by Mark Murton

Original Air Date: January 24th, 1996

Directed by: Robert Tronson

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!

Synopsis: Hetty (Patricia Routledge) is shocked when her husband Robert (Derek Benfield) gets news that his boyhood hero, his uncle Albert, has committed suicide. Unable to believe it, he persuades Hetty to go with him to the village of Readsby to investigate. Strange rituals, a book on witchcraft, and “a smell of death in the village” are all part of the mystery Hetty must solve.

Kitty Cameo(s): In the opening scene, the local butcher is flirting with one of his customers when he suddenly spots a black cat lurking by a joint of meat and quickly shoos the kitty from the shop.

Hetty and her husband arrive at uncle Albert’s and start searching through his possessions for clues. After a while they are interrupted by the sound of a black cat crying outside the window. “If that’s his cat somebody’s been feeding it,” announces Hetty.

At the end of the episode Hetty deduces the truth about Albert’s “suicide” and storms off to the local church to confront the person she believes is involved. As she bursts through the door a black cat is seen on a window sill next to the pews. It’s not clear if the cat is meant to belong to the perpetrator, or if the writer’s intention was simply to include cats as a misdirection, leading viewers to believe that the kitties were being summoned by witchcraft.

Final Mewsings: You couldn’t have a story about supposed witchcraft in a sleepy English village without including a black cat (or three).

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