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Holding on at number one, Susan Wright

She’s still a looming, brooding, bloody miserable presence around the town, except to young Tom Miller to who she has been nothing but friendly over the past two episodes. It’s not easy to work out what’s going on there. Having hidden Danny’s skateboard all this time, why does she suddenly give it to Tom…? It’s a move bound to attract police attention, is she really stupid enough not to have thought of that?

Maybe, at the risk of my sounding hopelessly naive, she misses her children, and gave the skateboard to Tom simply because it’s the sort of present a young boy would like. Or maybe, at the risk of sounding horrendously suspicious, she’s an evil calculating murderer who should be stopped!! Whatever she’s about, I certainly don’t believe that because she loves her dog she’s a lovely person underneath – I’ve got three dogs but I can still be a right pain to live with.

Moving up to number two, Nige Carter

And talking of Susan’s dog… Whatever’s going on between Nigel and Susan, it’s bad enough for him to have tried to pay her to leave town last week. And this week he’s gone as far as taking her dog. It’s another inexplicable (so far) action, which is likely to draw attention to an association with Susan that I thought he wanted to play down. I’ve not unblocked many pipes in my time, but I’m pretty confident that plumbers don’t usually include a crossbow in their toolbag.

Given all the suspicious elements around Nigel, frankly it was a very close run thing for the number one spot – and surely this week’s most horrifying moment was where he opened up his van and pointed the crossbow at that poor dog. Incidentally, amongst a universally superb cast even the dog is a great actor, that look he gave Nige haunts me still. Schoolboys is bad enough, but dog murderer?

Straight in at number three, Paul the Vicar

I’ll admit that I’ve an irrational dislike of ‘trendy’ vicars who use their first names, so if Arthur Darvill’s character went around being called ‘the Reverend Lumsden’ he might not even have made the list. Fact is, I don’t even know what his surname is and we’re now six episodes in. More relevant (possibly) is his insomnia.

By his own admission he is often out wandering the streets at four in the morning… but he was terribly vague as to whether he was out and about on the night of the murder. On the one hand, we (along with David Tennant’s detective) saw him this week with his hand resting on Tom Miller’s knee – but are we in danger of ignoring the lessons learned from the death of Jack, by still assuming that any adult male showing an interest in a youngster must be a paedophile.

Perhaps the cynicism that is gradually eroding DS Ellie Miller’s good nature is rubbing off on us as an audience too? On the other hand, I also spotted a guitar in Paul’s vestry – bloomin’ trendy vicars. Kumbaya indeed!

Up one to number four, Tom

There’s still a lot we don’t know about young Tom Miller, he’s clearly hiding something. But what exactly? Last week he wanted to know how long a prison sentence a murderer would get – idle curiosity or self-interest?

This week, as well as telling Chloe that he hated Danny, he resorted to taking a rock to his laptop. I’ve not programmed many computers in my time, but I’m pretty sure that’s no way to safeguard your information. Clearly Tom is keen to ensure that his deleted emails stay deleted. My guess would be, they won’t stay deleted for much longer…

And lastly another new entry at number five, Maggie Radcliffe

A little bit out of left field, true, but there’s… something about Maggie that niggles at me. Having been so chillingly threatened by Susan a couple of weeks ago, I was certainly impressed at Maggie’s nerve in standing up to her – maybe that’s it, the fact that in almost the blink of an eye she was able to dig up the dirt on the mysterious Susan. As editor of the local paper, she probably has her ears open to all the local goings-on, maybe she knew or heard… something about Danny.

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