It's Robert Carlyle in an early TV role, in a Taggart with a bigger body count than some Tarantino flicks. But does the story live up to this "before they were a" star billing? Let's find out...
(Spoilers follow, obviously)
Ten seconds in we see a man strangling a woman to death in a Glasgow flat. Well, that was abrupt. "Pauline?" he says, a bit late for chat as she's utterly dead.
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Cast
Jim Taggart: Mark McManus
DS Jardine: James MacPherson
John: Neil McKinven
Mr Little: Robert McIntosh
Lesley Hay: Aline Mowat
Sam Paris: James Carroll Jordan
Joanna Gillen: Jan Carey
Donald Gillen: Ian McCulloch
George Hay: Joe Dunlop
Jean Taggart: Harriet Buchan
McVitie: Iain Anders
Dr Andrews: Robert Robertson
Willie Jamieson: Campbell Morrison
Ron Clark: Hugh Martin
Gordon Inglis: Robert Carlyle
Dr Clyde: Sandra Voe
Director: Haldane Duncan
Writer: Glenn Chandler
Story Description
"Violent crime is on the increase," said a stern politician at a public meeting. Clearly he's no wrong about that one! "Over 80% of the population want a return of capital punishment," he adds, from the Big Book of Fake Stats. Joanna Gillen was then introduced as party candidate. Joanna's husband Frank was a policeman who tried to stop a robbery and got attacked and killed. Now she wants his killer dead.
Meanwhile the man in the flat checked that the women really was dead before a small voice in another room called out: "Daddy?" The man told his daughter the mum had gone to work and put her to bed. He panics and put his dead missus in a box, not noticing her shoe fell off in the living room. He then dragged the box down to the skip and is very out of puff.
Joanna finished her speech and gets cheered by a very young Bobby Carlyle!
An old man told a guy called John that he's "going to go live in Shetland where his people are". John guy, however, just heard his brother died. So much plot in so little time.
The Dad/Killer plays on a slide with his daughter and looks panicked. The police have found the dead mum, and into the scene walks JIM TAGGART.
"That's all we need," he grumbles, "This is supposed to be Glasgow's Year of Culture!"
He's flanked by Robert Robertson, Taggart's pathologist regular, and a chap who was once in Doctor Who (as a soldier in Ambassadors of Death) and who died on stage doing a Robert Burns routine.
Dr Andrews points out the cause of death was strangulation and the stab wounds came 5 hours later, and you can already see the solution to the crime forming on Mark McManus's face.
A motorbike stalls and the driver, John, is nearly run over by a fire engine.
The Dad (ie Killer) goes to talk to Taggart and Jardine and claims his wife went missing.
Meanwhile John stopped outside a house fire where several dead bodies are being dragged out by the firemen. He gets to his job late, and is given a bollocking by one of his bosses.
"How else would we get money?" said Mr Crawford (that's the Dad/Killer).
"Social services?" suggests Jardine.
"Round here that means a money lender..." replies the Dad/Killer
John watches the news (2 dead kids in that fire) and reads about the Mum (Dead Prostitute according to the headline) and turns himself in at the police station, confessing to the murder.
Dr Andrews gives more details about the Dead Mum, which points out that pretty much only one person could have done the crime. In answer to one of Jardine's suggestions, Taggart quips: "People don't keep bodies in trunks these days. That went out with arsenic!"
Taggart listens to the confession, quickly points out all the holes in John's story, and tells him to feck off.
TAGGART - I saw the body, it wasn't a pretty sight. But I'll tell you a worse sight. It's me, when I get people like you, wasting my time!
Taggart's boss, Superintendent McVitie, shows up.
MCVITIE: What's up?
TAGGART: A nutter confessed.
MCVITIE: One we know?
JARDINE: A new one.
MCVITIE: Oh well, you know the procedure. Get him seen by a Doctor.
Mr Crawford is sitting watching TV with his daughter when Taggart and Jardine show up, and Taggart pats the wean on her head as a WPC removes her from the scene. They swiftly tear the Dad/Killer's story apart and he falls apart in a crying wreck as Taggart reads his rights.
Crime solved in 23 minutes, a new record for Jim Taggart. Oh hang on, there's 2 hours of the story to go yet.
John meets his psychologist at an old hospital that looks like the Gartloch. Not only did he confess to a murder he didn't commit, John was brought up in a children's home and has issues. The psychologist, Dr Clyde, is played by Sandra Voe, an actress who has appeared in everything from Press Gang to Holby City.
A yuppy executive in a car is using his car phone instead of looking at the road, and hits a cyclist. He goes to check on the cyclist's condition and, when the guy says he is injured and will press charges, the yuppy decides to dash his head in with a metal pole instead. Mr Executive was so desperate he even offered the young lad 500 quid to keep quiet as he'd "only just got his licence back." So there's another murder. MURDER NUMBER TWO.
Joanna Gillen is stumping in favour of capital punishment and in quoting the Bible. And meet a critic, in form of a Glasgow heckler, as Jardine watches from a distance. "Everyone talks about Timothy Evans. Suppose a surgeon makes a mistake, does that mean we should stop operations?" Gillen sums up her view. A contretemps starts which Jardine finishes, but not before the religious copper mentions "Thou shall not kill". The election agent asks Ron (the late Hugh Martin) if he'd heard of Jardine.
George Hay (the election agent) tries to convince John (confesses to murders a lot) to come to their next meeting. John's job, when not trying to get jailed, is working at the local print shop. Meanwhile the floor manager gets an earful from the shop owner, Mr Little, as Little dislikes the idea of capital punishment. His manager tells him they can't afford to turn down business and everyone else loves the idea of a good hanging.
Jardine looks at a bloody trainer. The hit and run guy. His body was in a bad way, clearly. The killer moved his bike, and Taggart has already twigged that the head injuries seem to have come from a deliberate angle and that there's a button on the ground.
Meanwhile, Mrs Hay (George's ex wife) sends her History class home with homework on Mary Queen of Scots and promptly has it off on a boat with an American. So Lesley Hay here is the sister of Joanna Gillen, and the estranged wife of George Hay, but doesn't support their campaign, even after the murder of her brother-in-law. (We got that in dialogue from her lover, which was a rare bit of telling and not showing from Glenn Chandler!)
Mr Little warns John that he may find himself redundant soon. John drives off past the Barrowlands on his bike, stopping to look at the fire torn tenement from earlier with a longing look on his face. He might not be quite right in the head, you know.
We hear in a snippet of the news that the cyclist murdered was a 16 year old lad.
Joanna Gillen and George Hay are lovers too. No wonder Lesley isn't keen. What a messed up family.
Taggart and Jardine are already tracking down the owner of the missing button. But John has shown up to confess to the murder of the cyclist. He claims he lost his temper and strangled the chap, and Taggart looks more likely to lose his own temper.
Taggart - Why can't we charge him?
McVitie - It'll damage his therapy.
Taggart - What do psychologists do to these people?
We cut to John looking happy he has confessed. He's a bit of a weirdo tbh.
Taggart and Jardine appear at a clothes shop, and come face to face with the shop owner - the yuppy from earlier. He realises he has a button missing.
John talks about his past with his psychologist, and Taggart finds out his wife Jean is running in the by-election to get better rights for disabled people. (Jean Taggart has been wheelchair bound since before the series began.)
A plane arrives, and soon after Joanne and her husband Donald, and George and Lesley are both pretending to be happily married and sharing a glass in a restaurant. Screwed up family gets even more screwed up! Donald is a bit annoyed that Joanna is still bringing up her ex-husband after eight years.
They have a fight and she storms out of the car in a huff to walk home.
Taggart's tracked down the colour of the car and the button but they belong to thousands of people. Fortunately for him, the yuppy is cracking under the pressure, and phones up to offer advice on a fictitious suspect. And genuinely if he'd never done that, he'd have got away with it scot free. His story completely falls apart under minor questioning, and of course the CCTV footage does not show any such suspect.
Yuppy Kenneth, skewered by his own nerves, goes and hangs himself instead.
So that's 50 mins in and 2 murders solved. They don't pay Jim Taggart by the hour!
Lesley: All the crime books he reads. I bet George would make a better murderer than the people he wants to hang!
We are introduced to Mr Cooper, the uncle of Lesley and Joanna. I assume you are following this.
Taggart watches the body recovery of the dead murderer, who had a reputation for drink and driving.
Taggart: If he'd never made that phone call...
Jardine: He tried to be too clever.
Taggart: How many times do I need to tell you? There's no such thing as a clever murderer.
George and Joanne are at the hustings. John sits in the crowd, and Joanna stands up to talk and faints. Bobby Carlyle sees Joanna and George off in their rare books van. We see it drive off down the road and then the next day, at a farm, to farm hands find the books van with George Hay and Joanna Gillen dead in it!
So yes, we're now at FOUR MURDERS. Possibly more if that fire was arson. Hay and Gillen were shot at close range in the head.
Taggart tells Cooper and Lesley that her sister and husband were both murdered. Cut to Lesley puking in a panic attack. They then talk to the actual current husband. At this point, I think the suspect list for the murder of George Hay is akin to the entirety of the Glasgow A-Z Yellow Pages.
Floor manager Willie Jamieson jokes about John getting the heave ho from work. Mrs Little offers Mr Little lots of sleeping pills as he's got insomnia. Mr Gemmell has sold his house. More stress for John. He may need to confess to another murder.
The "hang everyone" party make Gordon Inglis (ie Hamish MacBeth) their new candidate to everyone but ex-cop Ron's delight. John reads the newspaper to find new murders to confess to, but looks worried when he reads about the Hay/Gillen murder.
Taggart, Jardine and McVitie talk suspects. Taggart's eye is on the husband, on prior precedent, and mentions that had his wife been out all night he'd have raised all alarms. "Not everyone's marriage is happy as yours" quips Jardine, who gets a fantastically dour Taggart grimace in reply.
They head to the pub. A reporter tries to get questions off Taggart who nearly lamps him.
Gordon Inglis struggles to get nominations and Taggart stops for a chat. Inglis calls him a "do gooder"! Carlyle showing star quality even in his 20s.
Taggart shows up at the police station to find John ready to confess to a double murder and sighs. A drunken Mr Gillan tells his co-pilot that, had he hired a hitman to do in his wife, he'd have made sure he was in the Bahamas and not Bearsden at the time!
Taggart: John, I'm a happy go lucky go. Anything for a quiet life. Feet up at the fire. Quiet dram now and then. But there's one thing I can't stand and that's people who tell me fibs!
There's about 5 fibs from Taggart in that bit to John! Taggart does realise John works for Mr Little and goes to visit him, right as he's getting a lecture from his wife. Few things make Taggart more sympathetic...
Mr Little says he is annoyed as Gillen had promised him a lot of work in the coming weeks. Taggart goes to the St Enochs Centre to talk to Ron, who now has a day job as security.
Jardine's tailing of Lesley has revealed her tryst with the American navy man Sam on the Gare Loch boat. So Taggart sends Jardine out in a police boat to get them and take both into custody.
Taggart: You and Sailor Sam caused the death of your sister?
Lesley: Stop bullying me!
Taggart: I've no even started yet!
So Lesley and her bit on the side, and Mr Gillan the always drunk, and Gordon Inglis all have solid motives for the crime. The police have to let Lesley and her boy toy go, despite Taggart's belief Lesley knows something about the case she is letting known.
Taggart is sent to deal with the press and does so in his usual friendly manner. Meanwhile, John confesses to being the hitman sent to kill George Hay. He says Mrs Hay was his teacher at St Mungos, and Taggart explodes.
Mr Little leaves setting up an Inglis poster in John's care. John uses the computer to claim he killed George and Joanna on Lesley's orders. A reporter takes a photo of Lesley - and Sam goes to punch the guy - but then we cut to the three of them appearing at the Hanging Party's latest speech.
Lesley gives a speech, stating she is now for capital punishment due to the recently family murders. However everyone notices John's confession on their leaflets instead. McVitie and Taggart think John is unnerving the real killers. Mr Little is astounded by John's behaviour. So he goes to visit John and tells him he's been given the sack.
As the Navy bug Sam's boat, he and the widower have a punch up at the funeral. As you do. However, as they arrive at the boat, the boy Sam was friends with warns him about the bugging, which leads them to spend the night as Lesley's house instead.
Where both of them are promptly shot dead with a shotgun. MURDERS FIVE AND SIX.
So for those of you keeping score at home, that's six murders, one fatal arson attack (with added number of murdered victims), one suicide, one international conspiracy, one quasi-fascist by-election party and one mentally ill young man.
I love the rare books van, as rickety and unsafe as it looks when been driven.
John is being hypnotised by his psychiatrist who wants to know about the fire at the children's home.
"This city gets more like Chicago every day," bemoans Dr Andrews who is really making his per diem money in this tale.
Taggart notes that the only person with a motive to kill Lesley and Sam was Mr Little. And from his trick questioning, you can sense that Taggart is already closing in on a prime suspect. The Biscuit (McVitie, its a very Scottish joke) is narked, as the entire episode is basically buckets of blood by this point.
John drives his bike into the middle of a quarry. And then throws the bike into the river. Taggart tells his wife that he'll vote during the day when he has time. Taggart and Jardine chat to Ron about the earlier case. Taggart and Jardine visit Kidson (the murderer who started all of this eight years prior), but he's in a mental hospital and unresponsive. This isn't helped by Jim Taggart's "pull yourself together, man" approach to insanity. John throws his bags and stuff into the river, and then his jacket. He asks for a bed for the night in the police station.
McVitie: Are we on the right track?
Taggart: I'm not even sure we're in the right racecourse.
Taggart gets to the polling station too late to his wife's fury. Robert Carlyle feels winning elections isn't as important as winning public opinion.
John shows up at Mr Little's house and confesses to the murders of Lesley and Sam. He gets a bed for the night as the results of the by-election are called. Neither Carlyle or Mrs Taggart got their deposits back. "SNP got in again", apparently. Twenty-five years ahead of schedule! Apparently when Lesley was dealing with the original trial she went to see a psychologist.
Mr Little brings John the newspapers, which tell him the police are on the track of Lesley's killer. Jardine's visit to St Mungos school reveals John was a trouble child always confessing to things he hadn't done. Mr Little goes upstairs to see John, there's a gun shot, and Mr Little is found shot. But alive. The police now chase down John who is rushing to seeing the psychiatrist at the hospital. John forces his way into the hospital with a gun and has gone proper crazy now. He asks the psychiatrist for help and she demands the gun.
And we cut to him being arrested.
John goes through another interrogation, this time with Taggart assuming he did the crime he is confessing to, but there's holes in the story. Like how despite knowing how Lesley and Sam died, he has no idea how he got the gun, or that you need to plan these things in advance.
Taggart is busy reading the rest of the Kidson files for closure. Something is playing on his mind. And then he realises that there's an error with the type of gun in the trial notes, which means the gun used in the recent killings is the same one from the Kidson trial, and that means neither John or Kidson himself could have been killers. But someone has planted the memory of killing in them.
Like hypnotism?
Retired Ron cut corners to get a conviction. So the original killer is still out there.
Mr Little in hospital gets the newspaper and suddenly twigs he's made an error as...
Jim Taggart fishes the doctored newspaper out of Mr Little's bin in his home. With a front page that never existed outside of the edition given to John.
Taggart says he suspected Little ever since he saw how shocked Joanna looked when meeting him, like someone who realised she'd made a mistake at trial and just come face to face with the killer of her husband for real. Then Sam and Lesley had to go because they were going to sue Little. Who was the only person who could have planted the gun for John to find.
Mr Little, who is still bleeding, rushes home to find out Taggart has the fake newspaper. So he pushes his wife down the stairs and makes a break for it. Cornered by police cars he hides in a removal van. Which is then locked and driven off.
John is released from jail.
Taggart bemoans how Little disappeared, and thinks he's made a break for it at the airport.
Meanwhile that removal van was actually a container lorry. And the container is loaded alongside thousands of other containers, locked, immovable on a freighter. Mr Little will be found, eventually.
Thoughts
If Hostile Witness is remembered today, it is for Robert Carlyle's early role. He steals every scene he appears in, seemingly thirty years ahead of his day as the type of politician you might get both sides of the Atlantic nowadays. The role is relatively small, and is that rare unpleasant Taggart character who isn't a red herring, as we're never given much belief that he might be behind the murder frenzy going on. For this story has one of the largest collection of individual killings in detective fiction, with no less than seven killings (five by one person) to entertain the ghoulish. Taggart takes no time in spotting alibi failures to trounce two killers early on and prove his view that there's no such thing as a smart murderer. The conceit being that the real meat of the story involves an actually clever murderer, but then, Mr Little collapses as soon as the finger of suspicion is pointed his way just as the executive or the dad did before him. If anything, Taggart's main view is only backed up by the conclusion.
However, while Carlyle shows early promise, the central role of note in this story is taken by popular stage actor Neil McKinven. His mentally ill John is one of the more effective red herrings the series produced, giving us a troubled man who is both sympathetic and yet convincingly dangerous at the same time. Of course, he's been set up, but this was a strong multi-faceted role by a young actor, and you can see why he's rarely been out of work since.
Elsewhere, the story has so many twists it can take being written out like above to keep tabs on all the tracks of the tale. Mr Little's turn from put upon husband to villain of the piece happens so abruptly that I'm unconvinced it actually works. His motivation, to prevent being outed as the real villain behind a robbery years previously, also feels unconvincing: the fall guy was imprisoned long ago, and would a recanting of recognition hold much sway?
Where it does work is in how Glenn Chandler seemed to foresee the divide which would later bring us Brexit, as if it were being run on the same old divisions and tactics. The regulars all provide good material and the plot twists around at a solid rate. It also produces one of the nastier fates for a villain in the series with Mr Little's demise. However, I feel overall like there is less rewatchability for this one than with other plot twisters in the series such as Flesh and Stone.
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