by Mark Murton
Original Air Dates: October 10, 17 and 24, 1994
Directed by: Tim Fywell
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this episode!
Synopsis: In this story, originally broadcast in three episodes, Albie (Robert Carlyle), a young working class man separated from his wife and daughter and distraught at the recent death of his father, impulsively becomes a skinhead and murders a Pakistani shopkeeper over a perceived insult. Initially this leads the police to concentrate their efforts on the violent world of far right extremists but forensic psychologist “Fitz” (Robbie Coltrane) is sure the case is more complicated and that killer hasn’t finished yet.
Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): Arriving home after arguing with the shopkeeper over being a few pence short for the items he wanted, Albie scoops up his late father’s tuxedo cat and reaches into a cupboard for a tin of cat food.
He opens a drawer, takes out a tin opener and carries it, the tin, and the struggling cat to the kitchen table.
He starts to open the tin but pauses and makes a fateful decision as the camera closes in on the (fake brand) tin of cat food.
After the first murder Albie returns home where he looks across the room at the cat in her basket with several kittens crawling over her.
Later, the police are conducting house to house enquiries and while there is no answer at Albie’s the camera pans up to show an upstairs curtain twitching. The scene cuts to inside the room to reveal the cat moving around on the dresser which has been causing the curtain to move.
Purr Blur: Albie is next seen arriving at his estranged wife’s flat as he drops off his daughter Ruth (Gemma Phoenix) having picked her up from school. As they move along the walkway outside the flat a ginger cat runs past them and then stops at another door waiting to be let in.
The next time the police call at Albie’s he is at home and during the conversation the officer notices the kittens in the basket. Albie says he should have got rid of them but didn’t have the heart.
Albie’s next killing takes place at his house and while the victim lies dying on the floor Albie carefully places the kittens into a cardboard pet carrier (mum can also be glimpsed already in the box) as he prepares to leave for the final time.
The cats aren’t seen again although Fitz taunts Albie about them during the police interview after his arrest to try and goad him into talking about what else he’s done: “Your cat had kittens? Why didn’t you drown ‘em? You can kill human beings, what about a few kittens?” And again later: “You couldn’t kill a few little fluffy kittens, awwwh. What does that prove? That underneath you’re a good man? Dig deep and we’ll find sensitivity? No! Dig deep and we’ll find sentimentality. It’s been in every killer I’ve ever met, sickening sentimentality.”
Final Mewsings: Cats strike the perfect balance between being ruthless killers and sentimental fuzz muffins.
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