A Murder of Quality (1991) (Part 1)

George Smiley is contacted by an old intelligence friend, Ailsa Brimley, who has received a letter from her niece Stella Rhode alleging that her husband, a school teacher at Carne School, is planning to kill her. But when he turns up there she has already been murdered, bludgened to death by a mystery object and her husband the prime suspect. But as George delves deeper he finds that many of the staff had reason to kill her - not least because she had a habit of blackmail. But who among the school staff could be the killer? And little does George realize that the killer isn't planning on stopping there...

Starring Denholm Elliot, Glenda Jackson, Joss Ackland, David Threlfal, Ronald Pickup, Diane Fletcher, Fiona Walker, Matthew Scurfield, Nick Reading, Michael Cochrane, Moray Watson, William Armstrong, Billie Whitelaw, John Grillo, Helen Lindsay, Jane Montgomery, Tim Dutton, Emily Raymond, Joanna Jacobs, Thorley Walters, plus early screen appearances by Christian Bale and Samantha Janus. This was another video from Mick's Nostalgia Channel and with this wet weather I felt an atmospheric mystery would be befitting. Originally intending to have Alec Guinness back as George Smiley, Denholm Elliott was cast when Guinness declined to return. It doesn't feel like a Smiley thriller, which is all the better as Denholm Elliott makes a good investigator in an absorbing mystery with an all star cast. Good luck trying to spot Billie Whitelaw, as she's almost unrecognizable, while this was Thorley Walters final screen appearance before his death that year. Please note this contains swearing, violence and nudity.