The Rising of the Moon
- Original Airdate: 23 January 2000
Inspector Christmas calls in Mrs. Bradley when the persons of interest in one of his cases, the workers at a traveling circus, refuse to cooperate with him.
Tropes:
- Blackmail Backfire:
- Archie, a circus clown, figures out that the culprit and Coralie knew one another and tries to blackmail him. The culprit kills the ringmaster and sets Archie up for the murder.
- Mrs. Cockerton, Mr. Forrester's housekeeper, finds a photo of his young family and realizes he killed Coralie to keep her from taking the boys. She has a crush on him, so she offers to stay quiet if he'll marry her. He blatantly describes it to Mrs. Bradley as blackmail and he killed Mrs. Cockerton too.
- Circus Episode: One of the performers from a traveling circus is mysteriously killed.
- Happily Adopted: At the end, the Forrester boys, newly orphaned by the arrest of their father, set off with their mother's circus troop. Archie promises to keep an eye on them and thinks they'll do fine.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: A grotesque variant; while investigating the Forresters' house, Mrs. Bradley sees a pot on the stove. When she lifts the lid, she finds Mrs. Cockerton's face in it.
