A coded letter, money, violence. Too much for you?
The coded letter episode, based on the 1975 novel of the same name. First broadcast 22 March 1988.
Morse investigates the death of Sylvia Kane, an 18 year-old woman found dead in a pub car park, where she was late in meeting her date. In her possession is found an envelope with a secret-coded-message addressed to the dead woman's co-worker Jennifer Coleby, who has secrets of her own. Several relationships and connections are established by Morse and Lewis to find the truth about how Sylvia died.
This episode contains examples of:
- Adaptation Name Change: A few — Sylvia Kaye becomes Sylvia Kane, and Sue Widdowson becomes Mary Widdowson. The pub was called the Black Prince (a Real Life Woodstock pub) in the novel; in the TV adaptation, it's the Fox and Castle.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Well, slightly nicer. In the original novel, John Sanders was a pornography addict who had sex with Sylvia's corpse. In the TV episode, he's hooked on snooker and merely steals £500 from Sylvia's bag.
- Always Murder: Averted — the only death in this episode, that of Sylvia Kane, is found to have been accidental (unlike in the novel, in which she was murdered).
- Ambiguous Situation: Is the elderly witness a spinster or a widow? She's addressed as "Miss Jarman" several times, but is listed as "Mrs. Jarman" in the credits.
- Creator Cameo: During Crowther's lecture on the Earl of Rochester, Colin Dexter can be seen sitting behind Morse.
- Spared By Adaptation: In the novel, Crowther died of a heart attack after his wife committed suicide. Both survive the TV episode.
- Title Drop: Not quite done in the first line.Sylvia Kane: Excuse me, when's the next bus to Woodstock?Mrs. Jarman: It's supposed to be here soon. It's generally late.
- Wrong Assumption: Morse thinks Sylvia Kane was murdered. He's wrong.
