MovieChat Forums > A Touch of Frost (2010) Discussion > Are the fingerprints in Appendix Man jus...

Are the fingerprints in Appendix Man just a massive coincidence then?

posted 9 years ago by padzok
3 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS for Appendix Man and Dead Male One

Have I got this right?

A man called Ian stole the Hockney painting. (About 8 years before Appendix Man is set).

Ian gave the painting to Leslie/Lester at some stage. (Or else Leslie/Lester acquired it after Ian's death; possibly stealing Ian's other stuff too since no-one knew he was dead.)

Ian died, due to being pushed into river by Leslie/Lester. (About 1 year before Appendix Man is set).

The pathologist's assistant put her own finger prints on file to pretend that they were Ian's. She was unconnected with the Hockney painting or to Leslie/Lester, but did not want the police to identify Ian.

Leslie/Lester died (or was murdered) and the Hockney painting stolen. The pathologist's assistant still had no connection to Leslie/Lester or the painting.

The pathologist's assistant accidentally left her fingerprints at the scene when quite properly being at the scene during the investigation.

Ultimately, this mistake by the assistant had nothing to do with the solution to Leslie/Lester's death or the recovery of the painting. That was solved because the girl who found the body mentioned the Hockney painting to the police.

However, by a massive coincidence, her mistake DID lead to the discovery that the original theft of the painting had been by Ian. Apart from her mistake, there would have been nothing to cause the police to exhume Ian, check his real fingerprints, and match them to the theft from 8 years ago.

Is that right? Or have I misunderstood?

[–] louiseculmer 9 years ago

well, that sounds about right to me, though i find that episode terribly difficult to follow. i have watched it several times and never QUITE seem to get the hang of the fingerprint thing.

[–] batmanjokercatwoman 8 years ago

All three mysteries of that episode are connected and all completely by coincidence they do they come together at the same time. Lester is murdered for the painting that was stolen from the Black Farm murder at the same that case is being reopened because someone had just made a false confession for insurance. And yes the pathologist lady accidentally left her print at the crime scene, that she substituted for the Appendix man who just happened to be connected to Lester and be the unfound killer at Black Farm. Talk about the mother of all coincidences. Still an entertaining episode however, mainly for the subplots -Frost's return to force after Barnard's death, getting his house back, Hazel promoted to DS, Mullet's application for promotion and Frost's incompetent record keeping all make it worthy episode

[–] cris-07026 8 years ago

I suppose you could pass off the coincidence of the finger print by saying the pathologists assistant was out of her usual comfort zone by actually being on scene at a murder and therefore was probably less careful than someone 'trained' would be and someone more conniving would naturally be

She wasn't necessarily bad just a stupid person covering a family members secret