'Sister Boniface Mysteries' Reminds Us “There’s No 'I' in Slaughter”
Sister Boniface Mysteries opens this week’s episode at the Hempford Hill Training Ground, where Chief Constable Hector Lowsley brings his team, Constable Peggy Button, DI Sam Gillespie, and DS Felix Livingstone to compete for the prestigious “Police Team of the Year Award.” Felix gazes at the collection of Nissen huts and the lookout tower, and optimistically asks if it’s a top-secret training facility. (It’s probably a relic from World War II.) For Peggy, it brings back memories of a Girl Guide expedition in which everyone came down with dysentery. Their trainer, ex-cop and Hector’s old friend, Len Shepherd (Phil Cornwell), arrives to explain they’ll be competing against the Stowington Police Team in several team exercises, each of which will earn them one second off their Assault Course time the next day.
Right on cue, in slow-motion and full of menace, in it to win it, Stowington’s finest arrive in uniform with their own background music via a boombox carried by Rupert Beagle (Tyler-Jo Richardson), along with Heather Thorne (Tamla Kari), and led by DI Jack Stagg (Jay Taylor). Hector and his nemesis and counterpart, Chief Constable Horace Winthrop (Mark McDonnell), engage in some macho posturing and a crunching handshake. Both teams gather in a Nissen hut for the first team-building exercise, introduced by Len concerning fictional criminal Billy McCoy. Although Heather, stiff and formal, has rejected Peggy’s friendly introduction, the teams are together to find out more about each other (not that they want to), and Len presents the first question: Which of them trained as a ballerina?
Max suggests it was Heather. (It isn’t, as she makes very clear.) Felix points out that since it’s neither of the women, the correct term is ballerino. Heather protests against the sharing of private information, and Winthrop, obviously an old-school type, tells her to go and make tea. Round two is a blindfold-trust challenge, where one partner is aided by verbal clues from their partner, navigating a course to pick up a bag containing Billy McCoy’s loot. The Stowington team cheats by ignoring the traffic cones. Beagle, blindfolded, trips up, and Len and Winthrop insult each other with veiled comments about past encounters.
