The only suggestion of her identity, however, is the strange protrusion at the base of her spine – a vestigial tail. It is a clue which is to take Reid and the team into the shadowy netherworld of the circus freakshows and thence back to The London Hospital to seek help and understanding from its most celebrated resident, Joseph Merrick, aka The Elephant Man.

Series 2 Episode 2 airs at 9pm on Monday 4 November on BBC One. To whet your appetite, here are ten teasing lines of dialogue from the episode…

» “Get your bastard hands inside me and tug the bugger free!”

» “We were all animals once, as is now said.”

» “He’s impervious to pain, but not – alas – to suffering.”

» “This life. Six bags of shit ’til Sunday, is it not? And here am I about to make yours worse.”

» “Do send my regards to your pistol-twister. You must have him working those skilled fingers to the knuckle.”

» “The correction and improvement of human kind is, indeed, realizable.”

» “You know this brooding martyr thing you perfect can really grate.”

» “Do you know, Inspector, of all the emotions which is the most insidious and entrapping? Shame. It carves its home in the marrow of your bones and rests there for all time.”

» “There is a monster in him, as surely as there is one in me.”

» “As we know, elephants do not forget.”

> Buy Series 1 on DVD on Amazon.

Watch the Series 2 trailer…

Are you looking forward to the episode? Let us know below…