I have thought throughout the years of this series that its greatest quality is in mixing several threads: the main characters' personal lives, the apparent principal premise of female PIs trying to make their way in 1920/30s Toronto, while overlaying a sense of both the froth and dark undertows inherent in that society, and occasionally injecting disguised torpedoes to make us think. The torpedo in this episode is a story relating to a club for homosexuals (although that turns out to be a red herring in the context of the murder. Or maybe the murder is a red herring in the context of the broader story?). We have to remember that this is set only a couple of decades before the untimely death of the great Alan Turing in the UK. Same-sex activity between males was legalised in England and Wales in 1967, in Canada in 1969 (and in Scotland in 1981 and Northern Ireland in 1982... hmmm). Ireland (I'm afraid that I have a suspicion that this was because of the cultural influence of the Roman Catholic church) held out until 1988, when the European Court of Human Rights ruled in favour of Senator Norris in Norris v. Ireland, and it was another five years before that decision was reflected in national law, coincidentally signed into law by President Mary Robinson who had been Senator Norris's barrister in his previous cases before the Irish and European courts. I have tried to look at the same question relating to the USA, but the various policies of the states on the question of same-sex activity, age of consent and related issues, not to mention the rapid variation of policies emanating from some recent Presidents, make it impossible for me to gauge the situation in the USA. (Sorry, lads - sort y'rsels out!) Having got that all off my chest, I have to say that I find one of the most attractive aspects of any series is when it provides the opportunity for regular actors to demonstrate their wider talents. (e.g. Go on Youtube and search "Cote de Pablo - Temptation (full version) HQ" for the whole thing, rather than getting blown up as she did (?) mid-performance in NCIS). Here we have Sharron Matthews allowed to shine, both on her own and in a duet, and the result is a triumph. Particularly, I thought her voice was well matched with Thom Allison's, which must have been a difficult and correct production decision. I suspect that in the theatre the Nature/Nurture question will always burn fairly strong, but here we see the great-grand niece of Jessie Matthews, credited with the first performances of Noel Coward's "A Room with a View" and Cole Porter's "Let's Do It, Let's Fall in Love", and one of the biggest stars of stage, screen and musicals in the 1930s and 40s, with a career stretching from 1919 (aged 12), touring her one-woman stage show to Los Angeles sixty years later to win the United States Drama Logue Award for the year's best performance in concert. With a forerunner like that, are we suprised that Sharron Matthews is brimming over with talent? I hope we see Sharron well after the ending of this series.
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