Although the characters appear in this first episode of the TV series, Ellie Soper (Susannah Corbett) and Detective Sergeant Edgar Wield (David Royle) do not appear in the novels until later - Ellie in the second novel "Advancement of Learning" (in the series (An Advancement of Learning (1996))), and Wield in the third "Ruling Passion" ((Ruling Passion (1997))).