Sleeper

One of the innumerable gaps in my tv viewing over the years was the BBC series ‘Murder in Mind’. I never paid a lot of attention to it when it was shown a few years back, and I didn’t have any reason to believe I’d missed much. At least, not until, on the excellent Alibi channel, I stumbled over a repeat of an episode called ‘Sleeper’.

‘Murder in Mind’ evidently focused on self-contained stories, with strong casts. The lead role in ‘Sleeper’ was taken by Keeley Hawes, the very glamorous star of ‘Ashes to Ashes’, here in a very different part. Her character is prone to sleepwalking and is troubled by a difficult relationship with her boyfriend. One morning, she wakes up next to a blood-stained hammer. The boyfriend has disappeared…

I thought I’d figured out the surprise ending at an early point, but happily the apparently crucial clue turned out to be a red herring, and the writer had a couple of pretty good tricks up his sleeve. This was satisfying if undemanding television, and I will certainly be glad to watch more episodes of ‘Murder in Mind’ in the future.