The MacBeth theme runs all through this episode, though I don't know why. Nobody wants to become king, nor is there any woman pushing a man from behind. Instead, two murders take place, apparently independent of each other. A kind, elderly Oxfordian, Felix McClure, is stabbed to death because he found the custodian selling drugs to the students. The custodian, Tony Haygarth, a wife basher, is in turn killed as part of a conspiracy by his wife, his daughter, and a school mistress.
As usual there were a couple of loose ends I was unable to tie up. Why did the custodian feel it necessary to steal a knife added to the museum's collection in 1909 to murder the Oxford man? Considerable time is given over to the middle-aged school mistress's seduction of one of her students, later killed or badly injured while joy riding in a stolen car. What's that got to do with either of the murders? Those conundrums aside, I think I was able to follow the story well enough, and it's an engaging one too, although it doesn't exploit the scenery or the location in any way, nor is it especially amusing, nor does it introduce anything new about the characters of Morse and Lewis. The absence of those features didn't make it less interesting.
A few notes. Phyllis Logan plays the school mistress. She suffers from oestrus and something in her brain -- I think she mentions a tumor at one point -- that finally cripples her power of speech and eventually kills her. Whatever it is, it's probably located in the lower part of the left frontal lobe called Broca's area. On her deathbed all she can do is quote lines from MacBeth.
The custodian's daughter is played by Amanda Ryan, who ought to be in jail on charges of being criminally beautiful. She's dark, tall, rangy, and has gray irises that are at once cool and piercing. She's sexy too, though a real bitch. Women probably envy her but the fact is that being gorgeous can be a true curse. I know this to be the case because I am so devastatingly handsome myself. Forever greeted with schwarmerei. The phone is always ringing, sophisticated women throw themselves at my feet, and once at the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station an attractive blond swooned while staring at me. It was embarrassing. We're really very lonely.
Finally, in this episode, there are four murderers (the custodian plus the three women who connived at his death). Maybe there are FIVE murderers if that pimply adolescent boy toy fits into the picture anywhere. Two of them go unpunished, partly because the case against them isn't strong enough and partly because Morse's boss has been told to tighten the department's belt, so he doesn't want a costly trial.