The Sculptress
Tags: murder

Plot synopsis:
FIRST EPISODECredits and images of burning candles spilling red wax, as if it was blood.The kitchen of a café turning hamburgers. Two police officers in street clothes drive by while eating the hamburgers and an apple. Dispatch calls them about a call which looks unimportant, shouting at a house. Everything looks normal and quiet at Leven Road. Detective Hal Hawksley (Christopher Fulord) is let in by a fat woman with a blood stain in her face. That is Olive Martin (Pauline Quirke), she says something about the kitchen. There, there's a dead body covered in blood - presumably we see first the dead body of Gwen Martin (Yvonne D'Alpra), the mother. The view startles Hawksley, who passes out. Geoff Wyatt (James McCarthy) knocks on the door and is allowed to enter.Later, Olive says that she hasn't done anything to dispatch through the officer's radio. Olive is sentenced to two life sentences. She's admitted to have murdered her mother and sister.Rosalind 'Roz' Leigh (Caroline Goodall) is a clumsy journalist at a party. Her editor Iris, (Lynda Rooke), presses her to write a new novel. She pressures her because she needs the money.Roz goes to the prison to see Olive. A prison officer (Sophie Stanton) gives her instructions to follow during the interview. Roz takes out a recording machine. Olive looks petrified, all sweaty, pale, and as fat as always. Olive asks Roz if she's afraid of her - Olive says that she scares everybody, but that's normal. Olive turns off the recording machine. She starts talking about her father Robert (Barry Woolgar), who died 6 months ago of natural causes, and Alison, her sister, whom she can't remember. Roz gives Olive the only thing she can give her: a cigarette. Olive takes the lead and learns that Roz is divorced, without children. Olive says she's annoyed with Peter Crew (Michael Percival), who tried to certify her as paranoid schizophrenic; Olive only admits to have a compulsion to eat; she also says that Roz never met her mother, and that by her own standards, she never did anything wrong. Olive cuts the conversation short, but says she'll meet her next week.Roz goes to Crew and Dougdale Solicitors. Olive did it on her birthday. She is called the sculptress because of the way she worked on the dead bodies. Her father is the one who's paid for her legal defense. Olive is afraid of mad people, that's why she didn't make an insanity plead. She started working on her mother when she was still alive and spent hours doing so. Crew phones somebody to talk about Roz's visit.Olive goes to the prison chapel and wakes Father Julian (Dermot Crowley). Olive asks for a new diary with religious quotes for each day; while the priest goes to pick one, Olive steals a wax candle and hides it among her loose outfit. Father Julian tells him that next time, they will pray together.Her mother had gone to her office job in a bad mood. Roz feeds her cat while listening to Olive's recording on her second visit. Olive's non-chalant attitude scares the hell out of Roz, who tries to quit the project. Iris gets mad at her because of that. Iris tells her to give Olive a last visit before quitting.Roz remembers herself as a child, or her own child being taken away. She takes a bouquet of flowers to a river. Olive carves on the candle.A male's voice phones Roz and tells her "I need to see you" and scares her in the night. Olive tells her of doing a "quid pro quo" trust. Olive asks to see a photo of Roz's late child in exchange of some incredible information - in fact, Olive considers herself to be "good with children". Olive says that Roz is obsessed with her ex, and admits to having lost a child at 13.Olive works at the prison kitchen. Somebody throws a potato to her when she's taking the rubbish out.Roz goes to Olive's neighbourhood, but the lady at number 20, Sally Wyatt (Felicity Finch), tells her away. A man at number 24 lets her in. Olive was educated by nuns; people at that time thought that it may have been the father, not Olive, who did it.Sister Bridget (Maureen O'Brien) says that Olive adored and protected her younger sister Amber (Karen Westwood), who was prettier but with more character faults.Julian tells Olive that there's beauty in life, and gives her a flower. He wants to make a pact with Olive he'd quit smoking if she quits eating compulsively. Olive is afraid that that's the only thing left for her, but Julian tells he that now god is in her side. Olive has carved one fat female figure and a thin one.Roz goes to a pub in dire straits called The Poacher. It's raining cats and dogs outside. Detective Hawksley enters and speaks to her; he is afraid of somebody wrecking the place, and doesn't want to talk to her. A car is thrown at Roz, crashing onto the pub - nobody was driving it. Hawksley goes out to see what's happening holding a baseball bat menacingly. Robert Martin could have given Olive an alibi.The new neibourgh had redecorated. The Clarkes were the old inhabitants in the house, Edward Clarke (David Horovitch) and Leslie (Ann Davies); she was not there when Roz spoke to Edward. An estate agent (John Bowler) gives info about the house.Lily Taylor (Joolia Cappleman) said that Olive was a good worker; she had a good-for-nothing boyfriend. He was Gary O'Brien (Andrew Tiernan). Olive says to Julian that she'd like to be beautiful and asks him if god sees everybody all the time; he says that we are never alone.Hawksley is mending the door at The Poacher - he says that Olive wanted to confess and can't believe that Gary was Olive's boyfriend, he even suggests that Olive may have never had an abortion. Hawksley makes a pass at Roz, but then he says that he was winding her up. Roz gets annoyed but kisses him on the lips.Marnie O'Brien (Wendy Nottingham), Gary's older sibling, works at a delivery place and she speaks to Roz; she also thinks that Gary wouldn't have looked twice to Olive. Reggie Wheelan (Jim Barclay) inquiries about a particular delivery which had already been taken care of. Olive asks another prison officer (Maureen Hibbert) about Roz not coming. Olive gets hysterical in her cell because Roz didn't come, and she wrecks everything, even a washbasin. She has to be taken away between several prison officers and is put in the isolation ward. Roz comes back home to look at the photograph of Olive's father. May he have been the father of Olive's lost child?Roz says that she is sorry, but she is impatient - she is not even sure that Olive wants her to write that book. Olive gets angry when Roz mentions that Gary was her lover. Olive admits that she invented her abortion because she wanted people to think that somebody somewhere fancied her. Roz's idea that her father must have abused her is false as well - Olive says that her father was homosexual.SECOND EPISODEMr Wheelan lets Roz talk to Marnie, who now says that she doesn't recognise the the man in the photograph. Roz thinks that Marnie knows more about the murder than what she wants to say.Hawksley is mending the roof of The Poacher and says that he doesn't understand why Roz is interested in a monster. Hawksley will give Roz copies of the crime reports and has bought himself a new security system. Robert Martin and Edward Clarke used to be lovers for quite a long time, and they would see each other at Robert's home for hours and hours. She thinks that he was the killer of his wife and daughter. Mrs Clarke's was his alibi but she protected him because she didn't want the affair - known to her - to become vox populi. Hawksley takes Roz to the seaside. Roz confides on Hawksley that she had a six-year daughter who died in a car crash. Hal left the police because he couldn't see blood. He put all his money in the pub and he wanted to go into the kitchen. His wife left him for his workmate in the force. Roz jokes that as she is not making any progress, maybe she'll buy The Poacher. Hawksley gets angry with her, because The Poacher is not for sale - he'll show her why it's failing. She intended to crack a joke, but it deeply upset him.Julian thinks that Olive is praying and enters her cell but she's carving naked figures onto the wax candles she had stolen from the church. Julian tells the prison officers, who enter her cell to take them away. They make Olive to get naked and they register the cell while carelessly chewing gum. Olive is told to wait outside her cell - Julian leaves and one of them finds a carved naked woman hidden in a hole on the wall.When Roz and Hal arrive at The Poacher, two kids are using the ladder to get a football from the roof, and Hal scares them away. Roz tells him to cool off.Dina (Angela Belton) and some other inmates give their disgusting food to Olive so that she can stuff herself while she stares at Julian, who leaves the restaurant hall.Mrs Clarke doesn't want to speak to Roz at the beginning, but then she accepts. Roz calls on her while Edward is away. She was listening to classical music. Edward had already talked to her about Roz writing a book. Out of the blue, Mrs Clarke says that she doesn't like the colour red. Mrs Clarke looks confused, but it seems that she saw Amber but didn't tell to the police. Leslie Clarke looks out of reality because of her senile dementia, and she may dislike the red colour because she saw the blood. Roz tells Edward, who has just arrived from the street, that she knows about him and Martin. He puts her out anyway.Marnie has convinced Gary of talking to Roz for a price.Crew tells Olive that he has tried to locate her nephew in Australia, but he doesn't want to burden him with two murders. Roz sees Crew leaving. Olive says that Mrs Clarke was always potty and obsessed with cleaning. Olive says that she didn't do it.Roz calls on Gary, who is a drug addict living on the streets. Gary didn't shag Olive, but Amber liked it rough. At a Beachcomber hotel in West Beach Olive used to meet with an older man.Mrs Runcorn (Paula Jacobs) tells Roz that she came on the Indian summer. It was Edward Clarke who had gone to the hotel with Olive. Roz drives home while listening to a tape of Olive's words. The Poacher is closed but Hal lets her in. It's a cold rainy night. Hawksley gives Roz the crime scene report. He tells his story: he was a happy chef at The Poacher, which was doing well. A health inspector found rotten meat with maggots in the freezer, and more disgusting things, so he called The Poacher the most disgusting place he'd ever seen, and the event got to the first page of the local paper. Hawksley was pressured to sell but didn't give in.Coming back to Olive's case, Roz thinks that Mrs Clarke lied. She couldn't have children, and Edward lost his and Olive's child. Hal reminds Roz that nothing can be proved because of Leslie's dementia. Hal finally gives in and admits that Olive may have been innocent. They hear a soft noise, and they think it's a thug sent by the person who wants to buy The Poacher. Hal goes to Bedroom 4, whose light is on in the alarm board, but he doesn't realise that a gloved hand is controlling it. Then is bedroom 2, which looks empty. The burglars attack Roz, who screams. Hal wins over the two burglars. Rox runs away to use the nearest phone box outside to call the police, while Hal interrogates one of the burglars. While she is at it, they burglars attack Hal, open the gas and set The Poacher on fire. Luckily, Hal can jump outside before everything explodes. The police arrive.At Peter Crew's office, Hal looks for some documents. A security guard (Luing Andrews) arrives but doesn't notice Hal. Hawksley goes to Roz's home. They have sex that night. The following morning, Hal sees a photo of Roz with her daughter. Hal has learned that the men at The Poacher had been sent by Crew, and he put the files from his computer onto a floppy disc. They have problems to find the password anyway, but it was POACHER. Roz and Hal go to number 24, Albert Hayes (Timothy Bateson). We already know that the son, called Geoff (James McCarthy), is working for Crew. Hal feels an inspiration and enters room 22, where he sees again Olive messy with blood and the dead bodies of Amber and Gwen Martin.They see a damaged garden door, which gives them the idea that Olive couldn't have burned anything - at that moment there was a burned smell on the air - because she wasn't even there.Olive tells Julian that he should be happy for her, because she will be free son, but Julian insults her stating that he can only see "a wretched soul" who won't admit to the damage she's caused. She is a woman who "lives in a fantasy land of lies and manipulation". Olive is disappointed that Father Julian doesn't like her. Julian tells her that her "sophisticated friend" Roz is not interested in Olive, as she's only "material" for a cheap thriller she wants to write. Julian scares Olive saying that, even if she's let free, Olive will be on her own because Roz won't take care of her, and that being alone "is exactly what you deserve". Olive looks distraught about Julian's words.Sally doesn't know what Geoff Hayes (Ian Reddington) does for a living; but Hal has proof that Crew is giving him money to buy land aroudn The Poacher. He plays golf at a back yard and behaves like a small-time mafia don. Hal and Roz visit Crew about The Poacher. Olive's nephew died many years ago in a fire, so Crew pretended that he was difficult to find to get more and more of Olive Martin's money, money she inherited from her late father Robert.Olive stares at nothing during kitchen duty. Olive shouts to Roz that she's just using her "to write [her] bloody book". Roz stands up and tells her "So you want to stay here?" and calls for the prison officer to let her out. Olive asks her to stay, but not in so many words. Roz tells her that she believes that she didn't do that - Olive can't even look at the photographs of the murder. Olive says that Amber made her mother's life a living hell.Roz's deductions: Olive and Edward Clarke spent the night together at the Beachcomber, and when he knew that Olive was pregnant and had aborted his baby, he went to her home and killed Amber and Gwen. He was so angry because he wanted a baby for years, but Leslie his wife couldn't give him a child.Olive's story: Amber found out about Edward and Olive and teased her about their love letters. Gwen takes Amber's side and everything came out, even Olive's abortion from Edward. Her father was jealous of his lover's love for Olive, so he beat her. When Olive arrived to the house the following day, she found them dead. She tried to see if they were alive. She signed her confession because the police didn't let her eat during the interrogation until she had signed a full confession. Olive remembers Amber's laughing face and the splitting blood all over the place. In her memories, it looks as if Olive had killed Amber and Leslie saw her and started crying out that "God will never forgive you.".John appears at Olive's rooftop with her cat. He threatens to throw her out. He says that she's lucky that he doesn't want to kill her, and that if Hal doesn't sell The Poacher, next time he'll push her to her death. He gives back her recording machine. Hal tends to the terrified Roz and hits a window pane. Finally, Hal gives in and accepts Hayes' price for The Poacher.Roz and Hal call on Edward. Roz tells him that he knows he didn't do it. Leslie starts vacuum-cleaning. Leslie goes to clean in the kitchen. Edward admits he was the father's lover. Olive understood that he was not really homosexual - she was charming and understanding. He didn't blame his wife. Roz realises that it was Leslie Clarke's apron and that she had killed them because she knew about her husband's lover. Confused Mrs Clarke can't remember, until Roz insists and she goes ballistic and blandishes a huge kitchen knife. She only succeeds in hurting herself. An ambulance takes her awayRoz has finally proved that Olive Martin is innocent. Graham Deedes (Colin Salmon) speaks to all the media stating that Olive Martin has been declared innocent, and that they can read every detail in Roz's upcoming book.Hal arrives to a business meeting where Geoff Hayes is explaining to some investors about his plans, but Hal interrupts the slides with pictures of Olive Martin's face to say that the only direct access to all the malls, cafés, chalés... that John wants to build is through the land where The Poacher stands, and it's not for sale, as he's changed his mind. Crew won't be able to invest any further in the project.Olive tells Father Julian that somebody else has confessed. She gives him a present - Julian still believes that Olive killed her mother and sister. Olive doesn't say one way or another. Father Julian opens the present and is a carved candle of a fat naked woman. He lets it fall to the floor and tear in half.Olive finally leaves the prison. Outside, Roz and Hal are waiting for her. Roz and Olive hug, but Hal looks at her with mistrusting eyes. Olive realises so but she closes her eyes and hangs onto Roz's hug.End credits---written by KrystelClaire

Review: Good but could have been better.. Having stumbled upon 'The Sculptress' on IMDb some years ago, I was immediately interested: Pauline Quirke ('Birds of a Feather') playing Olive Martin, a young woman incarcerated for brutally murdering her mother and sister, with Caroline Goodall as a work-hungry novelist trying to understand get inside her murderous psyche. After a few years trying to see it, I finally managed to borrow it on an old VCR and settle down one evening to watch it.The first hour and a half is highly captivating portraying Olive and Roz (Goodall) initial encounter with Roz embarking on her investigation. The acting between Quirke and Goodall is fantastic, the script is well written and the directing is highly admirable. It was a pleasant surprise to see the exteriors of Oxford Prison, primarily known for it's use on ITVs 'Bad Girls', being used for the forbidden jail where much of the action takes place.My main issue with 'The Sculptress' would be that I did find that the scriptwriter (and possibly Minnette Walters in her original novel) went off on a complete, wild tangent. He appears to forget about Quirke - who for the bulk of the second hour and half isn't featured – and instead focuses way too much on Goodhall's character and the unnecessary subplots surrounding her character. Because of this, the dark psychological thriller-element seems to be abandoned and it quickly turns into any other trashy TV drama. The seemingly-hastily written ending is rather obscure and very confusing. It is jam-packed with twists, turns and one-too-many flashbacks, leaving me completely baffled as to what had actually happened. I am a great admirer of open-endings but this was far too unclear and a little too amateurish.Nonetheless, Pauline Quirke was sensational as Olive Martin. Forget Sharon Theodopolopodous - here she is barely recognizable: hidden beneath a gigantic fat-suit, with long dark hair and a ghostly-pale complexion, borrowing an evil glare in the process. I was particularly unnerved by the eerie lullaby she sings over the credits at the end. I did feel for Caroline Goodall's character when she and Olive come face to face in that dark prison cell. Caroline Goodall was also very good as the eager journalist desperate to uncover the truth behind Olive's disturbed behaviour.Still, I'm very glad I was finally able to see this and would recommend it to anyone interested in the psychological thriller/crime-detective genre. Not to mention, anyone who admires Pauline Quirke.. The Book. The book is definitely something to read. I practically finished it in an entire week. Wow, what a masterpiece. Have yet to see the movie, but I recommend the book to anyone who enjoys a good thriller/mystery. Minette Walters does an extremely wonderful job in her descriptions and you can practically see what's happening in your head. So if you're looking for a great read, try Minette's books, as i've been reading them since I read "The Sculptress" and each new book has a different surprise, be it murder, or some other fun thing. Check them out and enjoy a new author's take on Murder, Mayhem and best of all Mysteries! I know I'll check them out throughout time to time.. A horrendous double murder which required knives, and an obese young murderess...but did she do it?. The two bodies had been so thoroughly carved and unjointed that the police later said they had a problem trying to match the correct heads with the torsos. The confessed murderer was the daughter of one of the victims and the sister of the other. The British tabloids called her "The Sculptress." Olive Martin (Pauline Quirke) was found by the police next to the family's kitchen. She was smeared with gore. The first cop on the scene, Hal Hawksley (Christopher Fulford), was so shocked at what he saw he momentarily passed out. "There was so much blood," he said. After securing Olive Martin's confession and seeing her sentenced to life imprisonment, Hawksley was still so shaken he retired from the force and used his savings to purchase a small inn and restaurant on a scenic bit of coast, but far from people. Olive Martin has been in prison now for three years. Olive has never said why she killed her mother and sister and in such a horrendous way. Rosalind Leigh (Caroline Goodall) is an author who hasn't written much lately. She had been married to a drunk, and their eight-year-old daughter had been killed in a car crash while her drunken husband was driving. Now, divorced, she can't do much of anything. Then her editor tells her she wants Roz to write a book about Olive Martin. Get to know her, get her to talk, see who she is, find out "why." Reluctantly, Roz agrees. Olive Martin turns out to be an obese young woman, not too well educated, defensive, sly, vulnerable, manipulative and, quite possibly, a fine liar. To Roz's surprise, she begins to think that Olive Martin just may be innocent. And if Olive Martin didn't murder the two victims, who on earth could have and why so terribly? To find out, Roz starts talking to those who knew Olive and Olive's family and who remember Olive's father, a wealthy man who died shortly before the murders. She meets Hawksley at his inn and discovers someone is trying to put him out of business so he'll sell his property. She meets the lawyer who defended Olive, perhaps not too well, and who also is the trustee of the money Olive's father left to an unknown child somewhere in Australia. She talks with the neighbors, a man who might have been more than just friends with Olive's father, and the man's wife, a nervous woman who needs to clean. There's a rich property developer who is far too smooth by half. And there is Roz' husband, who seems eager for forgiveness and to be taken back into Roz' bed. Most of all, there is Olive Martin...this huge, soft woman, with a face that can look so cheerful one moment and so resentful the next, whose mother ignored her and whose attractive, boy- hungry sister made merciless fun of her. We learn that Olive Martin had a secret lover, that she became pregnant and that her sister found out. And now Olive Martin sits in prison, sometimes sullen, sometimes angry, sometimes weary. She steals thick candles from the prison chapel and secretly carves them into figures. The chapel priest doesn't know; he's too busy speculating about Olive in ways that make us uneasy and which Olive uses. This British TV thriller does a fine job of combining quick-paced and sometimes violent investigation, varied psychological motives and gruesome murder. The weakest element is the two sub-stories. Roz' confrontations with her ex-husband and her flash-backs to her daughter serve only to bring the main story to a halt whenever they occur. They don't add to the story and they add very little to our understanding of Roz. Their purpose seems only to periodically throw up overly dramatic moments for Goodall. The sub-story concerning Hal Hawksley's inn has a tangential relationship with the main story, but not enough to keep us guessing about things. Both threads are marginal. What makes The Sculptress work so well is the character of Olive Martin and the performance of Pauline Quirke in the role. From the moment we first see Olive Martin, keening in her tent-like, blood-drenched flowered dress, her face and hands smeared with blood, we know we're in for something unnerving and unusual. We never really identify with Olive. She seems too sly even when she seems to have been taken advantage of by a number of people. When Roz and Hal Hawksley, now in love, finally separate the threads in this story and identify the murderer, we can't help but feel good when Olive is released and greets Roz with a smile of pure, innocent joy. But does that smile change a bit into something a little too knowing? The drama leaves us satisfied...but I'm not sure I'd offer Olive a job in a butcher shop.. Aw, No one Wants To Comment on the Fat Killer?. Very well done, tragic story about a plain, unbelievably obese woman named Olive who is imprisoned for the murder of her mother and sister.A reporter, Caroline Goodall, is assigned to tell Olive's story and slowly the story emerges.Then we are told what all we were told isn't true. Complete turn-around.Was Olive impregnated by her own father and she had an abortion, or was her father a homosexual? Christopher Fulford plays the first unfortunate officer who arrives at the scene of the crime and immediately faints.He manages to come to with no harm done to him by the ever-present Olive.In fact, Olive opened the door for him and directed him to the kitchen where he found the bodies.So if Olive had killed her mother and sister, why didn't she kill the officer when he was unconscious? Wonderfully done story with turns that should have been apparent all along.Thrown into all of this is a slick businessman who is using money that rightfully belongs to Olive for his own ventures.We are given a solid conclusion to the story, but then as Olive and the officer catch one another at the end, there still seems to be doubt about what he has been told to believe.Strange there are no other responses on this very good murder mystery drama.I guess no one likes to feel sympathy for a plain, obese woman in jail for murder.