)

- A lot of my life has been wasted.

I wrote volumes of rubbish, dressed in ludicrous robes,

initiated stupid people with rites that I claimed were

thousands of years old.

I scoured the world for magic.

Now I mostly just like to sit and watch the sun go down.

- Thank you.

- Real magic!

Now, I wrote The Revelations of Thoth

with the help of malt whiskey

and a solid grounding in the cadences

of The Book Of Common Prayer.

Ernest now believes that I was unwittingly used

by the spirit of Thoth,

an unclean vessel for the god's revelation.

It was a game for me.

It became an absurd faith for him.

Mind you I'm hardly qualified to laugh about it.

I managed very successfully to fill up my head

with several thousand years' worth of distilled nonsense.

- Yet you seem to have gone

to great lengths to preserve it all.

- Ah, but there are glorious things

on these shelves as well.

It's a bit like gardening.

Simon has a lot of weeding to do.

Do you remember I spoke to you about William Tyndale?

- Indeed I do.

- Let me show you something wonderful.

These pages are from the first

edition of Tyndale's New Testament.

To possess this work in 1526 meant death, pure and simple.

All the world had of this

were a few pages in the British Museum.

Until now.

Simon found these in here.

Well, this library isn't just my folly,

it's been my salvation and

I always hoped that Simon would find

something in here as well,

some kind of spark to set his life on a richer course.

(lighthearted music)

- You care very much for Simon, don't you?

- Well, why wouldn't I?

He is my sister's son.

- But that's not the whole truth, is it?

Simon is your son too.

Your sister, Lucy, wrote several letters to Mrs Wildacre,

about Simon's paternity.

Simon's father was you, sir.

- It happened.

I don't remember how.

- Simon doesn't know?

- No, and there is no reason why he ever should.

Why, are you thinking of telling him?

- You're the only one I know with a motive

that connects Jean Wildacre and Hugo Cartwright.

Now, sir, take a look at these.

I know what these are.

What do they mean?

The knife you've seen before.

The arrow was found in Hugo's pocket.

What connects these weapons to Jean Wildacre

and Hugo Cartwright?

What was the connection 30 years ago?

- I can't remember, I don't know.

(suspenseful music)

- Got it? - Yeah.

- Hey, Cully! - Hello, Dad!

- Hello. - Hello.

- Did you bring this?

- Oh, I did.

A friend of mine grows them.

You know what, that's not even a big one.

- Is it not?

- Now, can you please try this on?

- What's that?

- You didn't think you were going to a Halloween party

in jeans and slippers, did you, Tom?

- Oh, no!

- [Both] Oh, yes!

(suspenseful music)

- Dad, phone! - Okay!

Yep.

- Oh, fantastic!

You were made for it, Dad.

- Was there a phone call?

- Yes, sorry.

Mr. Wilmington.

- Barnaby.

- It was one of those daft Temple of Thoth ceremonies

that I invented.

Part of the initiation ritual.

North is the knife, south was the arrow,

west was the axe and east was the sword.

Now, if it's the one I think we're both talking about,

then as far as I recall, all of us were there.

Jean held the knife.

Hugo held the arrow.

I'm almost positive that it was Mrs Balliol's initiation.

- I'll be over first thing in the morning.

(suspenseful music)

- Simon!

Oh, you're not drunk again, are you?

- You're not in the mood for this, are you?

- No, I'm not.

I've had it up to the back fangs

with all the magicians and illusions.

In my day, Joyce,

Halloween hardly existed.

What's it all for?

Selling a load of flaming tosh?

- You're taking it very seriously.

- Well, yes, yes, I am.

I've got two very unpleasant murders here.

And I don't know why,

but they both have to do with people

who actually believe in all this magic this voodoo.

- Well, that's adults.

Children have more sense.

They only pretend to believe in Halloween, for the fun.

That's why it can't really do them any harm.

- [Barnaby] The blow didn't kill him, did it?

- It cut deep, but not that deep.

- And it was an axe, was it? - Possibly.

- It's certainly not that one.

Now, this is what he wanted to show me.

- [Jones] What does it mean?

- [Barnaby] Well, he believed it meant murder.

(footsteps pattering)

(lighthearted music)

(car revving)

- [Simon] My bedroom's on the far side of the house.

I didn't hear anything.

It was only when I went into the library--

- [Barnaby] Mr. Wilmington, did you know

that I was here last night?

- Yes, I saw your car.

I did try to listen.

- Did you hear?

- No, he shut the door.

- Why did you want to listen in the first place?

- I wanted to know what you knew.

I didn't tell the truth.

About Jean.

We argued over books I stole for Hugo.

He threatened to tell Aloysius if I stopped.

He persuaded me that I'd be a prime suspect

if you found out about the books--

- I doubt Hugo Cartwright had very much

insight in that department.

- But I am telling you the truth now.

That's the least I owe to my uncle.

- The psychiatrist's gone.

He'll send her back to hospital.

She's under heavy sedation.

She won't come home again.

Not without the chemical equivalent of a lobotomy.

- You can't give up.

- Last night I was upset and angry.

All the more angry because you've been dragged

into this unholy mess that constitutes my family.

- I know how long you've had

to deal with your mother's illness.

I know it's got worse and worse.

But, if you need strength sometimes

I could be strong enough for both of us.

- Without you I couldn't have kept her at home at all.

I'm sorry.

My feelings for you, I think you know.

I don't want you hurt.

- Tristan, I don't think you could ever hurt me.

Please, let's talk.

- There's nothing we can say.

What's in my family it's not just eccentricity.

It goes much deeper.

- I summon Kelmaret demon of air!

(fire roaring)

I summon Belas demon of water!

- He's dead, Pa!

The traitor is dead.

- Of course he's dead, child!

He found the book.

The book has struck him down!

(lighthearted music)

- For Mr. Barnaby.

(car revving)

- J is Jean Wildacre, knife.

- H, Hugo Cartwright, arrow.

- And A, Aloysius Wilmington, axe.

- E? - Estelle Balliol.

It was her ceremony that Aloysius remembered.

This is where they were all standing

at the time of her initiation.

See, three murders, three ritual weapons.

This diagram gives us the connection between them.

- When was the ceremony?

- Ah, he didn't say.

But reading the autobiography, I put it early 70s.

- So who's R?

- Ah, don't know.

The initiation rite says Estelle Balliol

should be in the centre, but she's not, she's over there.

I think it'd be easiest to ask her.

- Ernest Balliol certainly believes

Aloysius betrayed the Temple.

- Yeah, but if you're gonna get revenge, (mumbles)

why wait 30 years to do it?

Unless it was the publication of the book?

- But that doesn't explain why Jean and Hugo are dead.

- No, it does not.

- Oh!

From Mr. Thorneycroft.

- Sausages.

- Sausages.

- What's the man playing at now?

(upbeat music)

Mr. Thorneycroft, I'm sorry I can't accept gifts.

Now, I have left a very important murder investigation

to come and talk to you on this B road.

- It was Tuesday night.

I was leaving Mrs Brand's, the usual way.

- Over the back wall?

- Past Hugo's shop.

Somebody outside I didn't want to be seen, of course.

She was standing outside the shop.

Talking to herself, mumbling.

Then she went off, up the alley at the side.

- Who, Mr. Thorneycroft?

Who?

- Isolde Balliol.

(upbeat music)

(door banging)

- Just tell me where she's gone.

I need to talk to your daughter.

- She's gone to the Wilmington place, to see Simon.

She's angry.

She's not, she's not quite right.

- Estelle! - Well, is she?

Is she, Ernest?

- This is more persecution.

- Why didn't you tell me yesterday?

- For God's sake, Isolde.

My uncle died last night.

- You think I care about that?

You wouldn't have known about that book without me.

Even then I had to push you like a slug.

I had to sleep with a slug.

You find something you're not worthy

to touch and you don't tell me!

Show it to me!

- The library's a crime scene now.

- Are the police here?

- They think he was murdered like Jean and Hugo.

- This is more important!

- Not to me, it isn't.

I was very fond of the old bastard.

And as for the book, yes, it is wonderful,

but a million miles away from all your claptrap.

At least Aloysius knew what I'd found.

- You showed it to him?

You knew what he was.

How he betrayed me.

- Shut up, Isolde.

You screwed me to get what you wanted.

Well, I listened to your mumbo-jumbo to get what I wanted.

Call it quits.

Remember what the monk said,

"A book to turn the world upside down."

This is what he risked his soul to save.

Three charred pages from a New Testament.

A very special one.

William Tyndale's first translation.

St Paul, Izzy.

Read it.

- No!

No!

Everything I did, for this?

I killed Hugo for a Bible?

- No, no!

(crying)

- No, no, no!

That's enough, let go.

Let it go!

- The Tyndale, the fire!

- [Jones] Stop, that's enough.

- Hugo Cartwright.

You were outside his shop the night he was killed.

- You have no power over me.

- But I do have a witness.

- She said she killed him.

- And it wasn't even necessary.

(lighthearted music)

- I'll stay on for a few days.

- No.

You have to go.

I'm so sorry.

It's the only way, Christine.

(car revving)

(police serin whirling)

(upbeat music)

- I am here to search your house, Mr. Balliol.

I'd appreciate your cooperation.

- No, Sergeant, you can't come in.

- Show us a search warrant!

- I have reason to believe there is evidence relating

to a serious crime.

I don't need a warrant.

- Where is Isolde?

- Ernest, just find Tristan.

- Right.

Sergeant.

- Please, Mrs Balliol.

(car revving)

- We have a witness, who says that you were

outside the shop just before 9:40.

Is that true?

- I went there to stop him.

- To stop him?

- Hugo was blackmailing Simon.

It didn't matter when it was only a few books.

But he was trying to find what we were looking for.

I could never really trust Simon.

- What were you looking for?

- Nothing!

- You were looking for nothing?

- Nothing.

But I didn't know that.

I believed what my father had told me.

Somewhere in that library was a book of power,

hidden for centuries.

Aloysius's secret.

But I wasn't gonna give it to my father, it belonged to me.

I knew how to use it.

But it was all about nothing!

- So you were there and you told Simon Wilmington

that you had indeed killed him.

And we have a lot of forensic evidence

from the Cartwright murder scene.

- Don't be silly!

There isn't any forensic evidence to find.

- Can we talk about the the other two?

Jean Wildacre and Aloysius Wilmington.

- Why?

I didn't kill them.

I didn't mean to kill Hugo.

It was just the power of the spell was too strong.

- The power of the spell.

- Are you really this slow?

(lighthearted music)

(dramatic music)

- Does this mean anything to you?

- No.

- If I told you that this was the representation

of the initiation ceremony

of the Order of the Temple of Thoth.

Isolde, can you help me here, please?

This is something that happened 30 years ago.

Now, A is Aloysius Wilmington.

J, Jean Wildacre.

H is Hugo Cartwright.

We don't know who the R is.

We think that the E is your Mum, Estelle.

- They were all in the Temple then.

Pa told me.

E could be Estelle.

But she's not my mother, all right?

- Well, Aloysius said he was almost positive

that it was Mrs Balliol.

Is there another Mrs Balliol?

- Of course.

Ma.

Rosemary Balliol.

It makes sense, yes.

If this was her initiation, then E would be Pa.

- Is your mother still alive?

- Yes and no.

(knocks)

- Wait.

What?

- She was in Ecuador.

A holiday.

But she knows about these frogs.

- But she didn't kill anyone, though.

Isolde, do you recognise this?

- I'm a witch.

It's a picture of me with one of my familiars.

- A witch on holiday in Ecuador.

- I know what it is.

- Who took this photo?

- My brother, of course, Tristan.

(car revving)

(bell ringing)

- The police have arrested Isolde.

- Good, it's about time talking out of your backside

became a criminal offence.

- She said it herself, Tristan.

She killed Hugo Cartwright.

Help us.

Look, I'm sorry I don't know if your mother's in

or out of the bin?

- In now.

Not inside.

It's Ma's house, to me, anyway.

I don't want you in it.

(birds singing)

- The police think there was some sort

of poison for Jean and Aloysius.

But not, not for Hugo.

It was the power of Isolde's curse.

- [Tristan] She couldn't have killed anybody.

- Why would she say it?

- Because you made her.

(lighthearted music)

(car revving)

(doorbell ringing)

- Detective Sergeant Jones, Causton CID.

I'm looking for Tristan and his father.

- Well, they're both here, they're in the garden.

- [Jones] Thank you.

- Only the best in ritual weapons.

- What's happening?

- Jean, Hugo, Aloysius.

All there the night Ma was initiated into the Temple.

Remember?

I've heard her version.

Heard it here,

heard it in a locked ward

heard it when she was in a straitjacket,

terrors tormenting her psychotic mind.

She thinks she's possessed by demons.

Four demons.

No way back for her.

No way back for the idiots who put an unstable woman

through a ceremony that sent her barking mad.

- We couldn't have known!

- Three demons dead.

You're the last.

People stress them out.

See how sticky their backs are?

It's stress.

- [Jones] Hey, hey, hey!

- You all right?

(gasps)

Can you get up?

- I doubt there's,

there's much point.

- This is the night

sacred to Thoth when,

when the veil between the living,

between the living and the.

(fire roaring)

- Aloysius never scotched the rumour

of a magical book, did he?

- A pot of gold.

- Ernest Balliol, he wanted to steal that book for revenge.

But Isolde, she wasn't so selfish.

She honestly believed she could use that book

to restore her mother's sanity.

- But there was a treasure.

No.

- Not the one they expected.

- Does Simon know about?

- No, no, no.

He thinks his father died before he was born.

I'm not the one to change that now, am I?

Not even Jones knows.

- Okay, long faces off.

Showtime! (doorbell ringing)

Now, Dad, I never thought I'd have to say to you but

put your teeth in.

(children cheering)

- There you go.

(lighthearted music)