Doug should have been in charge. DI Lane lets her emotions cloud her judgment. She feels it would be nice for the unbalanced mother to be in familiar surroundings, even though there has been a murder. This is one of those episodes where you get a bad feeling in your stomach after it's over. It will be interesting to see where the writers take this. Doug is right. No one listens to him. He is old school.
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Hitchcoc8 February 2020
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pensman3 November 2017This is a horrible episode to watch. What you have is a family, the Penmores, who have lost their family fortune through bad investments. Rather than accept what they have done to themselves, they harass a local family who are totally innocent but because of the worst policing I have ever seen an innocent baby is killed and a decent family is destroyed. There is no doubt all of the responsibility falls on DI Lane who fails completely in arresting one of the Penmores after he makes direct threats of violence against Laura Kessell and her baby.
It seems DI Lane is weak and afraid of the Penmores. Det. Supt. Wycliffe has been absent because he has had to attend a funeral for one of his wife's minor relatives when he should have been on duty; but for his wife he had to be where she wanted him to be. Upon his return to the station, Wycliffe asks the questions his staff should have asked and finds a potential subject; and that subject is the one who is able to identify the guilty party. But while Wycliffe is arresting the actual murderer, DI Lane failed to provide even one officer as protection for the family that has been threatened.
The Penmores and their friends attack the Kessell family in their home; and before the police arrive it is too late to save the family. It's a tough episode that makes you wonder about policing in Cornwall in the 90's. -
Prismark1012 November 2022I'm in two minds about Bad Blood as it is a horrible episode and with some inept policing.
I can buy it is realistic as the inept policing is all too geunine in actual real life.
Lionel Penmore (John Hallam) is a farmer and landowner facing financial ruin because of his own bad investments.
He is harassing tenant Kevin Kessell who he wants evicted from the house Penmore owns. Penmore needs to sell the house to raise money and he wants vacant possession.
Kessell was born in the house, his wife Laura has medical issues and they have a new born baby.
After a confrontation, Penmore is shot dead and his body moved. Kessell does a runner and his family has a bad reputation.
With Wycliffe away for a family funeral. DI Lane is in charge of the murder investigation.
Laura Kessell (Charlotte Coleman) is taken in for questioning and Lane later releases her as she thinks Laura and the baby will be better off in their surroundings.
This means Laura is now hounded by the angry Penmore family who believe that her husband is a murder suspect. Lane does not realise that she might have placed Laura and the baby in danger even after seeing what the Penmore's were like first hand.
I did not think much of the direction. The red herrings were weak and I suspected who the murderer might be and why.
The ending is bitter and depressing. Even more so considering Charlotte Coleman died so young. -
annykins-2654227 February 2024Whoever wrote and directed this episode did nothing to promote tourism for Americans seeking a taste of English country life. All the women are either simpering idiots who kill babies or inept idiots who can't find their way out of a paper bag. Lucy Lane screwed up so badly she should be demoted to toilet scrubber. Wycliffe put the wrong person in charge, according to this episode. She never even yelled back at the bully spewing threats in her face. Is harrassment not a crime in the UK? The stupidity of this story is a damning statement about the lack of human kindness and compassion in general. Paints a very bleak and depressing picture of Britain and mankind in general.