FINAL ACT

Lambert and Hook (A Necessary End, 2015, etc.) are stymied by an array of suspects who all make their living by deception.

Though he’s a bit of a local celebrity in his own right, Chief Superintendent John Lambert hates the limelight. So much so that he sends his even more retiring subaltern, DS Bert Hook, to appear on the telly alongside Sam Jackson and Ernie Clark, producer and assistant producer of the popular Inspector Loxton series. Having met the obnoxious Jackson at the interview should give Lambert’s right-hand man some insight into who might be to blame when the bully meets his end on the set of Herefordshire Horrors, the latest Loxton episode that’s being shot on location right in Lambert and Hook’s backyard. But in spite of his Open University qualifications, Hook is as befuddled as his boss. There’s no dearth of suspects; not one of Herefordshire’s cast escaped Jackson’s sadistic baiting. But seasoned actors like Sir Bradley Morton, leading man Martin Buttivant , versatile David Deeney, and sexy Sandra Rokeby are skilled at dissimulation. Even neophyte Peg Reynolds has the wit to hide what she thinks most incriminating. Finding what suspects want to conceal is Lambert and Hook’s bread and butter. This time, pitted against a group as professional as they are, they earn it and then some.

An appealing cast of characters both on set and off makes Gregson’s latest outing a pleasure for procedural buffs.