Plot
DCI Banks has been on holiday in Umbria, Italy, meeting his girlfriend Oriana's family. He is due back on Tuesday but calls into work a day early. DC Gerry Masterson says You're a glutton for punishment, sir. When talking to a witness, a retired policeman who says Why keep working any longer than you have to DI Annie Cabott thinks of Banks: They'd have to drag him kicking and screaming out of his office soon. Or would he get a newer, bigger office and an extra five year's grace if he got promoted to Superintendent, as Gervaise had promised last November.
Annie investigates a bloody stolen tractor .... Is this why I put in all those years to make DI But DC Dougal Wilson says it's rural crime ... a major crime .... according to the new police commissioner. And it is worth over a hundred K. Then the crime is linked to a human bloodstain found in a hangar at a disused wartime aerodrome, and ties into a local criminal ring run by the tractor owner who is an ex-City financier. Beddowes is a "hobby" farmer, not a "real" farmer according to the locals. When a lorry carrying corpses of fallen farm animals for incineration crashes off the isolated Belderfield Pass, amongst the animal remains there is a dismembered human body, probably that of a missing petty criminal from the criminal ring. So vegetarian DI Annie has to investigate the local (legitimate) abattoirs.
Richard "Dirty Dick" Burgess helps Banks out in London as "Operation Hawk" is targeting rural crime. After talking to Burgess who tells him that the London mastermind has "coughed" to save himself, Banks felt defeated then realised that was the way of the world .... there'll always be a Dirty Dick Burgess, but it was a win for them. And he realised earlier that Burgess was one of his few remaining friends. Then Banks finds an hours-old note from DS Winsome Jackman saying she is off to the isolated High Point Farm and wants backup. Banks rushes there and is told Winsome has hidden in the Swainsdale cave system; which she knows as she is a keen potholer . She had found an illegal abattoir; the villain chases her but gets stuck in the caves and dies of hypothermia.
In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir, is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a meat-packing facility.
Batfink is an American animated television series, consisting of five-minute shorts, that first aired in April 1966. The 100-episode series was quickly created by Hal Seeger, starting in 1966, to send up the popular Batman and Green Hornet television series, which had premiered the same year.
All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder is an American comic book series written by Frank Miller and penciled by Jim Lee. It was published by DC Comics, with a sporadic schedule, between 2005 and 2008. The series was to be rebooted under the title Dark Knight: Boy Wonder in 2011, when both Miller and Lee were to finish the last six issues. The series retells the origin story of Dick Grayson, who became Batman's sidekick Robin.
Supernatural typically refers to unexplained or non-natural forces and phenomena.
The Brain is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Commonly as a frequent enemy of the Doom Patrol and the Teen Titans, he is a French genius and criminal mastermind.
The Sheep-Pig, or Babe, the Gallant Pig in the US, is a children's novel by Dick King-Smith, first published by Gollancz in 1983 with illustrations by Mary Rayner. Set in rural England, where King-Smith spent twenty years as a farmer, it features a lone pig on a sheep farm. It was adapted as the 1995 film Babe, which was a great international success. King-Smith won the 1984 Guardian Children's Fiction Award, a once-in-a-lifetime book award judged by a panel of British children's writers.
The Great Piggy Bank Robbery is a 1946 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes theatrical cartoon directed by Bob Clampett. The cartoon was released on July 20, 1946, and stars Daffy Duck.
The Parole Officer is a 2001 British comedy film, directed by John Duigan. The film follows a diverse group of former criminals as they assist their probation officer in proving his innocence after a murder accusation.
Anthony Zucco is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. First appearing in Detective Comics #38, Zucco is a mobster responsible for murdering the parents of Dick Grayson, which leads to Grayson's adoption by Bruce Wayne a.k.a. Batman and becoming the latter's sidekick and original Robin and Nightwing.
The Witch's Daughter is a children's novel by Nina Bawden, first published in 1966. It has been dramatised for television twice, with Fiona Kennedy (1971) and Sammy Glenn (1996) in the title role.
John Watson was born in the 1970s in Blackpool, England. He is one of the few remaining comic book artists who specialises in painting in oils, and has done a number of notable cover runs for both Marvel and DC comics, most recently painting all the covers for the Marvel Apes series and for the second year running, the Triple-A Baseball covers. He has also illustrated a number of trading cards.
Detective Superintendent Alan Banks is the fictional protagonist in a series of crime novels by Peter Robinson. From 2010 to 2016 several of the novels were adapted for television, and other original stories were produced, under the series title DCI Banks with Stephen Tompkinson in the lead role.
Tractor Tom is a British computer-animated children's TV programme, produced by the Contender Entertainment Group and Hibbert Ralph Entertainment. Two series were produced, consisting of 26 eleven-minute episodes each, which was aired between 9 February 2002 and 2004 respectively. It was the first program produced by home media distributor Contender, who later went on to produce and replace with the preschool show Peppa Pig.
Five on a Hike Together is the tenth novel in the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1951.
Five Go to Billycock Hill is the sixteenth novel in the Famous Five series by Enid Blyton. It was first published in 1957.
Tiger Shark is the name of three DC Comics characters.
When the Music's Over is the 23rd novel by Canadian detective fiction writer Peter Robinson in the Inspector Banks series, published in 2016.
"The Black Mirror" is a Batman story arc written by Scott Snyder, and illustrated by Jock and Francesco Francavilla. The story was published in ten issues of Detective Comics in 2011 by DC Comics. It is known for being the final Batman storyline of the Post-Crisis DC Universe before the 2011 reboot initiative New 52. The storyline was released to critical acclaim from critics who praised Scott Snyder's writing, the art, the horror tone and the action, which managed to convince DC Comics to hire Scott Snyder as the main writer for Batman in the New 52.
Joseph Dominic Armstrong, known professionally as Joey Carbstrong, is an Australian animal rights activist. A former criminal, he has since become an advocate for animal liberation and veganism through social media and public speaking engagements, as well as debates and various televised interviews.
Batman: Death in the Family is a 2020 American animated interactive short film based on alternate outcomes of the storyline of the same name. It is a spiritual sequel to Batman: Under the Red Hood and was released on Blu-ray on October 13, 2020.
