A young Russian foreign exchange student arrives at the home of the vicar of a very proper english village whose residents are more than scandalised when her secret colorful past is suddenly revealed.

Barnaby and DS Scott investigate the murder of Patrick Pennyman, an undertaker in the village of Fletcher's Cross. The man's wife thinks he committed suicide but the pathologist determines he was killed. The man died soon after his return home after attending a service at the local spiritualist church, itself the source of some controversy in the village. As the investigation progresses, the police learn that Pennyman was generally disliked. Former employees, business partners and others all had a grudge against him of one sort or another. Barnaby believes the head of the Spiritualist church to be a charlatan and while there is a link to the ever increasing number of murder victims, the solution to the crimes is to be found in an illicit love affair.

2009 film directed by Julian Jarrold

2007 film directed by Anton Corbijn

A grieving upper class woman becomes a "Lady Visitor" at Millbank prison, hoping to escape her troubles and be a guiding figure in the lives of the female prisoners. Of all her friendships with prisoners, she is most fascinated by Selina - a medium.