Wicky goes to Wales to clean up a remote murder scene where he discusses mortality with the undertaker who’s there to take the body. Neither of them realise that the killers are still in the area — and they’re not done.
Tropes:
- Alone with the Psycho: Wicky ends up tied to a chair in the farmhouse by the killers. All seems lost — but help us at hand as Ruth comes to his rescue.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Between Wicky and Ruth at the end.
- Bumbling Sidekick: Timber, who is in fact Richard the undertaker’s (much) younger brother. Dialogue seems to indicate that Richard only employs him so that he can look after him.
- The Cavalry: Ruth takes the afternoon off to go to Wales and rescue Wicky.
- Continuity Nod: Two to the Christmas episode. When Richard asks about Wicky’s parents, Wicky replies that his mother is dead and his father is “dead to me”. Later, Ruth mentions that Wicky has bought a ticket for the pub’s Christmas raffle every year for the last twenty-five years and never won; he says this is because it’s fixed.
- Due to the Dead: Richard, being an undertaker, is very respectful towards the dead.
- Fetishes Are Weird: The female of the two killers seems to get off on murder, even though the man did the actual killing. They have sex in the woods are killing the gamekeeper. They later snog in front of Wicky after discussing killing him, which he finds very weird.
- The "Fun" in "Funeral": Timber drops the gamekeeper’s coffin when he tries to load it into the hearse. Later, Wicky recalls with horror that at Trinidad Dave’s funeral, the lads from the pub took it in turns to limbo under his coffin.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Averted, as Ruth points out to Wicky that she can’t help him find the murder scene as the police force she’s with has no jurisdiction over Wales. Later subverted, as she comes and rescues him anyway.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl. A given when the guy is played by Greg Davies. Ruth had to stand on her car in order to kiss him.
- The Nicknamer: Even Wicky is stumped as to why someone would be nicknamed “Timber”. Apparently it’s because he used to fall over a lot as a child. Although his actual name is, in fact, Timber.
- No Name Given: The two killers are never actually named, to the point of being listed in the credits as “Him” and “Her”.
- Not Quite Dead: Timber survives a crossbow bolt to the chest. He tries to go back to the farmhouse to rescue Wicky and Richard, but falls over on the way — although he’s later shown to be conscious when being taken into the ambulance.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Wicky actually uses this phrase during his chat with Richard.
- Off with His Head!: The two killers decapitated the gamekeeper after killing him. They wanted to take the head with them as a trophy but dropped it on the way out. When they have Wicky at their mercy, they make it clear they want to decapitate him, and discuss how they’re going to keep his head, as it’s rather big.
- Spotting the Thread: Wicky picks up on the fact that the couple knew that the murder victim was a man even though Richard had only referred to the victim as “the deceased” in front of them and had not specified a gender.
- Spree Killer: Attempted by the killers here, although they only actually kill one victim. Two others are wounded and they take Wicky prisoner; they’re stoped before they can kill him and cut his head off. Dialogue indicates that they want to become famous for being serial killers; appropriately, we never even learn their names.
