Inspector Lewis: The Dead of Winter on Masterpiece Mystery PBS – A Recap & Review

Nice site! Thanks for the reveiw of The Dead of Winter, and especially the reference to the Houseman poem.

I don’t know if anyone picked up on the allegorical(?) reference to Brideshead Revisited?
1. When Hathaway goes the mock battlefield, he is met by a detective called ‘Hooper’ (in Brideshead, Charles Ryder is met by his sergeant, also called Hooper)
2. Hooper, in both Lewis and Brideshead Revisited, calls out to Hathaway/Ryder, something like ‘It’s a great boat(?) of a place. You’ve never seen anything like it’. Hathway does not reply; Ryder does.
3. In Lewis, the Lord of the manor is called ‘Lord Mortmain’. In Brideshead, he is called ‘Lord Marchmain’

What a great series!

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Wonderful site – I’ve visited before since I and my wife and daughters are all Jane Austen devotees, and now I find as well, to my great delight, a fellowship interested in television with literary affections and allusions…

Regarding “Dead of Winter” (by the way, do you have special contacts at ITV to glean some details such as locations, etc?) which we just watched on DVD:

1) Even in the old “Morse” series, and the novels, there were occasional details left unaddressed or unexplained, perhaps, in the case of the adaptations, due to the vagaries of film editing, or because Colin Dexter was not Doyle or Christie, wonderful, erudite and literature-saturated as Dexter was.

2) Regarding Hathaway’s relationship with his Lordship, I must agree with the view that Hathaway was not abused, but was, rather, “cruised” by Mortmaigne, who did not pursue the seduction because of Hathaway’s temperament, which would have made him less receptive to advances – a reticent – to the point of being almost aloof – bright, scrupulous and punctilious child, whose then developing traits are reflected in the character of the man we see today. Pedophiles seek to exploit any type of vulnerability, including children who are readily friendly and tolerant (Briony?), a terribly cruel way to take advantage of a disposition that we would generally think of as admirable and desirable (one of many reasons why child abuse is so harmful and vile).

3) Graham, like many parents of abused children, may have suspected something was not right, but not allowed himself to think the worst, because the consequences would have affected his work, or for any number of emotional and other reasons that people turn away from unpleasant truths. I mention this because Mortmaigne’s wife was clearly aware and tolerant of her husband’s behavior (perhaps explaining why the writer “punished” her by having her lover killed at the end), and so then Scarlett herself must have been at least suspicious, adding to the complexity of her sexuality and her relationships (she married impulsively at 17, the age of her stepmother when she married Scarlett’s father).

4) Scarlett’s character is, to my mind, a clear allusion to the character of Julia in “Brideshead Revisited”. Scarlett is not so well developed (understandable, given the format) but I think Russell Lewis is intentionally addressing Waugh’s unsatisfying psychology and accompanying restraint in “Brideshead Revisited” by creating a rather Elizabethan/Jacobean gloss (cf. “The Spanish Tragedy” and “Hamlet”) on the themes of religion (note Selina’s unctuous, “consoling” statements to Briony), sexuality, family (“you’re not one of us”) and the distorting requirements associated with patrimony.
Russell Lewis even offers a delightful twist to that latter theme by having Augustus (Roman Emperor?) marry in order to have a son (Titus – surely an allusion to “Titus Andronicus,” a play about emperors, and rape, and revenge and grandiose bloodletting), to secure the succession of the estate and title, only to have to hand his legacy, and his daughter, to a Lebanese businessman to secure its survival.
Scarlett’s decision to marry for the sake of family, and her “not one of us” comment, echo aspect’s of Julia’s behavior in “Brideshead Revisited” as well. In keeping with the tone of satire and blackly comedic references in the sript, I might think her behavior with Hathaway was meant, by the writer, to be more venal and opportunistic and that the the implication of genuine feeling would be more attributable to Camilla Arfwedson’s winsome interpretation of the script – though I think Russell Lewis is fond of complexity, even if it is unexplored.
The fact that Scarlett (also a reference to the daughter of the O”Hara family who famously fought for the survival of her family’s estate, Tara) started to say something that, given the actress’ demeanor, seemed to be defensive (“you don’t think I…”), implying she would not so have deceived him, and that she was crying, suggests she was genuinely fond of Hathaway. Why then say, “you’re not one of us”? Because she could read Hathaway’s state of mind, and knew that he could not ever be close to her (given his scrupulosity), and so, either because it is easier on one’s pride to jilt than be jilted, or because she wanted to make it easier on Hathaway, or because she was also angry at his opprobrium, she played to his class vulnerability in a way that also allowed the writer to tie up that plot line and leave Hathaway the lonesome detective (so popular in the genre, and the more desirable, eh?).

5) Though I think Scarlett’s character could have been played with a bit more depth and less charm (more Brett Ashley from “Sun Also Rises” or Nicole Diver from “Tender is the Night”), there is other evidence that she is looked upon fondly by the writer: the message to Hathaway to meet Scarlett in the summer house was sent by Hopkiss, who would thus have intended to frame Scarlett for Hathaway’s murder – a fate that places her, sentimentally, more amongst the victims than the perpetrators!
I think Hathaway’s judgmental “question” to her at the end (not really a question given his tone and demeanor, which did not promise any reconciliation), which brought on her hurt and hurtful remark, reflects his characterological mistrust of intimacy, his assumption of the ineluctable unhappiness and loss that is the fruit of love. This is, we may note, a further meditation on the character of Morse, as well as his foil, Lewis, who is now a wounded and hesitant widower, seemingly oblivious to the rather broad flirtations of his exceedingly attractive pathologist – as if he carried more of Morse than just his intuitive style of deduction and inference chaining.

6) “Mortmaigne” is a pun on “Marchmain” because of the meaning, in French, of “mort,” of course.

7) Hathaway’s awareness of Lord Mortmaigne’s pederasty is moot, in that he was 12 and of an age when children do not think to interpret or judge the behavior of adults in the same way adults do. I suspect Hathaway’s reflections on the unhappiness of his childhood are as much related to the class prejudice he experienced, and to which he is obviously still sensitive – as was Charles Ryder in “Brideshead Revisited.”

8) Lewis’ rueful glance at Titus and Briony leaving on a motorbike underscores the bizarreness and likely unhappiness attendant to their relationship – she is “eloping” with the son of her abuser, a very Tennessee Williams-like touch – which is perhaps alluded to by their names (see above re: “Titus”), especially “Briony” which means “poison.”

Thanks for a wonderful website, and discussion. Iook forward to more!

Tim Baker-Sullivan, New York, NY

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just wondering.. at some point Hathaway remarks ‘the heart chooses’ or some such; is that a Housman quotation as well?

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